"Venice has absolutely no plans to fine tourists hundreds of euros for wheeling their luggage through the popular tourist city, the city’s special commissioner said on Friday.
Vittorio Zappalorto released a statement rejecting Italian and foreign media reports that the city authorities favoured a ban on wheeled suitcases and suggestions that tourists would be fined between €100 and €500 for defying the law in the historic centre.
Reports on Thursday said Venetians were tired of being kept awake at night by throngs of tourists, wheeling their luggage through the city’s narrow streets and over its famous bridges.
“I want to deny with the greatest firmness that the city of Venice has ever considered banning wheeled suitcases,” Zappalorto said.
“Certainly the rigid wheels contribute to damaging the alleys, piazzas and particularly the bridges due to the continual battering caused by lifting them up and down. But that does not mean to say that the council will ban their use.”
Zappalorto stressed the draft proposal currently under consideration was designed only to control the movement of commercial trolleys that caused “noise pollution” when they moved their merchandise through the lagoon city."