Chapter 76 Gayle
G AYLE
The article is the first news item Gayle sees on her phone. The photo of Loretta all alone in the flood in Piazza San Marco is underneath the headline Life Imitates Art in Venice . She clicks on the link and reads the article.
Venetian local Loretta Bianchi, known the world over as Signora Bianchi from the forest-like restaurant Hotel Il Cuore, cut a solitary figure early on Thursday morning. Signora Bianchi was photographed standing ankle deep in the flooded Piazza San Marco next to Magdalena Jansen’s Venice Rising exhibit, affogando , highlighting the very real climate crisis facing Venetians.
Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg retweeted the photograph with the caption #SaveVenice. Thunberg’s tweet has since been retweeted over 50k times and #SaveVenice is trending worldwide.
Former United States First Lady Michelle Obama also shared the photograph on her Instagram account and captioned it: ‘I’m devastated by this image of Signora Bianchi, who our family had the pleasure of meeting in 2015 when she cooked for us in San Marco. Please save beautiful Venice before it’s too late. #affogando.’
The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, spoke to CNN this morning about the recent spate of floods in Venice. Says Brugnaro, ‘Signora Bianchi represents all Venetians. We are all broken-hearted, we are all drowning. We cannot continue to live like this. We have the technology to stop the floods with the Mose Project. How many more catastrophes do Venetians have to endure before the Mose Project is finally operational?’
Construction on the Mose Project, a complex system of barriers that can be raised during periods of high water levels, remains unfinished, having been besieged by over three decades of delays due to red tape and corruption.
Venice Rising curator Franca Menori argues that the answer to saving Venice doesn’t lie with the Mose Project. ‘Yes, of course it will be useful once it is finished, if we ever see that day. But even then, it’s designed to be used a maximum of fifteen times a year. Venice has flooded seven times in the last eight weeks. The Mose Project isn’t the solution. What we need is a collective effort across the world to lower emissions. We need to stop the cruise ships from entering our port, and we need to place a limit on the number of tourists who visit Venice every year. The Venetian way of life is on the brink of destruction. We must act now.’
Neither the Italian Prime Minister nor the Minister of Environment could be reached for comment.
The Venice Rising exhibition culminates on 5 January, on the eve of the traditional Venetian festival La Regata della Befana.
This year, as the gondolas race across the Grand Canal, the same thing will be on everyone’s minds: can Venice be saved before it’s too late?
Gayle puts down her phone and moves to the window. The rain continues to bucket down, and the street remains flooded. In the crowded lane, people’s umbrellas knock against each other and everyone is in rubber boots. Fancy having the technology to prevent all of this and not using it.
Mike has a hitlist of sights to see today, but Gayle has no interest in seeing anything.
Things still aren’t back to normal between them, and she’s beginning to wonder if they ever will be again. She created disharmony in her marriage and for what? It wasn’t enough for Noah anyway.
She turns away from the window, from the city that’s sinking, just like she is.