For years, food-stealing seagulls have wreaked havoc on Venetian hotels.
Now the hotels are fighting back and have begun arming the city’s locals and tourists with squirt guns to fend off the pizza-snatching birds, according to a report.
The gulls are famous for flocking to St. Mark’s Square and flooding the balconies of hotels looking for a bite to eat, the report notes.
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For the Gritti Palace, a five-star hotel initially built in the 14th century, the presence of persistent seagulls has gone too far. Thus, they have armed their guests with squirt guns to fight back.
The birds appear to recognize the threat of the squirt guns, hotel officials said. “As they see them, they run away,” Gritti Palace Director Paolo Lorenzoni said. “You don’t even need to use them — you just need to keep them on the table.”
The Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal has also used squirt guns to fight off the seagulls.
“We decided to act after a customer lifted a croissant to his mouth and a lurking seagull dived and snatched it from his hand,” the hotel’s manager, Enrico Mazzocco, said.
Another bird stole “an entire steak” from a diner at the four-star hotel, Mazzocco added.
Other methods used to discourage seagulls include the use of fake owls and falconers, according to the report.
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The Venetian hospitality industry brings in roughly 20 million visitors a year, the report notes.
