massimo cacciari

Next Saturday Venice will be holding its own funeral. As far as publicity stunts go, it's quite an unequivocal message that the city is on the brink. Only this time the threat is not from the rising tides and the island city's subsiding foundations; the danger comes in the form of the rapidly shrinking population – it seems that the Venetians are migrating to the mainland faster than you can say 'just one cornetto'.

According to one group of locals – members of the online community venessia.com - the population has now fallen below the threshold of 60,000 people (down from about 150,000 in 1960) and the city's inhabitants are being driven out of their ancestral homes by property, food and transport prices far higher than those on the mainland. The main reason for the soaring cost of living is the relentless flow of tourists to the small city. As a result the local Venetians are being priced out of their historical island city.

Legendary history writer John Julius Norwich knows Venice better than most, if not all. Having recently edited The Great Cities in History (Thames & Hudson; see more info here), an epic ramble through the pioneering places in human history, he has also penned A History of Venice: The Rise to Empire and Venice: A Traveller's Companion - and was, until recently, on the board of the Venice in Peril Fund. No surprises, then, that Venice occupies its own page in Great Cities, at the pinnacle of renaissance culture.