Flooded Venice has been hit by a new high tide of 1.54m, giving residents no respite from a crisis costing Italy millions of euros.
People walking across flooded St Mark's Square by St Mark's Basilica in Venice. Photo: AFP
World-famous St Mark's Square, a magnet for tourists, has been closed, and schools are shut for a third day.
The canal city's famous waterbuses - the vaporetti - are not running.
The 1.87m peak on Tuesday was the highest level in more than 50 years, damaging monuments, shops and homes. More than 80 percent of the city was flooded.
The government declared a state of emergency in the Unesco world heritage site.
Residents with flood-damaged homes will get up to €5000 ($NZ8635), and businesses up to €20,000 ($NZ34,533) in compensation.
More than 80 percent of Venice was flooded after Tuesday's high tide of 1.87m. Photo: AFP
Desperate measures as water seeps everywhere
The BBC's Jenny Hill in Venice writes:
The first flood sirens went off at dawn, an eerie sound rising over the ancient bridges and waterways of the city.
Within a couple of hours, the murky green water of the Grand Canal had risen level with its bank, slapping over the paving stones as boats went past.
Nearby streets quickly flooded. Tourists, shoes covered in plastic bags, carried their luggage along raised narrow trestle walkways, which the authorities have put up to keep the pedestrian traffic moving.
On either side, dirty water continued to rise. At ground level, in their rubber wellies, business owners were already starting to operate small pumps. Many had raised the flood barriers across their doorways - apparently to little effect. Water was already seeping up to ankle height in the souvenir shops and cafes.
A woman walks her dog through a flooded street. Photo: Marco Bertorello / AFP
"It hurts to see the city so damaged, its artistic heritage compromised, its commercial activities on its knees," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who visited Venice on Wednesday, wrote in a Facebook post (in Italian).
The city has about 50,000 residents, but about 20 million tourists visit every year.
The tides have been worsened by sirocco winds blowing from Africa, and there are fears that global warming is increasing the frequency and severity of such floods.
The government says Venice's elaborate flood defence system will not be operational until 2021 - yet work began on it back in 2003.
Fondamenta Zattere - a long, much-loved waterfront area where tourists enjoy strolling - is also under water.
The city is made up of more than 100 islands inside a lagoon off the north-east coast of Italy. It suffers flooding on a yearly basis.
The government has pledged to release €20m ($NZ3.45m) in aid for Venice.
Only once since official records began in 1923 has the tide been higher than it reached this week - hitting 1.94m in 1966.
The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, blamed climate change for the flood, saying the impact was "huge" and would leave "a permanent mark". Strong winds lashing the area are contributing to the crisis.
Mr Conte said the government would accelerate the Mose project - construction of a hydraulic barrier system to protect the lagoon from rising sea levels and winter storms.
- BBC