The Mose flood-defence system’s success will boost a centre-left government enjoying a reputation for quiet competence

Venice’s flood sirens sing, piercing through the early morning fog. Metal bulkheads are in position, securing shops and grocery stores. Wooden walkways sneak through calli and salizade – our streets. Locals sport emergency rubber boots. These are routine acqua alta (high water) preparations. But on 3 October, for the first time in our city’s history, all of it was superfluous. The Adriatic waters that have been both curse and lifeblood to the city were held back. As Tommaso, a Venetian gondolier, exclaimed in dialect familiar to me from childhood (I grew up nearby): “Xe un miracoo!” – It is a miracle.

But far from being proof of divine providence, this modern parting of the waters is the work of Mose, or Experimental Electromechanical Module, an integrated system of coastal barriers and mobile dykes designed to protect the Venice lagoon from exceptional acque alte up to 3 metres above normal sea levels. It has been long in the making: construction – and controversy – started back in 2003, after decades of deliberations and tests following the destructive tide of 4 November 1966, to date the highest on record.