"Venice! Venice! When thy marble walls are level with the waters, There shall be a cry of nations o'er thy sunken halls, A loud lament along the sweeping sea!" The great Romantic poet, Lord Byron's eulogy to one of the most famous cities in the world, foretells a time when Venice finally sinks into the sea. Written over two hundred years ago, Byron's terrible prediction still strikes fear into those who live and work in Venice. And for the many millions of visitors and art historians who

flock to Venice every year, the possibility of losing such a unique city is utterly unbearable.

Venice, a city in northern Italy, is famous for its canals, stunning villas, historic palaces and numerous beautiful buildings. The city is built on an archipelago of 118 small islands in the shallow and marshy Venetian lagoon at the northern end of the Adriatic Sea. Some 400 bridges criss-cross the city's 150 canals to link the islands together. In the oldest parts of town, the canals provide the only means of access - either by boat or along footways leading to and from the water's edge. The gondola or traditional water taxi provides the iconic form of transport in Venice. Today, these beautifully-crafted boats survive, thanks to the trade provided by Venice's millions of visiting tourists. People living in the city tend to go about by vaporetti, a type of engine-driven water bus, or the barges called traghetti which allow pedestrians to cross the major canals at points which are too wide for footbridges.

Because of its unique geographical position on such marshy land, Venice's buildings are constructed on closely spaced wood piles imported from the mainland. The wood piles penetrate a soft layer of sand and mud until they reach a hard layer of compressed clay that lies beneath. Most of these piles are still intact even after centuries of being submerged in the lagoon's muddy waters. Miraculously, the foundations of some of Venice's most beautiful palaces and villas continue to rest undisturbed on these wood piles.

For centuries, Venice suffered periodic flooding by the "aqua alta", the high waters of the Adriatic's winter tides. However, in the 20th century, concerns that Venice was actually sinking down below sea level began to grow. The ground floor levels of many old houses flooded regularly, and the foundations of some buildings began to give way. Investigators realised that local factories pumping water from natural underground reservoirs were causing the subsoil to compact, causing buildings to subside. A ban against any pumping from the underground reservoirs helped stem the problem, although periodic flooding continued to cause damage to many of Venice's unique buildings.

*Adapted*