Venice, St Mark's Square Flooding

The tide affects Venice like any other place located near the ocean.  That means the canals and surrounding water rise and fall with the tide.  It is a regular experience for the rising tide to flood St Mark's Square, and they are prepared for it.  They have portable walkways stacked around the square that they can used when needed.  In the women's fashion stores we even saw fashion photos of models in dressy clothes with fashionable rubber boots wading through the square!

Friday night after the Gondola ride and a rest at the hotel, we walked to St Mark's Square after dark to see it lighted and to hear the music played there.  When we arrived at the square around 9pm, we found it flooding on one side (the low side).  The water was rising through the drain pipes in the square that are there for the water runoff.  I can only speculate that the runoff drainage system actually drains into the underlying lagoon, so when the tide rises it rises through through the same pipes.  We could see that the square was sloped to drain into those drains, so the rising water was pooling first along the line of drains.

The next day we spoke with a couple in the group who attended a concert Friday evening near the square.  When they came out of the concert hall, they were trapped by the water and had to remove their shoes and roll up their pants to wade through the water to dry land! They laughed and thought it was a unique experience.

Below are some interesting photos I took of the reflections in the square with the water.

St Mark's Square Flooding