What is Venice like when its floods (acqua alte)? Does staying in Venice then a headache?

There have been close to catastrophic floods in Venice but they are extremely rare. When an acqua alta is coming there is advance warning and wooden platforms are deployed where flooding is likely - the lowest parts of the city, including San Marco. Utilities aren't affected. Most, if not all, hotels provide boots and umbrellas (flooding comes with rain) for guests. A major flood barrier was built to protect the city from the worst flooding. It began working after the clip you cited. So far, so good. It has reduced considerably the flooding of the city.

I arrived (with luggage) in Venice several years ago by train. As we approached the station, the conductor announced that an acqua alta was in progress. I managed to get onto a vaporetto and get to the campo some 200 meters from my B&B. At that point I couldn't continue because of large water puddles (I could easily have managed if I didn't have the wheeled suitcase). I went into a cafe and had a soft drink and chatted with other patrons. In less than an hour the water receded and I had no trouble getting to my room. There was another acqua alta during my short stay, I heard the sirens around 11 pm. In the morning there were just a few small puddles left. Acqua alta happens as a combination of high tide, wind and rain. The water comes in as the tide rises and goes back out with the tide. Life goes on pretty much as normal. The minor inconvenience I went through was far outweighed by the experience itself.

If I had the chance to spend a month in Venice, nothing would keep me from going.

I've been there in a minor one, water coming up from the drains in Piazza San Marco and little kids thought it was the world's biggest Slip-N-Slide. The other time was pretty significant and I thought it was a sight to behold.

It started with signs put up in the hotel, that because of "high water", breakfast would be served beginning at 5:30 am. At 5:00 a siren, seemingly outside the hotel window, went off. With that wake up call, we got up, got dressed and went down to breakfast at 6 am. Breakfast was good, but then just as we were finishing, someone stood up and said loudly, "Hey, there's water on the floor!" The staff rushed in and told everyone to grab their coffee cups and rolls and exit to a higher spot in the hotel. They then cleared all the tables and stacked the chairs on top of the tables. They removed the wooden doors on the bathrooms and set them on the toilets.

Outside, the wooden walkways were already set up on the street leading to the train station and a parade of people was maneuvering single file in each direction with their luggage. The wooden souvenir kiosk outside was closed up and jacked up on stilts. Many people were walking through water with knee-high rubber boots, and the street vendors who were selling umbrellas yesterday had miraculously turned to selling plastic over-boots. By 10 am, the water went down, the side walks were put away, and things were back to normal. The hotel staff scrubbed the dining room floor with bleach and set it up for dinner.

It happened once more later that night, but not as severe. There was a fabulous water parade on the Rio Cannaregio marking the opening of Carnevale. Venice just took the whole thing in stride. I am so glad I was there to witness it.

I have been in Venice several times during the acqua alte and to be clear it generally slowly creeps up and then recedes the same barely noticeable way. It also does not affect the whole city instead usually only the lowest lying areas but unfortunately for tourists Piazza San Marco is one of the lowest parts of the city so it is very noticeable around the biggest tourist attractions.

A few visits ago we had to enter the cathedral from the side on raised walkways over water that covered the mosaics in front of the entrance stairs to at least several inches. By the time we finished touring the church and museum we walked out over steps and mosaics themselves since the water had retreated and the walkways were all put away and San Marco was back to itself.

The city posts the daily schedule and number (height) of the water in centimeters and everyone knows their local height and when or whether they will be affected by it. When we there in October the city missed the call and there was suddenly very high water - nearly 100 - with no warning. We had spent the day at the Guggenheim and surrounding areas but when we crossed back over the academia bridge we found our way through a succession of alleys blocked by the high water. Our options were find a place to eat and wait it out, walk the long way around the high side of the island or buy some of those knee high temporary waders which is what we did. (Many people took another option of taking their shoes off and walking the in water - neither I or our Venetian hosts recommend this.)

When we reached San Marco the water was calf high in the center and there were no walkways because the city's prediction had not called for high water. We simply walked to our BnB dry in our fashion crime leg coverings. A few hours later we went for dinner and everything was back to normal except that all the conversations seemed to be the locals complaining about the frustration of the missed water height prediction.

Here is a blog entry that echos our experience. The water was not this high when we were there but that was in late October and November brings the highest tides.
https://wanderingcarol.com/high-water-in-venice/

The water in Venice is just something the people there lives with like a place with high winds, sudden storms or some other event it's all just planned in with the locals and life goes on as usual. If you have one day in Venice and list of things to do it very inconvenient but for those with no strong agenda plans are just rearranged.

Full disclosure I absolutely love Venice, high water and all, so I don't consider it any big deal. Venice is a logistically challenging city to begin with and high water just adds to that. The same trip with the unexpected high water featured a countrywide transit strike the day we arrived in Venice and the vaporetti were running very slowly and at an absolute minimum. People who come to Venice for the Instagram photo moment or from the controlled experience of a cruiseship find Venice much more difficult and less appealing but I choose to find it charming.

Hope that helps,
=Tod

The MOSES Seawall worked in 2023 - https://www.visit-venice-italy.com/acqua-alta-venice-italy.htm

Hello,
I really want to thank all of you for sharing your personal experiences. This is such a great forum for sharing direct personal experiences and testimony, which one will never or rarely get much of a glimpse from scouring the guidebooks or endless googling. Much of the blogs is kind of "Gee, whiz! Look at me, I arrived!" Lots of pretty photos and essentially selfiest.

Joseph Brodsky the Nobel prize winning poet used to come to Venice every December, but that was before global warming was hitting places all the way from Louisiana (Hurricane Katrina) to...

I live in Seattle, where the winters are long, overcast, windy, rainy but mild. My own Internet "research" has indicated that Venice is, on the average, 5 degrees colder than Seattle in December. But it has more sunny days (33% more?) and less precipitation (Seattle doesn't really get abundant rainfall like London, etc.).

So in fact Venice might not be so offputting, acqua alte or no. At least it's unlikely to freeze or snow.

The heating in my apartment last month was fine. Warm but not toasty. I didn't have a rain jacket that had been properly waterproofed, and it did rain at least a third of the time.

At 70, I want to do the things that are likely to be unrepeatable here on out.

Though in some ways it'd be nice to spend several weeks in San Diego in December, I think I'd be ultimately more "rewarded" by a challenging stay in Venice, battered not just by the effects of climate change but by the hordes of tourists, who were out in full force during the month of March (!).

Time is ticking, I think, both for Venice...and me.

But I will have to be realistic and expect chilly, if not bone-chilling weather. I've lived in the Midwest and on the East Coast (of the U.S.), so it's not as if I haven't experienced extreme cold.

It's the grayness of Seattle from October to May that really drives me nuts, as well as its much thinner layer of non-pop culture.

Thanks for answering back, Denny, I admire your attitude and I think it is the right one.

I actually live in San Diego and while it is undeniably "pleasant" I would advocate for Venice any time of the year. People complain it's "ruined now" but for me the uniqueness and magic of Venice is still there. And it may be even stronger in December with decorations and fewer tourists. Wander the city, get lost and find small moments of life and picturesque moments and then have a drink with the locals.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

You might want to pack a pair of Wellington boots if you are going for a month to get around freely during Acqua Alta. I saw a German tour group near the Frari Church last time and they all had matching yellow Wellies. They just splashed through the water like it was a normal day.

I also live in San Diego, love the area, but I'd choose Venice in December!

To be honest, when we were there, for a moderately high water, it was annoying, but still an experience. They are prepared for it, the walkways go up, dams to keep it out of the shops, you jump around to keep out of the water. But, we had been there before, without water, so we found it interesting. We still had a great time, lots of areas without water. The water is not "gushing" more a still pond, rarely more than a few inches deep, a foot at the most. Many hotels have "loaner boots", my wife picked up a pair at a shop as a souvenir that she still has.

Also from the Seattle area and I think Venice is great in December. Been there twice now during that month. I remember only being cold once and that was when I was sitting on a stone bench waiting for the start of my Secret Itineraries Tour.

Thanks, Gail, for sharing your fellow Seattle experience in Venice. Nothing could be probably more disappointing than to leave Seattle--where I was born and raised but sitll can't not grumble about the weather--and install myself for a month in a place where it ALSO is drippy, gray gray gay, dark, cool-to-cold, windy for days if not weeks on end.

(In fact, after a few days of 60 degree weather, the temperatures have dropped 17 degrees farenheit and it is raining moderately hard, in Seattle. No wonder Seattleites turn out in T-shirts and cut-offs at the least hint of sunny weather; so much pent up frustration. But at least we're not snowed in for days/weeks, as back East...).

I was in Kathmandu last December and was elated that it was in the 60's, with flowers in bloom, sunny, dry THE WHOLE TIME (the locals thought it was very cold and dressed in thermal jackets or vests, while I was in a T-shirt much of the time). So I'm passing up on spring-like weather...

But I'm also aware that I (and Venice itself) are not here forever (far from it). In March there were still way too many tourists for my taste. I'm just wanted to get away from the mobbed alleys of Rialto the one time I had to walk across it.