Venice Flooded

Venice is one of my favourite cities in Italy, and I can actually say it is certainly one of the most amazing places I have visited in the world. Just wandering around and getting lost in its maze of streets was the best part of all, but something that I noticed a lot of when we were first there were these stacks of wooden platforms all over the place. I couldn’t work out what they were all for, and there were a lot of them, particularly around the San Marco area.

It wasn’t until our second day in Venice that I found out what their purpose was. We had spent the morning exploring St Mark’s Square and visiting the Doge’s Palace, and when we walked out of the palace, we were amazed to find that the square was actually flooding!

When there are high tides in Venice, the wooden platforms are laid down in the flooded areas to create a raised walkway, so that people don’t have to walk through the water. It was an incredible sight and something that we just didn’t expect to see.

As we wandered around the streets of Venice for the next few days, the low-lying areas flooded at high tide. This was actually not a bad flood compared to others that the city has experienced in recent years, and many sources claim that the floods are getting worse. Here are some of the photos that I took of Venice flooded:

The square outside the Doge’s Palace

Looking towards St Mark’s Square and Basilica

People line up on a platform to get into St Mark’s Basilica

A flooded canal

Fish enjoying the high tide in a canal

People watch as the water laps up over the edge of the Grand Canal

Flooding at the Rialto Bridge

A restaurant right on the Grand Canal with views of the Rialto Bridge is completely empty

Gondolas lie waiting at the foreshore at St Mark’s