Owner of Harry’s Bar demands Venice tackle speeding boats and ‘damaging waves’

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By Francesca Piscioneri

ROME (Reuters) – The owner of Harry’s Bar, a Venetian bar and restaurant frequented by Ernest Hemingway, has filed a legal complaint demanding city authorities do more to stop boats speeding through canals and causing damaging high waves.

Venice has long been threatened by flooding and “moto ondoso”, the erosion of its buildings by waves. To try and limit the waves, strict speed limits apply to boats within its waters of between 5 to 20 kilometres per hour.

Harry’s Bar owner Arrigo Cipriani says the speed limits are often ignored and poorly enforced, however.

“We filed a complaint with the authorities in charge of maritime traffic in Venice (…) about the state of the (canal)banks which are lapped by the waves and become slippery and unsafe,” he told Reuters.

Speeding boats were a particular nuisance for Harry’s Dolci, a branch of the more famous Harry’s Bar which overlooks the Giudecca canal, as they make waves that splash customers, he added.

Cipriani, 92, said he had suggested installing wooden barriers to keep his patrons dry, but the idea was rejected by city conservation and heritage authorities.

Michele Zuin, a city councillor in charge of water traffic, said he understood Cipriani and other entrepreneurs’ complaints, and the municipality was working to address their concerns.

He told Reuters there would be more speed checks.

“We are not starting from scratch, but we are improving the system,” Zuin said.

Cipriani’s father Giuseppe founded Harry’s Bar – which is just off the Grand Canal, near St Mark’s Square – in 1931, with money an American named Harry Pickering had given him to pay off a loan.

Giuseppe Cipriani named the bar and his first son Arrigo (Italian for Harry) in Pickering’s honour.

Hemingway made Harry’s Bar his Venice headquarters and mentioned it in “Across the River and Into the Trees,” published in 1950.