Italy on Wednesday found itself battered by a major pre-winter storm with heavy snow in the north and high winds and seas in the south.
The storm front moved in over the night and Milan and cities in the northwest awoke under a blanket of snow which created havoc on roads and at airports.
This was the second time in two weeks that snow has fallen in Milan out of season.
High winds and heavy rain hit the northwestern coastal regions hard and the interior ministry to urge people to travel in the northwest only if absolutely necessary.
Motorway traffic was at a virtual standstill between Savona and the French border at Ventimiglia, where as many as 1,000 trucks have been forced to stop.
Heavy snow in the Alps, between 15-45cm, has increased the risk of avalanches, especially in Piedmont
Snow fell on the northeast mountains later in the day while rain, locally heavy, spread to central Italy and the south, where gale winds and high seas interrupted maritime traffic, isolating the islands in the Bay of Naples as well as off those Sicily.
The bad weather has already claimed one victim, a 73-year-old retiree who was crushed to death by his tractor while he was plowing snow outside his home in a small town near Turin.
HIGH WATER RETURNS TO VENICE.
Exceptionally high tides once again swamped Venice with the 'acqua alta' (high water) rising 109cm above normal and flooding much of the lagoon city, including St Mark's Square.
The phenomenon is set to return with the evening high tide and the water is expected to be about 100cm above normal, while on Thursday the acqua alta could reach as high as 120cm, experts said.
At the start of the month, relentless winds helped push the sea level to 156cm above normal, the highest acqua alta since 158cm in 1986 and 166cm in December 1979.
The record acqua alta was in the great flood of 1966, at 194cm.
Levels of 100-130cm above sea level are fairly common in the lagoon city, which is well-equipped to cope with its rafts of pontoon walkways. But anything much above 140cm risks swamping the city and washing the walkways away.
BAD WEATHER INTO NEXT WEEK.
The forecast is for the weather to get worse before it gets better and no break is expected at least until late Friday, and then only in the far north with the arrival of a cold front.
By the weekend the bad weather should be limited to the north and western coastal regions, at least until next Tuesday when some improvement is expected.
