Venice is sinking!

We were shocked to see so much of the city under water. When Alicia and I were there in the summer of 2001, we were told that Venice is sinking up to a few inches every year (I don't remember the exact amount). Well! When Brian and I got there, we were surprised to see so much of the city under water! Apparently during the winter months the sea rises quite a bit now, and much of the "edges" of the city get immersed at high tide. We took lots of fun shots because we were so amazed at it all.

Here's the main square at St. Marks. It's the one with the big church tower, on all the postcards of Venice. It was about a foot under water all the way across. They had some raised walkways for transport across the square... all the people you see in this picture are on the walkways. Unfortunately for us, those walkways were so crowded, there was no way we could get Sam's stroller on there, so we took the "back roads" and never really went into/across the square.

For the more adventurous (I've spelled it wrong, haven't I? my London life has killed my spelling), there is the plastic bag wader boot option. They were selling these plastic bags with little rubber bands and plastic bottoms, so people could wade around in the water. Brian scored a pair from a trash can (ha!) and went back for a peek at the square while Samantha slept and I shopped for blown glass necklaces! He came back with a soggy shoe, and a good idea of why they were left in the trash in the first place.

Some more flooding houses... no lunch on the patio today!

Here's one of a jewelry shop with half a foot of water throughout the store. Is that even safe? People were wading in with their wellington boots or their bag-waders, and vendors were still turning a profit!

Doesn't it look like we're at the beach, sort of?

This is my favorite... the water-logged tomato washed ashore. I thought it was quite an artistic shot, no? Well, this was the best of the five shots I took of little Mr. Tomato.

Who knows if Venice will be completely submerged in 20 years? See it while it lasts, folks!