The Fifth Siren

In this panel discussion, the team behind The Fifth Siren podcast discuss Venice’s past, present and future.

When the high tide reaches Venice, four sirens are sounded to warn the population of the incoming danger.

Each one of them represents a growing level of emergency, the level of the rising water. Yet there is no sound after the last siren.

In 2019, when the storm hit the city, nothing could have prepared Venetians for the level of destruction it was going to bring. This is how The Fifth Siren was born. Venice is the nexus where many global crises come together – environmental, cultural, social, technological.

Written and produced by Giorgia Tolfo, Paolo Nelli, Marco Magini and Maddalena Vatti, the podcast alerts people to these crises and explores what is beyond them: the many challenges we have to confront when facing an unknown future.

About the lecture series

This event is part of a series of talks given by researchers, scholars and experts to accompany Canaletto's Venice Revisited at the National Maritime Museum. 

The talks will illuminate Venice's dynamic history and explore what Venetian music, literature, art, architecture and ecology can tell us about the challenges that the city faces from rising sea levels, population decline and mass tourism.

The series is generously supported by the Italian Cultural Institute. All lectures will be held in the Lecture Theatre of the National Maritime Museum or at the Italian Cultural Institute at 39 Belgrave Square in London.

Main image: Ricardo Gomez Angel, Unsplash