All language subtitles for Venice 24-7 5of6 When the Boats Come in 720p HDTV_Subtitles01.ENG

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.

BELL RINGING

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.

It's summer in Venice,
and the canals are congested

with around 35,000 motorboats
travelling through the waterways.

The high volume of traffic takes
its toll on the historic city,

as the choppy waters erode canal
banks and the foundations beneath.

But each year,

the canals are cleared to make
way for thousands of rowing boats.

For one day, Venice's
motor engines fall silent,

and the city stops as locals
and tourists take to the water

to celebrate their love
for this ancient city.

The Vogalonga, or long row,
is a 37-year-old, non-competitive
regatta,

and people from all over the world
sign up to take part.

First time, and I'm very excited

because everybody tells me it
will be crowded, it'll be crazy.

34, I was hoping it would be
like a thousand and something,

34, that's a good number.

Up to 6,000 people are expected
to participate this year,

an all-female rowing team called
Viva are regular entrants.

Team member, Nancy McIlroy
from Kentucky, now lives in Venice.

I've been coming and going
for nine years,

and then decided I just didn't want
to be on vacation,

I really liked this life.

The things that I really love
about Venice

are not the things
I expected, really.

I mean, I think there's this
whole mythological...

especially, I would say especially
Americans because I know
them better,

"Ah, Venizia, Venizia,
Venice is so beautiful!"

Well, it is,
but there's so much more

that's substantial about it,
that is to love.

The women who form Viva are from
Venice, Germany and the States,

and have rowed
together for five years.

They practice five times a week,

the rowing festival is the
culmination of all their hard work.

There's nothing more Venetian
than the Voga.

My passion is rowing in these
canals,

just think it's fantastic,

and there are people who row
across the lagoon that are 60,
70, 80 years old at their own pace.

It's the best exercise in the world,
it's social, it's civic,

it's just, it's part of this
culture.

And we just refuse to let it go.

Open to boats moved
by man power only,

the 19-mile journey is dedicated
to raising awareness

of the damaging effect of motorboats
on the city's foundations.

It's bad for the lagoon, it's
bad for the ecology of the lagoon,

and it's certainly bad for all
the infrastructure of the canals,

all the electricity,
it's all underneath.

And when you go through a canal
with this really powerful motor,

it just sucks, everything about it,
it just ruins the infrastructure.

The speed limit is just three miles
an hour,

the only boats allowed to break it
are the emergency services,

who can travel over
30 miles an hour.

At the Venice fire station, shift
boss, Giuliano Meinardi and his team
get a callout.

There are 90,000 logs marking
the waterways in Venice,

but the exposed wood rots quickly,
causing them to detach,

creating a floating
hazard for river traffic.

They try to put it up onto
the boat, but it's too heavy.

So, an alternative
solution is found.

The team drag the log to shore,
where they can secure it,

out of the way of passing traffic.

Stopping this ancient city
from crumbling into the water

is a problem faced by
every Venetian.

Local police
Commissioner, Giordano Zwinn,

is only too aware of
his responsibility.

Reducing the speed of the boats

helps reduce the wave motion
on the canals,

and it's up to local police
to enforce these limits.

A high-tech network of 40 cameras
in key positions across the city

is used to catch offenders
breaking the speed limit
along the Grand Canal.

A virtual map tracks the traffic
in Venice's historic centre,

with a dot representing each boat,

green for a boat travelling within
the speed limit,

yellow as soon as it's broken,
and red for a speeding offence.

Controlling the canals
and protecting the city is an
age-old problem.

Venice grew over a millennium,

houses and palaces were built
on wooden piles driven into the mud,

and tightly packed with clay.

It was from this floating
city that the maritime power,

the Serenissima Republic, was born.

Today, the city's modern utilities
are buried in these ancient
foundations.

From the sewage system, to electric
power lines and fibre-optic cables,

the life of the city depends
on maintaining the structures it
was built on.

Erosion repairs are constant,

whole canals must be blocked off and
drained, so the work can be done.

Engineer, Adriano Ecole,
works with the team at Insula,

a public company formed
to carry out vital maintenance.

For them, the traditional ways
are often still the best.

Two walls of wood or metal,
are filled with tonnes of clay,

these dams are placed at each end
of the section of the canal
to be drained.

Vital work needs to be done
as cracks and crumbling plaster

will appear in the building above,

but in Venice, even a simple
repair becomes a massive job.

Once the canal is drained
all the way down

the damage to the buildings
becomes evident.

Sometimes, whole sections
of the wall are in such a bad state

that they have to be removed.

But the teams must work quickly,

as once the wooden foundations are
exposed to air, they begin to rot.

Using a process called scuci-cuci,
meaning patch up,

the broken masonry must be
made secure.

It takes three months to
repair 50 metres of canal.

It's a time-consuming job,
and there's no shortage of work.

As the day of the regatta
approaches,

the weather takes a turn
for the worse.

Despite the adverse conditions,

the women of Viva take to the
water for some last-minute practice.

They're rowing in a caorlina,

a traditional,
hand made Venetian fishing boat,

whose flat bottom makes it
perfect for the shallow waters.

Up! Up!

Up!

But after less than
an hour on the canals,

the team decides to
abandon practice.

Did you feel the wind that just
came, just across?

We were just, I could never row,

neither could Adele who was in
the same position I was
in the other boat.

We never rowed, if we rowed
the boat just..."newwwh!"

This is like the theatre, you know,

when the rehearsal goes poorly,
the opening night usually goes well.

We hope that's what it is,
ha, we hope.

As the city prepares for
the Vogalonga,

policeman, Andrea Silveri
is on duty,

making sure that only licensed
drivers are using the canals.

48,000 boats are officially
allowed in the historic centre,

but during the busy summer,
unlicensed ones can slip
through the net.

It seems the boat this man
is driving doesn't have
a Venetian licence.

This time, the driver gets away
with a fine and a warning.

But the fight to protect Venice

isn't just about controlling
the canals.

Outside the historic centre,

there's also an unprecedented
engineering project underway.

Out in the Venice lagoon,

they're working around the clock on
the MOSE,

the biggest anti-flood
project of its kind in the world.

Flood defences will be built
in the three inlets at Lido,

Malomocco and Chioggia.

These will form a protective barrier

between Venice's historic centre
and the sea.

At high tide, steel gates will rise

by pushing water out
with compressed air.

These barriers will then stop
the water from flooding the city.

These gates will be housed in
concrete structures called caissons,

a kind of watertight
box on the seabed.

Enrico Pellegrini is
working in a 250 strong team.

The shape you can see here is
the recess of the gates themselves,

which will be installed
on the caissons,

once the caisson is
on the bottom of the sea.

These enormous frames are designed
by an Italian engineering company,

are unique to Venice.

They're now ready to be
lowered into the water.

The fate of the entire project
rests on this operation.

The thing is, that, we have
to take these concrete caissons,

which are very big, 50 metres by 60
metres, by more than 10 metres
in height,

and they weigh around 20
to 23,000 tonnes.

We have to take them from
the prefabrication yard

and launch them into the water.

The frames or be transported
via a railway system.

These carriages, which can push the
equivalent weight of a Boeing 747,

will take the frames to a heavy
lifting platform for the next stage.

At that point, we will transfer all
the load on the platform,

and this platform is going to be
lowered, very slowly of course,

until the caissons itself,
it will start floating,

because the caissons, it's a
box, it's an empty box actually,

even if it's a concrete,
it's also very, very heavy.

Anyway, it's a box, and will start
floating at a certain point.

From here, the frame is tugged
out to the point in the lagoon

where the barrier will
be constructed.

Once in place, it will lift to form
a dam between Venice and the sea.

The whole operation
takes around a week.

Due to the precision of what
we have to achieve,

we are also operating at -30, -24,
-30 metres underwater,

into a channel where the tide
and the currant are very strong.

So, this is the thing,

it's the precision we have to achieve
is very, very strict.

Enrico and the team have a
total of 18 frames to construct.

As it takes a year to make each one,

they are working on 13
simultaneously.

The race is on to complete
the project, without it,

Venice will continue to be
at the mercy of rising sea levels.

At the Venice fire station, the team
is taking a well earned break,

while one of their old colleagues
returns for a visit.

Veteran fireman, Lele Tale Pietre,
retired four months ago,

and has come back to see
how his former team are doing.

But for those on duty,
there is no glass of fizz

as it's not long until
the next emergency callout.

Rough weather overnight has sunk
a boat moored in a private dock.

And the owner has been unable
to retrieve it himself.

Using pumps which can
move 2,500 litres of water a minute,

they try to bail the boat out.

Every time they start pumping
the water out,

more starts pouring
into the back-end of the boat.

With the back-end made watertight,

they start to pump water
out of the sunken boat again.

Finally, with the boat bailed out,
they managed to pull it free
from the mud,

and tow it to a winch close by.

Job completed, the team
head back to the station,

where it's time to
check their equipment.

It's the day of the Vogalonga.

Since early morning

the Grand Canal has been filling
with thousands of rowers.

Organiser Antonio Rosa Salva,
the son of the regatta's founder,

has spent the morning making sure
everything is in order.

He's even managed to fix
the weather.

The boats assemble
at the start line,

including Nancy's rowing team.

Starting in the St Mark's Basin,

the route heads out in
the direction of Burano,

then back through the main
canal of Murano,

before re-entering the historic
centre at Cannaregio.

For the duration of the regatta,

the canal is closed to
all motor traffic,

with one exception.

In his powerboat,
Coast Guard, Alessandro Visentine,

must take sure the regatta goes
without a hitch.

But within minutes,
the first emergency call arrives.

SIRENS

On arrival, they discover that
it's a man overboard,

rather than a capsised boat.

Luckily for the Vogalonga rowers,

the regatta is heavily monitored by
all of Venice's emergency services.

CHEERING

Almost everyone is busy with
the Vogalonga,

things at the Venice hospital
are a bit quieter than usual.

But not long into the shift,
there's an emergency call.

SIRENS

Avoiding the busiest route, and
travelling near empty side canals,

it doesn't take the team long
to arrive.

It seems this lady already has
a serious lung condition,

in order to try and establish
the cause of her complaint,

the paramedics need to run
a set of tests.

Given lady's age
and medical history,

the team wants to take her back to
hospital to run more in-depth tests.

Out in the lagoon, keeping
the canals clear for the regatta

is still keeping Alessandro busy.

But Alessandro isn't just dealing
with wayward motorboats,

one of the rowers has been
taken ill.

The paramedics have been called,

but the ambulance is making slow
progress through the thousands
of boats.

This man's blood pressure is
dangerously high,

so the paramedics take
him straight to the hospital.

The Vogalonga is progressing
into the afternoon,

for Nancy and her team, it's time to
gather some energy

before pushing towards
the finish line.

The regatta is over halfway through,

and the canals are increasingly
congested.

Despite the fact this is
a peaceful rowing event,

the motorboats still keep coming.

In Cannaregio,

the rowers are starting to
arrive from the open lagoon.

The course becomes much more crowded
as rowers jostle for position

to pass under the
Three Arches Bridge,

towards the finish line.

Among them, the Viva rowing team.

And with seconds until the
canon marks the regatta's end,

the man who fell in has made
it back, just in time.

CANON FIRES

SINGING IN ITALIAN

With the Vogalonga over, Venice's
canals return to the 21st century,

motorboats and all.

The truth is there's a place for
all the boats in this lagoon,

but they have to slow down,
they have to slow down,

it's better for the lagoon,

and it's certainly better to
maintain this tradition of the Voga.

In the final episode,

the biggest event in Venice's
calendar arrives,

the Redentore.

And a bridge is built across
the Guidecca Canal in just a day.

As thousands of boats
and revellers throng the water,

the emergency services
struggle to be heard.

And Venice's final party
of the season goes off with a bang.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd