Venice in the fog: my favorite! Unless I have to go somewhere on the vaporetto, and then there is inconvenience. A few mornings ago, walking was more efficient than public transport; vaporettos were running, but they were (as is customary in these cases) all going up the Grand Canal. Those that were running, that is, which is to say not all of them.
The year evidently began with a crunch for some unlucky person, as we discovered as our peregrination continued.
The fog could not conceal this boneyard on the Riva degli Schiavoni. The riva appears to have been dramatically riven.The helpful stanchions indicate that somebody else had also noticed. Somebody official.Holy God! I’m used to seeing the fondamentas gradually deteriorating, but this is like discovering the extinction of the dinosaurs.We deduce that the destroying angel was one of the “foranei” vaporettos that roam the lagoon where there are no bridges to be concerned with. However, one is certainly to be concerned about stopping the boat when it comes back to the dock. (The vessel shown was certainly the companion to the one that ought to have been moored to the other side of the dock in front of the catastrophized riva.) And I’m sure the captain was concerned, right up to the moment when the boat’s bow clove the stone in twain. Curiously, no mention of this was to be found in the newspaper. The editors must have considered it to be just another one of “those things” that could happen anywhere. Besides, one needs to give space to more pressing concerns, such as the residents protesting dog poop on the streets.
