Cruise ships to be banned from Venice

Summary - Celebrities including British stars Sir Michael Caine and Julie Christie had backed the campaign.

An international campaign to ban large cruise liners from Venice has been successful, with the Italian government confirming massive ships will be blocked from the city centre from 2015.

British celebrities such as Sir Michael Caine and Julie Christie had supported a petition lobbying for a change in the law, with cruise ships currently able to pass within sight of the iconic St Mark's Square.

Despite the victory for the campaign, there is already opposition to the Italian government's proposal to create an alternative route into Venice for cruise liners, reports the Telegraph.

Gianfranco Bettin, a councillor for the Greens Party, stated that councils will need to be involved before a decision can be made on the plans.

Transport minister Maurizio Lupi was among those to approve plans to block cruise liners from Venice, which is known as the Queen of the Adriatic and listed by Unesco as a World Heritage site.

He said: "It seems to me to be a balanced solution which takes account of our duty to remove the skyscrapers of the sea from the canals of Venice, while safeguarding a world heritage city that is the envy of the world and protecting the city's economy which is so linked to cruise tourism."