Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro has called out a couple who decided that surfing through the historic canals of the Italian city was a good idea.
The mayor shared a video of the two surfing the Venetian waterways, calling them "idiots who make a mockery" of the city. In another post, he underlined that Venice is "NOT Disneyland".
While the dolphins who allegedly visited the City of Canals seem to have gotten a free pass, it looks like Brugnaro is ready to find the surfers by any means necessary.
"To those who spot them, I offer dinner!" he wrote in his Twitter account.
According to the video, the audacious surfers used motorized boards to catch some waves - even though they don't naturally occur in the Italian city.
The mayor's outrage was not welcomed by everyone on social media. Some users argued that the surfers did no harm and seemed to have brought fun instead.
"The world is changing, you're just being annoying if you want to keep that change from happening, you can only delay it," one social media user argued.
Brugnaro is indeed known for being very protective of Venice. Even though the city is a renowned tourist spot, he was not very happy when some of the tourists returning after the coronavirus pandemic swam naked in the canals and even vandalized the city's churches.
The mayor's concerns are understandable. Venice is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but risks becoming “endangered”, especially given the large numbers of tourists it welcomes - who, as Brugnaro frequently laments, are not always very gentle and caring of the local sites.