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Venice in January 2020?

Posted by on

Hello!

I've booked a trip to Italy- Rome, Florence and Venice in January 2020 for my family of four. We end up in Venice for 5 days, January 20-25. With the recent news of the devastating flood in Venice, should we cancel our Venice leg? We are flying out of Venice back to the US on the 25th, but I suppose we could change that flight, as we are flying Venice-Heathrow-Los Angeles on our way back to the US. One thought is that we could change to Paris or another Italian city instead of Venice. Thoughts and suggestions are very much welcome! Thank you!

Posted by
1585 posts

Allison - How about the Amalfi Coast as an option in January for the last leg of your trip if you are concerned with the flood issue in Venice. You could fly out to head home from Naples's international airport instead of Venice. Sicily is another option too.

Posted by
17245 posts

Reports from people actually in Venice now (you can see them on the TripAdvisor Venice forum) indicate that things are already getting back to normal, although damage to the floor of San Marco Basilica may mean that it will be some time before it opens.

Flooding in Venice (acqua alta) a regular event in winter and they are used to dealing with it. The difference with this one was that the water reached higher levels than usual. But by January it should be all cleaned up. I would not cancel—-they need your business to recover from the financial hit they suffered.

If you do feel you should cancel and go elsewhere, be careful in choosing. Southern Italy was hit with high winds and flooding as well, and some areas may not be as quick to recover as Venice. I don’t know about Sicily, but the UNESCO heritage site of Matera was hard hit by flooding. We are going there in March and I have not been able to get through to our hotel to see if they are OK. (We are also going to Venice on that trip and I am not concerned about that.)

Posted by
893 posts

check the website www.skylinewebcams.com

Go to Italy, and Venice is in the Veneto region. Take in consideration the time change because if its dark, which it is in Venice right now you won't be able to tell. Check late tonight. Rome is in the Lazio region and things there look great right now. We have been to Venice 3 times and never seen aqua alta. A lot of the recent flooding came from Rain Storms which even caused flooding in the southeast part of the country in Matera. If it were me I wouldn't skip Venice, but there are no guarantees. It is truly one of a kind city. One thing you could do is to change to 2 or 3 days in Venice and then go on.

Whatever you decide, I hope you have a great trip!
Mimi

Posted by
533 posts

Are you worried about the lingering damage from last weekend's acqua alta, or more about future flooding that may cause more problems before (or during) your trip? If the former, there's little to worry about - the tourist infrastructure, from what I saw of it earlier this week, is back up and running. Restaurants and shops are open, sights are open, vaporetto lines are running pretty much as normal. There is some evidence of the extraordinary flooding from last week, but not much. It's not like visiting a disaster zone, as I feared it might be from some of the news reports. By January everything should be back even closer to normal.

If it's future flooding you're concerned about, that's much harder to predict. But you shouldn't let it scare you away from Venice if you want to see Venice. For peace of mind, consider getting a fully refundable hotel reservation, or staying in an area that's less prone to flooding. (We stayed in Mestre, on the mainland, which I don't regret at all but which may or may not be the best choice for you.)

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