"Tourists floated suitcases through St. Mark’s Square, where officials removed walkways to prevent them from floating away."

"The water was so high that nothing less than thigh-high boots afforded protection. Water poured through wooden boards that shop and hotel owners have placed in front of doors during previous floods to hold back water. Tourists on the ground floor of hotels were forced to move to upper floors overnight. One man was filmed swimming bare-chested in St. Mark’s Square at what appeared to be the height of the flood. 'I have often seen St. Mark’s Square covered with water,' Venice’s patriarch, Monsignor Francesco Moraglia, told reporters. 'Yesterday there were waves that seemed to be the seashore.'"

From "Venice ‘on its knees’ after second-worst flood ever recorded" (AP).