Casanova, Byron and Dickens frequently went there for coffee and Napoleon is said to have called it “the finest drawing room in Europe,” but St Mark’s Square in Venice is now facing up to the 21st century with checkpoints and a limit on carnival visitors.
Grappling with a surge in tourist numbers and growing calls for safety, the lagoon city set up tube station-style turnstiles at four entrances to the historic piazza as the legendary Venetian carnival got under way on Sunday. The square was closed to new visitors once 23,000 revellers had entered.
That number represents a sharp fall from the size of crowds in the past when about 50,000 people have squeezed into the piazza to watch the traditional descent on a wire
