Mipim is the most important real estate fair in Europe: if you wish to present a project, test a business idea, sell or buy real estate joining in can definitely help. The municipality of Venice together with some private professionals has been investing in Mipim for some years now to present important undertakings - strategic is the keyword - that have been or will be developed in town. More interesting than the selection of projects presented by the administration - all strategic and all still to be realized - has been the presentation of initiatives already finished or almost completed. According to the Venice citizens’ imaginary once you have passed the Tronchetto bridge you’ll find a "no-man’s land", a few provisional structures and a really off-site parking lot almost less accessible than a parking space in Mestre. But the reality is different and in transformation. The Tronchetto area’s development, frozen for years, is now almost completed. The big building, stretching on the island from east to west will host several public and private service offices, logistics and commercial activities, over thousands of squared meters. And It is basically finished. The development of Venice is often confused with authoritative rants, crowded press conferences. Tronchetto’s development, without too much emphasis, really changes the situation and suggests two more considerations.

First. Set aside the possibility of connection with the sub-lagoon area, the development of the Arsenale remains only a generous urbanistic planning exercise. The city development in this way moves over those areas that are already easily accessible today, not in the far-away and uncertain future: Tronchetto island, the nautical station, the unused Italgas areas in Santa Marta. The opposite choice from a fast connection Tessera-Arsenale makes possible just those investments that ensure a fast link to the rest of the world, that means transportation on wheels. Everything else is for the taxpayers money, to the future and unpredictable contributions of the umpteenth appropriation bill.

Second. Mipim confirms that foreign operators are those more willing to invest in Venice, some of them because they fall in love with it and some others, more cinically, that foresee the financial opportunities that seems to have become almost invisible to the locals blinded by so many years of public administration’s economy. Nevertheless It’s not the "Bill Gates" that show interest for the lagoon, but medium-size investors, not only driven by the prestige that an investment in Venice supplies, but also and especially by the economic paybacks for the money invested: no charitable actions, no tycoon interested in leaving a generous donation to help wrecked budgets, but operators with whom the public administration needs to learn to deal with, trying to change slogans into real projects.