Original subtitles

Venice, one of the most stunning cities on Earth.

Over 50,000 tourists arrive here each day for the carnival,

culture and canals.

But what they don't see is how this city works.

This is Venice from the inside.

Around the clock,

emergency teams fight to keep a city built on water safe and working.

ALARM BELL RINGS

With unprecedented access to police, fire and medical teams,

we come face to face with the unique daily challenges

and life-and-death drama.

Up to yesterday evening, she was all right and this morning, she was found not responsive.

This is Venice 24/7, where the ordinary becomes extraordinary.

Venice has almost 2,000 years of culture and history

packed into an island three miles long.

The high density of ancient buildings

erected on mud and still in good working condition

makes this one of the world's most architecturally valuable cities.

It's Venice's uniqueness which draws millions of visitors each year.

But as tourist numbers rise, resident numbers fall.

Less than 60,000 people now live here year-round.

In the depths of winter,

the city is briefly handed back to the residents.

Once the tourists go home,

ordinary men and women get down to ensuring the city is set for the year ahead.

In the heart of Venice, just off the Canal Grande,

is the historic centre's only fire station.

Here, over 50 firemen operate a fleet of super-fast fire boats,

ready to be launched for any emergency.

At the helm is 39-year-old Alessandra Bascia.

This is not my town. This is not my place, my birthplace, I mean.

I'm coming from the south of Italy and in Italy,

there is quite a difference between South and North.

I'm a woman and here, firemen are almost all men.

This could be a problem.

SHE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

I'm the one who says, "OK, do that, don't do that."

This could be another source of problems.

I think that by respecting others, you get respect.

Alessandra is one of the country's first female fire chiefs.

She's headed up operations here for 12 years

and sees herself as one of the guys.

She's running the day shift

and the bad weather swiftly triggers the first emergency call-out.

ALARM BELL RINGS

It's not a fire but a more common occurrence at this time of year -

a boat that's sinking.

The team head to the busy district of Cannaregio

on the north side of the city.

It only takes one obstruction on Venice's busy waterways to cause chaos.

But with the bad weather now setting in,

the team have difficulty reaching the site.

In Venice, there is the water

but the level of water is not the same all the time.

It changes from one hour to another.

As water levels rise, any one of the 400 bridges

can pose a serious hazard to the exposed firemen.

With thousands of passengers using the canals each day,

the half-submerged boat poses a real danger.

They need to pull it out of the water.

In bad weather, a boat sinks almost every day.

The firemen typically pump water from the sunken boat to lighten it

before attempting to heave it out of the water.

Thick snow and choppy waters are hampering the operation.

All the firemen can do is cordon off the area

and send another team back once conditions improve.

At this time of year, the city is as empty as it ever gets.

It's not just the water-based emergency services

who need to adapt to Venice's encroaching winter.

On land, the sudden blizzards and fluctuating water levels

can also complicate vital day-to-day jobs,

as Denis Vianello knows all too well.

Denis often starts at 6:30am,

cleaning up after revellers or collecting residential refuse.

Each cart can hold 900 litres of rubbish, which Denis has to drag

to a designated rubbish stop before it's transferred to a boat.

Once Denis gets the rubbish to the right mooring,

it's then loaded onto the boat and crushed.

Up to 20 cartloads can be transported each shift.

No matter what the weather,

the city's half a ton of daily rubbish must be dealt with.

500 years ago, those who dumped rubbish illegally

were publicly flogged.

Refuse is still a problem

but the ancient city has a 21st-century solution.

There's no landfill in Venice,

so the rubbish is taken along the canal to a processing plant.

Here, it gets turned into pellets of energy.

The process is overseen by Massimo Rossi.

Tourists may create the waste of around 100,000 extra residents,

but that in turn creates more power for the city.

Over on the northeast side of the historic centre, in Castello,

is the city's only hospital.

This being Venice,

even a high-tech medical facility has an ornate 15th-century facade.

Part of the hospital is housed in a 13th-century convent,

dating back to when Venice was a thriving port and maritime power.

Diseases passed through as often as cargo,

so it was here that one of Italy's first healthcare systems was born.

Today, the hospital is still at the cutting edge of care.

It's from here that its four water ambulances

speed across the canals nearly 16,000 times a year.

Venice's ambulances and emergency room

are run by South African-trained Dr Michele Alzetta.

Living in Venice, we're almost always on the verge of an emergency.

About 29% of the population in the historical centre of Venice

are old people.

We have a proportionately larger number of people

having health problems here

than in a town with a younger population, of course.

On average, two emergency call-outs are phoned through

to the control centre each hour.

The team take an emergency call about someone who collapsed at home.

It takes the team just five minutes to get to the right mooring

but on Venice's 30-mile stretch of busy waterways,

finding a place to park isn't always easy.

Unfortunately, there's another boat parked here

so we have to cross this one to get off.

After a few minutes searching for the patient's address,

the team realise they can't find it.

People actually don't know where they live,

at least not so clearly as to tell somebody else.

Venice is a collection of separate settlements

gradually joined together over 15 centuries.

The six different districts result in a bewildering maze of streets and squares,

each with their own numbering system.

Unfortunately, the numbers are not inserted into any of the GPS services.

GPS services don't really work here in Venice.

Searching for the right address can add precious minutes

to the team's response time.

Finally, the house and the patient are located.

This lady has already had a stroke in the past.

Up to yesterday evening, she was all right and this morning,

she was found with her gaze fixed to the left and not responsive.

The patient is in her late 80s. She's already suffered two strokes.

They need to take her in.

We have to get back to the hospital now with this lady

who has had a stroke.

I just controlled her parameters but the blood pressure is all right

and she's breathing OK.

Getting back to the hospital thankfully takes just five minutes.

Dr Alzetta barely has time to drop the patient off

before he's called out on the next emergency.

Although the sun has come out, winter makes its presence felt.

Water, the lifeblood of Venice, threatens to overwhelm it.

The city can flood up to 60 times a year.

The fire brigade has been called out to rescue another sunken boat,

this time in the area of Castello.

Today, they've brought the divers.

Venice sits in a tidal lagoon

and water levels rise and fall twice a day.

If boats are moored too tightly, one end dips as water levels fall.

It then fills up with water from waves created by passing traffic.

The firemen decide to use a system of ropes and pulleys

to drag the boat from the canal.

They try to hoist it but the water inside has made it too heavy.

The owner of this boat is training to be a gondolier,

so a sunken practice boat is a setback.

For residents in Venice, daily life in the city has always been about combining new solutions

with traditional techniques - and death is no different.

In the late 18th century, Napoleon outlawed burials in Venice,

insisting the bodies be taken across the canal

to the island of San Michele.

Special funeral barges had to be built.

Today, negotiating the lagoon still poses unique problems

for funeral director Nicola Soffiato.

With 1,100 funerals to conduct each year,

these barges have been given a 21st-century upgrade.

Nicola has had a lift specially designed by a local company

to handle the loading of the coffins onto the boat.

It's a system which exists nowhere else in the world.

Today, it's the funeral of Friar Alfonso - a Franciscan friar

who, after taking a vow of poverty,

spent over 40 years in the San Francesco della Vigna convent.

His involvement in local life made him a much-loved figure.

Hundreds have turned out to pay their last respects.

BELLS TOLL

Friar Alfonso is one of a privileged few

allowed to be buried in Venice.

With land so scarce,

there are waiting lists for the few available plots.

After the service at the church of San Francesco della Vigna,

Friar Alfonso is transferred onto the special funeral boat

and taken to his final resting place,

across the canal at San Michele.

It's eight o'clock

and the start of a new shift for the team at the fire station.

The boats are vigorously examined every day -

maintaining the propellers and pumps is the highest priority.

The fire chief, Alessandra,

is one of the few people working here from outside the lagoon.

Most of the men are local

and today they are losing their longest-serving member.

Alessandra's deputy, shift boss

and Venetian Lele Tagliapietra

is taking the register of the 16 men on duty.

It's the last roll-call of his career.

At the age of 55, the married father of two

is about to take early retirement.

Losing someone like Lele, it's a problem for us

because he's full of experience as a Venetian and as a firefighter.

Lele knows better than anyone

the risks for every fireman working in Venice.

ALARM RINGS

But on this shift, there's a greater danger to worry about.

The most dreaded call of all has come in - fire.

SIRENS BLARE

A fire has been reported in a residential apartment.

As the city is mainly built on wooden structures with wooden floors

and roofs, if fire takes hold,

it will rapidly spread along the entire block.

The fire team needs water, quickly,

but only some parts of Venice

have fire hydrants - and this isn't one of them.

Hydrants were only installed in the city

following the devastating fire of 1996,

which claimed the landmark Fenice theatre.

This iconic 18th-century building

had already been ravaged by fire twice.

This time, the theatre was utterly devastated by the blaze,

which took two days to extinguish.

Losing the home of some of the world's most famous operas

struck a devastating blow to the cultural heart of Venice.

At the hospital, the ambulance has been called out again,

but this time the team has much further to travel.

Now we're going to Burano, which is a small island on the Venetian lagoon.

We have a patient with chest pain. We have no other information.

For Dr Alzetta and his team, it's a race against time.

The Venice hospital has to serve the whole lagoon,

including 13 outlying islands - an area twice the size of Birmingham.

Burano is 20 minutes away at top speed.

The team can't afford to waste more time

looking for the right address once they arrive.

At Burano, the patient's relatives are on the bank,

waiting to rush the doctor to her.

The patient is an elderly lady

and her condition has seriously deteriorated.

The paramedics begin resuscitation.

Despite the team's best efforts, this call-out has not ended happily.

So when we got there, she was already in cardiac arrest

for over ten minutes, so we did everything that was indicated,

but the chances were extremely slight and she just didn't make it.

Back at the burning building, the firemen have managed to stop

the fire from spreading, but the first-floor apartment

is badly damaged and the owners won't be able to return.

The fire may have been extinguished, but the danger isn't over.

Once the smoke has dispersed, the fire team can begin

their critical checks using a thermal camera.

In stone houses,

the camera is used to detect fire in an adjacent room, but in Venice,

fire is more deceitful, as it can be lurking in the wooden structure.

Walls and ceilings must be checked inch by inch.

Anything less than 100 degrees means that the building is safe.

The team confirms there are no burning embers in the walls.

They clear the fire scene

and have just one more distress call to deal with.

OK, but which way?

Out there.

Thank you. You're welcome!

After a six-hour operation, the team head back to the station,

just in time to celebrate shift boss Lele Tagliapietra's last day on the job.

The successful actions of his team today are a fitting end

for a Venetian who has devoted his life to keeping the city safe.

Lele! BLEEP!

THEY CHEER

APPLAUSE

We're still here.

In the next episode,

over 150,000 tourists descend for one of world's oldest

and most spectacular parties - carnival.

For those putting on the celebrations,

stakes couldn't be higher.

The paramedics are called out to rescue carnival tourists.

When we have carnival, we have a huge amount of drunk people.

And the police have to deal with a real death in Venice.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd