Some of Venice’s iconic canals have dried up and left a disgusting stench
Topics: News, World News, Weather
Rachel Lang
Featured Image Credit: Simone Padovani /Awakening / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: News, World News, Weather
Venice's iconic gondolas have been beached as staggeringly low tides have resulted in the city's usually beautiful canals being reduced to mere mud flats.
The low tides have left some canals almost dry while boats have been left stranded and abandoned.
But, as well as having life hampered by the lack of water (and therefore bringing the preferred method of transport to a halt) their city is facing another problem.
The smell.
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Yep, with the low tide comes a rather lurid scent, akin to sewage.
"The smell is terrible. It had more charm before," one person in Venice told France24.
The stench of sewage has made the city an unpleasant place to be.
For the gondolas that are running, they are seeing very little business thanks to the crippling stink.
But, it isn't just travel and tourism that has taken a dive thanks to the non-existent water that usually flows freely through the city.
One local told France24 she feared for the safety and security of those around her.
"If someone needs an ambulance, they can't get there," she said.
So, while motorboats throughout the iconic city have fallen silent, some have wondered why the once-floating city has come up dry.
Well, it would seem a myriad of reasons have come together to form the perfect storm (or lack thereof) of conditions to lead to dried-up Venice.
According to The Local, dry conditions, a spell of high pressure weather over the Adriatic Sea, a full moon, and the moon being at its nearest possible distance to the Earth on February 18 have all been attributed as potential reasons for Venice's beached-in mini-break.
Northern Italy has also been struck down by drought, but, according to marine researcher Georg Umgiesser at Italy’s National Research Council, that shouldn't have an impact on Venice's iconic canals.
"The drought has nothing to do with it," he told weather website MeteoWeb.
"Rainfall doesn’t affect tide levels."
Instead, Umgiesser argued that Venice's big dry stems from a 'combination of meteorological and astronomical events'.
So, if we can rule out drought, that puts Venice's smelly problem down to the staggeringly low tides that will just have to be waited out.
A period of low tides isn't exactly uncommon either.
Locals call it a 'bassa marea', if you want to get all fancy. Either way, tourists and locals alike are at its mercy.
So fingers crossed that the Four Attributes of the Apocalypse of Stench decide to get their act together, because it seems like many are getting frustrated with stench permeating through the formerly floating city.