European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 23, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Taly the Al a blight or paddlers just making a living by asian Cowell the new York times for Many years Art and Commerce have entwined in the watery City of vet ice Italy whose people thrive on the prices outsiders can be prevailed upon to pay to Tarry amid its beauties. Suddenly though like gondolas awry in the morning Mist the two have collided. The specific Issue is this should 35 owners of stalls be permitted to peddle their wares from their Barrows on the Piazza san Marco thereby assuring themselves both a livelihood and a place in the posterity provided by hundreds of thousands of snapshots taken each year of pigeons Spires domes arcades and inevitably the paddlers themselves the government in Rome says they should move on. The paddlers say they wont and have started holding demonstrations and protests including trying to Block the Road and rail Bridge that leads from the Mainland. More broadly the Issue is this How does Italy define its cultural heritage what comes first the wondrous a architecture of places such As Piazza san Marco in Venice and the Piazza Signoria in Florence or the people who Cluster to it to turn a Buck As every Art historian knows Many a great artist such As Antonio Canaletto has recorded dubious magicians and other types cluttering the Piazza san Marco for hundreds of years. So what s so wrong with the paddlers Selling Straw boaters plastic fans to shirts necklaces and other assorted gew Gaws in the same place today the answer said a spokeswoman for Alberto Ronchey the minister of cultural works is simple. Quot the minister does not want to Stop them doing their work Quot she said by Telephone from Rome. Quot hut he Means to preserve the Beauty of the artistic buildings in question and does t want the locations to become i decorous Quot since William Shakespeare s Day of course merchants of Venice a or at least their rapacity a have had a bad press and Renzo Decaro and his fellow vendors seem to be faring no better. Quot it is said that these stalls Are real Gold mines Quot said the corriere Della Sera a newspaper in Milan. Quot considering that they Are not supposed to fake up More than 1 Square meter of space they have become a  growth has been  Decaro casts things in a Quot different Light tinted More with melancholia of dying City than get Rich Quick arithmetic. Quot my father first set up Here in 1928,&Quot he Sard in an interview interrupted frequently by people pricing $8 to shirts and $2 bangles. Quot he was the first. And i be been Here since 1955. So Why should we disappear this is where we work. If we Stop work there s nowhere he get Toof Venice tourists and pigeons Are a common sight in Venice along with the paddlers trying to make a Bucks amp so Kathy Platt Quot you know people Are leaving Venice a venetians like me a because it s too expensive. Apartments Are too expensive. Everything s too expensive. The City s shrinking. So where would we go Quot the conversation took on a sharper Edge when a group of senegalese pavement vendors strolled by to set out their displays of mock Vuitton and mock Gucci wares. Quot look at them Quot Decaro said showing a Straw hat to a potential customer. Quot they Don t pay taxes. We pay taxes. They Don t have permits. We have permits. I live Here. I was born and bred in Venice. But i m supposed to move. And no one does anything to . A Friend Gianni Scarpa agreed and said Quot and we provide a service too. We help the tourists. We Don t just sell things to them. They would t even know where the toilets Are if we weren t Here to Tell  since 1979, said Vittorino Navaretto a municipal official Venice has tried to limit the number of the wheeled stalls. Since then there have been no new licenses in 1983, another Law said the vendors could pass on their licenses to Only their children the Laws though have had to contend with the steel of venetians separated from income As fearsome a drive As that displayed say by a Hippopotamus cow separated from her calf. The Story thus has been Ore of creeping successes of Barrows Over bureaucracy. Quot originally they could Only go around with a Box of goods hanging around their neck Quot Navaretto said of the vendors. Quot then there was a Concession that the Box could have legs but was Only permitted to occupy a space of 1 Square  then came the wheels and spreading beyond the 8 stripes Magazine det Ember 23, 1993