Venice : A Fragile Existence

Endless gondolas line up to take tourists on rides through the Venetian canals.

As Venice allows visitors to enjoy its endlessly quaint bridges, charmingly claustrophobic alleys, and romantic canals, it’s only right for us to get to know the area for what it truly is-- an incredibly delicate place at large peril of losing itself. 

It’s easy for the ecological details of Venice to float over our heads as we immerse ourselves in the history and beauty of this cultural capital, but Venice’s future depends on knowing what it confronts. Venice resides in a lagoon, called, not surprisingly, the Venice Lagoon. The very word lagoon originates from Venice, where the 212-square-mile wetland was originally dubbed Laguna Veneta. It’s 8% land, 11% open water, and about 80% tidal shallows, salt marshes, and mud flats. 

It may be where my mussels came from that night when one or more of the molluscs on my plate decided to revolt against me. Or the mussels may have come from the Adriatic Sea, a finger-like offshoot of the Mediterranean on the east coast of Italy, where fishermen have harvested hundreds of species of sea life for centuries, including sea bass, mackerel, scorpion fish, monkfish, and, of course, mussels. But both areas-- the lagoon and the sea itself--are being affected by people like me every second of the day, people who want to see this place and bring with it a car’s emissions, a cruise ship’s oil, or an airplane’s carbon dioxide.

The city of Venice was built miraculously on water: Early settlers drained areas of the lagoon, dug canals, and strengthened the existing islands to prepare them for structures. And now it exists as an incredibly fragile area vulnerable to the rising tides that threaten it. In November 2019, over 6-foot-high tides breached the barrier island of Pellestrina, washing over the embankments, and flooding Venice-- its worst flood since 1966. The acqua alta (high water) overtook Venice’s squares and alleys, causing mass destruction and a heightened sense of fragility for the community. 

The flooding is largely thought to be caused by climate change. And climate change relates directly to Venice’s other tremendous struggle-- stifling, overpowering tourism. This city of around 50,000 residents sees cruise ships spilling out onto its cobbled streets 30 million people a year, day trippers who aren’t spending money on lodging and often only buy cheap trinkets as souvenirs, majorly affecting the city’s atmosphere and livability and not contributing much money to the economy. 

These huge levels of tourism in the Adriatic have also put my Venice nemesis on an endangered list in Croatia, across the Adriatic from Italy: Creatures such as fan mussels, date mussels, sea cucumbers, dolphin, whales and sea turtles are only some of the ocean life on the country’s endangered list, due in part to fishing, incidental killing, and pollution.

Did the recent coronavirus outbreak change any of this, the tremendous rate of tourism to this seaside city, and the effects of the tourism as a result? Yes, somewhat. Venice was hit hard by the pandemic, and the lack of tourists improved air quality in northern Italy significantly. And it will take time for the tourists to return, but they will. This is a special place. 

Some say the ancient Venetians who built the city worked in harmony with nature, not against it; that will likely be what it takes to keep it alive.