The canals of Italy's famous city of Venice have been drenched by heavy rain, sending water levels soaring to near record highs.

With a metre-and-a-half of water, 80 per cent of Venice was flooded at the peak of high tide. The combination of meteorological and astronomical factors that led to it, Sunday's tides were the seventh highest of all time.

Al Jazeera's Claudio Lavanga reports from Venice.