Going to Venice had never really been a dream of mine. Despite all the huge acclaim, I just wasn’t too fussed. But when I paid the legendary city a visit to see a friend in November 2012, I had one of the best travelling experiences of my life:
Venice during acqua alta.
Admittedly, acqua alta is a relatively regular occurrence – you only have to google the phenomena to be shown countless videos and picture of people stood wait-deep in water, proudly donning their wellies. Nevertheless, it’s something I always remembered seeing about the city during my childhood, and I was ridiculously excited to see it in the soggy flesh.
Of course, we didn’t have any wellies (this was the first significant flooding in the four months my friend had lived there) and so crammed ourselves into the nearest shoe shop and paid €20 for a pair of boots, which we then had to convince ourselves weren’t taking on water at a rapid rate…
We took some standard photos, nipped into a cafe for a bite to eat and 20 minutes later all the flood waters had receded. Gutted. Still, the fact that my first experience of Venice was during acqua alta is something that I’m sure will stay with me for a while.
