Venice avoids being added to UNESCO list of endangered sites

FILE PHOTO: View of Saint Mark's Basin in Venice, Italy, January 31, 2021. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri/File Photo

ROME (Reuters) - A UNESCO committee has decided not to add Venice to the organisation's World Heritage List in Danger, disregarding a recommendation from experts and sparing the Italian government from an embarrassing verdict on the city's condition.

"The World Heritage Committee ... has made the decision not to inscribe Venice and its Lagoon on the World Heritage List in Danger," UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, said in a statement as the committee met in Riyadh.