VENICE is set to hold a symbolic funeral of itself today, as the population has fallen below the key figure of 60,000.
The famous lagoon city's population has been dwindling over the past 50 years as locals are forced out by high rents and replaced by millions of tourists.
In 1951, Venetians numbered 174,000 but, by 1996, the figure had dropped to 70,000 and has
fallen below the symbolic figure of 60,000 with officials saying it now stands at 59,992.
To mark the watershed, a "funeral" is due to be held along the city's trademark Grand Canal with a bright red coffin being carried on a succession of three gondolas from Santa Lucia railway station to the town hall.
As part of the event – which is being organised by action group Venessia.com – locals who have both parents and grandparents born in Venice will be asked to take part in a test to find true Venetian DNA.
Stefano Soffiato of Venessia.com said: "Things are very sad at the moment in Venice.
"There is a real sombre atmosphere you can see the heart of the city is dying to lose more than 100,000 people in just 50 years is very dramatic.
"There is no life, no heart, no soul and we want to try and bring this back to Venice that's why we are having the funeral to show that the city is practically dead."
He added: "The DNA tests are voluntary but they are an exercise to prove a point that the city is rapidly losing its original citizens.
"We have more than ten million tourists a year coming into the city and many of them are day-trippers. They don't sleep here and they don't eat here because it's too expensive and it's the same for the locals.
"They are being priced out of the city and there are now very few real, genuine Venetians left.''
Experts say it is now cheaper to live outside the city on the mainland in places such as Mestre rather than on the network of tiny islands that make up Venice. Mr Soffiato added that the rising tourist numbers has pushed up consumer and property prices with an influx of wealthy foreign outsiders buying second homes there.
Venice council has tried to reduce the impact of the daily visitors, most of them in-and-out backpackers, by clamping down on antisocial behaviour such as walking around bare-chested and having picnics in St Mark's Square.
Entry fees are also being considered with Venice councillor Enrico Mingardi saying: "We will take this drastic action if it becomes necessary in a bid to save the city.
"Venetians can no longer stand these disruptions; one other possibility we are looking at is only those with overnight hotel bookings being allowed in."
The DNA experiment is being organised by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts with researcher Deborah Affezzoli and six others.
They hope to collect 5,000 samples from people over the next month in a bid to establish the profile of Venetian DNA – historians believe original Venetians were a mixture from modern-day Turkey and Roman.
However, Venice mayor Massimo Cacciari has labelled the funeral and DNA profiling as "stupid'' and added: "I don't see what the difference is between 60,000 people one day and 59,999 the next day.''
