The Environment of Italy: Factories, Noise, and Nature

January 10th, Venice, Emma Penick    



    One of the first things that I noticed when we arrived in Venice was how quiet it is. In the majority of Venice, there are no cars or buses, only boats; even boats as taxis and buses! Venice is an absolutely beautiful place, and the most striking feature is the plethora of canals going through the city. Throughout these canals, there are gondolas, water taxis, trash collecting boats, and even market boats, which seamlessly integrate these waterways into the city. 





    In the readings for January 10th, the focus was on environmental problems in Italy, which was interesting because on first impression when going into Venice, there's not too much litter compared to other areas, and there's extremely little noise pollution. It also feels very natural because of the constant presence of the canals. However, one thing that I noticed after a little bit was the effects of climate change on the water. Especially in some areas, the water level was extremely high and even pouring over onto the sidewalks, which was a reminder to the fact that Venice is in danger of sinking because of rising sea levels. Another thing that I noticed was despite there being water throughout the city, there were very few green spaces. There were not a lot of trees or parks throughout Venice compared to other cities.





    One of our first site visits was to the factories. In these factories, glass beads were produced and women strung the beads. In the Murano glass museum, we were able to see how these beads were made, with very high heat to melt the glass and shape it. These fires as well as those that were used to heat all the houses and cook food in all the homes in Venice at this time contributed to the noticeable "brown cloud" that used to cover Venice. 

    Venice today has different environmental problems than it used to have in the past, and it's important to recognize these environmental problems to keep Venice the beautiful city that it is today.

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