The Harry’s Bar culinary empire is as synonymous with Venice as its canals, inventing the bellini cocktail and hosting noted guests including Orson Welles, Ernest Hemingway and Charlie Chaplin during its 93 years in business.
But the lapping of the city’s waters has proved too much for the owner, Arrigo Cipriani, who is suing the city’s council and port master’s office because the feet of his well-heeled customers keep getting soaked by waves from speeding boats.
Cipriani, 92, said he was fed up with the alleged failure by the authorities to take serious action against an issue that has long caused protests from Venice’s residents.
Cipriani owns Harry’s Bar in St Mark’s Square but boats speeding along the Giudecca canal are hampering customers’ enjoyment on the terrace of his other establishment, Harry’s Dolci on the island of Giudecca.
He opted to take legal action, an unprecedented move that is likely to prompt further cases, after a request to erect “splash guards” was rejected by Venice’s heritage superintendent.
“More and more often those sitting at Harry’s Dolci find themselves with wet feet due to the waves from the Giudecca canal, which are caused by boats whizzing by without respecting the speed limits,” he told Corriere della Sera.
Cipriani argued that the waves in the Giudecca canal were becoming “increasingly higher”.
He added: “It’s a serious problem for those who walk along the banks because they are slippery, for those with a small boat because it is difficult to stay on course, and for those who row because rowing has become increasingly dangerous. The wave swell problem has worsened because leaders do not know the city. Those who break the speed limit should be fined.”
Spokespeople for Venice council were not immediately available for comment.
The authorities in Venice said at the beginning of this year that that speed cameras would be placed along the length of the city’s waterways, which are often crowded with a mix of gondolas, water buses, water taxis and other vessels.
The speed limit – imposed after a series of accidents – is up to 7km/h along the city’s main canals and 5km/h in the small ones but it appears to be having little effect.
Activists from Gruppo Insieme, a collective of associations that for several years has been protesting against speeding boats, said they would meet on Tuesday to prepare a report that will be presented to the judiciary listing every single infringement of the city’s navigation code.
Massimo Brunzin, a spokesperson for the group, told Corriere: “It is no longer possible to navigate safely. We are witnessing a continuous drip of accidents, also because there is a lack of any effective form of control or sanction.”
The accidents have occasionally been deadly. Three people were killed in September 2019 when a high-speed power boat trying to set a speed record crashed into an artificial reef in the Venetian lagoon. In 2013, a German tourist died when the gondola he was travelling in was crushed against a dock by a reversing water bus.
Gondoliers often protest against water taxis and speedboats, arguing that their reckless driving risks lives as they whip up waves that rock the smaller vessels. The waves also cause damage to the buildings lining the city’s canals.
Venice’s port master declined to comment on Cipriani’s legal action, but stressed that “the coast guard carries out deterrence and speed moderation of nautical traffic activities throughout the year”.
