As New York is drying out from the flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy, Venice has been hit by torrential rain and unusually high tides putting 70% of the city under water.
The low-lying city of lagoons experiences problems from high waters every winter, especially around St Mark's square where many of its building are regularly flooded, but this is the fourth time the city has faced extreme flooding since 2000, which Italy's environment minister, Corrado Clini, insists is caused by global warming.
Venice is is in the process of building an elaborate system of sea walls to cope with the worsening annual flooding, but the work is not scheduled for completion until 2015.
Image: Venice experiences extreme flooding for the fourth time since 2000
