Venice turns more mansions into hotels

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VENICE, Italy, June 5 (UPI) -- Turning more historic mansions into hotels threatens to make Venice, Italy, a tourist ghetto without other economic activity, a preservationist said.

The cash-strapped city is selling off dozens of its magnificent palazzos, several of which sit on the Grand Canal, the waterway that flows through the heart of Venice, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

"Selling off the palaces is an ad hoc strategy driven by panic," said Anna Somers Cocks, the chairman of the British-based Venice In Peril Fund. "It's like auctioning the family silver instead of sorting out your estate."

Hotels are struggling to fill their rooms because more than 40 new hotels were added between 2000 and 2007 and the number of private homes converted into budget inns rose by more than 1,000 percent.

The overabundance of rooms threatens to turn Venice into "a dislocated city, devoted only to tourism," Cocks said.

City leaders said the sale of the palazzos reflects the economic reality of Venice trying to adapt to a sharp drop in its public finances.