A British couple were banned from Venice and fined after they were seen jumping into the Grand Canal on the last day of their holiday, Italian authorities said.
The 35-year-old man and his 25-year-old partner, a Romanian national who live in the U.K., were each fined £390 and ordered to leave the World Heritage city for 48 hours, local media reported. Gondoliers who witnessed the incident alerted police, and officials said the action violated rules that prohibit swimming in Venice’s 150 canals because of the danger posed by gondolas and motorboats.
Security councillor Elisabetta Pesce told Il Gazzetino she thanked the gondoliers "for their cooperation and timely reporting." Pesce said the council was committed to "firmly combating disrespectful and uncivil behaviour, because protecting Venice means defending the dignity of a city that is unique in the world and ensuring decorum for both residents and visitors."
The incident prompted anger from supporters of the local action group "Venice is not Disneyland," whose members have pushed for tougher sanctions on tourists who flout rules. Comments on the group's social media pages described the fines as insufficient and called for permanent bans or higher penalties for repeat offenders. Some posts suggested stricter enforcement to deter behaviour that locals say tarnishes daily life in the lagoon city.
Officials said the case was one of many this year. Since the start of 2025, the city has issued more than 1,000 expulsion orders for a range of violations, part of a broader effort to crack down on misconduct by visitors and preserve public order in a city heavily reliant on tourism.
The episode follows a string of high-profile stunts and breaches of local rules. In 2023 Venice’s mayor posted a video of a man leaping from a three-story building into a canal and publicly condemned the act. In 2016 a man from New Zealand was seriously injured after diving off a bridge and striking a water taxi, and in 2020 two German tourists were fined after being filmed swimming under the Rialto Bridge as the city emerged from Covid-19 lockdowns. Authorities have repeatedly warned that such actions pose safety risks and cause disruption to residents and boats navigating the narrow waterways.
Venice’s municipal government has in recent years introduced a mix of fines, expulsion orders and public-awareness campaigns to deter dangerous or inconsiderate behaviour. Officials say enforcement will continue as they seek to balance the economic importance of tourism with protection of the city’s heritage and residents’ quality of life.