Venice Rebels Against “Love Locks”

Venetians have had it with the “romantic” padlocks being locked onto the city’s fragile bridges and one Venetian has started a campaign against them.  Lovers symbolically “lock” their love by placing a padlock on a bridge but the locks have become an eyesore and a threat to the integrity of the bridges.  The “Unlock Your Love” initiative this week was timed to coincide with the opening of the Venice Film Festival.

According to the Gazzetta del Sud, “In the opening hours of ‘Unlock Your Love’ nearly 2,000 colored cards featuring a heart-shaped open padlock were affixed particularly in the areas of Rialto, San Marco and Accademia inviting sweethearts not to lock padlocks to the bridges as a ‘symbol’ of their love. Over 20,000 padlocks have been counted on the Ponte dell’Accademia, the only wooden bridge crossing the Canal Grande, where workmen are already at work to remove them.”

“Almost all those who attach a padlock are not aware that they are committing an act of vandalism, particularly in a fragile city such as Venice,”  says writer Alberto Toso Fei, the founder of the “Unlock Your Love” campaign.

Cities like Rome, Florence, New York and Paris have moved to remove similar padlocks from their cities. Venice has a 50-euro fine for attaching a lock.