Around 50 protesters dressed in wetsuits, backed by 1,000 supporters, managed to hold up the cruise ships by over an hour as they paddled in the canal – some armed with inflatable rings.
The protest was timed to coincide with a busy day on the canal, as a scheduling quirk meant 12 cruise ships were due to head past St Mark's Square – well above the daily average of two ships.
"The demonstration was a great success and we now hope the government will take advantage of this momentum and kick the cruise ships out of the Venice lagoon," said Silvio Testa, a spokesman for the protesters.
Cruise ship operators claim the ships create little damage to Venice's fragile palazzi and no pollution, while local fears over safety have been spurred by the grounding of the Costa Concordia cruise ship on the island of Giglio last year and the more recent ramming of an observation tower at the port of Genoa by a cargo ship, killing seven.
Defenders of the ships say 5,000 local families are supported by the jobs guaranteed by the traffic, while protesters counter that the city's character is being crushed by the daily wave of tourists who disembark, buy a souvenir and then leave. On Saturday an estimated 35,000 cruise ship tourists arrived, equal to over half the city's population.
Testa said that of the 12 ships seen on Saturday, nine were above 40,000 tonnes, the maximum limit set on ships passing through Venice by a government decree passed last year.
The decree, however, allows the ban to come into effect only when alternative routes to the port of Venice have been found, possibly along newly dredged channels across the Venice lagoon – a solution that would take years to implement.
But on Saturday, politicians appeared ready to put a halt to the ships before then.
Andrea Orlando, the environment minister, said he would propose next month the gradual switching of ships to Marghera, a mainland port in the lagoon, even before an alternative route was decided on.
"The time for decisions has arrived, the big ships must go as soon as possible," said Giorgio Orsoni, mayor of Venice.
By Tom Kington, The Telegraph
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