It has become one of the most controversial topics in the world of travel – the presence of giant cruise ships in Venice, and fears over the harm these liners may cause to the famous city.
For the cruise industry, the great Italian island citadel is one of the world’s foremost destinations – a place that adds an elegance and a sense of history to any long voyage.
On the other side are those who think the liners are enormous, incongruous intruders into a place that was never designed to host such ocean goliaths.
Now leading figures from the world of cinema – including Oscar winners Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton and Michael Douglas – have added their signatures to a petition, addressed to the Italian prime minister and the Italian minister of culture and tourism, calling for an end to the sight of liners dwarfing buildings such as St Mark’s Basilica.
Other big-screen figures are also on the list of endorsees, including Rob Lowe, Diane Lane, Sir Michael Caine, Edward Norton, Susan Sarandon and Isabella Rossellini.
Other luminaries include architect Sir Norman Foster, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and Princess Firyal of Jordan – plus an illustrious line-up of fashion designers including Diane von Furstenberg, Carolina Herrera, Hubert de Givenchy and Calvin Klein.
Venice has already made moves to restrict the movements of cruise ships in its waters.
January brought a reduction of 20 per cent on the number of ships weighing more than 40,000 tonnes authorised to enter the Giudecca Canal (the waterway which separates the main core of Venice from the separate island of Giudecca, immediately to the south).
Further regulations which were due to come into force in November, have now been put back to January 2015.