On December 1st Venetians will head to the polls to decide whether they want the historic and ‘oating’ centre of the city to literally break away from its more populated boroughs on the mainland, a vote brought on by the negative consequences of mass tourism on Venice’s residents.

Venice authorities have called on its citizens to decide whether they want to split their municipality in two – on one side the historic city and islands which are famously built on stilts on the lagoon, and on the other the inland and more residential ‘frazioni’ known as Mestre.  It’s a decision that beggars belief at a time when referendums across Europe, approved or attempted, seem to be sowing more divisions than any actual prospect of civil neighbourliness