Rocking the boat

Okay, bear with me. This is a bit of a long story, but it's worth it, I think.

Yesterday evening as we were walking to a restaurant for dinner with some friends from my Italian class, we passed a square in the Cannaregio neighborhood. We stopped for a minute to watch some boys playing soccer. And by "soccer", I mean they were playing "kick the ball around" next to a canal. We were walking away as John said "I wonder what they do if the ball goes into the canal." (Most of the canals in Venice don't have any kind of railing to keep people or objects from falling in.)

"Detto fatto", as the Italians say - their briefer equivalent of "No sooner said than done." We heard a commotion behind us and turned around to see the ball floating in the canal.

"Now what?" we wondered, as the ball began floating away toward the opposite (and inaccessible) side of the canal.

I took a picture as one of the boys climbed down into one of the small boats tied to the side of the canal and started rocking it side to side, creating waves that crashed against the opposite side and them came back. Wave after wave after wave, as the ball continued to float away to the opposite side. A nearby neighbor tried to reach the ball with a net, but it was too short. One of the boys ran around to a nearby side street in case the ball floated his way, but it didn't. All this time the boy kept rocking the boat, stopping only occasionally to splash water on his two other friends who were heckling him (in a friendly way) from nearby.

As we watched him rocking, we also watched the ball drift all the way to the far side of the canal. . . and then start floating back! He knew exactly what he was doing and that's why he didn't stop! As he reached down to pick up the ball that was now within reach, he started yelling something to his friends that I believe translates roughly to "Oh, yeah! Who de man? I'm de man!*" He grabbed the ball, lifted it over his head in victory, and I couldn't stop myself from yelling out "Bravo!" He looked at us with the ball over his head and bowed with a huge smile on his face.

Then we went on our way to the restaurant. Absolutely true story. Man, I love Venice.

And here's another reflection on Venice:

Yes, the weather has turned gorgeous. Just a little rain the evening, but glorious days. About 72 degrees for the high.

Tonight we go to a Vivaldi concert. Then tomorrow we leave Venice and go to Bergamo.

(*For any of my Italian class friends, it sounded as if he was saying "Chi e' stato?! Chi e' stato?!")