MUMBAI: Environmentalists have urged yesteryear actress Sophia Loren to help stop a big cruise ship named in her honour from entering the Venice lagoon because of potential damage to the city and the lagoon‘s delicate ecosystem.
 
The MSC Divina (Divine), which the actress christened last month in France, is a 139,500-tonne ship that can carry 3,500 passengers and a crew of 1,000.
 
"We can‘t believe that you want your name, which is a legend in Italy and the world, to be associated with a ship that contributes to the destruction of Venice, part of humanity‘s heritage," said an open letter from the group, called the No Big Ships Venice Committee.
 
"We are asking you to give up your role as godmother of the ship. Venice and the world would see that as a divine gesture. Venice belongs to the world. Help us save it," the group said in the letter to Loren.
 
Since the wreck of the Costa Concordia last January, environmentalists have stepped up their efforts to have large cruise ships banned from the lagoon which surrounds the historic centre of the canal city.