Andrea knows how to sail boats because, until he was twenty, he lived in Venice and has often, of a summer, sailed in every part of the lagoon. He’s bringing David’s sampierota back to its moorings, which it seems everybody has forgotten about after what had happened. She was still moored at the canal close to Fabio’s house. To a Venetian, even a boat ─ in one way or another ─ has a soul her own.
sampierota There’s not a breath of wind in the air, neither a current in the water. Not even the landscape around either is moving. In a few slow-motion frames, all movement unfolding within the lagoon could be portrayed.
Atop the beams containing the navigable canal, a few open-winged cormorants stand immobile, like they’re statues. It seems they’re wearing small black coats; instead, the
