Santa Maria dei Miracoli

Squeezing in a bit more to our short stay in Venice, we went on a walking tour today before we left. Unfortunately it was raining pretty heavily, but with the high tide (more on that later) it kinda felt like the city was being drowned.

There was interesting history on the tour, but what I kept noticing was the water level. It's just insane how close this place is to being underwater. You can see it clearly in the last 3 photos - the water's about 5cm below the street/plaza level. At one point our group was standing on a "sidewalk" like (#6) while a boat went past and the wake wave continued onto the stone to soak the shoes of about half the group.
We learned that in very high tides (acqua alta) they place mini-tables on the streets to walk above the water. A flood covers 15% of Venice about 4 times per year!

It was also interesting to see how boats are used exactly like cars here, to the point of little traffic jams and minor altercations about people's driving abilities.Read more