[Idyllchat] For those interested in the city of Venice

[Jay Cloidt]

My last visit to Venice was the middle of March. We had hit a heat wave
during the first part of our trip and we had mid-70's in Cinque Terre, Pisa,
and Florence. When we got to Venice, it was cooler and foggy. Temps in the
50's but not terrible. But that said, weather in March is hit or miss. It
could just as easily been winter conditions.

The tourist experience was good though. Yes, there were lines at all the
major sights in Venice and Florence, but they weren't huge. There streets
were not packed with people. As a matter of fact, my wife got up at 6 am and
took pictures of an empty Piazza San Marco in the fog. It was very cool.

   - Jay

On 7/12/07, Samovar9 at aol.com <Samovar9 at aol.com> wrote:
>
>  Patricia,
>
> Thanks for that interesting, but ultimately sad, information.  I was
> assigned to the American Consulate in Venice (no longer extant) in the 1960s
> and loved that city.  I've visited it many times since and each time had a
> new disappointment.  Floods are one negative aspect but it can actually be
> fun to walk on the wooden planks and wade through deeper water with boots.
> But my last two week visit (3 years ago) in September was so packed with
> tourists that it was literally difficult to walk.  Piazza San Marco was
> always crowded, actually not bad because it had aspects of a large party.
> But, we tried for two weeks to enter the cathedral but there was always a
> long line, beginning early in the morning until closing time.  The same was
> true for all of the main tourist sights.  Because I know Venice well, I (and
> my friend) spent most of my time in places off the tourist track.  I've been
> told that the best time to avoid the crowds is February.  It also happens to
> be the time in which the city is cold and bleak, with cold winds howling
> down from the Hungarian plain.  Still, I might try that for my next visit.
>
> Paul
>
> In a message dated 7/12/2007 12:10:45 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> jpedie at ca.rr.com writes:
>
> This post isn't about travel specifically, so if you are not interested in
>
> the situation of "sinking Venice" you might want to delete this post.
>
> I thought it might of interest to those who know and love Venice or are
> planning a future trip there, such as we are.  Last evening my husband and
> I
> went to an MIT alumni event where a visiting professor, Dr. Rafael Bras,
> spoke about the Moses project in Venice.  He is the head of the oversight
> technical board for this project to install mobile gates in the three
> oceanside entrances into the lagoon.
>
> He had fascinating slides of the lagoon and explained the forces of nature
>
> at play in the annual floods that occur in Venice during the typical
> "flood
> months" of October thru March.  During these months a meteorological
> situation exists that causes long waves to come into the lagoon and raise
> the water level.  Now, I am not a scientific person...just married to
> one...but was of interest to me was that I always thought the main problem
>
> was that Venice was sinking.  While there is a slight compression of the
> clay bedrock, that is not the main cause of annual flooding.  What causes
> the large floods (like in 1966)  is sea level rise.  (This is affected by
> global warming).  This project is installing mobile gates that will be
> activated if there is a threat of a flood greater that 1.10 meters.  For
> smaller floods, they are counting on the passive techniques being put into
>
> place...raising the pavements of Venice.  Here is an article (dated in
> 2002)
> that explains the technology of the gates if you are interested:
>
>
> http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00088E1F-D709-1D5B-90FB809EC5880000
>
> For me, as a visitor to Venice, I will be looking for evidence of the
> project and will understand what is happening if I find myself walking on
> the raised platforms, trying to keep my shoes dry!
>
> Some other comments Prof. Bras made were regarding the insistence on the
> part of the Italians that these installations not be "ugly" but be so
> minimal and hidden as to not be an eyesore to their "bella città."
>
> Patricia Edie
>
>
>
>
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