Venice has attempted to tackle the problem of over-tourism with a ban on food takeaway shops from opening for three years.
Many tourists choose to buy from the takeaways as they explore the city and its historical sights.
This, in turn, causes a large amount of litter to plague the small city.
It has also meant huge flocks of pigeons are found throughout the city, ruining it for locals despite there being large fines for anyone spotted feeding them.
The new rules will not affect ice-cream parlours but will include pizza and kebab takeaways.
The new rule was approved by the mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro today.
Calling it an “urban decorum” drive, it hopes to end the rubbish being left on many church and bridge steps.
However it must be approved by the Corriere del Veneto, the Veneto regional government to go ahead, according to ANSAmed newspaper.
The mayor has been attempting to clean up the city for over a year.
According to Corriere newspaper, the mayor said: “Our plan is to prevent the opening of new takeaway businesses and impose new rules on those already operating, so that they are obliged to clean up and collect discarded food containers outside their stores, as well as place rubbish bins outside.”
The new rules will see existing takeaway stores be forced to have toilet facilities and a minimum height and floor space.
It is hoped that the project will inspire other cities in Italy to follow suit to protect some of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Florence has already done so, banning new openings within 40 metres of the UNESCO Old Town.
Venice has struggled under the weight of mass tourism due to the sheer volume of visitors who attempt to visit the tiny city every year.
This has resulted in a number of anti-tourism marches and protests, which have also been seen across Europe in Spain and Croatia.
The Italian city has put a number of new rules and changes into place to try and keep the locals happy.
One was to enforce new walking lanes for tourists to allow locals to travel around freely.
Another was adding metal gates to limit the number of tourists visiting at one time, but these were then torn down by some locals.
Visitors could even be capped eventually to say the sinking city.
It is thought that it could cease to exist in the next decade.
