Historic And Devastating Flooding Of Venice!
The pictures are shocking: all of the city of Venice Italy is currently underwater – in some cases by several feet!
These pictures, being posted online by visitors and locals alike, show just how devastating the flooding as been – with no end in sight!
TheGuardian.com has a terrific and sobering story. As they report:
“We don’t know when we will reopen. Thank you, Mose!” reads the sign pinned to the door of Pasticceria Rizzardini, a small bakery and coffee shop in the San Polo area of Venice.
Established in 1742, the shop has survived many floods; a faded list of the highest records is etched by the door. But Monday night’s deluge, the worst since 1966, and the subsequent acqua alta, or high tide, on Wednesday and Thursday have severely damaged the premises. Another high tide, estimated at 1.45 metres, is forecast for Friday.
My wife Alex and I were in Venice a year ago, and we saw firsthand just how quickly the city floods: this is a photo in Piazza San Marco – St. Mark’s Square, as we walked through and had to dodge large puddles of water:
The water has no place to go, and it is only getting worse…as The Guardian reports:
Politicians blame the floods on climate change, but Marta Garlato, whose family have owned Rizzardini since the early 1980s, and other Venetians also point to human error. Many are enraged about the authorities’ failure to complete the €6bn (£5.1bn) Mose project – a series of floodgates designed in 1984 to protect the city from high tides but still not in operation.
“There’s a lot of damage and people are feeling very angry and also very worried,” Garlato said. “Things could have been done to limit situations like this – there have been potential solutions that were never even considered. Evidently, they don’t really think of us.”
Sadly, all efforts to date to solve the issue have been bogged down by scandal and ineptitude…
Here is the entire story, a sobering look a the impact of climate change, and our inability to anticipate or react to it:
As I said, when I was there last year there was evidence of water, but also images that prove just how magical the city is, like the “Bridge Of Sighs”:
I hope they can finish their project to protect the city before it’s too late..click here to see the other enemy to the city: mega ships!
They overwhelm the city with tourists – here’s the story:
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Categories: Books / Media, Exotic Travel, Italy, Memoirs, nature, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir
johnrieber 
And in an ironic twist, I read that the Venice government offices in Ferro Fini Palace were flooded same day that the councilors rejected 2020 budget plans to tackle the flooding…
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Yes, it would be funny if it wasn’t so shameful!
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This is so sad. I hope the flooding ends soon.
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I love Venice and have been there a few times luckily not when it is flooding. However, I do despair when I see Climate change beeing mooted as the cause when flooding has occurred since the 5th century. It seems politicians now have something to blame which many voters believe to be true… when the fact is their ineptitude to act could control the flooding. Tourists also need to be controlled…Australia has controls on many of their wildlife reserves and visitors are only allowed in certain months of the year…People don’t mind and plan around those times when will governments and tourist operations wake up. Great post, John..sorry for the little rant …Have a great weekend 🙂 x
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Carol, thanks as always for your note! I agree that tourism at the most popular sites has been out of control for awhile…and putting limits on the number of people who can overrun a location is one important way to solve the problems
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The images you share are beautiful and sad. We have 10 years to significantly change the way all of us human beings use fossil fuels. I think that includes far fewer — how about NONE for the next decade? — trips abroad. I appreciate blog posts from around the world which allow me to get a taste of a beautiful city or church or mountain or nature preserve without having to leave my living room (although my computer is certainly using electricity while I savor the sights and sounds on other people’s blog posts…) Thank you for helping raise awareness about the consequences of our human choices.
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Thank you for the note…I love to travel but “tourist pollution” is causing massive problems all over the world…and the environmental impact is indeed approaching catastrophic levels…wouldn’t it be great if there was an organization that could lead this discussion forward…
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We have plans to visit in February. I guess I should pack my rubber boots.
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We have plans to visit in February. I guess I should pack my rubber boots.
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Yes indeed…I have been here twice: in the fall and over New Years and both times there was moderate flooding, but it seems to be getting worse by the year…
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It’s sad and it’s shocking that something could have been done to prevent this flooding and damage. I fear I may never get to see Venice, now, though that’s nothing compared to how people who live there must feel.
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Yes, decades of hated time and money…thanks for commenting!
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It’s so sad. If they don’t address the corruption and climate change, Venice will eventually be uninhabitable.
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Most Venetians no longer live on the island…virtually NO services, it’s mainly for tourists now…that is sad as well…
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The Venice flooding has been featured heavily here on the BBC. It was over five feet deep at one stage.
Sadly, it appears that local corruption and mismanagement is to blame, not just a higher than average tide.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Pete, you are absolutely right. Yes it’s a high tide but they’ve known about those for decades and NOTHING has really been done to address it…everyone there knows there’s so much corruption that nothing gets fixed
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This is a great shame, John. I read about it earlier this week. I have never been to Venice and hope the opportunity will not be lost.
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Robbie, it’s a magical city but it’s being overrun by tourists and they have NO viable plan to shore up the city from water…when we were there last year locals just shook their head at the cost of the projects they have underway and the rampant corruption…I wonder if they start to limit cruise ships, which dump thousands and thousands of people on the islands until they can figure out a plan to solve the flooding…thanks again for commenting!
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I do know about the problem with the cruise ships, it also impacts other European countries. I suppose if it keeps flooding, it won’t be such a popular destination anymore.
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