Venice in November?

Luck of the draw. I spent nearly a week there in early November 2007 and there was no high water. No rain either, so far as I remember, just grey skies.

We were there last November 9-13. It rained every day. There was considerable water in San Marco and you walked single file on the risers to get from place to place in the plaza. We were very sorry to never see the sun in Venice, but we had a marvelous time all the same. This year we are trying the last week of October.

We were in Italy over thanksgiving last year, spending 3 days in Venice (Dec 4,5,6). We had combination of rain, high tide/flooding, and beautiful sunshine, sometimes all in the same day. The flooding was not so much of a big deal, but it was interesting to get film footage of the water cresting over the sea wall in the Grand Canal. We only had to use the high rise boards a few times, but never when we were in San Marco. I loved Venice when it is cold. It adds more to the mystery of the town. And the lack of a huge crowd always makes me happy. I will take rainy cold weather with intermittent flooding any day over a warm crowded day in Venice.

This is what happened with Venice flooding in Dec 2008 (it was an unusual case): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5266829.ece Rick says Venice floods about 100 times a year, but it's not clear if he means 100 days/year or maybe on some days it floods 2 times. 100 of 365 days would be, uhm, 27% says my calculator - seems kinda high. Most people posting here haven't reported personally having big problems, even when it does flood. Although they say the price of high rubber boots in Venice skyrockets during floods.

You can use flickr.com to run an advanced search for photos taken in Venice during November of 2010 (or any time period for that matter), if you want to actually see what was going on. Plus there's the FAQ on this site that links you to a weather site that will show you the average weather for any location and any two-week date range, based on the last 10 years of data. That helps even out any fluke weather.

This is a prior discussion of Venice flooding: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/56605/venice-flooding.html

I was there in November. Weather was misty and cool. Just added to the mystery of Venice. As other posters have stated, if there is flooding, it is not all over. Novemeber is a great time to go, no crowds. If you are there around November 21st, you can experience the Festa Santa Maria della Salute. Not to be missed.