Tourist Ferry Arrival Sparks Boarding System Challenges and Traffic Woes

“It’s not working. On Monday, I will discuss it with the government police station. We need at least a couple of uniformed officers, in addition to our traffic wardens, to regulate access at the boarding points. Otherwise, traffic in the city is destined to explode.” It is a disheartened yet realistic mayor who spent yesterday morning observing the first mass influx of tourists via ferries.

Problems in the boarding system

Wise words from Cesare Malossini. The first “busy” Saturday of the season (though not really, given the rain) saw the yellow lane reserved for ferry passengers fill beyond capacity: a lane that, as is known, extends from Piazza Catena along Monte Oro up to Bellavista.

This also highlighted the system’s flaws, which are: 1) no one lines up orderly, but everyone ends up in Piazza Catena, where the traffic officer merely points out to the Germans the need to turn back, with chaotic maneuvers that are easily imaginable; 2) first-time arrivals do not understand how the boarding fee payments work; thus they park in line, wander around the port area, and perhaps go for lunch while waiting to figure things out; 3) consequently, the already limited parking situation worsens further.

The chaos and solutions

Yesterday, as mentioned, the chaos was already significant in the morning. It became uncontrollable around 4:30 p.m., when the queue extended all the way to Viale Canella. The boarding experiment, as currently conceived, has already failed.

Limone can say whatever it wants: vehicles need to be sent around the lake!