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Venice without water

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Re: Venice without water

#51

Post by mikeash »

r3bl wrote: post #29

To me it seems like reading this makes one believe that the blood and blue parts of the "super blue blood moon" had some minor relevancy in all of this and made the water levels slightly lower than usual. To clarify, the eclipse part has nothing to do with tides. The "red" part couldn't even be seen from Italy from what I could find. The "blue" part is totally arbitrary as well (two full moons in one calendar month).…

An eclipse means the moon lines up with the sun, which adds their tides together. It’s basically the same as what happens every two weeks when they nearly line up, so it’s not particularly special, but it is relevant.

Re: Venice without water

#53

Post by JoachimS »

ultimoo wrote: post #32

I had no idea the canals were this shallow! For some reason I thought they were at least 10 meters or so deep.

The bigger canals must be deeper. But I was also stunned how shallow they are. Good thing the gondolas ride high.

Re: Venice without water

#54

Post by twblalock »

JoachimS wrote: post #53
ultimoo wrote: post #32

I had no idea the canals were this shallow! For some reason I thought they were at least 10 meters or so deep.

The bigger canals must be deeper. But I was also stunned how shallow they are. Good thing the gondolas ride high.

Some of them definitely are. I've seen motorboats in them. The propellers would hit the bottom in some of the canals in the pictures.

Re: Venice without water

#55

Post by slm_HN »

sandworm101 wrote: post #20
wojcikstefan wrote: post #8

To an uneducated eye (like mine), Venice looks inadaptable and bound to struggle, and eventually fail. Buildings require constant repair due to erosion. Too much water brings flooding, too little exposes mud and filth, and hinders transportation... I'm very curious to know what counter-measures are put in place to protect the city from these (and many more) dangers.

The non-adaptation thing is recent. Dig down and you will find every building today stands atop the rubble of many previous that were nocked down once they got too expensive to maintain. The city constantly sinks and readily adapted to this. Some might say that need to constantly adapt made venice great. But at some point in the 1950s/60s the "greatest generation" decided to protect the old at all costs. Nothing is e…

The "greatest generation" name applies to Americans not Italians. They earned that title by winning World War II, rebuilding Japan and Germany, and creating the richest society in the history of the world.

That same generation of Italians embraced fascism, followed Mussolini, allied with Hitler and got their ass kicked in World War II.

Re: Venice without water

#56

Post by smnscu »

briandear wrote: post #26
starik36 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing happened when I was there as well. But, surprisingly, it wasn't as big of a hassle as one would have thought. You could just walk around it. And a few hours later rain stopped, the flooding relented and it was back to normal.

And you’ll see stepping-stone type things scattered around the sidewalks to help people walk over flooded areas as well as doors to homes and businesses sealed at the bottom to allow for about 1 meter of flooding without causing any interior damage. Then there are sandbags scattered about to help with flood protection when necessary. Venice has been fine for hundreds of years; it isn’t all the sudden going to fail..…

Got gloriously lost in Venice, can confirm. The less visited areas are charming.

edit: totally agree with your reply. I ended up at some point in a small, quiet plaza with cobblestone, old church, pigeons, and a bench under a tree, and I felt like I was in a movie

Re: Venice without water

#57

Post by lazerwalker »

slm_HN wrote: post #55
sandworm101 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The non-adaptation thing is recent. Dig down and you will find every building today stands atop the rubble of many previous that were nocked down once they got too expensive to maintain. The city constantly sinks and readily adapted to this. Some might say that need to constantly adapt made venice great. But at some point in the 1950s/60s the "greatest generation" decided to protect the old at all costs. Nothing is e…

The "greatest generation" name applies to Americans not Italians. They earned that title by winning World War II, rebuilding Japan and Germany, and creating the richest society in the history of the world. That same generation of Italians embraced fascism, followed Mussolini, allied with Hitler and got their ass kicked in World War II.

I'm not sure if shitting on Italians adds anything to this discussion.

That same "greatest generation" of Americans wrongly imprisoned American citizens of Japanese descent during the war, and turned a blind eye to Jewish refugees for an embarrassingly long time before grudgingly entering the war. None of us are perfect.

Re: Venice without water

#58

Post by sandworm101 »

slm_HN wrote: post #55
sandworm101 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The non-adaptation thing is recent. Dig down and you will find every building today stands atop the rubble of many previous that were nocked down once they got too expensive to maintain. The city constantly sinks and readily adapted to this. Some might say that need to constantly adapt made venice great. But at some point in the 1950s/60s the "greatest generation" decided to protect the old at all costs. Nothing is e…

The "greatest generation" name applies to Americans not Italians. They earned that title by winning World War II, rebuilding Japan and Germany, and creating the richest society in the history of the world. That same generation of Italians embraced fascism, followed Mussolini, allied with Hitler and got their ass kicked in World War II.

No. It is just a label. No different than gen-x or millenials. It is a description of people born during a paticular period. What those people did in other context, for good or ill, is beside the point: they did do something to venice that broke from previous practices.

Re: Venice without water

#59

Post by jsjohnst »

twblalock wrote: post #54
JoachimS wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger canals must be deeper. But I was also stunned how shallow they are. Good thing the gondolas ride high.

Some of them definitely are. I've seen motorboats in them. The propellers would hit the bottom in some of the canals in the pictures.

Most of the motorboats in the canals (but not all!) are inboard motors with very shallow draft (or are small outboards). You don’t generally see inboard/outboard boats which generally have a deeper draft than the other two.

Re: Venice without water

#60

Post by jsjohnst »

smnscu wrote: post #56
briandear wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you’ll see stepping-stone type things scattered around the sidewalks to help people walk over flooded areas as well as doors to homes and businesses sealed at the bottom to allow for about 1 meter of flooding without causing any interior damage. Then there are sandbags scattered about to help with flood protection when necessary. Venice has been fine for hundreds of years; it isn’t all the sudden going to fail..…

Got gloriously lost in Venice, can confirm. The less visited areas are charming. edit: totally agree with your reply. I ended up at some point in a small, quiet plaza with cobblestone, old church, pigeons, and a bench under a tree, and I felt like I was in a movie

I got stuck there for a week once because of a train strike. I was bored within a day or two with the tourist areas, thankfully went on walks outside tourist areas and found them much more interesting and turned the diversion into a pleasurable one.
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