Source: Venice municipality official website

To order a pizza or a coffee; to ask the life guard for help, or send emails; to make calls via the Internet, and chat with friends; to take part in a forum, in online auctions, in blogs…

The above actions, together with many others, will be easily carried out from the beaches of Venice Lido. This will be possible thanks to a connection to the Internet in wireless mode, which the municipality of Venice installed along the coastal line of “Venezia Spiagge” beach resorts.

The project is called “Spiagge on line”¹ and it is part of a wireless network system that will cover the whole territory of the municipality from 2009; the vice-mayor of Venice presented it on 12th April 2008 during a press conference.

The system is already complete: it will be operating during the upcoming bathing season. It is available for any private bathing establishment or hotel wishing to activate it.

By paying the seasonal access to the bathing establishment, the customer receives, together with his beach hut’s keys, a password that will allow him free access to the Internet; as for daily access, connection to the Internet will cost 3 euros.

The vice-mayor underlined that customers will connect to the Internet not only via PC, but also by means of PDAs or smartphones, which allow an easy navigation and the use of the main programs dealing with the web.

A second part of “Spiagge on line” will be available from August, starting from the Venice Film Festival: this system will interact with companies in charge of mobility, transports and information technology: a booking program needing only one transaction will overcome the various cards now in use.
It will be then possible to book in at the Municipal Garage and rent a beach umbrella, as well as buy a vaporetto ticket or search for multimedia information on the city.

The vice-mayor explains that, among Italian cities, Venice is at the forefront of this challenge, which will be promoted during the Forum P.A. in Rome (12-15 May 2008).
The mayor of Venice, who attended the conference, said he is sure that this project will arouse great interest at Shangai Expo, where Venice was chosen among numerous applicants, together with Milan and Bologna.

The mayor reminded the public that “it isn’t possible to keep the same traditional perspective, since tourism means trade, urban planning, information mobility: the Internet is the tool that will provide Venice tourism with a systematic organization”.
To that end, he assigned the vice-mayor to coordinate, through his offices, all the local authorities dealing with the problems of city tourism economy, from different points of view.

In the next reorganization of the Committee – the mayor announced – the vice-mayor will be assigned the task to follow this activity with the highest concern until Shangai Expo. Consequently, he will be probably discharged of other assignments in order to be able to supervise adequately this “innovative project of great importance, which will create a structure guaranteeing a total control over the connection between administration and operators as for the city tourism economy”.