The cruise ships are gone, the gondolas are docked and the water in the canals of Venice is clear again, after ten days without tourists, driven away by the coronavirus pandemic.
This new-found purity is rare good news for the city and its region, which have been hard hit: according to the latest figures, 94 people have died in the Veneto region, where the number of positive cases has soared in the space of 24 hours (510 more, giving a total of 3,214 and an increase of 20 %).
Following the cancellation of the Venice Carnival, the hotels, restaurants and cafés that bring Venice to life were closed, as in the rest of the country.
The fast boats that criss-cross its canals and lagoon, stirring up the mud, no longer navigate. Only the boats of the police or the hospital services still cut through the waves.
FR 
EN 
DE