Canal plus Depopulated Venice reels in the digital workforce

On most mornings, Mylène Ebrard hops on a waterbus from her home in Giudecca, a neighbourhood of Venice with a village-like feel, and across the canal to her favourite bar, where over a hot chocolate she works from her mobile phone.

- Angela Giuffrida

The ritual has become sacred to the rhythm of her day in Venice, where the French communications specialist has lived since October as part of a project aimed at attracting remote workers to help repopulate the lagoon city.

"I was just working on social media for one of my clients. They don't see the difference if I'm here or in Paris," said Ebrard, 38. "I love this bar during the day as you get the sun on the terrace. It's impossible to say it's ugly in Venice, even when it's raining."

In a trend that is showing little sign of abating, the population on Venice's main island dipped below 50,000 for the first time last summer. Myriad issues have driven more than 120,000 away since the 1950s, although the overriding reason has been the city's heavy focus on mass tourism, with crowds of visitors on its squares, bridges and narrow walkways.

Keen to help reverse the decline, a team at Venice's Ca' Foscari University and the Fondazione di Venezia, a cultural heritage group, created Venywhere, a project aimed at enticing those who can work from anywhere to move to the city.