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On such a night the very spirit of Venice is abroad. We feel why she is called Bride of the Sea. Take yet another night. There had been a representation of Verdi's 'Forza del Destino' at the Teatro Malibran. After midnight we walked homeward through the Merceria, crossed the Piazza, and dived into the narrow calle which leads to the traghetto of the Salute.
There is no need for a gondolier ever to do so either by day or night; while when he is not talking he is accompanying every movement by a grunt. It is this habit of talking and bickering which should make one very careful in choosing a lodging. Never let it be near a traghetto; for at traghetti there is talk incessant, day and night: argument, abuse, and raillery.
Both the Vecchi, indeed, continue to ply their trade, day and night, at the traghetto. Traghetti are stations for gondolas at different points of the canals. As their name implies, it is the first duty of the gondoliers upon them to ferry people across. This they do for the fixed fee of five centimes. The traghetti are in fact Venetian cab-stands.
Both the Vecchi, indeed, continue to ply their trade, day and night, at the traghetto. Traghetti are stations for gondolas at different points of the canals. As their name implies, it is the first duty of the gondoliers upon them to ferry people across. This they do for the fixed fee of five centimes. The traghetti are in fact Venetian cab-stands.
A calle and traghetto, with a wall shrine at the corner, come next, and two dull Contarini palaces, one of which is now an antiquity store, and then the Rio S. Barnaba and the majestic sombre Rezzonico with its posts of blue and faded pink. This for long was the home of Robert Browning, and here, as a tablet on the side wall states, he died.
They whisked around the corner under the arcade of the ducal palace, and almost before they reached the traghetto the shower was stayed and the sun came out on the lucent water.
Since this happening Piero had been indeed a great man among the people a popular idol, with a degree of power difficult to estimate by one unfamiliar with the customs and traditions of Venice; holding the key, practically, to all the traghetti of Venice, since even before this sweeping disaffection of the Castellani the Nicolotti were invariably acknowledged to be the more powerful faction, so that now it was a trifling matter to coerce a rival offending traghetto; and gondoliers, private and public, were, to say the least, courteous toward these nobles of the Nicolotti, who were dealing with tosi as never before in the history of Venice.
The dinner had left me as much in the dark as ever, and I was trying to make up my mind what to do next. "'Why not stay here and smoke? I asked. "'No, walk along with me as far as the traghetto, please, and he laid his hand in a half-pleading way on my arm. "Again that same troubled look in his face that I had seen once before made me alter my mind.
"Come hither, vecchio mio, and rest thine old bones; let the young one work for us both," the padrone commanded, as he flung himself down among the cushions. "Do they treat thee well at thy traghetto?" "Eccellenza, yes; but I am scarce older than the others; it is the young ones who make us trouble; they keep not the Mariegole, and it is only the old one may depend upon."
We smoked a last cigar, crossed our traghetto, and were soon sound asleep at the end of a long pleasant day. The ball, we heard next morning, finished about four. Since that evening I have had plenty of opportunities for seeing my friends the gondoliers, both in their own homes and in my apartment. Several have entertained me at their mid-day meal of fried fish and amber-coloured polenta.