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Venice Cuts Size of Tourist Parties, Bans Loudspeakers

Stewards check QR codes outside the main train station in Venice earlier this month, during a pilot scheme aimed at limiting tourist numbers. Photograph: Luca Bruno/AP
Stewards check QR codes outside the main train station in Venice earlier this month, during a pilot scheme aimed at limiting tourist numbers. Photograph: Luca Bruno/AP
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Venice Cuts Size of Tourist Parties, Bans Loudspeakers

Stewards check QR codes outside the main train station in Venice earlier this month, during a pilot scheme aimed at limiting tourist numbers. Photograph: Luca Bruno/AP
Stewards check QR codes outside the main train station in Venice earlier this month, during a pilot scheme aimed at limiting tourist numbers. Photograph: Luca Bruno/AP

Venice will limit the size of tourist parties to 25 people from Thursday in the latest attempt to reduce the impact of crowds on the lagoon city.

Local authorities will also ban the use of loudspeakers by tourist guides in measures aimed at “protecting the peace of residents” and ensuring pedestrians can move around more freely.

There will be fines ranging from €25-500 (£21-£422) for those who do not comply with the measures, which were originally planned to take effect from June but held over until the start of August, The Guardian reported.

The restrictions cover the city center and also the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello.

In April, Venice became the first city in the world to introduce a payment system for visitors in an experiment aimed at dissuading daytrippers from arriving during peak periods.

 

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India Gets 9% More Monsoon Rain in July After Weak June 

Children play in the rain in Mumbai, India, June 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Children play in the rain in Mumbai, India, June 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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India Gets 9% More Monsoon Rain in July After Weak June 

Children play in the rain in Mumbai, India, June 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Children play in the rain in Mumbai, India, June 20, 2024. (Reuters)

India received 9% more rainfall than average in July as the monsoon covered the entire country ahead of schedule, delivering heavy rain in central and southern states, weather department data showed on Wednesday.

The lifeblood of the nearly $3.5 trillion economy, the monsoon brings nearly 70% of the rain India needs to water farms and refill reservoirs and aquifers.

Without irrigation, nearly half of the farmland in the world's second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugar depends on the annual rains that usually run from June to September.

In July, southern and central regions of the country received nearly a third more rainfall than the average, while east and north-eastern regions received 23.3% less rainfall, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The north-western part of the country got 14.3% less rainfall than average.

The surplus rainfall in July helped erase June's rainfall deficit of 10.9%, and the country has received 1.8% more rainfall since the start of the monsoon season on June 1.

Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia's third-largest economy, usually begin in the south around June 1 before spreading nationwide by July 8, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans and sugarcane.

This year monsoon covered the entire country six days ahead of the usual time of arrival, helping farmers to accelerate planting of summer-sown crops.