You might have heard from the news that last week a massive storm hit few areas in Northen Italy and Southern France. There are a couple of district in Piedmont which were seriously flooded. Experts calculated that in 24 hours the rain of a full month fell from the sky thus increasing in a very short time the capacity of several rivers. Few cities such as Ceva and Garessio were seriously damaged, bridges collapsed and the power of the waves destroyed most of the houses along their banks.

In the northern area of Piemdont the rivers also flooded the famous rice fields of Vercelli and the Val Sesia, thus we cannot expect the usual volume of Italian rice for the next commercial season.

Despite all the above, which is a real tragedy, especially in 2020 which already put everyone at a test, the storm did nothing to Venice.

Actually, also the Venice lagoon was hit by the storm but for the first time the Mose high-tide preventive system was used and, while the storm was raging over the city, the high tide was kept from invading the lagoon.

It took almost 30 years to build the system whose construction also underwent a scandal relevant to the costs which were pumped up to allow some official to get some black money out of it.

The Mose is basically a set of massive bulkheads placed on the seabed at the entrance of the Lagoon. When high tide is expected over a certain level, the system is operated. The bulkhead are lifted from the seabed and keep the level of the water, inside the lagoon, at a constant level.

Do not expect to never see Venice flooded by high tide anymore as it will happen again, provided that the Mose is operated only when the tide is supposed to be pretty massive. However, from now on, we will save the city from the serious damages like those caused by the floods of 1966 and 2019 which caused a serious harm to some of the most important sites of the floating city.

The Mose costed a fortune, a lot more than the original estimated cost, both for the complication arisen durign its construction and the corruption that consumed a portion of the budget (thankfully the thing was discovered and the responsible person are now in jail).

Although we, as contributors, paid a lot for the Mose, Venice is a city with no equal anywhere in the world, thus we do whatever it takes to save it and allow all of us, Italians and foreigners, to keep marveling before its unparalleled beauty.