One of the oldest settlements in what is today’s “Venice” — actually a cluster of islands and dependent territories on the mainland — is on Torcello, a smaller island out in the lagoon northeast of today’s main islands. It is actually closer to the mainland than today’s tourist Venice with which we are all familiar; it’s due east across the water from Marco Polo Airport. Torcello is often claimed as the first offshore refugee settlement in the Venice lagoon. In the early days it was a substantial place and was far more important commercially than today’s Venice. The land was farmed in Roman times, but the Roman settlement was apparently completely wiped out by flooding. It was resettled by the first refugees and again became a substantial urban place. Population estimates vary widely, but there may have been as many as 20,000 people. Today, there are fewer than a hundred residents. It is reachable only by boat. There are two notable churches on the island, so it’s a port of call for the tourist boats on the lagoon. The point being: catastrophic flooding is nothing new around the Venice lagoon.
Interesting. Thanks for the fascinating history.