Day 93: Villach - Venice

JULY 5 - Wait around the train station in Villach for our next ride. I bought an OBB train ticket to Venice, but the 14 page pdf I received did not really explain very well what type of transport we would be taking. It took several OBB service people in the station to figure it out. It was actually a bus, leaving from the bus terminal across the street. This is why I never voluntarily go to a transport hub at the last minute, because you never know what surprises await you.

The first few hours of the trip pass through incredible mountain views, as we wind our way down the steep valleys. There is some serious erosion on these mountains, attested by the presence of concrete spillways and barriers, and the frequent bare areas that have clearly seen many recent landslides.

From looking at the maps of the region, I noted that the river systems emptying out into the flatlands of Italy were very wide. Now that I’ve seen the extreme erosion going on from this mountain range, it is not surprising that these rivers are completely choked with sediment.

Disembark bus at Venezia Mestre, a separate town that is on the mainland. I had no idea what to expect with this area, only that the apartment I chose is right next to a tram that goes directly to historic Venice. The downtown part where we are staying has tree-lined avenues and very peaceful, a lot nicer than I imagined. The apartment is a bit cramped and hot, but that’s what you get when you try to stay on budget in an over-touristed place like this. A three-day transportation ticket, good on trams, trains, buses, and ferries, costs EUR 40 per adult. Odette suddenly becomes eight years old so gets to ride for free.

Want to make more use of today, so take the tram for about 30 minutes to Piazzale Roma, the beehive that is the main transport gateway to Venice proper. There is a definite sense of energy here, with tourists of all sorts scrambling about, wheeling suitcases, or sunburnt and exhausted with cell phones in hand, and background chatter in a number of languages.

Water and Venice have been together since the beginning. The original inhabitants constructed a fishing village on a number of small islands in the Venice Lagoon to escape the land-based raids of the Lombards during the fall of the western Roman Empire. This village just kept growing, and as the structures became heavier, the pilings supporting it all began sinking in the mud. As such, there has never been a time when Venice HASN’T been sinking. What has changed now is that the Adriatic Sea, like many marine water bodies, is rising.

Flooding of city streets, once a rarity, is increasingly common. There is little that can be done to stop the sinking (estimated at 2-4 cm per century). The massive and expensive project that has, therefore, been built, raises floodgates at the three points where the Adriatic flows into the Venice Lagoon. These floodgates are supposed to be used only at critical high tides, but as sea level rises, they may become permanent.

It is easy to see why Italy would throw so much money (the floodgate project has topped EUR 5.5 billion so far) at attempts to save the city. This is one of the biggest tourist draws of Europe, and it must generate an incredible sum in taxes, as well as support a huge base of employment. A 30 minute gondola ride costs EUR 80 (max 5 passengers), a price regulated by the government. There are many hundreds of restaurants, shops, and art galleries, all crammed full of tourists at this time of the year. I gave up trying to find a hotel room in the historic district that was under $150/day. The tourist tax, levied on any tourist staying the night, is EUR 4/day, and I’m told it will increase to EUR 10/day.