Cruise Ships and Venice

From the book Gondola, a rumination on Venice by Donna Leon:

The cruise ships, long a sore in the eyes of most residents, have been slipping in and out of the city for years, though it is only recently, as their effects on the welfare of the city and its residents have become more evident, that the infection been recognized as a full-blown disease.

There’s almost no criticism of the many cruise ships that sail into Charlottetown Harbour every summer: despite the tolls, hidden and obvious, they place on our infrastructure and our souls, they are regarded almost universally as a thing we want more of. Venetians know better.