One of the novelties for visitors coming to Venice at this time of the year is a welcoming message. This is the 'Card for Tourists' (featured in the previous issue of 'Leo') a list of suggestions the city itself, through the City Council, gives to each and every guest. Really it shouldn't be thought of as a solemnly emphatic document, but it does make ten sound suggestions written after much consultation with all sections involved in the none too easy art of receiving visitors. The text reflects a whole range of public bodies with various functions who for various reasons have supported the idea from the start and who are in close contact with the tourist phenomenon and its various cultural, social and economic sectors facets. Naturally the pact should also be respected by the public bodies who subscribed to it, and not just by the tourists. Observance of the card, by the way, will show what kind of a person a tourist is. After all, what is expected of the visitors? To behave in an intelligent way and to understand the delicate situation here regarding this spectacular and magnificent, but terribly fragile city - like all works of art, for that matter, be they large or small. And objectively Venice is a unique masterpiece. What we mean by 'intelligent' is 'responsible'. That is what the local Tourist Office intended some years ago when it set down its list of recommendations. The present Card improves upon that earlier document and says, well, 'use' Venice but please don't 'consume' it, don' wear it down. Whether a single guest or a group, the visitor from a distant place and a different cultural and geographical situation is always considered as part of a protected category, almost 'sacred'. Travellers have always found respect and assistance. Today when tourism is an avalanche, an invasion, practically a turbine, the least we can expect is for people to show respect for the places they visit. The Card for Tourists is not just a list of prohibitions. Read it and you'll see.
