Voices of the Lagoon: socio-cultural values

Getting lost

“I grew up here, so my strongest memory of those years is of getting lost, really lost, with my father, in the salt marshes. because the only landmark there is a pole... as soon as I arrived in Venice 25 years ago, within a year and a half I had the boat because in any case I had realized that it was an essential thing for living. In fact, I knew nothing about this area, which I started to discover later even though I would probably still get lost." Participant

Rowing at night

“...it was that moment, my birthday, I never celebrated it, but it occurred to me to ask 5 friends to go rowing in the lagoon and have a beer. We rowed, we had a great time, back in the years in which that area was easily usable, we didn't need to know anything... my friends didn't even know how to row but I put them there in the middle... we tied ourselves to a pole and opened these famous beers. The thanks that came to me afterwards, saying "it was the best birthday" even if it was a very simple thing... just because they (people from the inland Mestre) saw the lagoon they had never been to before.” Participant

Unawareness

“Right here, 30 years ago, I had just met the person who would later become my husband, we did water sports. I knew nothing about how fragile the lagoon was and now I wouldn't do it again. It was really nice, though. I was unaware, but in my opinion, this experience contributed to my strong connection with the lagoon.” Participant

New world

“My first monitoring [campaign] I followed when I arrived at work was the first chance to see [the lagoon]. I got on board from Fondamenta Nove, and we went towards the San Felice Canal, and there a new world opened to me: I saw the city receding, then I saw this horizon flattening out. I had the impression of a water desert. Just a new world, the first memory.” Participant

Research

“Valle Averto, I saw it being born - we went there and met Count Ancillotto and then we said, "What if we made an Oasis?". The first visit was in '82, but we managed to make the first agreement - it was a rental - in '83. Now I do my work in the Oasis, research and monitoring.” Participant

Family

“Here behind Mazzorbo we have a piece of land where we raised our children in the mud, where I live my present.”

Leaving the house

“I live in Arsenale, and for obvious reasons with children, you must take them out. in this canal overlooking Burano there are some beautiful salt marshes, I moor there because it is a beautiful and peaceful place.” Participant

Nostalgia

“My present place is still the same as in the past - but I am nostalgic for it as I go there it very little now. There were strong ties with my grandparents who are no longer with us. So, I tend not to go to those places anymore, but now as I discovered thanks to you here, I feel a strong nostalgia: the lagoon of Lio Piccolo.” Participant

Community

“The Giudecca community is a network of people who support each other, like what we are trying to create for Poveglia, that is, a place that stops being outside people's imagination and instead becomes part of their lives. The community is being rebuilt in these places. Something that has been lost in Venice is living in the same place with other people and asking yourself together how you want to experience that place.

This, however, seems to be working, we find the island cleaner now than in the past, perhaps because now the people who go there feel more ownership than 10 years ago.” Participant

Origin

“I went on a trip with my family, my father is passionate about history, and it seems to me that the very origins of Venice are there, so it seems like a place from which to start and perhaps put down new roots.” Participant

Money spent badly

“For the areas they managed in the southern lagoon with the MOSE compensation works, they spent a figure like 4-5 million to create a phyto-purification area - in a ridiculous place. It's money badly spent. Today there is no phyto-purification, they have built beautiful houses which however they rent and do not rent; in the part of the lagoon belonging to the province of Padua, such as the area of casone Millecampi - an old house in a huge valley - one of the few valleys open to the tides. Money was spent badly by the European community.” Participant

Our fault

“My place of negative present is linked to my negative idea of the future of the lagoon: everyone talks about it, everyone shows interest and then, once their own interests and ideas are over, everything is left there without any alignment. This general disinterest leaves room for those with other interests in the lagoon. This is negative in terms of governance. But it's too easy [to accuse others] when in any case it's also our fault, due to our lack of interest." Participant

Rubber wall

“Despite Poveglia's massive experience with incredible results, what we faced was a rubber wall. In my opinion the institutions are a bit deaf, even to the inputs that come from the citizens even though these are important from a numerical point of view." Participant

Fish farms

“Crowdfunding and investing. Interacting with economic interests, given that if you are not part of the economic community, you are not doing anything. We need to be buying, take over companies that operate. Buy fishing boats and do activities even with people with disabilities. The historical reality of fishing could self-sustain with the sale of fish. We analyzed cormorants' vomit, when they said that we ate all the sea bream and sea bass. 50% were flatfish and passarin, so they definitely don't lose 80% of the fish to the cormorants…” Participant

WaterLANDS

“I think that in other countries people are more pragmatic, they have a sense of responsibility. There are many protection projects in the lagoon, a lot of money has arrived to save the lagoon, but this is [however] the situation. It means that either we are spending the money badly for the lagoon, or we have little responsibility, or we are spending the money without thinking about the res publica (common good). So I say that I'm happy that the WaterLANDS project is not done by Italians, because in fact it has a different mentality." Participant

Educating

“I hope to do something useful, since I'm teaching something in a different [University] department. I try to convey some values that perhaps are not in the range of other colleagues." Participant

Know the territory

“Bring it to the masses, spread it, make it known.” Participant

New communities

“It seems to me there is a new one in Vignole Island that is emerging as an experience - it can bring something new.” Participant

Details

“The details are absolutely fundamental, in the lagoon everything seems monotonous and flat and instead it must be analyzed in detail, in the particulars. My mother arrived from Lussino as an Istrian refugee and with her family they ended up in refugee homes in Campalto. For her, going from the sea of the Kvarner archipelago of Lussino to the lagoon was a trauma that they always told me about, they didn't go to the sea because they couldn't overcome the impact of going from a landscape of rocks on the Istrian isthmus, to that of the lagoon.” Participant

Orange dip

“I was born in Pellestrina, I have always had the lagoon view from the kitchen and the sea view from the bathroom. So, let's say in the evening, I have always brought the orange of the lagoon sunset everywhere. But the first memory, I must have been 5-6 years old, there in the lagoon where we had the nursery there was a big house and we went on Sundays to party and to learn to swim, my father took me and threw me [into the water]. Where the water was decent, you could touch the bottom, and when I came up, I remember that there was mud under my feet, the salt in my mouth and this crazy orange of the evening. My first meeting/clash.” Participant

Origin of the mud

“I remember that my father, I must have been 4-5 years old, had rented a mascareta(traditional wood boat) and then went rowing away, it's not like now that if you don't have the modified 40 [horsepower] you don't move from the shore. I remember that he brought me to “busi da Gò” - which is not a place but a fishing technique for dipping your arm in the mud to catch the Gò [in the holes]. You had to put your arm in the mud completely and, as a child, you don't know what you'll find... but after I got used to it, all the holes were mine! but this gives you the feeling of your origin, already the muddy matter, in some way, immediately puts you in interconnection with the rest of the environment. For a Venetian you understand your origin, where you come from, what you are made of, you are made of this lagoon, there is nothing to do.” Participant

Protection and recovery

“I have no memories linked to the family, certainly when I arrived, I didn't expect to find myself in such a context. I had at home the classic photo in Piazza San Marco with the family and therefore, I thought "well, they're sending me to Venice"... then, however, one reads from afar about "the lagoon of Venice" and it was a discovery, a wonder. For the first inspections, the first work tasks you are introduced to an environment you didn't expect." Participant

Mamma (island)

“For example, I go away every night, I take my dad with me, my dad is 80 years old, he has always done this job and comes only and exclusively because he doesn't want to die at home. I sit him on the bow, he gets some air, if the hunting guards stop me, they will fine me and seize my boat as my dad isn't allowed on board my boat and the same thing if I were to bring my son to learn the job. I can’t take him on board the boat I'm using anyway, because it's for commercial use. We are talking about a 6-meter boat, with 15 horsepower. So, the problem is much broader than the problem of citizenship, there are many problems and we are also here to understand what can be done." Participant

Control

“All the boats that come from the Portegrandi basin - from beyond [the river] thousands of boats arrive and come down from a ghebo - because in fact it is a ghebo – but they are 20-meter boats. If you want to pass, against traffic, you must stop. In my opinion, those boats should not enter the lagoon, it is a shameful thing, because it automatically increases everything that is an inconvenience for the inhabitants of the islands, without forgetting that they are slowly destroying the path they travel on, because there is not any type of protection, there is nothing to protect the salt marshes and there is no type of control.” Participant

Training

“There is no specific place, in recent years I have eliminated tensions for survival because, by also working with environmental impact assessments etc., we see all sorts of things. the thing that certainly makes me a little angry is a sort of lack of attention towards these particular environments of the lagoon, there is not a great deal of attention or at least there is little information. Yet with the Venetian Society of Natural Sciences we have published for 50 years - this year the 50th volume of the journal comes out - so the thing that bothers me in general in the Venetian environment is that [there are] so many associations, so many interests, but in my opinion, there continues to be not enough information and training on what the habitats and particularities of the Venice lagoon really are.” Participant

Renewal

“There are companies that are waiting to invest in innovation: [elsewhere] they invest in forests and here instead we have a territory that should be granted [for investment], instead there is crazy bureaucracy... we have obsolete tools, for example, I would like to have an electric boat, the pontoon with photovoltaic energy to be put in place of the nursery, for me and for all those who use that lagoon space. These are things that now exist and must be experimented... and obviously there is no money, but the tension is to be able to try, in order to open a path." Participant

Environmental degradation

“It's a bit difficult because I think I still have a lot to learn... it's a very big system and obviously I haven't lived here for a long time, but I think that, considering my work, [the issue of] environmental degradation is important, especially the one in the central lagoon.” Participant

Dwell

“There is this problem of residentiality - I have recently been following a working group on this very issue, to try to give, I won't say answers, but to make proposals to help this city overcome this problem. And I get angry every day because there’s data on tourist use, and data on the depopulation of some areas of the city, on the depopulation of the islands - if you depopulate an island like Burano then you won't repopulate it again, and depopulated [places] means that we have lost them, becoming a stain of a thousand colors in the middle of the lagoon without any inhabitants inside. So, every time I read this data it hurts me because you see your city, or rather your origins, which are slowly crumbling, leaving holes that we will probably no longer be able - if we don't act soon - to fill. It makes me angry..." Participant

(Lack of) education

“The lack of education on the part of everyone, those who live here, those who visit, those who are passing through and those who work here. in relation to what was said before about the wave motion, there is a lack of education, therefore of attention, on the part of the yachtsman because he generally doesn't know the lagoon. We have studied the phenomenon from different points of view... the assault on the lagoon takes place on certain specific days of the summer, concentrated on Saturdays and Sundays, and it is like the clogged ring road of Rome and Milan which are concentrated with thousands of boats. this is the assault from the outside that often crosses the lagoon canals just to go to sea, but this crossing is very heavy. And it's an unconscious lack of education sometimes.” Participant

Obligations for all

“We're talking about 50 years of being on a boat, so I understand a lot about sailing. My son just turned 16, he has a boat for recreational use, he has a boat with 40-60 horsepower, there is no requirement for a license. However, in this case we need obligation, but not just for them, for everyone! this is a system to raise awareness among boaters who also come from Portegrandi who don't understand anything... But because I, who was born here - not to discriminate against those who come from the mainland - must have all the requirements, I with 15 horsepower should have a license, but those with 60 don't - because the boat is for leisure. How do we educate these people? We need the obligation, the checks, the driving license, the laws which among other things are there [already] - but which must be applied more. This is my greatest aspiration, because as I explained to you, my son will not become a fisherman and I will be the last of my "kind" and therefore I hope for a better future for the islands, which even if there will be no more fishermen, at least the islands return to living more decently" Participant

Respect

“Here we need a very great form of respect in general for the lagoon from all points of view. And this is acquired by continuing training and education. Maybe it seems like a scholastic thing, maybe the civic education program [can do something about it] - which is the least considered subject [in school] and students say, "I'll still get a 6 [minimum grade]". We really need to spend a lot more time on it and teach people precisely from an ecosystemic point of view what happens and what is the lagoon. If there isn't this respect, there won't be a great future for the lagoon. I see it this way, obviously conservation is fundamental for these environments, which have a great capacity for recovery - which is also the objective of WaterLANDS - but it takes a very great conscience." Participant

Less bureaucracy, more incentives

“Thinking of everyone I know who makes mussels, their children don't and won't make mussels. I thought there was a need to train, to do training internships related to fishing... and this summer a boy from Pellestrina asked us to do a training internship on a boat... except that he doesn't have the paperwork it takes to get on board, and it takes 3 months, and then school starts. So, he will never be able to come again, and he will never have an experience like this again... and so I'm sorry, because I see that these opportunities should instead be favored, respecting the rules, speeding up bureaucratic times. You go to certain offices, and you still see papers that need to be [disposed of] ... I have respect for this job, I understand it, but it becomes a big obstacle.” Participant

Equilibrium

“I think [my] dream is a sustainable lagoon, with a balance of ecosystem services, tourism, erosion control among others.” Participant

Commitment

“We need to be a bit realistic: in my opinion we will never recover the lagoon we had 50-60-100 years ago, or at least it will be very very difficult. We will need to build a lagoon together, a new one, with new characteristics, because already with the MOSE it is no longer the same lagoon, it is a different one. We must try to build a lagoon that is in balance with the city but has characteristics that allow the city to survive and vice versa. but what I see is the disengagement of many citizens... it's true that there are a myriad of associations working on the issues, but if the Venetians don't change, this city won't change. A project like WaterLANDS which does not come from a completely Venetian reality, must be part of a project of the Venetians to be able to change the city because otherwise it will never succeed - if it does not change the mentality of those who should benefit from this project." Participant

Conservation

“As I see it in 20 years... innovation will certainly be able to lead us to use vehicles that do not pollute or much less, especially in the Venice lagoon we can insert - we have already done so in the past - a series of regulations that can lead to using non-polluting means: private and public means of transport. Whoever wants to enter [the lagoon waters] must use non-polluting means and engines. This may be linked, in 20 years from now, to the identification of some protected areas - we have the Valle Averto Oasis, Ca' Roman, the San Nicolò al Lido Oasis - but in the open lagoon we have yet no protected areas. It could therefore, on the one hand, integrate informative, innovative environmental protection devices - [for] navigation for example - and at the same time establish some protected area within the lagoon.” Participant

Nature

“In the end it's nice to tour the historic center of Venice, which is exceptional. But ultimately when you want to avoid dodging tourists, you go to the lagoon.” Participant

Breath

“...I know the city of stones [Venice] better. I can say that the places that struck me the most were certainly the Fondamenta delle Zattere, which is my favorite place. To put myself at peace I used to come here for a walk, perhaps because as an islander it's the place that gives me more breathing space, more space than the small streets [of the city]." Participant 

Maturity

“My first day of work was there and so I arrived as a young boy compared to now. And so, in recent years I have seen the city changing in some respects, but I have probably changed more myself, I have adapted to the dynamics of my life." Participant

Lifestyle

“Before arriving in Italy I lived in India, it's a truly crazy world, it's different, so I remember very well the first week I arrived in Cavallino. I entered the campsite, started working, I took my bicycle and I got lost, I arrived on Lio Piccolo, I really remember it like it was yesterday because I immediately thought "here I have found a paradise" because after years of India full of noise, I found a place where all the elements that I consider important in my life are put together." Participant

Exotic

“My first experience with the lagoon was the classic trip in first grade, waited for months and months. Finally, we go, we took the boat along the Sile and we arrive... for children it is an exceptional experience, a truly exotic landscape, this is my memory of the past.” Participant

Respect

“My first strong experience was when we thought it was a good time to try a broken dinghy. It was not a good idea. We were in the Chioggia area and it was the first time I saw the lagoon and it really gave me a feeling of tranquility. I really had the impression that we were there alone, that there was nothing around us and that it was even a little dangerous. In fact we were left with the dinghy which was leaking all over and the engine abandoned us, while we were quite a little outside. And then luckily someone came by and towed us because we didn't even have oars. It is a place that must be respected, obviously you cannot think of it as being in a park." Participant

Harmony

“It is difficult to think of a memory linked to the lagoon, because I have only experienced the lagoon for a short time. A couple of years ago I went to Mazzorbetto, to do a scout camp, that is, the scout base and I was there to cook, so every day I took the little boat to Burano to get bread. It's a place where you have to learn to live with the times of nature." Participant

Arrogance

“How can we remove arrogance? The fact of not realizing that if you take a boat, put 150 people on it, and make it run from Murano to Burano making 2 meter waves, not only do the passengers not enjoy anything, but you also prevent everyone else around from going to boat calmly, to live their moment calmly, because you are there, and a moment later you are capsized. Precisely the arrogance of saying "I", just to do what I want..." Participant

Stillness

“I notice a strong - I'm undecided between two words - closure or stillness. Because there is this recognition of the situation that exists and recognition of all the negative aspects that are there and that's it: simply recognizing it, and staying firm in this. There's a bit of this game of complaining, but not doing anything to change." Participant

Superficiality

“Perhaps it is linked to a global crisis that we do not think deeply that we limit ourselves to doing what is convenient for the moment, but without looking beyond, without thinking about the future and what will happen for the environment and people. We always go back to boats that go fast.” Participant

Abuse

“Today I really see the city being exploited, but not only by tourism, but also by those who have the full possibility of being able to change something in Venice. In reality they don't do it - because those who have the houses, in fact, rent them for tourism. We also have a wealth in anthropological terms, in my opinion, of the culture of food that others dream of, and then you come here, and what do you actually eat? when I came with my mother to eat for Christmas – I’ve asked myself where do I take her? "Well certainly not to Venice" [my Venetian colleagues told me].” Participant

Immobility

“Without negative or positive connotations, Venice is a city that does not change. I remember a few years ago I lived a period in China, in Shanghai, where something changes every week. Then after a few months I return to Venice, I land [and ask myself] "How is it possible that I left and Venice hasn't changed at all?" therefore, in some way it is reassuring, perhaps this immobility welcomes people, but also promotes aspects linked to acceptance, and laziness. For how many years have we had the issues of large ships, or Porto Marghera - which has been like this for twenty years - therefore in some way you realize that this immobility brings with it aspects that are somehow reassuring but also burdensome, of a general trend that somehow doesn't solve the problems.” Participant

Opportunity

“The opportunity is linked to agriculture, because it is the environment and protection of the territory, and the ability to analyze... Let's say that my work is also my passion.” Participant

Resilience

“I see many people searching, little by little, many associations, which are raising their heads. Going against large-scale tourism, and the taxis. It's a little more difficult, everyone has a cousin who drives a taxi. In short, people are realizing that the situation in the lagoon is not the same as before." Participant

Community

“I think it's one of the cities where there is a very strong sense of belonging. Where, from what I perceive, everyone knows each other, but also everyone cares about the city and is willing to help each other.” Participant

Inspiration

“I see Venice as a bit timeless. So it's difficult to talk about the present without talking about the past, so I wouldn't say [as key word] mystery or mysticism. For me it's a constant source of inspiration, just walking around Venice and seeing the layers of history and inside the buildings to discover the layers of different centuries.” Participant

The key

“In my opinion, tourism certainly has a negative impact, but I also believe that if we manage to change things in the tourism sector the effect will be much broader - directly or indirectly - for Venice and the coast. In my opinion, the tourism sector holds the key to solving many environmental and social problems that we now have in this area. Today tourism creates many problems, but I think today as for tomorrow, it can also be the key to the problems." Participant

Storytelling

“It's a magical city that almost follows a narrative, I don't know how to explain it, but it's as if to go from one place to the other, there are no streets but it's almost a story, “Should I choose this story or that other story?” and then if I change streets, I'll take another story..." Participant

Will

“I see positivity in the work I do and that beyond all the context, all the possibilities, there is the will to restore, to do better. Then something is probably missing and that's another matter. But the will, the will is there.” Participant

Information and Management

“The airport is in fact the largest gateway to Venice... We will need to understand how the most important entrance to the city - which brings millions of tourists - will be managed and organized, thought out how sustainable it will be. From there people can enter the city already a little better prepared.” Participant

Quality

“These low-quality products that are sold everywhere should be regulated more, or low quality businesses prevented from opening within three years, that's a regulation, a resolution. Venice is practically submerged amid this rubbish, which in my opinion also changes the landscape of the city, because being so repetitive everywhere it seems to you that there is nothing to look at. A souvenir is an object that you keep for your whole life, of value, and instead everything costs 1€.” Participant

Students

“I wonder what role students can have in the future of Venice, in the sense that the city is oriented towards students, to have a decent life, and they can vote for Venice... How to change the city? They are The People of the city, there should be at least 10,000 of them, if those who live here could vote in the local elections they would be taken into consideration in some way." Participant

Regeneration

“We talk a lot about sustainability, in the word "sustainability" there is [the verb] sustain. And we have already moved on from this concept; so in my opinion the word for the future is “regeneration”, because if we don't learn to listen to nature now, we will never make it. Sustainability alone was unfortunately needed 10, 15 years ago... now we are in a phase where we have to do more than just sustain." Participant

Reflection

“…think twice about doing things, think about the consequences of what you do and the necessity of what you do. In general, when you're on a boat, when you plant a pole that you shouldn't plant, think about the consequences of your actions.” Participant

Awareness and Commitment

“At a national level there are [local] interests that are not considered, there is not enough commitment, so in my opinion something must start from there to unblock the situation here.” Participant

Sacca Sessola

“...it would be in front of what is now the Hotel delle Rose. It's the first place I went with my friends. We took a Sanpierota [traditional wooden boat], more or less from San Trovaso, and went rowing in Sessola when we were little - in middle school -  to smoke cigarettes, essentially to be away from the parents. Then there was the ENEL hut from which we used to dive, which was strictly forbidden, and I know that it is something that is still done by kids today. So the area is still lived in.” Participant

Serenity

“The emotions here are of serenity and freedom because it is a place where everyone can manage themselves. You get there by boat, with boats that don't fish much, so you get there by rowing and therefore freedom is a feeling that this island gave me.” Participant

Exploration

“I have experienced the lagoon quite generally. The initial memory is of San Giorgio in Alga, that is, an island where we rowed (I drove a motor boat little time ago). And we went exploring, we didn't go there to do vandalism. We would go explore the island and get fruit - because the abandoned islands had fruit, so we would go get peaches, grapes…” Participant

Livable

“I went to sleep in a rowing boat here in Chioggia. and we slept and stayed there, I arrived with my sleeping bag, we slept and not a drop of water entered... and despite this, there was already the vogalonga (local protest) protesting against the wave motion. The evolution that the lagoon has had is disastrously disastrous, but we are not realizing its scale. " Participant

Family trip

“for us people from Rovigo, Venice is the "family city", and above all it is the Murano Island. One of the first photos, the photo that we all have, is that of the trip there. Children are taken to see how glass is made. One of the first things I remember is the little horse I made in Murano glass.” Participant

First swim

“...I grew up with all the stories of my parents and what they did in the lagoon, so what I would like to share is a kind of generational transition, in the sense that my parents told me that one of the most beautiful things they did when they had the age [of 12-13 years] was that of swimming in the lagoon. When I arrived here in Venice, and they told me "don't dare enter the lagoon" it really weighed on me. However, others have told me that if you go to some parts with the incoming tide, it can be done. So, my memory is the first time I swam in the lagoon, for me it was a big joy precisely because I was able to recall the memory of my parents." Participant

Atmosphere

“...once we went with my aunt to dinner in Pellestrina. You go by small boat to Pellestrina and see this spectacular sunset over the lagoon. We ate fish, and then returned to Venice at night. For me it was magical... the boat, the night, the slightly higher water.” Participant

Ferruginous water

“… We used to go out with the little boat and we always and only went - because my dad had a bit of a habit - to a trattoria that no longer exists, which was called ‘Da Olindo’. Now the morphology of Sant'Erasmo Island has completely changed: when I was little the beach went on up to the front of the Bacan beach and was very long and you could walk from Olindo. Now there's nothing at all - there are stones, there's nothing left, right where we children used to crawl. In Olindo there was a well where we children drank water - which was actually terrifying, it was horrible. But “it was good for you” so you absolutely had to drink it.” Participant

Slow life

“...I like the slow pace here, slower than the rest of the island. But obviously, even from a work point of view, very often it is a sort of limit.” Participant

Discovery

“It was a discovery to find a spot, in a place like the province of Venice and therefore a densely inhabited one, where it seems like being on another planet.” Participant

Fog

“For short periods of the year... in the lagoon in November with the fog [I feel good] because there is no one else.” Participant

Naturalness

“The Northern lagoon area makes me feel good because of its naturalness. So, every time I have to organize outings for work we always focus on the Northern area, I like the Dese, I like the Lio Piccolo, I like this whole area where there are still natural structures." Participant

Commitment

“The northern part of Poveglia Island, the undeveloped part, therefore the green part, is a relief valve for us and in any case represents the commitment of a lot of people who are working hard to recover that island. The island is probably the symbol of the desire to recover the usability of some spaces in the lagoon.” Participant

Luck/Work

“When I go out to work in the central lagoon with my colleagues it's a different time of the working day, I switch off, it's not like being at the desk. It shows you the meaning of things, the measure of things, because if you are in front of the computer talking about the lagoon etc. and never seeing it, it’s also a little alienating." Participant

Destruction and danger

“...I don't know if it's scientifically valid, but I've always been worried about both Marghera and the Canale dei Petroli.” Participant

Tourism

“... it's everywhere, even in the lagoon I see boats, in recent years the boats have been destroying the shore. We don't want just to row, we want Venice not to be destroyed, which is different. A point of verifying whether Venice resists or not is whether we can row or not. When I pass the Giudecca Canal, I call the emergency police, I call them and say "I'm passing that way", because it's very dangerous rowing.” Participant

Moto ondoso (waves)

“The other day, I had water up to my knees because someone thought it best to speed up until they were almost at us. Having reached the halfway point of our rowing boat, he slowed down for two seconds and then accelerated again, not realizing that the wave would catch us anyway, in fact we took it full on. We had to stop training and empty the boat with a bucket." Participant

Disruption (no compensation)

“For me, MOSE has completely changed my feelings. For example, at Alberoni, at the Bocca di Malamocco, I get every time nervous. Among other things, I have not seen the famous compensation works and it is always very unpleasant to see the difference, also because it is only a few years old, so you have an even greater sense of the change in that area.” Participant

Administration

“The fact that there is a complete disregard for the environmental well-being of our city and our territory is undeniable, and I am very, very angry and this thing I must say could lead to a real fight of civil disobedience, which seems required by a 'deaf administration’." Participant

Strength

“The stimulus I want to give is to think of Venice, not always as an Old Lady to be safeguarded, to be saved, but as a young, alive person who must have the desire to live and fight. So a strong Venice, this is my dream.” Participant

Awareness and Education

“Very often I believe that some things are not even known. Trivially, tourism is ignorant tourism, therefore not of quality in every sense, even economic, but there is also no culture of knowing the Lagoon.” Participant

Conservation

“The conservation of the lagoon cannot be via a closure, that won't be open to anyone anymore, but we need an intelligent form of conservation.” Participant

Employment

“Let's bring back the tertiary [sector] companies, given that many companies like Generali left Venice, and the municipality did nothing to make them stay, in fact they were fine with it. Let's bring work and residence back, in the sense that I don't make people come here to work, and then they sleep in Padua or Bassano. We must also talk about residentiality, therefore making the city alive, making Venice a livable city, making Venice a city again.” Participant

Community

“I see the lagoon and the situation in a few years not very different from that of now... so it is extremely conflicting, because there are, and I am speaking in general, categories of users -users of the lagoon who sometimes think too selfishly, only about their own gain. Any decision you make must require some effort because you have to arrive at a mediation between what is the perfect profit, the 100% ideal, with the fact of living in a community." Participant

Together

“We tend to think about everything in fragmented phases. The southern lagoon, the northern lagoon, the ecology, the birds, the insects... instead it is necessary to consider all these factors together, also because they are all linked to each other. And this also brings me to another thought, that is, the same word also precludes another division, that of the many authorities who work for the lagoon both at the authority level but also at the research level, there are the universities Ca’ Foscari, IUAV, Padua. Everyone then takes their own little piece of research and doesn't collaborate. We need to go beyond divisions, act together, two brains that think are better than one brain that thinks about the same thing separately.” Participant

Planning

“You will never be able to avoid individual selfishness because it is part of the human condition, so the problem is the rule, the regulation and the planning. Because if I can go to the lagoon and no one does anything to me if I go at 150 mph, I'll go because nothing happens anyway. Then certainly the associations can start making proposals, but if there isn't an institutional system that regulates these appetites a bit and makes a strategic plan for the protection and safeguarding of the lagoon and of Venice and of residentiality, we can't go from Nowhere." Participant