Venice
Today was our day to really tour Venice. We left the ship in the morning by vaporetto (water bus) and travelled down the Canale della Giudecca to St. Mark’s Square (the Piazza San Marco), the central point of the city. We could immediately see that Venice is a city built on islands in the center of a lagoon which had provided a refuge for the early Venetians from the marauders led by Alaric theVisigoth in about 402 AD. We walked along the fondamenta in front of the square and visited the Doges’ Palace, including a walk across the Bridge of Sighs (named by Lord Byron) which leads to the prison where political prisoners of the Doge and convicted of espionage against the Empire languished serving life sentences. We walked along the Canal Grande near the Rialto Bridge, one of over 400 in the city. We viewed the works of Titian, Tintoretto and Bellini at the Gallerie dell’Accademia (the Academy of Fine Art). Today the city preserves some of the greatest treasures of Renaissance art in the world, much of it created by Venetians during the height of the empire in the the 15th and 16th centuries. We walked the narrow streets and, in the afternoon, we visited the magnificent Basilica of St. Mark, returning to the ship in the evening to set sail for the Dalmation coast of the Adriatic.
The streets, the ground floors of buildings and St. Mark’s Square are built approximately 70 cm. above the tidal datum established in 1897. This datum has sunk 23 cm. since it was established due to sinking of the land caused by pumping of ground water between 1925 and 1973, and rising sea level due to global warming. Earlier evidence indicates that sea level rose about 21.7 cm. per century until the 20th century during which it rose 25.7 cm. The greatest flood ( l’acqua grande) occurred on November 3-4, 1966 when the water, pushed by a high spring tide enhanced by a sirocco (a southeast wind) blowing up from Africa, rose to 194 cm. above the datum. The entire electrical system of the city was shut down for a week and there was widespread damage to art treasures, but no loss of life. Venetians are therefore keenly aware of the water level, particularly l’acqua alta. I was interested to see, at the Rialto vaporetto station, a tide guage which publically displayed the tidal record in real-time, together with the astronomical tides and lunar phases predicted for the coming month. In most cities in the world we concern ourselves with the temperature and the precipitation. In Venice everyone watches the tide.
Today was our day to really tour Venice. We left the ship in the morning by vaporetto (water bus) and travelled down the Canale della Giudecca to St. Mark’s Square (the Piazza San Marco), the central point of the city. We could immediately see that Venice is a city built on islands in the center of a lagoon which had provided a refuge for the early Venetians from the marauders led by Alaric theVisigoth in about 402 AD. We walked along the fondamenta in front of the square and visited the Doges’ Palace, including a walk across the Bridge of Sighs (named by Lord Byron) which leads to the prison where political prisoners of the Doge and convicted of espionage against the Empire languished serving life sentences. We walked along the Canal Grande near the Rialto Bridge, one of over 400 in the city. We viewed the works of Titian, Tintoretto and Bellini at the Gallerie dell’Accademia (the Academy of Fine Art). Today the city preserves some of the greatest treasures of Renaissance art in the world, much of it created by Venetians during the height of the empire in the the 15th and 16th centuries. We walked the narrow streets and, in the afternoon, we visited the magnificent Basilica of St. Mark, returning to the ship in the evening to set sail for the Dalmation coast of the Adriatic.
The streets, the ground floors of buildings and St. Mark’s Square are built approximately 70 cm. above the tidal datum established in 1897. This datum has sunk 23 cm. since it was established due to sinking of the land caused by pumping of ground water between 1925 and 1973, and rising sea level due to global warming. Earlier evidence indicates that sea level rose about 21.7 cm. per century until the 20th century during which it rose 25.7 cm. The greatest flood ( l’acqua grande) occurred on November 3-4, 1966 when the water, pushed by a high spring tide enhanced by a sirocco (a southeast wind) blowing up from Africa, rose to 194 cm. above the datum. The entire electrical system of the city was shut down for a week and there was widespread damage to art treasures, but no loss of life. Venetians are therefore keenly aware of the water level, particularly l’acqua alta. I was interested to see, at the Rialto vaporetto station, a tide guage which publically displayed the tidal record in real-time, together with the astronomical tides and lunar phases predicted for the coming month. In most cities in the world we concern ourselves with the temperature and the precipitation. In Venice everyone watches the tide.
