Venice

Venice is a city in north-eastern Italy, built on more than a hundred small islands in a lagoon and crossed by canals instead of streets. Much of the city stands on millions of wooden piles, tree trunks driven deep into the mud and clay of the lagoon, many of them hundreds of years old.^[1] The city is therefore built on a forest, upside down and underwater, which is the only forest in the world that holds up churches.

Why they do not rot

Wood usually rots when it is wet, but the piles under Venice are completely surrounded by waterlogged mud and water, with almost no oxygen. The fungi and bacteria that normally break down wood cannot survive there, and over time minerals in the water seep into the wood and harden it.^[2] The piles have lasted for centuries and, as long as they stay under water, are expected to last for many more.

Venice therefore depends on its foundations staying wet, which in a city famous for flooding is the one part of the water situation that is going well.

Getting around

Venice has around 400 bridges and no roads for cars. People get about on foot or by boat; buses are water-buses and taxis are water-taxis. Even ambulances, fire engines and rubbish collections travel by boat.

• Islands: more than 100.
• Bridges: about 400.
• Cars: none.
• Stepping stones: not needed; there are bridges.

See also

• Mud – what it is standing in
• Tree – what it is standing on
• Tide – which visits often

References

1. Pile, P. (1999). An Upside-Down Forest. Lagoon Press.
2. Oxygen, O. (2006). “Nothing to Rot With”. Waterlogged Wood Studies 1: 1.
3. Gondola, G. (2013). No Roads. Canal Books.