"For its 45th session, the World Heritage Committee meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has decided not to place the site 'Venice and its lagoon' on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger". This was made official yesterday by Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano. "The teamwork carried out in recent months by the Ministry of Culture together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Veneto Region, the City of Venice and the institutions that locally make up the site's Steering Committee, has stopped an undue maneuvering that is purely political and lacks anchoring on objective data," he added, confirming that therefore "Venice is not in danger". In recent months, the City Council had taken bold steps to manage tourism and ensure the protection of the city's extraordinary cultural heritage. The Committee positively assessed the impact of the measures taken to protect the city's heritage from high water, as seen in the MOSE system and in the barriers at St. Mark's Basilica, and to manage tourist influxes. In particular, the importance of the recent approval on September 12 of the regulation for the establishment and supervision of the access fee to the city of Venice was recognized. "The UNESCO body noted that the site faces major challenges related to the complexity of its ecosystem," Sangiuliano clarified, "That's why it asked Italy to continue with determination in its action to protect the site and encouraged it to invite UNESCO and its technical bodies to carry out a fact-finding mission to Venice, which may be useful to get an updated picture of the site's state of conservation and the strategy implemented by the national and local government to ensure its best protection".