Where the Catbird Sits: How High is the Water Mama?

More about the piazza and the rising water: Our second night out, we were much later making our way through the St. Mark's Piazza, which is our landmark for finding the hotel. In a city where one spends much of the time wandering as if in a beautiful maze, having a big landmark--especially at night--can be critical. In fact, the reason we were so much later getting home was because we spent more than four hours walking to and from a restaurant for dinner. That is four hours walking, not including the time spent eating dinner. Needless to say, we were lost much of the time. Well, let's be honest, we were only sure where we were three times: when we crossed the Rialto Bridge to the other side of the canal, when we (finally!) made our way to the Accademia Bridge to return to the side of the canal where we are staying, and when we (finally!) found St. Mark's Piazza.

Neither of these are dead ends...but look like they are. Unfortunately the reverse is also true.

Because we were so much later, and because the flooding seems to have increased, the water in the piazza--which rises with the tide--made it completely impassable without wading through it. We continue to decline that activity. Further information about the flooding of the piazzas tells us flooding of shops is common enough that there is a siren warning system and merchants roll out 1 1/2 meter high boardwalks and provide overshoes to shoppers when the water reaches that critical level. Must be a big supply of overshoes.

The piazzas were actually designed to pool rain water and drain it into pipelines to a civic well. Venice is constructed on a salt marsh and surrounded by sea water so fresh drinking water has been an issue since its development. Of course, what constituted fresh drinking water in the age of cholera and plague is very different from what we consider potable today. And did Catbird mention the issue of raw sewage? Euw.

Since we could not go through the piazza due to the high water, we had to go around it. That meant none of the familiar landmarks we have come to rely on to get us back to the hotel, and we found many more dead-end alleys and canal encounters without bridges that we had not met before. The combination of aging eyes, poor lighting and very small print on the often-inacurrate maps made for some testy navigation, but we finally (finally!) made it back to the Cai dei Conti Hotel. The guidebooks say: lose yourself in Venice We have certainly done that and with, for the most part, great pleasure.