Italy: Piazza San Marco

July 2016

With dear friend CM and her family, I was spending the day in Venice. Their hotel was near San Marco, so we went for a walkabout after breakfast. When we hit the piazza, I was tasked (along with the governess) with watching over the kids while CM, her husband, and her mother explored. No worries - Piazza San Marco was already a "been there, done that" place for me and far too touristy. I was happy enough to watch the kids run around in the square which is large enough to swallow up the large crowds who visit.

What I noticed was the now "permanent" raised walkways for acqua alta (high tide) which were visible all over the square. Tourists unfortunate enough to visit during high water could still walk around with dry feet. For me it was clear, the situation was getting worse -and Venice had even made a huge flood barrier out on the lagoon edge (at a massive cost, taking years to complete).

I also remembered that the famous campanile (the spire) of the church had collapsed and was rebuilt. That collapse was supposedly caught on film, but when I read about it later I found that it was one of the first instances of technology used to represent something impossible. Yes, the tower fell, but there were no motion pictures advanced enough at that time to capture it. Said film depicting that moment was a fake before such things via the internet became commonplace. Myth busted.

Soon CM returned and we all walked down to the water's edge. We were about the take a private tour of the canals of Venice!