HIGH TIDE
"acqua alta"
During winter months you may occasionally hear eerie sirens echoing in the streets to warn that a high tide is coming. The lagoon creeps into the streets, flooding the lower levels of shops and houses and turning Saint Mark’s square into a big puddle. It’s quite fun to experience but the fun will quickly wear off when you realize it’s especially difficult to walk around a flooded city with kids. For locals, the “acqua alta” is simply a nuisance- you go to pick up your kid from school and forget their wellies or you miss a meeting because you need to take a detour round the backstreets to avoid San Marco when it looks like a swimming pool…
These extremely high tides usually happen between September and April, and luckily only last a few hours. During this time some of the streets become flooded, either lightly or sometimes up to shin level. You will notice metal barriers at the foot of every shop door, which are used to protect the buildings from flooding. If you have a pair of rubber boots, you can usually walk through the streets but if the flood is shin length then water just floods into your boots while you wade through (and little kids will be up to their thighs in water). Some shops sell sort of disposable boots but we don’t recommend buying these because they are pretty useless and fall down constantly.
The local authority have elevated walkways that they put down on major routes during high tide and so the best option is to walk on these. It is extremely difficult with a pram because they are not very wide. Be very careful with kids on these, as it’s easy to fall off. In most Vaporetto stops there are maps showing the elevated walkway routes, or you can check on the Venice authority’s webpage:
http://www.comune.venezia.it/it/content/percorsi-passerelle-20152016
When the high tide goes away, the walkways are stacked in the streets. Tourists usually flock to sit down on these, especially around San Marco. However, be warned that it is forbidden to sit on them and you will be asked to move off them by local police. We’ve also seen children playing and running on them, but advise that you don’t let your kids do this as they are unstable and dangerous.
Another reason that locals hate the acqua alta is because when the tide is particularly high, the boats cannot pass under the bridges, so many of the public transport lines are either cancelled or diverted. Take this into consideration of you are arriving to or leaving Venice as it might be difficult to get to the airport, train station etc.
The “rio chiuso” sign (see picture) means “canal closed”.
Another horrible side-effect of the high tide is RATS! The water pushes them out of their holes, so you’re likely to see a few running round, especially at night.