Lagoon notebook · Venice
One square that still runs the picture
Basilica, campanile, palace, two columns. High water uses the same paving.
- Piazza
- Basilica
- Acqua alta
Piazza San Marco is the old civic room. The paving is a tide gauge. Arcades hold the sides. The basilica sits at the east end like an altar you are not asked to understand in one visit.
The campanile fell in 1902 and was rebuilt as it had been. Climb if you want the map.
The loggia at the base is a good place to recover from the square. From the top the sestieri read as islands, which is the point of this notebook.
The Doge's Palace faces the basin. Pink Verona marble, a loggia that looks too light for the walls above it, a bridge to the prisons that everyone photographs. The Bridge of Sighs is a corridor with a view.
When the square is a lake
Acqua alta is not a surprise party. Sirens sound. Raised walkways go down. Boots appear from bags that looked like ordinary luggage. The square floods first because it is low and because the basin pushes water in. The walking notes cover passerelle without turning weather into folklore.
