Officials in Venice have voiced hope the coronavirus crisis will provide an opportunity to re-imagine one of the world’s most fragile cities, creating a more sustainable tourism industry and attracting more full-time residents.

For years, the Italian city has faced an almost existential crisis, as the unbridled success of its tourism industry threatened to ruin the things that have drawn visitors for centuries.

Now the coronavirus pandemic has dammed off the tide of tourists and rocked the city’s economy, leaving the famed lacquered black gondolas moored, museums sealed shut and St Mark’s Square – normally teeming in any season – traversed at any given moment by just a handful of souls.

The pandemic – following on the heels of a series of exceptional floods in November that dealt a first economic blow – ground the city to a halt and promised government assistance has been slow to arrive.

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The city that has inspired painters like Canaletto and Turner is now a blank canvas.

Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, speaking in the empty piazza in front of St Mark’s Basilica, said: “This allows us to rethink life in the historic center”.

Read more: PA Media