This Italian tourist hotspots raises defenses against overcrowding

Venice became the first city in the world on Thursday to introduce a payment system for visitors in an experiment aimed at dissuading tourists from arriving during peak periods.
However, it isn’t the only place in Italy that has recently introduced new measures aimed at slowing tourist flows.
Here are some of the initiatives currently in force.
The lagoon city has introduced 5 euros (about $5.35) tickets for day trippers, valid from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The experiment came into force on April 25, a national holiday in Italy. Tickets will be needed for the following 10 days and thereafter for most weekends until mid-July.
Venice residents, students, workers, and homeowners are exempt from paying or booking a slot. Visitors aged under 14 and tourists with hotel reservations will need to register, but access for them will be free of charge.
Other cities, such as Como, have said they are considering introducing a similar measure but are waiting to see how the Venice initiative works before deciding.
In addition, Venice has said that from June, it will limit the size of tourist groups to 25 people and ban the use of loudspeakers by tour guides.
Florence announced in October that it was banning new short-term residential lets on platforms such as Airbnb in its historic center. It also offered three years of tax breaks to landlords of short-term holiday lets who start offering ordinary leases for residents.
The city’s famous museum, the Uffizi, offers discounts to people who arrive before 8.55 a.m. and lower prices off-season. To spread out crowds, it also closes at 10 p.m. once a week.
The five villages that make up the Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera regularly get swamped with visitors.
To try to reduce the overcrowding at peak periods, the authority which oversees the area said this week it would charge visitors 15 euros (about $16) to walk the most celebrated coastal path. In addition, the path can only be walked in one direction.
The picturesque small island that lies across the bay from the southern city of Naples has doubled its entry fee, which is automatically added to ferry tickets, to 5 euros. The fee will be charged from April 1 to October 1.
These islands have introduced limits, or outright bans, on cars for non-residents during the main tourist season.