A surprise storm blanketed the historic center of Venice and surrounding islands with three to four inches of snow yesterday. Snow in Venice is a pretty unusual thing. I've never been lucky enough to see it myself. I would love to photograph it.
The canals did not freeze up, though. That's a truly rare occurrence these days. I was corresponding with some Venetians a couple days ago on the italia.venezia.discussioni newsgroup who said that there are some famous pictures of a 1927 freeze-up. And according to the The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Sun by Kenneth R. Lang, during Europe's "Little Ice Age" which lasted from 1400 to 1800, "Venice's canals regularly froze over" (this sounds a little overstated). According to famed historian Will Durant, the winter of 1708-1709 was one of Europe's worst in centuries and froze the laguna solid. I know I have heard about skating on the canals, but can't seem to find a source.
Well, snow in Venice isn't so rare, even if it's not so abundant and regular like in the rest of the Po valley (Turin, Milan, Bologna etc).
The canals freeze normally one winter every 4/5; the last was during winter 2001-2002.
During the "small ice-age" between '600 and '800 the Venice lagoon frozen many times.
Posted by: Matt | September 18, 2004 at 12:06 PM
there is a painting in Ca Rezzonico museum showing the forzen lagoon in 1788
Posted by: luis | April 17, 2005 at 03:21 PM
You're a braver woman than I it was weeks before I could even begin to think about looking at the incisions from my lap. Even now I don't like to touch them. They're...squishy.
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