Bounding Back

Venice is on the rise

In his poem "Ode on Venice," Lord Byron prophesied a time "when thy marble walls/ Are level with the waters." By 1969, after nearly two decades of economic boom, the 19th century English poet's prediction seemed to be coming all too true. To slake the thirst of new industries on the mainland, some 20,000 wells were dug, tapping the water table that helps cushion Venice's more than 100 canal-cut islands. As a result, the fabled city of palaces and churches, frescoes and piazzas, began to sink at a frightening rate, gauged by scientists to be an average of .5 cm (.2 in.) per year. Unless draconian measures were taken, the Adriatic would claim Venice within 60 years.

Now comes happier news. Venice is still sinking ever so slightly from natural causes. But according to a team of scientists who have been watching water levels since 1969 in response to the worldwide hue and cry over the plight of Venice, subsidence from man-made effects has ceased. That, said Geologist Paolo Gatto, is "definitive and final."

Venice's recovery has not been easy. Many wells have been capped; aqueducts now bring in water from the Po Valley. To reduce the smog that has been eating away at Venice's marbled monuments, factories have installed filters on smokestacks and homeowners are turning increasingly to natural gas instead of sulfurous coal. City fathers are also planning new sewage systems, as well as a widening of the shipping locks that lead into Venice's historic lagoon. All that should help ensure the survival of this crowning jewel of the Adriatic.

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