The movers of Venice
Ever watched a moving operation in Venice? There are, of course, no streets, only canals that are full of water and paved sidewalks. Movers are movers and the task of moving is the same everywhere, but here it entails the stepping on and off of a mover?s barge. To me it looked precarious, watching movers carrying my delicate dinner services and other highly breakable goods, waiting with one foot poised in the air for the landing to come to the same level as the barge before stepping off. Once or twice I mentally kissed goodbye to some item or another and wondered if it could be fished out of the canal after the barge had left.
But all went well and clearly the movers are used to this semi-marine existence that they lead. The movers never dropped anything and the boatman was highly adept at maneuvering the barge to within an inch of where it had to go to make life as simple as possible for the movers. The movers themselves hopped on and off the barge as though they had spent all their lives doing what I thought was rather tricky. I was pleased to be on dry land.