Two weeks after high tides and fierce winds produced the worst flooding in Venice in more than half a century, sirens sound about 6:30 a.m. to warn the fragile lagoon city’s weary residents that “acqua alta” is arriving again. From the stool of his tiny atelier Bottega dei Mascareri near the famous Rialto Bridge, the 62-year-old sees a string of small canvas-covered stands selling cheap trinkets, including low-grade plastic and ceramic knockoffs of his masks for as little as 10 euros. Three-quarters of the tourists stay for just a few hours and spend an average 13 euros on souvenirs, according to research by Confartigianato Venezia, anassociation of local trade businesses. “Often there’s no one in a family who can take over the business,” but there’s also the lack of demand as day trippers “don’t buy real artisan products.” On the nearby island of Murano, Luciano Gambaro is waging a battle to preserve centuries of local glass-making traditions. The number of people working to produce the colorful, hand-blown vases and figurines has also halved, partly due to the impact of counterfeit products from eastern Europe, China and India, says the 54-year-old, who runs the family’s company and heads aconsortium of business that promotes Murano glass. The floods, which have become more frequent, disrupt the city’s rhythm, suspending Vaporetto boat lines that connect stops on the Grand Canal to outlying sites like Murano, Burano and the barrier island of Lido. “I love my town, we’ve raised four children here, but the city has changed for the worse in the last five years,” said Giovanni Giol, president of the Benedetto Marcello music conservatory. The worst affected items were sent to a restoration facility in Bologna, while others were carried to higher levels of the building and are drying out on floors of the museum alongside 17th century musical instruments. “The storm brought home the reality of the situation,” said Jane Da Mosto, executive director of a non-profit organization trying to reverse the community’s decline by controlling tourism, including a ban on cruise ships. On Sunday, Venetians will vote on a referendum to give the community its own administrative structure, but it’s non-binding and opposed by the mayor, who has called the effort “folly” because it risks creating bureaucratic bottlenecks and discouraging investment. Embroiled in several corruption probes, the system of water gates is way over budget at 5.5 billion euros and counting, and won’t be ready until 2022—more than two decades after construction began. And it will likely be useless in stopping rising tides, according to Nelli-Elena Vanzan Marchini, an Italian historian who has written several books on Venice. Global warming has raised sea levels about 8 inches since 1880, according to Climate Central, an independent organization of scientists and journalists.
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