Italian defends himself against bold tourists – and rents his toilet

In Venice, the action of a resident caused discussions. Because the smell of urine in front of his house bothered an Italian, he rented out his toilet.

Venice – An Italian student residing in Venice was literally “fed up”. There are always tourists peeing on his doorstep. The 20-year-old has therefore taken countermeasures and put a note on his door offering his toilet to passers-by for one euro. The action provoked divided reactions in Italy. Wild peeing in Italy can be expensive in general. Near the Italian town of Monterosso in the Cinque Terre, two men were caught peeing in the sea and received a hefty fine.

Student from Venice is fed up with tourists peeing on the doorstep – he offers his own toilet

“My roommate and I were tired of people peeing in front of our house,” student Daniele Lucentini told the daily La Nuova Venice. The two of them share accommodation near the Sant’Angelo pier, in the heart of Venice. Both preferred it when people came into the house and used their toilet instead of peeing in front of it. That’s why he put a post-it on his front door with the inscription “WC 1 Euro”.

The student left the note hanging for a few days, during which time two tourists are said to have used the offer. However, he then removed it again. The reason was the heated discussions that his action had triggered on social networks. There he was accused, among other things, of wanting to make money with it.

“It wasn’t my intention,” the 20-year-old told the newspaper, emphasizing that it was only intended as a provocation against bold tourists. “I didn’t want to earn any money, I just wanted them to stop peeing in front of my house.” In Germany, too, one resident in Munich found it too much. So many people urinated in front of her house during the Oktoberfest that she took an unusual measure.

Italian rents toilet for tourists in Venice – network reacts split to “wild pee measure”

Some Italian newspapers covered the student’s action Facebook published and received hundreds of comments on the story – some positive, some critical. “If there were more public toilets (even free), maybe people wouldn’t urinate in the street anymore,” writes one user on the subject. She finds it problematic that money is made from people’s needs and sees it as a task for the city to create more publicly accessible toilets as a matter of urgency. Another user writes: “There are the usual people who accuse others of wanting to make money with it, but they don’t want urine on their walls themselves. Or do you prefer the smell of urine?”.

For wild pissing in Venice, locals and tourists face high penalties. The Berlin morning post reports, among other things, on a case in which two men were caught urinating near St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. Both were fined 3,000 euros each. Peeing in public or in the wild is also forbidden in Germany and carries penalties.