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(Venice, Italy) Let's start with this new comment by "Anonymous" in case any of you miss it, since it was posted on an old blog just a bit after the three alarm siren went off tonight.

<<Venice Underwater - Eyewitness Report": "Why did you scold the tourists? Who do you think you are?! You have photographs of people in the water in your blog. You know you've been in Venice too long when... you think you are superior to everyone else in the city."

Posted by Anonymous to Venetian Cat Bauer - The Venice Blog at April 27, 2009 8:40 PM>>

To read the blog and the comment yourselves, click here:

http://venetiancat.blogspot.com/2008/12/venice-underwater-eyewitness-report.html

I don't particularly like to answer "Anonymous" comments because I like to look my enemies in the eyes. But, Dear Anonymous, in honor of the Aqua Alta tonight (strangely coinciding with your comment), I will make an exception. I did not take a single photo. I think our mayor was a tad upset -- and rightly so -- and I was supporting him because it is not very pleasant to vacation in any area on this planet during an emergency. And I think the photographers came from all over the world to record the event, since when I did the live webcam interview for SKY TV, they told me they had contacted me because the Venice flooding was a top story on the Internet. I merely used existing photos found on the web (giving credit where it was due), taken by people with cameras, as I have no camera of my own. I did say, however, that I became upset when tourists were photographing me as I trudged through the high water from the gym. Honestly, I felt as if I were an animal in a zoo. In my later blogs, after the emergency had passed, I believe I strongly encouraged tourists to visit.

With that in mind, tonight we have again a Three Alarm Siren, just before the visit to the Magic Kingdom by Prince Charles. If you read yesterday's Venetian Cat - Venice Blog:

http://venetiancat.blogspot.com/2009/04/lightning-strikes-venice.html

you will see The Prince was scheduled to meet with The Pope today, and indeed he did. This from ANSA:

(ANSA) - Rome, April 27 - Britain's Prince Charles on Monday presented his wife, Camilla, to Pope Benedict XVI in his first papal audience since his divorce, the death of Princess Diana and his remarriage. The royal couple spoke to Benedict for 15 minutes in English and without interpreters, according to the Vatican, discussing the environment among ''several issues of common interest''.

So, tomorrow, The Prince is due to come to Venice, and his schedule remains basically as reported before:

On Tuesday the prince will meet with Italian businessmen from the association of industrial employers Confindustria to discuss environmental issues while Camilla pays a visit to the Keats-Shelley Museum at the Spanish Steps.The couple will then leave for Venice, where they plan to visit the restored Fenice opera house.Charles will then join a seminar on preserving the lagoon while Camilla visits the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.In the evening the royals will attend a performance of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at the Fenice.The couple are due to travel to Germany later in the week.

To read the entire article, click here:

http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2009-04-27_127359470.html

With all this excitement, I realized I completely forgot to mention that Kathleen Kennedy was in Venice on the same night as the big Salam Hayek-Pinault bash at La Fenice, apparently to drum up support for a branch of Democrats Abroad here in Venice. Sorry 'bout that!

When it comes to the high water tonight in Venice, I am still of the same mind as before -- this has been going on for centuries. It is nothing new. It has to do with solar activity, in combination with lunar activity. Nothing mysterious. Just look up at the sky.

Ciao from Venice,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog
http://venetiancat.blogspot.com/

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(Venice, Italy) Human beings are fascinating creatures. I hear that people are actually cancelling reservations to Venice based upon the images shown all over the world regarding our Aqua Granda on December 1st. Instead of panicking, let's get educated. (That image you see is by Jonathan Ulman, and illustrates what Venice looks like most of the time.)

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(Venice, Italy) I have received many comments after scolding Richard Owen at Times Online for using the spelling acqua alta instead of aqua alta to describe the high water we had in Venice on December 1st. I chalked it up to the difference between Venice and Rome. In my environment, I have always used the spelling aqua alta.

Yesterday, I informally polled some Venetians. The Venetian language is a mainly an oral language these days, and all Venetians I know speak it; however, not many know how to write it. The people aged 35 and younger insisted it was acqua alta. The ones a bit older, up to about 60, paused, and said they thought acqua alta, but weren't sure. Then, a white-haired man about 80-years-old with a cane passed by, and they all shouted, "Ask him!" "Most definitely aqua alta," he declared without hesitation, "without the 'c,'" and continued on.

Everyone became obsessed with the discussion. They all said they had a Venetian dictionary at home and would look it up. I decided to ask our human encyclopedia, Franco Filippi, who owns a bookshop here in Venice, Libreria Editrice Filippi, and is an authority on everything Venetian... well, as much as anyone can be an authority because it is nearly impossible to solidify reality in this town.

Franco said that both Richard Owen and I were correct, and that we were both wrong. Acqua alta is the spelling in Italian and aqua alta is the spelling in Latin; either can be used, and both are correct. To illustrate his point, he pulled a few books off the shelves with each spelling. "However," Franco said, "what happened on December 1st was not aqua alta at all. It was Aqua Granda since it was over 1.50 meters, and, personally, I would spell that without the "c." (That image you see is a sign giving directions on how to get to Rialto or San Marco. And, yes, both directions will get you there in about the same amount of time. In fact, no matter how far or long you walk in Venice, you may end up right where you started:)


Someone on Wikipedia has done an amazing, detailed job in explaining the Venetian language:

"Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken by over two million people,[1] mostly in the Veneto region of Italy. The language is called vèneto in Venetian, veneto in Italian; the variant spoken in Venice is called venexiàn/venesiàn or veneziano, respectively.

...On March 28, 2007 the Regional Council of Vèneto officially recognized the existence of the Venetian Language (Łéngua Vèneta) by passing with an almost unanimous vote a law on the "tutela e valorizzazione della lingua e della cultura veneta" (Law on the Protection and Valoraisation of the Venetian Language and Culture) with the vote of both ruling and opposition parties."

If you'd like to see for yourselves how complicated the situation is, here is the entire Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_language

In any event, since December 1st, we have gone back down to simple aqua alta, and the locals have asked me to tell you to come on over and join us in Venice. This past Sunday the sun was shining on the aqua alta all over town. It made kind of a mysterious moat, blocking access just past Santi Apostoli unless you were wearing boots. Strangely, it seemed to have flooded into the commerical shops that you find all over the world, and left the Venetian shops alone. An Italian couple wearing shoes stopped me. "Is it possible to pass?" I said, "In the mountains you must bring your snow boots. These days, when you come to Venice, you must bring your water boots. Otherwise, everything is normal." They nodded. "Yes. That makes sense." We were almost giddy on Sunday, everyone was having so much fun navigating the water. People were sitting at tables in outdoor cafès in puddles of water, wearing their boots. Others were paddling around in kayaks. It was just like snow, but water... there was the feeling of joy you can have when playing in the snow. You can buy rubber boots all over town these days, at many shoe and hardware stores -- they cost about 20-25 euro. However, you must come in the morning to enjoy aqua alta because it is almost gone by 1:00PM.

Personally, I have gotten used to putting on my rubber boots before heading out the door in the morning because if there is high water, we are always flooded over here on the Riva del vin, which is on the Grand Canal right at the Rialto Bridge. (Vin=wine in Venetian; in Italy they drink vino:) The waiters at the restaurant downstairs set up the tables in the water, laughing and singing at the absurdity of it all. Other areas of town are not at all affected. I ran into some friends on the vaporetto the other night as I was heading out to dinner wearing my Spanish leather boots. Two had on rubber boots and one had on shoes. "Aren't you taking a risk?" they asked. "I am gambling that I can get to my dinner appointment and back home tonight without running into aqua alta," I said. And I did!


Ciao from Venice,
Cat
http://venetiancat.blogspot.com/

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(Venice, Italy) That image you see is not Venice, it is Rome. There has always been a bit of conflict between Venice and Rome -- Venice was excommunicated by the Pope on more than one occassion, which did not stop Venice from doing business as usual.

I spoke earlier today with a friend from Milano who was in Sienna. He was the first one to tell me about the flooding in Rome, where it has been declared a natural disaster by the mayor, and so far three people have died. The River Tiber is threatening to overflow its banks as I write this. He asked me how things were in Venice. Here are my observations:

On my way to dinner last night, I noticed the precautions the businesses had taken in response to the three level siren alarm. The restaurant downstairs on the riva was serving dinner right on the Grand Canal as the water licked toward the feet of the customers. I said, you are open? They laughed. "Always!" The wooden planks for walking had been set in place. A bank (as in a place to store your money) had very neatly moved everything off the floor and up on the desks, then locked up for the night. The doors in front of all the shops had their high-water blockades set in place.

Then, this morning we all had on our high water boots as we went about our day; otherwise it was pretty much business as usual. There was a feeling of comradery, as if we were all in this together and would simply make the best of things. A Canadian woman in Campo San Maurizio asked me how to get to the University of Ca' Foscari for a conference; she had on shoes, not boots. I said, you are not prepared. She was from Ottawa. I said, surely you have boots in Ottawa and she said her boots were too warm for Venice. With some deft twists and turns, I managed to bring her to the vaporetto stop at Sant 'Angelo without getting her feet wet.

There were very few tourists, and the ones who were here were having fun. It was easy to separate the wise from the uneducated tourists today because the latter either didn't have their boots on, or they were wearing the noisy plastic tourist boots. At the top of the Rialto Bridge I saw some very interesting boots similar to our boots, but different -- they were elegant, yet practical. I said, "Where did you get those boots?" They said, "We are from Northern France and we brought them from there."

I think this is a great new fad and that all tourists coming to Venice should bring their high-water boots from their own countries. In fact, perhaps we should start importing them. There's a fantastic new business idea for all you Venetian merchants, and I am quite sure you will make a profit. A store called Aqua Alta Supplies for all your high-water needs.

I hear the ever-enterprising hotel association is offering high water boots as part of a package, with a map of alternate routes. The museums and art galleries are dry. People are cheerful. The streets have never been cleaner. It couldn't be a better time to come to Venice!

Ciao from Venice,
Cat
http://venetiancat.blogspot.com/

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(Venice, Italy) I must take back every bad thing I said about the new siren. I have already grown very fond of it after hearing it nearly every day. It just went off again now, the same Three-Level alarm we had when the high water in Venice was all over the news. I have to go out to dinner tonight:) I'll keep you posted.

Ciao from Venice,
Cat
http://venetiancat.blogspot.com

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(Venice, Italy) The "sirens" for aqua alta, or high water, first went off this morning at around 7:30AM (I think). It's hard to tell because we have a new siren. It is three melodic, rising, harmonic tones, and sounds a little like Close Encounters of the Third Kind -- as if we should welcome the flooding waters with open arms. The old siren was frightening and insistent, like an air-raid siren warning of great danger to come. The Venetians did not dance to the music. As their years of hard labor were silently, slowly destroyed, the Venetians were furious.

This from Times Online, by Richard Owen from his front row seat in... Rome...?(!):

"Sirens sounded the alarm in Venice this morning as sea water surged into St Mark's Square and the authorities gave warning that the acqua alta (high water) could reach its highest levels for 30 years."

(Um... that's aqua alta, Richard, not acqua:)

I put on my high water boots, and headed off to the gym as I usually do. I arrived about 9:30. My gym is the best gym in Venice, I think. It is where the Angels stay fit, and is 90-95% Venetian and residents. The owner of the gym was agitated; I have never seen him like that before.

"The new siren is soothing for the tourists," I said. "So they are not alarmed."

"For my forty years we've had a proper siren," said the owner. "What did we need a new siren for? It's only more wasted money."

The owner paced back and forth, checking the water levels. At 10:15AM he said, "That's it. We have to shut down." At that point, the high water had flooded into the entrance. It was bubbling up through the floor and heading toward all the valuable exercise equipment. The owner was understandably distressed as he watched the manifestation of his hard work licked by the lagoon. The women's changing room is upstairs, and it was impossible to reach the steps unless you were wearing boots since the water was ankle-deep. Luckily, I had left my boots downstairs, and the attendant got them for me.

I splashed out the door. The water gushed through the calli. It was really serious. I stopped at the tobacco shop. The tobacco shop owner was even more agitated than the gym owner, and he is usually cracking jokes. "We are closed! This is not a normal day!" I said, "If it's not normal, then I need cigarettes even more." He stopped sopping up water and said, "Okay. What kind do you want?"

Out in the campo the tourists, who were standing on a small island of dry ground, starting taking photos of me as I trudged through the water, and now I became agitated. "This is not a joke!" I scolded them. "This is real life!"

I had planned to go to the supermarket, but it had already shut down. On the corner, the old woman who sold bread was still open. She is another Angel -- she was my first bread shop in Venice. So, I stopped there for bread and milk; inside the water was up to my calves. She asked, "Would you like regular or skimmed?" as if everything was fine. I said, "Skimmed." She swiftly opened the refrigerator door and grabbed the milk. She had to be fast or the lagoon water would have flooded inside the refrigerator. Soon more people poured into the shop for supplies; she had some of the only food left in town. The old woman calculated everything properly on the adding machine, and receipts were duly given. "Ciao!" she called as I left, a twinkle in her eye, and I thought she was a Truly Wise Angel.

It soon became impossible to avoid getting water inside my boots, it was so high. (That is a photo taken by Andrea Merola/EPA.) More from Richard Owen in... Rome...

"The Venice Centro Maree, or Tide Centre, which monitors water levels, said that high tides had reached 144cm (57in) above sea level , with 96 per cent of the lagoon city's surface area covered by water."

At Rialto, there was a man selling plastic boots to the tourists. I asked, "How much are those boots?" He said, "Ten euro." I said, "Last year they were five." He said, "Well, this year they are ten."

The Venetians had on their thigh-high fishing boots. All the shops were closed except for the pharmacy, another tobacco shop, and another bread shop. I needed food for Cleopatra, my cat, and decided to risk going over to the pet store. It was open! Sebastian had valiantly gathered what articles he could away from the rising water, and was still selling pet food. "Try her on this," he advised, handing me a bag. "It's for cats that have been spayed and are putting on a little weight." "You are molto simpatico to stay open today," I said. Sebastian laughed. "My apartment is already flooded."

When I got home, the water was inside my casa and had risen up to the second step. Luckily, I live high enough that if my apartment gets flooded, well, it's probably the End of the World anyway, and I can't think of a nicer way to go than into the arms of the lagoon. I sloshed into my apartment and went out on the balcony. Chairs from the restaurant below bobbed in the water. No vaporettos appeared to be running on the Grand Canal, and people were hailing water taxis and heading toward Piazzale Roma (I wish I had asked how much they were charging:). Some Venetians rowed their sandolas. Eventually a vaporetto came by and picked up some of the people who were intrepid enough to navigate the moat around the vaporetto stop.

I went in the bathroom and tried to take my boots off, but they wouldn't budge, they were so waterlogged. Finally, I ran hot water over them to make them expand, and after great effort, they came off.

Cleopatra was alarmed, dashing about, howling. I spoke to friends on the phone. Everybody was flooded. The animals were all alarmed. The only place that sounded normal was the island of Murano.

I started thinking it would not be such a bad thing if we continued to get flooded like this because then the masses of tourists would not come, and Venice would be forced to find real work for its residents. The price of housing would drop, and all the out-of-towners who own apartments here would have to reduce the outrageous rents. The Chinese businesses would not be profitable, and being pragmatic people, they would invest elsewhere. The universities would be fine because students are adjustable; perhaps they would find it a great adventure -- especially if there were subsidies. The Venetians themselves would be fine -- especially if there were subsidies -- because there are plenty of boats and gondolas, and they know how to row. There is plenty of fish from the sea, and fruit and vegetables on the islands. They could still make glass on the island of Murano, and return to lace-making on Burano. The gondoliers, needing work, would have to row the residents around. We could have high-tech businesses that use cyberspace and WiFi, and create video games. We could hold even more international conferences than we do today (just not on the ground floor:), so that the hotels could operate. Do we still have the film festival? Why, yes! Only we would have to row up the red carpet, which would float gently on the water, and the stars could adjust their attire to a more Neptunian theme.

More from Richard Owen in... Rome:

"A floating flood barrier is under construction at three entrances from the Adriatic into the lagoon, but is not due to go into operation until 2012 at the earliest."

That flood barrier would be MOSES. I have said repeatedly that I don't know enough to make a judgment as to whether MOSES is a good or bad thing. I do know, however, that the friars at San Francesco della Vigna have their own irrigation system that has served them for 200 years. I know, also, that there is a room in the Archivio di Stato that is dedicated to how the Venetians have managed the high water over the centuries. I have seen both with my own eyes. This is an excerpt about the State Archive from an article I wrote for the International Herald Tribune's Italy Daily dated August 30, 2002:

"One of the most important holdings is the series of volumes of the Senato Terra, a continuous record of daily decisions of the Venetian government that spans the period from 1250 to 1792. The Venetians were meticulous record-keepers, and noted in detail anything pertinent to the entire Republic. A brief search revealed that news of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence traveled rapidly by way of the Venetian representative in England and reached the Doge's inner circle on August 12, 1776."

As I write this, the water has receded, and a brilliant patch of sun beams on the church steeple across the canal, tumultuous clouds in the background.

"Massimo Caciari, the Mayor of Venice, said that today's flood water level was 'exceptional. ...'
...However Mr Cacciari played down alarm, saying that flooding was part of everyday life in Venice. "We get sea levels of 140, 160 cm every few years," the Mayor said. Italian meteorologists said that the entire country was being experiencing bad weather, with driving rain, snow, hail and high winds causing flooding 'from the Alps to Palermo'. Many roads in Piedmont, Liguria and Lombardy have been closed."


To read Richard Owen's entire article, go here:


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5266829.ece

I just can't get a Chiffon Margarine commerical that I remember from the 70s out of my head, with the punchline, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!" I can't seem to embed it, but if you want to have a look, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrTPrp-fW8


Ciao from Venice,
Cat
http://venetiancat.blogspot.com/

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