While the Crimean referendum tops world media headlines, an attempt at secession is going on in Veneto, Italy, with its major city Venice. But as it is being virtually ignored by media, people in Europe are hardly aware of what's happening next door.

"Do you mean the independence of Crimea?" says a Berlin resident when RT's Irina Galushko asks him of what he thinks of the current referendum in Veneto, Italy, where people are voting on whether to break away from Rome.

"No, I haven't heard of it" was the most common answer Galushko received.

The online referendum in the northern Italian province was launched on Sunday, the same day the majority of people in Crimea voted yes to seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia. But unlike the Crimean referendum, the Veneto one has not quite found itself in the media spotlight.

Nevertheless, about 3.8 million eligible Veneto resident voters will now be able, until Friday, to say if they would like to see the region an independent, sovereign and federative Republic of Veneto.

Veneto is one of the biggest and wealthiest provinces in Italy with a population of more than 5 million people. One of the main reasons for the vote is that the region is tired of the backbreaking burden of taxes imposed by Rome.

READ MORE: Crimea? No, Venice! Independence referendum in EU goes almost unnoticed

Voting has begun in Venice and the surrounding region on whether to break away from Italy. Recent opinion polls suggest that two-thirds of the four million electorate favour splitting from Rome, but the vote will not be legally binding. The poll was organised by local activists and parties, who want a future state called Republic of Veneto.

This would be reminiscent of the sovereign Venetian republic that existed for more than 1,000 years. A focal point for culture, architecture and trade, Venice lost its independence to Napoleon in 1797. Online voting is due to continue until Friday. The vote received very little coverage in Italy's national media but the organisers said they expected as many as two million people to take part.

The BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome says the vote reflects a growing separatist mood in parts of Europe, such as Spain's Catalonia region and Scotland, which votes on whether to become independent in September.

Moves towards independence often evoke more sympathy in wealthy northern Italy, where many resent what they see as the poorer south's waste and corruption. Luca Zaia, governor of Veneto, the Venice region, rejected suggestions that the Italian constitution would prevent secession. International law, he told Il Quotidiano, allowed "the right to self-determination".

Venice votes in referendum on splitting from Rome