Return to Venice – day 1 | alison richards | graphic designer and artworker

Ever since I went to Venice in January 2016, I had wanted to go back. That trip, I'd flown in at midnight on a Friday and flew back on Sunday afternoon so I didn't have much time there. I did manage to cover off an awful lot of stuff that trip - Doge Palace and some of the palazzos, but I'd wanted to go to Burano and didn't have time, and kept getting lost in the alleyways of Venice.

This time I wanted to take it a little easier, wander around, find places tucked away, visit Burano and maybe another island in the lagoon, see inside St Mark's Cathedral, etc etc.

However, and I'm writing this post with the benefit of hindsight, it definitely didn't go quite as planned...

I'd picked accommodation in a hotel that was near to St Mark's, as I'd been in Castello last time. It was lovely, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to be close to the action so I could go out early in the morning and soak in the beauty of the main square of Venice, and being close meant that this was easy to achieve. The hotel was just OK, a bit dingy. Just once I'd love to splurge on one of those fancy hotel rooms you see on Instagram, but I just can't bring myself to do it!

My flight was at 1pm on a Thursday, and I had caught the bus to Stansted with loads of time. I flew into the airport for Venice, then caught the coach service across to the island. I walked to the hotel - since 2016 I had changed to a much better phone provider so I was able to navigate with Google Maps... it made a huge difference! I got to the hotel, had some dinner and wandered around before heading back to the hotel to sleep so I could start early the next day.

So I mentioned that it didn't go quite as planned above. Well, it turned out that I was there during the worst flooding in 50 years. I knew this before I went, but decided that it would be at least interesting (at worst), and fairly quiet and beautiful at best. Plus, it was going to cost the city millions to repair the damage so they needed the tourist money. I had the app on my phone that alerted me of the water level and at 7:45am it was quite low so I thought I would head out. I had my wellies on and was prepared to turn back. There was water around but it wasn't that bad so I kept walking. This was mistake #1.

I think it looks worse here than it was. This is actually the lowest point on the whole island, meaning it gets flooded the earliest and the worst. This was definitely not the worst I saw it unfortunately.

No gondolas and very few boats. One I did see that was collecting garbage, struggled to get under bridges in the high water. One of the guys on board had to climb over the bridge and back onto the boat, since he was at the higher end of the boat!

My idea had been to walk to the Rialto bridge and cross, walk around to the Ponte dell'Accademia and cross then get back to the hotel to wait out the worst of it. Herein lies mistake #2 - I didn't realise that the water would come up so quickly.

I got to the Rialto and everyone was sloshing through water but my wellies were high enough that it didn't matter. It was maybe 30cm high in most places so not too bad and definitely something I could walk through slowly and carefully. I crossed the bridge and kept going.

I got soooo close to the Ponte dell'Accademia bridge that I was aiming for but the water was just too high that it started coming in over the top of my wellies. And it had still not hit the peak. An old Italian man looked at my boots and shook his head when I indicated along this passage - he had proper waders on. I tried, and he was right, so I turned back. It was getting much, much worse in a short period of time. It was also winter and the water coming in my boots gave me such a shock - it was so cold!

The view from the bridge is pretty special

This giant seagull had everyone trapped on the bridge entertained

Water coming from everywhere! From the sky and from below!

This is where I surrendered. It was way too high.

I'd misjudged how far I'd walked and it was a long, slow trudge back. I stopped off at a cafe on the way - it was hard work walking through water - and I got myself a hot chocolate and a croissant before starting again. I didn't get very far, the water was sloshing in my boots all the time, my socks and jeans were saturated, and the water was so, so cold! I stopped on a bridge and didn't go any further. The water peaked at 80cm on my app, and I stayed on the bridge for about 45 mins.

Finally, cold, bored and sore, I found a store nearby selling some of those covers for your boots that went up to the thighs. I was going to make a run for it (figuratively speaking, it was slow going!). They were actually really difficult to walk in and I had to hold onto them because they just didn't stay up. It was an awkward walk. They also sprung a leak in like 10 mins, with one boot filling up and squelching. But I made it back to the Rialto and stayed up there while I worked out my next move.

Two guys stuck in the water near the bridge I was standing on

I picked up these lovely things. Poorly made and don’t stay up but at least they don’t let most of the water in

If you look up the page, you might remember this gate from an earlier photo. Couldn’t get anywhere near it this time.

It was hard to tell walkways from canals at some points.

I decided it wasn't worth just hanging out on the bridge, being both tired and hungry. I stayed there for about half an hour, then started my slow trek back to the hotel. I was basically resigned to the fact that it was going to be hard work and slow going and that I was going to get wet. I made it to the hotel and the entire foyer was under about 30cm water. The staff were just standing around, talking about what to do. I took my bright orange boots off and went upstairs to my room. I hadn't picked up any food on the way back, since nothing had been open, but I had some snacks in my bag to keep me going.

I dried everything off (my one pair of jeans were soaking), and had a nap - it was so tiring walking through thigh-high water! I woke up at almost 5pm and my water level app told me that it had subsided for now. I put my boots back on and walked over to the Ponte dell'Accademia. I'd never been there before, and it really has the best view of Venice!

I found a restaurant and sat down to have dinner. I was starving! I had chosen a rather touristy restaurant but I really didn't care at this point. I had a delicious bowl of pasta and some wine and started chatting to these American men next to me who were heading to Florence the next day. So I told them all about Florence and the places to see, and they were so friendly.

I walked through lovely night-time Venice, which was thankfully dry, and back to the hotel.