Venice Fellowship - Day 5

09:38 am

We awoke this morning to the sound of the Venetian flood warning. Four rising tones echoing ominously over the city, warning us that within two hours the high water will come. Record breaking levels on the way.

Having drowned our plans to go walk over the Accademia bridge to the Peggy Guggenheim exhibition, we are currently planning what to do today. The plan is to find an alternative to our 10 euro a pair plastic bag boots, and find actual wellingtons. Whether we'll even make it to the shop before the water comes is a mystery, but we have to try. I'm sure that once we've found some, we'll get time in for some drawing, despite the warning from our land lady not to venture out. I'd rather get wet and see some interesting things than stay dry and miss an opportunity. More updates to come.

15:14 pm

I don't regret my decision. But I admit that it wasn't a smart one.

Jas, Katy, Hannah and I met in town to find some Wellington boots and were successful. 15 euros and one pair of rubber wellies later, we then stopped in at a café for an espresso, two lattes and a cappucino. We then had a walk into to Cannareggio to explore around the old Ghettos. Jas went and walked home alone, but we continued onwards, telling ourselves that as soon as the water started to reach the middle of our shins, we would turn and go home. By that point, it was too late.

By the time that we had walked all the way back to  their front door with the plan to continue home by myself, the water was spilling over the top of our boots anyway. Thankfully, the girls let me camp out at theirs until the water goes away, so I've been drawing from the window, with a view out into the waterlogged gardens below and across at the windows of other stranded visitors and locals of Venice.

20:33 pm

The water finally started to go down at around 4, so I stayed a couple more hours until I had the safety of low tide, and started walking my way home in the dark. I was more than a little intimidated by the storm, as I'd just spent a few hours watching the palm trees outside bend sideways with the wind, and listened to the shutters slamming into the buildings. I didn't want to be the next thing being thrown around in the storm, but I needed to get home, so I got walking.

Jas had messaged us earlier to let us know that it had been up to her waist along Garibaldi (apparently a policeman whom she had asked for directions looked her up and down, in her Doc Martens, tights, long fleecy dress and coat, and shook his head before he told her which way to go), so I was glad to see that the water wasn't reaching much more than 3/4 of the height of my wellies even with the waves along the sea front, so I kept a good pace and got home within 45 minutes.

As I walked, I was watching the waves sweeping over the pavement, pushing at the legs of chairs and tables, barely tied down at the sides of the restaurants. Though they are usually vacant even at night, the bays of Gondolas were full with them, all of them in a silent contest to see which could get higher and further in to shore with each wave. Had it not been for the platforms, they could easily have been taller than me as I tip-toed my way past each Vaporetto stop on the way home.

Upon reaching Garibaldli, I was utterly enchanted. The waves were reducing down to ripples on the eerily quiet high street. Though I wanted to be inside, away from the aggression of the elements, I turned in to a side street for a moment and grabbed a page of black pastel paper which I had bulldog clipped into my sketchbook. I searched for my white fine liner but was unsuccessful, but did find an almost completely blunt white watercolour pencil. And so I stepped out into the Acqua Alta and began drawing.

Crumpled into my hand (I wasn't about to risk dropping my entire sketchbook) with rain water dropping onto it, the paper warped and creased as I drew, and the pencil wore down further until I had no choice but to press harder and harder into it. Folding the paper made it easier to draw without tearing it and so this allowed 4 smaller spaces for quick drawings.

Had I not been exhausted from the walk and desperate for food, I would have gone home to sharpen my pencil and come straight back out. The water levels are set to rise again tomorrow, so I will go out in bin bags or flip flop shoes with bare legs and draw again tomorrow night, because I enjoyed this Venetian drawing session the most out of all of them this week. Tomorrow is also a research day, so perhaps I'll get to see more of the island. But I think its best to stay close to home for now, at least while the storms are passing over.

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