bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Venice was hit by the highest tide in more than 50 years late Tuesday, with tourists wading through flooded streets to seek shelter as a fierce wind whipped up waves in St Mark’s Square.
The exceptionally intense “acqua alta”, or high waters, peaked at 1.87 metres (six feet) as the flood alarm sounded across the Italian city of canals, the tide monitoring centre said.
“We’re currently facing an exceptionally high tide. Everyone has been mobilised to cope with the emergency,” Venice’s mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted.
Only once since records began in 1923 has the water crept even higher, reaching 1.94 metres in 1966.


Tables and chairs set out for aperitifs bobbed along alleyways in the dark, as locals and tourists alike waved aloft inside-out umbrellas, the water slopping over the top of even the highest waders and wellies.
In Italy’s Venice, gondoliers are donning wetsuits to clean up the canals
Water taxis attempting to drop people off at the glamorous and historic hotels along the Grand Canal discovered the gangways had been washed away, and had to help passengers clamber through windows.
“It will be a long night,” Brugnaro tweeted, saying that as the water level began to drop again “the fears of a few hours ago are now being replaced by an assessment of the damage done”.
The exceptional flood was “a wound that will leave a permanent mark”, he said.

A couple of French tourists caught out said they had “effectively swum” after some of the wooden platforms placed around the city in areas prone to flooding overturned.
Antique pieces of furniture could be seen submerged in low-lying hotels and homes.
Since 2003, a massive infrastructure project has been underway to protect the city, but it has been plagued by cost overruns, scandals and delays.
The plan calls for the construction of 78 floating gates to protect Venice’s lagoon during high tides.
St. Mark’s Square is particularly affected by the high tides, as it is located in one of the lowest parts of the city.
The vestibule of the basilica was inundated with water, and authorities planned to watch the building overnight.

Pierpaolo Campostrini, a member of St. Mark’s council, said the scale of the flooding on Tuesday had only been seen five times in the long history of the basilica, where construction began in 828 and which was rebuilt after a fire in 1063.
Most worryingly, Campostrini said, three of those five episodes occurred in the last 20 years, most recently in 2018.
Venice was not alone: powerful rainstorms swept through Italy on Tuesday, hitting the south hard as well.
The heavy rainfall closed schools in several southern cities including Taranto, Brindisi, and Matera, as well as the Sicilian cities of Pozzallo and Noto, according to the national weather service.
In Matera, this year’s European Capital of Culture, a tornado caused trees and lamp posts to fall, damaging numerous roofs and buildings. No injuries were reported.


Italian voters reject judicial reform in setback for Meloni

Hong Kong’s Art March celebrations press on amid Middle East conflict disruptions

Style Edit: Valentino returns to Rome with Alessandro Michele’s fall/winter 2026 collection

Indonesia’s new aircraft carrier is more vanity project than war machine

Italy

Venice under water as 50-year ‘exceptional’ tide sweeps through Italy’s floating city

The flooded Piazza San Marco square, with the Bell Tower and San Marco Basilica on November 12. Photo: AFP

Catwalks floating on a canal during a night of exceptional high water in Venice, Italy November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri

A flooded shop during a night of exceptional high water in Venice, Italy November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri

A water taxi transported by the water into a street during a night of record high water in Venice, Italy November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri

A man walks across the flooded Piazza San Marco square during an exceptional "Alta Acqua" high tide water level on November 12, 2019 in Venice. - Powerful rainstorms hit Italy on November 12, with the worst affected areas in the south and Venice, where there was widespread flooding. Within a cyclone that threatens the country, exceptional high water were rising in Venice, with the sirocco winds blowing northwards from the Adriatic sea against the lagoon’s outlets and preventing the water from flowing back into the sea. At 22:40pm the tide reached 183 cm, the second measure in history after the 198 cm of the 1966 flood. (Photo by Marco Bertorello / AFP)

News

World

Europe


Water taxis attempting to drop people off at the glamorous and historic hotels along the Grand Canal discovered the gangways had been washed away, and had to help passengers clamber through windows

