Acqua Alta in Venice- Our Travel Adventures

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Acqua Alta in Venice is when the tide is high enough to overflow from the canals and lagoon onto the city streets. Sometimes, the water can get very deep, and I was worried about the high tide and rain getting in the way of our adventure. However, when the streets filled with water, it didn’t stop us from exploring the city! (So the wonderful Italian woman who owned the hotel we stayed at says it doesn’t really count unless you need thigh high boots to get through the town but the platforms were out and the streets were full of water, so I’m calling it Acqua Alta anyway!)

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When we started the day, the boys didn’t mind the rain too much. If it tells you anything about how hard the rain was coming down, this picture was taken about 5 minutes after we left the hotel. We were waiting on the first Vaparetto (the city bus/boat system) to take us up the canal. The big plan for the day was to hit as many museums as possible to keep out of the rain.

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The day before, this was street. The normal canal line is where the wooden poles are. The water here was about a foot deep! This was the first stop we got off at, and the first experience with the Acqua Alta platforms.

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This was taken later in the day after the water level was starting to go down (we didn’t even attempt San Marco square at the peak of the high tide!). These are the platforms- they put them up all over the city in areas effected by the high tide. Not every high tide floods the city, only the exceptionally high tides in the winter months typically cause issues.

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About halfway though the day, the kids started to get uncomfortable. I was the only one with truly waterproof shoes (thank you LL Bean Duck Boots!!). Sadly, I hadn’t planned ahead for the poor kids, so their feet were sloshing all day. If we go back, I’ll have us all wear tall rain boots. Dry is so much more important that fashionable!

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The water didn’t stop us, and didn’t stop the tourists from piling in the gondolas either! I’m glad we were able to experience the city underwater. Mr. Man says that he loved the ice cream we ate every day, but he did NOT like “the flooded and getting soaked!”

 

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