Acqua Alta

Water.  In Venice it's everywhere . . .  The Venetians adopted this lagoon, and, if not conquered it, they certainly learned how to manage the water while embracing a distinctive way of life . . .

Water meanders through the city through a myriad canals . . .

And every day, Venice faces "Acqua Alta" - High Tide - when it comes, the city floods.  Venetians have long given up living on the lower level of their buildings . . .

Here's St. Mark Square - Piazza San Marco, during acqua alta, at roughly 11:00 A.M.  There are puddles everywhere, which will disappear slowly as the day wears on . . .

Risers are put in place, so pedestrians can access St. Mark's Cathedral.  The water actually gets so high that it seeps inside the church . . .  I've read that in the winter months it's even worse!

Ripples form as the water comes up from the drains . . .

Risers are piled everywhere, waiting for the next tide . . .

The water damage to these precious buildings is incalculable . . .  Engineers are feverishly working to build a dyke that is supposed to help keep the water at bay.  Global warming doesn't help, as the sea levels have risen . . .

It's remarkable, really, the culture that evolved despite these tremendous challenges . . . 

The acquamarine stuff didn't allow you to forget for even one moment that it was there, beautiful, powerful . . . and everywhere . . .

A Dream Realized

I went to Venice earlier this month.  A simple sentence that encompasses a world of happiness.  I talked about my wish to see Venice in this post way back in 2010, and all the longing, all the planning, all the years of reading about it and storing images on Pinterest, became a dream realized when my husband and I landed at Marco Polo Airport on Sunday, October 5.

And it didn't disappoint!  Reality doesn't often measure up to our fantasies.  This time, however, it was so much more than I could have ever imagined.  Let me show you the Venice I saw . . .

Here are our first images of Venice, as we traveled by vaporetto on the Grand Canal, on the way to our hotel.

Our first view of the Rialto Bridge, one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal, Venice's main waterway . . .

Venetian palaces crowded every inch of the Grand Canal . . . 

We stayed at the charming Hotel Flora, privately owned by the Romanelli Family.  I read about it first in the book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die” then on Rick Steves’ “Venice.”  The name kept cropping up in my research, so I think we were fated to stay here . . . 

Here's my husband, Lee, standing at the entrance of Calle dei Bergamaschi, the street - yes, street - in which Hotel Flora is located; that's the entrance at the rear of the street.  In Chicago, we'd call this an alley and wouldn't be caught dead in it after dark, but here, the narrow street was not at all unusual, and we felt very safe at all times.

And that window next to him?  It was pure eye candy, displaying a lovely Bulgari handbag.  Pricetag:  €2,100 - that's roughly $2,600, a mere pittance . . . 

 

Calle dei Bergamaschi opened up to Calle Larga XXII Marzo, one of the most important streets for high-fashion shopping, home to stores like Venice, Gucci, Ferragamo, Bulgari, Prada, Hermès . . . It's the Venetian Rodeo Drive . . .

Take a look at the old-fashioned keys at Hotel Flora - they weighed a ton, too!  No sterile, magnetized key cards for these folks!
 

The rooms are furnished with antiques - not reproductions - so each room is unique; the walls were covered in silk fabric . . . We were given Room #20, overlooking the courtyard.  It was lovely and quite comfortable; we had all the modern amenities, too, including Wi-Fi.

And when we looked up, we found this gorgeous Murano glass chandelier gracing the ceiling!

There was much to explore in the days to come, but first, I was going to follow the Romanelli's advice:  Enjoy and Relax!