Venice -- renowned for incomparable Gothic architecture and placid canals plied by gondolas that make it one of the most recognizable cities in the world -- may have had enough of Italy, as a vast majority of its citizens want to secede from the boot-shaped nation, the USA Today website reports exclusively today (April 19, 2014).
A movement for the Italian region that includes Venice to declare itself an independent state -- as it was centuries ago -- is gaining momentum amid chaotic national economic policies from Rome and local pride in the region's 1,000-year history of achievement in the arts and merchant class.
The region of Veneto -- one of Italy's richest and the country's fifth-largest with a population of around 5 million -- is preparing a formal referendum about whether to secede from Italy.
An informal online vote last month saw 89 percent vote in favor of breaking away. And last week, police arrested two dozen Veneto separatists on charges of terrorism for planning to take over Venice's iconic St. Mark's Square with a makeshift tank fashioned out of a tractor.
Venetians say they support the secession movement partially out of frustration at seeing their taxes used to support the underdeveloped southern part of Italy. Campaigners say they pay out nearly $30 billion a year more in taxes than they receive in government benefits. Moreover, Venetians are frustrated at the corruption pervading other parts of the country, as well as the significant influence of organized crime in southern Italy.
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