Heard on the news that Venice was flooded and now you are concerned of the city’s situation and wonder if it worth visiting it? Let us tell you something. Venice is on sea side. Actually it’s in the sea. Not like Atlantis, but almost. Venice floats. “Acqua alta”, the flooding of Venice. Media love to scream it every year first time that high tides flood the city. Venetians do to cope with the high waters since ever, – even though climate change is making things worse. And you can still enjoy the city during acqua alta.
What is acqua alta
When the tide rises, some parts of Venice get flooded. Higher is the tide, more surface of Venice gets flooded. So, when the tide grows much due to weather condition, south-east winds and “sessa” (natural returning waves of the Adriatic Sea), we get the phenomena called “Acqua Alta” (high water).
It’s a pain for most of residents who live on low ground floor, work in a ground floor shop or have a little storage because it means your place can get flooded. That’s what media usually show and scream.
what media forget to say
It’s a tide: as everywhere on the planet, the tide usually raises for few hours (3 to 6 hours) and goes down taking more or less the same time. So in half a day at worst Venice is walkable again. And all of us residents are busy mopping floors.
St. Mark’s Square is often flooded: a bit, but it happens often. Why? I suppose all the monumental buildings are heavy and soaked the pavement more than other areas. So there the tide start giving problems when it’s 85 cm.
Water-pumps & “tubs”: if renovated recently, most of apartments and shops have installed system of self protection from floodings. Mostly, door water barriers, water pumps and the reinforced concrete tub under the floor and side walls to prevent the water filters in. Otherwise, they are lifted and the floors are one or two steps higher than the street level.
Walkways & wellies: even during the peak hours of a tide, around town there are walkways where you can walk on. Otherwise a pair of wellies can keep your feet dry.
It happens for decades: it’s not a big deal. We live here no matter what. True is that the global warming made this phenomena happening more often and worse. Another good reason to be concerned about environment.
Measurements. We measure the water on the sea level, not starting from the pavement. So if it forecasted 105cm, do not expect a meter of water in the street. For example, St. Mark’s sq goes under at 85cm, therefore you can expect 20cm of water on the pavement (105 cm – 85 cm = 20 cm).
Sound alarm. Few hours before the peak you can hear a loud city sound alarm. More high pitched is, higher is the forecast.
Mose. It took 13 years to realise this massive project costed 7 billions of euro. It’s a system of sinked waterbarriers where lagoon is joined with the open sea that come to float when the tide is expected over 120cm. It has been set in place the first time on Oct.3rd, 2020. Almost a year too late for saving us from the 2nd highest flooding in the history (November 12th, 2019 – 187 cm).
Lastly, among residents it’s a topic for chit chat (“Got issues with the high tide last time?” Is the new local “What do you do at NYE?”) and for tourists it’s more something to have a laugh at then a reason to worry for.