Low tides leave Venice dry

The city has no roads, just canals – including the Grand Canal thoroughfare – lined with Renaissance and Gothic palaces. 

According to the details, just two months after experiencing some of the worst floods in the city's history, Venice's iconic canals have been left dry by exceptionally low tides.

Many of the city's waterways were concentrated impassable by the tides, with boats and gondolas beached along the sides of canals.

The drop in water peaked at 45 centimetres below sea level. Tides mean Venice's water levels typically vary by around 50cm, but extremely low tides are not unprecedented.

Combined with over-tourism, regular flooding has seen a migration of residents from Venice and population has shrunk below 60,000.