Something rotten...

It's hard to tell now, but Venice was built on a salt marsh. Underneath all the marble and brick, the foundation of Venice is actually wood. The buildings rest on millions of wooden piles which, submerged in mineral-rich water, don't decay (at least not very quickly). The wood used for boat docking, however, has contact with the air, and so it decays and has to be replaced. While waiting for the vaporetto one morning, we saw a work crew quickly replace some piling that was clearly rotting at the surface. The rotten pole actually snapped in the middle when they pulled it up, so I guess it was about time to replace it. The spotted dog seemed to be the crew boss.

Venice experiences "high water" fairly often now and one wonders how climate change will continue to affect this lovely city. Many of the old merchant houses are uninhabitable on the ground floor, and the city has an elaborate system of wooden walkways used during floods.