Venice has been left deserted by the coronavirus outbreak with tourists abandoning the usually overcrowded streets and plazas over health fears.
Footage taken in the lagoon city shows cafes empty, gondolas lying unused on the famous canals and only a few tourists milling around the historic St Mark’s Square.
Some gondoliers and restaurant staff who usually face high demand from the visitors’ 30million annual visitors are seen standing in the city’s squares and alleyways with little to do.
Flights to Venice have been scaled back with last month’s Carnival cancelled as tourists stay away, just months after the city was ravaged by flooding.
The person who filmed the empty streets said the deserted city was ‘surreal’ and said they had ‘never seen it like this before’.
People walk past St Mark’s Basilica in Venice with the usually overcrowded streets, plazas and alleyways now deserted because of the virus outbreak
Some gondoliers who usually face high demand from the visitors’ 30million annual visitors have been left with little to do
An empty passageway in Venice which would often be heaving with tourist, but is now deserted because of the virus outbreak
What it usually looks like: Tourists walk along one of the crowded alleyways that lead to St Mark’s Square in an earlier photo
The region of Veneto which includes Venice has been one of the worst-affected parts of Italy since the outbreak began last month.
The Venice Carnival was shut down for the first time since its revival in the 1970s after Italy became the centre of the European virus outbreak.
Several cases have been confirmed in Venice itself with some of the few remaining tourists wearing face masks in public.
Health workers have been seen spraying streets, swimming pools, plazas, pavements and bridges in what the local council describes as ‘exceptional measures’.
The cleaning has also been taking place in gondolas and other forms of public transport.
One by one, ferry services to the lagoon city are also being cancelled, following the closure of museums and schools with immediate effect.
Delta’s summer flights between New York and Venice, which usually begin on April 1, have been pushed back to at least May 1.
The city is usually one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, attracting more than a million visitors from China alone last year.
But the Venice tourist industry had already suffered a blow last year when ‘apocalyptic’ floods ravaged the lagoon city.
High waters washed into historic buildings including St Mark’s Basilica and caused hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of damage, authorities said at the time.
More than 92,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide and the number of deaths from the virus has reached 3,110 globally, according to the WHO.
A handful of tourists walk in St Mark’s Square in Venice last week, some of them wearing face masks, with the historic city largely deserted because of the coronavirus outbreak
A group of waiters have little to do as they stand in a cafe on St Mark’s Square, with only a few tourists around because of the virus outbreak
A crowded shopping street is pictured in 2015, with some locals raising concerns about the impact of excessive tourism
A deserted outdoor table and chairs by the side of the lagoon last Sunday, with a ferry sailing near the city centre, as the tourism industry is hit by coronavirus
Venice usually faces the opposite problem, with many locals voicing concerns about overcrowding from the 30million tourists who visit every year.
Day-trippers who pile off coaches and cruise ships on tours run by foreign enterprises and spend little money in the city cause particular annoyance.
The lagoon city has seen its own population plummet from about 175,000 after World War Two to just over 50,000.
Food blogger Monica Cesarato said last year that ‘We used to have a low season when Venetians had time to recuperate. Now it’s all year round and Venetians don’t get the city for themselves anymore.’
UNESCO has threatened to add Venice to its list of endangered heritage sites, partly because of problems with tourism.
Venice last year announced a ban on cruise ships in the historic centre after one liner crashed and a second had a narrow miss.
Residents have previously staged protests against uncontrolled tourism as shops for locals such as bakeries and greengrocers gradually vanish.
Authorities have previously trialled a system that forces visitors to make a reservation if they want to go to the popular Saint Mark’s Square during peak hours.
Tourists can be fined hundreds of euros for sitting in the wrong places or bathing in the canals.
A sanitation worker sprays disinfectant over a water bus in Venice last week with northern Italy at the centre of Europe’s coronavirus outbreak
Gondolas are parked in Venice on a rainy day on Sunday, with many tourists staying away
The Venice tourist industry had already suffered a blow last year when ‘apocalyptic’ floods ravaged the lagoon city (pictured)