“Moving to this city was simply inspiring,” says Susana Martinez. “Venice gave me a boost of energy. When you are exposed to new experiences, your creativity takes off.
Feeling exhausted from the daily grind, the 48-year-old software engineer swapped her usual office in Madrid for three months of working remotely in the dreamy water city earlier this year. Martinez is one of 16 employees of the multinational technology company Cisco, who has been invited to take part in the remote working pilot project in Venice.
Housed in downtown apartments and invited to work in various locations, participants were tracked to measure changes in their productivity, work habits and levels of well-being. The findings will help make final adjustments to Venywhere – a new initiative to attract international remote workers from around the world to Venice – before it goes live in September.
Venywhere organizers want to breathe some life into the city that is declining under the scourge of the 21st century “overtourism”. And workers who enroll in the program could be on the way to living richer, less stressful and happier lives.
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“Venice is not only beautiful, it is also inspiring,” Ms Martinez said, the day after the pilot ended last month. “I loved taking my camera after work and getting lost in the streets of Venice, or strolling along the waterfront and stopping for a bowl of spaghetti or a spritz. Sometimes the smallest things in life make the biggest difference. »
Mathilde Bosgiraud, another participant, says she didn’t notice Venice’s car-free silence when she arrived. “Then I went to Rome and it was a crazy reality check after all that peace and quiet,” says the 29-year-old account manager, who usually works from Cisco’s Paris office.
Although it may seem heavenly, Venice is struggling with some major issues. Hordes of tourists crowd the narrow streets lined with canals. About 20 million visitors descend on the city of 50,000 people every year, and rental prices have skyrocketed as owners put properties on Airbnb.
Residents briefly reclaimed their city when the pandemic blocked international travel. But tourism levels are now returning to pre-Covid levels. On May 31, in order to limit the swell, the local authorities announced that they would soon set up a tourist entrance fees.
Venywhere organizers believe they can turn the tide by attracting digital nomads, freelancers and businesses to Venice to diversify the city’s tourism-centric economy and fuel the rise of local, worker-focused services .
Compact enough to walk around and free from the air pollution that typically plagues busier places, Venice will be particularly attractive to remote workers, suggests Gianpaolo Barozzi, human resources manager at Cisco.
Other remote work initiatives are springing up in the city. The Procuratie Vecchie, the former residence of the governors of Venice which runs the full length of Piazza San Marco, reopened in April following a major renovation by British architect David Chipperfield. Generali, the insurance giant that will use the 16th-century building as its headquarters, has included a smart workspace inside.
But Venywhere focuses on international workers by helping newcomers find the perfect place to live, organizing social activities to help them find accommodation, and giving them advice on how to navigate. The infamous Italian bureaucracy. The initiative set up eight workplaces in art foundations, an 18th century library and the huge Arsenal complex.
“I’m not a fan of coworking,” says Venywhere founder Massimo Warglien. “We want to locate people in open spaces where they are not isolated and can meet locals.”
The idea was jointly dreamed up by Fondazione Venezia, a local foundation aimed at spurring growth in Venice, and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice during the pandemic. The Venetians developed a “more intimate relationship” with their city when it was deserted.
The proportion of companies with more than half of their staff working remotely has risen from 16% before the pandemic to 62% today, according to a recent Cisco study. This has turned the international workforce into a resource to be exploited.
Thousands of workers have already opened Venywhere accounts online, with hundreds saying they will move to the city by the end of the year. Many currently planning short stays could extend their visit, predicts Michele Buglisi, president of Fondazione Venezia. “We might see a similar trend to academia, where students initially come in for one or two years and end up staying,” he says.
The potential positive effects of moving to a new city become apparent. Surveys, data and interviews showed that workers became more independent, responsible and focused during the pilot, Barozzi says.
Ms Martinez says she felt more valued by – and, therefore, more committed to – her business, while Ms Bosgiraud (above) added: ‘Being in Venice is good for your mental health… you have to adapt to the slower pace of life in Venice.” Both say they have developed a special bond with the city.
“Venice is now my adoptive home,” says Ms Martinez. “I will definitely come back every year.”
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