Chioggia tide times

Chioggia sits at the southern entrance to the Venice Lagoon, 25 kilometres south of Venice, connected to the mainland by a causeway and to the open Adriatic by a navigable inlet. Where Venice is a tourist spectacle, Chioggia is a working fishing town — the largest fishing port in the northern Adriatic. Tidal pattern in the Venice Lagoon system is semidiurnal with a mean range of 0.4 to 0.8 metres; the Adriatic coastal tides are heavily influenced by seiches (resonance oscillations) and wind setup (acqua alta) rather than pure astronomical tides.

The lagoon ecosystem between Chioggia and Venice is the most intensively studied tidal ecosystem in Europe. The MOSE (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico) flood barrier system, completed in 2020, protects both Venice and Chioggia from acqua alta events by closing three inlets including the Chioggia inlet. When MOSE activates, the lagoon is effectively isolated from the Adriatic, and water levels inside are decoupled from the external tide for the duration of the closure (typically 4 to 6 hours).

Fishing is the economic and cultural backbone of Chioggia. The Sottomarina beach (directly across the inlet from the old town) is a long sandy Adriatic beach more developed for tourism, but the old town canals and the fish market at the Campo San Giacomo tell the real story. The Mercato Ittico (fish market) runs Tuesday through Saturday mornings — fresh Adriatic seafood: cuttlefish, spider crab, sea bass, bream, and the lagoon crab (moeche and masanete, seasonal soft-shell crabs).

Kayaking from Chioggia into the southern Venice Lagoon is a genuine wilderness experience — vast expanses of tidal flat, salt marsh, and fish farms, with the occasional sailing barge and cormorant roost. The lagoon flat sections are navigable only at mid to high tide; at low water the marked channels must be followed to avoid grounding. The tidal channels between the islands can carry 1 to 2 knots of current on spring tides.

The valli da pesca (traditional lagoon fish farms) east of Chioggia have managed the lagoon's fish populations for centuries. The pollaio (fish-holding pen) system uses tidal flow to trap and hold fish; the management is remarkably low-impact and the traditional knowledge is UNESCO-recognised.

Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model, cross-referenced with regional Adriatic data. For the most accurate Venice Lagoon tide predictions, consult the Centro Previsioni e Segnalazioni Maree at comune.venezia.it/maree.