Acqua Alta

Now we know why we were seeing lots of those funny looking plastic boots.  We spent the morning exploring the Doge’s palace and prison, and, when we came out we saw this!

 

"Lago San Marco"

When we were out Monday, we had seen what looked like risers at the entrance to St. Mark’s square.  Now they were in use – as raised walkways.  Imagine all the people who were using a 20-foot wide walkway trying to crowd onto a path barely wide enough for two people to pass, and you’ll have an idea of the situation.  And, of course, it is made harder when folks stop to take a selfie or a picture.

We only crossed the first raised walkway.  The west side was a bit higher, and Scott figured out that if you watched the waves you could time it to get past the low point on the ebb.  We got past the worst of it and headed home for lunch.  When we got to the Rialto Bridge stop we saw one canal-side restaurant where the tables were sitting in about a foot of water… table cloths still in place, but in danger of getting the ends wet!

 At the Rialto Market, the ramps were up, and we could see that the little plaza was covered in water.  Every large boat going by on the canal would send a wake wave across the plaza… much to the delight of the plastic encased tourists.

  

I had read something in the guidebooks about the acqua alta (high water)… but they had said it normally happens in Nov – Mar.  We should have packed our hip boots!  This was a big, early winter storm that put snow into much of Europe, so I guess we can’t complain about the heavy rain.

It just gives us a bit more of a challenge for getting around.  We just need to check the tide table before venturing out.  After coming home for lunch and a siesta.  We went back out and visited the Museo Correr (Napoleon’s former palace on St Mark’s Square) and the Museum of Anthropology.

Today we discovered that the #3 vaporetto we were trying to catch to go to Murano on Tuesday must have been suspended.  The problem was that on Tuesday we were at the train station stop standing on the landing and no info was available.  Today we went to the starting point for the route and the status board said #3 suspended due to high water.  As I type this, the sun is peaking though the clouds for the first time in three days.  We’re off to explore more since the tide is going out and the sun is coming out.