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VACCINE

In Venice, over-80s are vaccinated on a vaporetto

In times of coronavirus, it doesn't get more Venetian than this.

In Venice, over-80s are vaccinated on a vaporetto
A resident receives a coronavirus disease Covid-19 vaccine aboard a Venice public waterbus "Vaporetto" during a vaccination campaign for elderly residents, on April 5, 2021. Photo: ANDREA PATTARO / AFP

Venice began vaccinating some of its elderly residents on a vaporetto on Easter Monday, using one of the sturdy, public water buses that are the most convenient method of transport in the city as a floating clinic.   

The one-day-only vaccination site was designated for residents over the age of 80 who reside on two islands in the Venetian Lagoon: Sant’Erasmo and Le Vignole.

READ ALSO: What are Italy’s rules for travel over Easter?

Given the relative remoteness of the islands, it made more sense to bring a vaporetto clinic to the elderly residents rather than making them travel to another island, health officials said. 

“(The initiative) has the dual objective of getting citizens used to the idea of vaccination, through this unusual form of service, and to offer those elderly people for whom it would be more difficult to get around the possibility of doing it a short walk from home,” said the city of Venice in a statement.

As Italy’s vaccination campaign is underway, some unusual venues are being used to administer the jabs. Outside Naples, some people have headed to the Capodimonte Museum, where reproductions of its masterpieces – including the reclining nude figure of the princess Danae by Titian – are hung in the vaccination waiting room.

Monza’s historic race track north of Milan, home of the Italian Grand Prix, was also being used for jabs for the masses this weekend.

Inside the vaporetto, a small table and chair were installed in one corner and cordoned off for privacy. Those with vaccine appointments waited on shore in seating areas under outdoor canopies for their appointments, before being invited on board for the jabs.

“It was pretty neat,” said Mario Cavagnis, a local resident who received his first AstraZeneca shot. “It’s a normal vaporetto, they just created a little clinic.”

How was he feeling? “For now, my arm is okay,” Cavagnis said. “So far so good.”

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VENICE

Italian scientists predict parts of Venice will be underwater by 2150

New research by Italian scientists estimated that large areas of Venice including the famous Saint Mark’s Square will be submerged by 2150 due to rising sea levels and the city’s sinking foundations.

Italian scientists predict parts of Venice will be underwater by 2150

A new study carried out by scientists at Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) found that tide levels in the Venetian lagoon are rising at a rate of approximately half a centimetre per year on average. 

Researchers predicted that the rise will result in some areas of the main island being permanently underwater by 2150, with Saint Mark’s Square forecast to be constantly submerged by 70 centimetres of water. 

The exact increase rates weren’t the same across the lagoon, with figures ranging from 4.22 millimetres at the Venice Lido to nearly 6 millimetres in Chioggia, in the southern section of the lagoon.

The study, which combined records from Venice’s tidal centre with satellite data on land subsidence, also concluded that the western side of the city, which includes the Santa Croce, San Polo and Dorsoduro districts, will be among the worst-affected areas.

INGV researchers pointed to rising sea levels in the Venetian lagoon as being emblematic of a wider phenomenon registered across the entire Mediterranean sea, whose levels have increased by some 18 centimetres since the beginning of the 20th century.  

“Sea level increase, particularly if accelerated locally by subsidence, is leading to increasingly severe and widespread coastal erosion, beach retreat and marine flooding with very significant environmental and socioeconomic impacts for populations,” INGV researcher Marco Anzidei said.

READ ALSO: Italy to suffer ‘exceptionally hot’ temperatures this summer

Venice has experienced increasingly frequent severe flooding in recent years as the city was hit by some 58 high tides (acque alte) of 110 centimetres or more between 2019 and 2023 – more than twice the number recorded between 2009 and 2013.

A 187-centimetre acqua alta – the second-highest tide in Venice’s history – caused the death of two people and hundreds of millions of euros in damage in November 2019.

A long-planned system of mobile barriers aimed at protecting the city from high tides became operational in late 2020 and has since been activated on over 80 occasions. 

But the MOSE sluice gates, which are placed at the lagoon’s main entry points and raised whenever high tides hit, have long been criticised by experts as just a short-term fix to rising sea levels.

READ ALSO: ‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

A 2021 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted a rise in the mean regional sea level of 28-55 centimetres by 2100 in their most optimistic scenario, and 63-101 centimetres in the worst-case scenario.

Experts have forecast that, in either case, the barriers will have to be raised so frequently that they will endanger the survival of Venice’s port industry and the lagoon will gradually turn into a marsh, which may ultimately result in the loss of many local wildlife species.

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