Aqua Alta in Venice: What It Is + Why it Happens 🌊

Diving in to Venice’s famous high waters

You may have seen Venice popping up in the news lately, since Jeff Bezos recently held his wedding there, turning the spotlight once again onto this remarkable city.

All the attention got me thinking about one of the most common questions I get about Venice: what’s the deal with acqua alta? If you’ve never experienced it, it can seem dramatic, not to mention a bit confusing.

So, I wanted to take a moment to reshare this post I wrote back in 2018 to explain what it is, why it happens, and what it means for the people who live there. Not a lot has changed over the last few years and everything below holds true still:

You may have seen videos and photos in the news of Venice underwater from time to time, with tourists lugging suitcases through rivers or frolicking in Piazza San Marco wearing rain boots. This flooding is unfortunately common and is simply called “high water” or aqua alta. 

Venice, as a city built on muddy islands in a shallow lagoon, has always been at risk of flooding. Floods were recorded way back near the founding of the city, over 1000 years ago. The city was built on water and understands how to deal with it. But these days, the flooding has increased exponentially and gotten much more severe. Why?