Urinating tourist caught red-handed by Venice mayor

Jul 28, 2009, 14:03 GMT

Venice, Italy - A tourist who urinated in one of Venice's famous canals has received a fine after being caught in the act by the Italian lagoon city's mayor, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

'I saw a gentleman who was peeing in the canal, and as soon as I realized he was not Italian, I asked him if he would dare do such a thing in his own living room,' Mayor Massimo Cacciari told the Venice-based daily Il Gazzettino.

'I notified the municipal police who did not arrive immediately, so in the meantime, I had to keep an eye on him,' Cacciari was quoted as saying.

The tourist, identified as a Portuguese national, had to pay 50 euros (71 dollars) for transgressing public decency.

'Urban decay is also fought on the ground,' is how Il Gazzettino titled its report on Cacciari's deed, noting how it happened amid a row involving the centre-left mayor and members of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government

The critics have accused Cacciari of failing to safeguard Venice from urban decay and selling out to to mass tourism.

Giancarlo Galan, the centre-right governor of the north-eastern Veneto region, which includes Venice, has complained of 'a frightful increase' in the number of seagulls, and of 'thousands' of plastic bottles floating in the canals.

'With the sea-gulls what can I do? Should I use a machine gun? All seafront cities have this problem,' Cacciari said.

The mayor admitted plastic bottles are a problem, but said the Venice town hall is still awaiting from the central government some 50 million euros in promised funds for the city's upkeep.

In 2007 an estimated 21 million tourists visited Venice.