It was an event that was never meant to happen again.
Tested for the first time in adverse conditions, their successful deployment kept the historic centre dry for the first time in the city s history. It meant that the devastating floods of 2019 which caused more than $1 billion worth of damage to the city should be a thing of the past.
Venice was flooded on December 8 after the MOSE flood barriers were not activated.(ANDREA PATTARO/AFP via Getty Images)
In the two months since its introduction, at the start of what would traditionally be the flooding season, the barrier system, known as MOSE, has been successfully activated five times including for a three-day period last week.