I consider myself pretty lucky to have visited Venice, Italy on many, many occasions. During my years of living in Germany, and before then, I was a frequent visitor to the city, as a good friend of mine lives and works in Venice as an art restorer. To those who are looking for a place to visit to simply wile away the time in thought and on foot, Venice is the perfect place to do so. Sure, Venice is a tourist trap and in some ways seems like a glorified Disneyland, but there is a side to the city that can be seen if you have the right connections there to show it to you.
Venice is also a rather warm city, especially when compared to the rest of Europe on the other side of the Alps, although snow storms are known to come along every now and then. And for those who have visited Venice in the summer months of June to August, the city can be extremely hot! But Venice has an other important feature in the life of the city: floods.
Floods are a big part of Venice’s history and some huge floods have literally left their mark on the city’s walls. This past week has been no exception with the worst floods since 1872 hitting the city in lightening fashion, leaving no time for city officials to erect elevated walkways for residents and tourists to traverse the cities many narrow streets. Only once when I’ve been to Venice, in October of 1999, did I experience “Acqua Alta“, the term for Venice’s annual floods. As you are walking through Venice’s narrow streets and ally ways, the water begins to rush in, and city shops and dwellers respond immediately by putting up walls and barricades to protect their shops, hotels and apartments, and simply waiting out the floods until they recede.
Some people on occasions such as this become rather creative in their ways of dealing with the flood. The man in the video below decided to surf the water in St. Mark’s Square, the heart of Venice. Floods in this part of the city tend to be higher than areas closer to the train station, allowing him the water he needs to pull this off. Of course, as the waters continued to climb, making it the worst flood since 1872, he probably could have scuba dived in St. Mark’s.
Update:
Well, it turns out that I shouldn’t believe everything I read. While the floods in Venice were truly big and unusual, turns out that the 1966 floods are still the worst on record and not as the title of this article would suggest. This was confirmed by my good friend who lives in Venice and who nicely hinted that I shouldn’t believe everything I read…
Related links:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/venice_under_water.html
Recent Comments