安娜·帕蘭德里一直穿著她的高筒雨靴，她在檢查自家Paradiso Perdut餐廳的受損情況。這家餐廳位于卡納雷吉歐社區，面朝運河，是個頗為熱門的覓食去處。平日里，餐廳里會擠滿大快朵頤，品味烤魚和蛤蜊意面的當地人和來自各地的游客。

餐廳每周會舉行一次現場音樂晚會，當天晚上，餐廳會清空所有餐桌，為音樂表演做好準備。餐廳網站的信息顯示，包括基思·理查茲和爵士音樂家亨利·庫克等知名藝術家都曾經在店內演出過。

餐廳的名字意為“失落的天堂”，但沒有人真想讓這里變成如其字面意思般的樣子。

上周四，帕蘭德里在餐廳附近徘徊時說，近期襲擊威尼斯的洪水讓所有人都感到措手不及。

帕蘭德里是地道的威尼斯人，今年8月，她剛剛接手了這家擁有40多年歷史的餐廳。她告訴《財富》雜志：“洪水我們都見過，也知道該怎么應對。洪水剛來時都比較平靜，越往后水勢越猛。這次開始時水勢就很猛，我們以為洪水很快就會退去，但沒有想到水勢一直在上漲?！?/p>

洪水初起時，意大利的氣象部門預測洪水水位將達到125厘米（略多于4英尺）。像許多商家一樣， Paradiso Perduto餐廳也采取了各種預防措施來應對時常來襲的洪水。只要潮水水位不超過1.5米，餐廳都能安然無恙。她說：“為了安全起見，上周一晚上打烊時，我們把店內所有物品都放在了桌子上。當時我覺得就算水位上升到1.6米應該也沒有問題?！?/p>

然而事與愿違。截至上周二，水位漲至53年來的最高水平：1.87米（約74英寸）。

洪水沖過防洪屏障，威尼斯的全部118個島嶼幾乎都被淹沒了，城市中一度有四分之三的區域被淹沒在水下。用威尼斯市市長路易吉·布魯尼亞羅的話說：“整座城市已經向洪水屈服。”

洪水至少造成兩人死亡，一人死于溺水，一人死于觸電。威尼斯著名的圣馬可大教堂也未能幸免，洪水沖破了玻璃窗，淹沒了教堂的地下室。工程師擔心，長時間浸泡在洪水中或將對這座具有927年歷史的拜占庭式大教堂造成結構性破壞。

許多水上巴士（威尼斯水城的水上出租車）被洪水沖上了岸,隨后沉沒或損壞嚴重。在大運河旁的地標性建筑——格瑞提酒店，洪水淹沒了大堂，酒店客人不得不爬上更高的樓層躲避。

離格瑞提酒店不遠處是鳳凰劇院，這座著名的歌劇院多年來曾經舉辦過羅西尼、貝里尼和威爾第諸多音樂大師的世界首演。鳳凰劇院以浴火重生的神鳥鳳凰為名。在三個不同世紀中，這座著名的音樂廳曾經焚毀于三場不同的大火。在其建筑架構經受上周的洪水摧殘之后，它將再次面臨考驗，即將到來的歌劇季或將因此無法如期舉行。

今年早些時候，威尼斯宣布，自明年的旅游旺季開始，該市將對一日游的游客收取進城費，這一計劃也引起了媒體的關注。讓威尼斯的宮殿和橋梁相形見絀的大型游輪也成為了市政府的目標，威尼斯計劃重新劃定通往碼頭的游輪航線，借此保護脆弱的瀉湖，而新線路在景色方面將會大打折扣。

但正如浪漫主義時期的詩人珀西·比希·雪萊在其詩句中寫道的那樣，“威尼斯的教堂與宮殿如同通向天堂的魔力織錦”，這座城市面臨最大的挑戰還是來自日益頻繁的極端天氣。

為了保護城市，威尼斯制定了“摩西”計劃，該計劃以圣經人物摩西（Mose）為名，MOSE也是“實驗性機電模組”的意大利文縮寫。該計劃預計耗資80億美元，自1987年起草立項以來，一直飽受超支及工期延誤的困擾。按照計劃，這一工程將在威尼斯瀉湖的三個入口處修建一組閘門網，當海水上漲至一定高度，閘門便會升起，阻擋海水進入瀉湖。理論上說，該計劃能夠保護威尼斯免遭水位在300厘米（約10英尺）以下的洪水侵襲。該項目原計劃于2022年投入運行，但政治領導人在上周表示應當加速推進項目進程。

米蘭工業大學的環境與土地規劃教授朱塞佩·帕索尼在接受《財富》雜志采訪時稱，“摩西計劃”是拯救這座標志性城市“最后也是最好的機會”。但是環保組織擔心，“摩西計劃”會讓威尼斯瀉湖變成一潭死水，影響棲息在此的魚類和鳥類的生存。

與此同時，像Paradiso Perduto餐廳老板帕蘭德里這樣的小業主則需要解決迫在眉睫的問題。她的餐廳主要提供簡單的傳統美食。店里提供的意面是自己做的，酒水也是從酒桶中直接取出提供給顧客，甚至連酒單都沒有。截至上周四，廚房里的設備依然是濕漉漉的，無法通電使用。

帕蘭德里估計，如果像冰箱、煎鍋這樣的主要設備出現損壞，那么她的損失可能將超過15,000美元。但無法營業帶來的損失可能更大。

她說：“我們賺不到錢還要付房租。”當被問及有沒有什么事情讓她充滿希望，帕蘭德里想了想，然后回答道：“有的，我們的面條機和烤箱放的很高，至少它們還能夠正常使用?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W）

譯者：馮豐

審校：夏林

Anna Palandri was still wearing her rubber, knee-high fishing boots as she surveyed the damage to her restaurant, Paradiso Perduto. The restaurant is a vibrant canal-facing hotspot in the Cannareggio neighborhood where, on normal days, locals and tourists cram side-by-side to eat princely meals of grilled fish and spaghetti alle vongole.

One night a week, they clear out the tables for live music. Among the bigger names that have jammed there, according to the website, are Keith Richards and the jazz musician Henry Cook.

The name of the restaurant, which translates to “Paradise Lost,” was never meant to be taken literally.

Sloshing around the place on last Thursday, Palandri said the floods that had battered Italy’s famed canal city in recent days caught everyone off guard.

“We’ve all been through many floods, and we know what to do,” Palandri, a native of Venice who took over the 40-year-old restaurant only in August, told Fortune. “At the start, flood waters are always calmer and then it gets rougher near the end. This time around, it started rough and so we thought it was nearly done. But the water kept rising.”

When the flooding began, the Italian weather service estimated it would reach 125 centimeters (a little over four feet). Paradiso Perduto, like many Venice businesses, has installed all kinds of precautions to withstand the flood waters that harass the city from time to time. Paradiso Perduto is safe as long as the surge is under 150 centimeters. “When we closed last Monday night, we put everything on table tops just to be safe,” she said. “I figured we’d be okay even if it rose to 160 centimeters.”

Things turned out much differently. By last Tuesday, the water rose to its highest level in 53 years: to 1.87 meters (around 74 inches). Water burst through flood protection barriers, submerging almost all of Venice’s 118 islands. In the end, three-quarters of the city was underwater at one point, bringing, in the words of mayor Luigi Brugnaro, “the city to its knees.”

At least two people died in the flooding, one from drowning and one from electrocution. In St. Mark’s Basilica, the famed church’s floors were flooded. Water pressure broke through heavy glass barriers, flooding the church’s crypt. Engineers are worried prolonged exposure to flood water could put the structure of the 927-year-old Byzantine-style cathedral at risk.

Many vaporetti (the water taxis used to get around the lagoon city) either sunk or were severely damaged after washing up onto land. At the landmark Gritti Palace hotel, along the Grand Canal, a waterfall inundated the lobby, forcing guests to rush for higher floors.

A short walk away from the Gritti Palace is La Fenice, the famous opera house that’s hosted world premieres from maestros including Rossini, Bellini, and Verdi over the years. It was named for the mythic bird—the phoenix—that rose from the ashes. Three different fires devastated the famous concert hall in three different centuries. It will be put to the test again after flood waters threatened the grand structure last week, possibly putting the upcoming opera season in doubt.

Earlier this year, Venice earned headlines when it unveiled a plan to charge day-trippers an entry fee, starting with the high tourist season next year. The city is also looking to protect its fragile lagoon by rerouting the massive cruise ships that dwarf the city’s palaces and bridges, to plot an alternative, far less scenic route to the docks.

But the biggest challenge for the city, which the Romantic-era poet Percy Bysshe Shelley described as being “like fabrics of enchantment piled to heaven,” comes from the increasingly frequent extreme weather.

There is a plan to protect the city. It’s called “Mose,” which is the Italian name for the biblical figure Moses, as well as an Italian acronym for “Experimental Electromechanical Module.” Mose—an $8 billion project that has suffered through delays and cost overruns since it was first drawn up in 1987—will use a network of submerged gates that will rise up to block off the lagoon at three key junctures. In theory, it should protect the city from floods of up to 300 centimeters, or roughly ten feet. It is expected to come online in 2022, though political leaders have said last week that should be moved forward.

In an interview with Fortune, Giuseppe Passoni, a professor of environmental and land planning at the Polytechnical University of Milan, called Mose the “last, best chance” to save the iconic city. But environmental groups worry Mose will suffocate the Venice lagoon, killing off fish and bird species that live there.

Meanwhile, small business owners like Paradiso Perduto’s Palandri are focused on more immediate problems. When open, her restaurant focuses on simple, traditional meals. They make their own pasta and don’t even have a wine list. Instead, they serve patrons from barrels. At last Thursday, her kitchen equipment was still too wet to plug into electric outlets.

If major pieces of equipment like refrigerators and her fryer don’t work, she estimates costs could surpass $15,000. But remaining closed to customers could prove to be an even bigger blow.

“We aren’t earning any money, but we still have to pay rent,” she said. Asked if there was anything that made her hopeful, Palandri thought for a moment and then responded: “Yes. Our pasta machine and oven were high up. At least I know they survived.”