1. The Challenge of Venice
For years, Venice has been undergoing a dramatic process of residential emptying, bringing with it the progressive disappearance of essential local services, the flight of artisanal businesses, and the flattening of the economic fabric into a monoculture of predominantly “hit-and-run” tourism.

This drift is eroding the very factors of authenticity, uniqueness, and quality that for centuries defined Venetian excellence – from industry to craftsmanship, to gastronomy – and which today risk being irretrievably lost. The curve has now reached a critical point, dangerously close to no return.

Excellence initiatives such as the Biennale, the internationally renowned cultural centers still active, as well as the resilience of artisans rooted in the city and of restaurants that preserve traditions and local products, remain precious outposts of quality. Yet, on their own, they are not enough to reverse the trend.

To revive Venice, what is needed is a strong, structured, and shared project capable of restoring a vital socio-economic and cultural fabric, attracting new residents and new economies, and giving the urban community back its true purpose.

2. A New Paradigm: The Social Free Port – The Proposal
 The proposal is to extend the status of Free Port to the historic center of Venice, creating an Urban and Social Special Economic Zone.
 
Unlike the Free Port of Marghera — dedicated to goods and port logistics — this model places at its center people, families, cultural and creative enterprises, craftsmanship, and community services.
 
The goal is to restore Venice as a living community by adopting policies that encourage:

• the return and stable presence of young people, families, artisans and professionals, contributing to the life of the city;

• the creation of productive and cultural activities not tied to mass tourism;

• the rebirth of daily life in the historic city.

 
The Social Free Port is therefore conceived as a Special Economic Zone applied to the historic city, with tax benefits, bureaucratic simplifications, and incentives dedicated exclusively to those who choose to live and work permanently in Venice.
 
 
3. Areas of Intervention
 
The Social Free Port is not an abstract idea: it translates into five concrete and measurable areas of intervention, capable of restoring Venice’s dimension as a living city.

🔹 Living Residency
Objective: bring residents back to Venice.
Instruments: tax incentives, targeted housing policies, recovery of abandoned housing stock.
Actions: accessible housing solutions for permanent residents, enhancement of currently unused properties, and the development of co-housing projects and university residences.
 
🔹 New Economies
Objective: overcome the monoculture of tourism.
Instruments: tax breaks and simplifications for innovative enterprises.
Actions: support for cultural and technological start-ups, creation of research and international training hubs, revival of lagoon craftsmanship and local supply chains.
 
🔹 Qualified Work
Objective: create stable opportunities for those who live in the city.
Instruments: incentives for businesses that hire residents, linking new economies and quality tourism to local employment.
Actions: training programs in green, digital, and cultural sectors, promotion of Venice as a capital of congresses, research, and innovation.
 
🔹 Community and Environmental Protection
Objective: defend the community and the lagoon.
Instruments: efficient local services and regulation of tourist flows.
Actions: strengthening of schools, healthcare, and transport for residents, environmental protection plans for the lagoon, sustainable management of tourist access.
 
🔹 Decision-Making Autonomy
Objective: give Venice the power to decide its own future.
Instruments: transparent and participatory governance.
Actions: creation of a permanent institutional table (Government–Region–Municipality–EU), participatory democracy tools for citizens, binding rules on the use of resources generated by the Social Free Port.
 
 
4. Conditions for Success
The Social Free Port can only work under precise conditions, ensuring that its benefits serve the city and not speculation.

• Stable and documented residency as an essential requirement for access to incentives.

• End to real estate speculation, with clear rules and strict limits on purely financial investments.

• Incentives reserved for those who generate social value, i.e. enterprises, activities, and services useful to the resident community.

• An integrated urban plan that balances housing, productive spaces, and public services, ensuring a livable and sustainable city.

 
 
5. Conclusion – A Venice to Live, Not Just to Visit
The Social Free Port is neither a utopia nor a temporary remedy: it is the only concrete project capable of giving back to Venice what it has lost — its residents, its jobs, its everyday life.
This vision looks not to the past but to the future: Venice can become a European model of intelligent urban regeneration, where history and innovation meet to shape a living, sustainable community, proud to inhabit its own city.
 
 
6. What we ask to be done
 The Manifesto is not a theoretical exercise: it is an appeal for the competent institutions to translate this vision into concrete actions.

• Public Appeal - through the Petition we ask that the urgency of addressing the future of Venice be officially recognized

• Institutional table – we call on the Government, the Region, the Municipality, and the European Union to open a permanent forum dedicated to the Social Free Port.

• Feasibility Study  – we ask that the institutions prepare a technical and economic analysis demonstrating, with data and scenarios, the sustainability of the project.

• Community Involvement – we ask that residents, associations, universities, and local businesses be actively included in the decision-making process.

• International recognition – we ask that Venice be acknowledged as a European model of urban regeneration, capable of attracting attention, resources, and expertise from around the world.