In the only city in the world without cars, boats are the main mean of transportation. Since the early hours of the morning, the waters of Venice’s lagoon are crisscrossed by thousands of boats of all kinds: there are the famous gondole, the noisy tope used for transport, the elegant vaporetti, the oar-powered sandoli, and the sailing boats known as vela al terzo, a navigation system that is typical of the northern Adriatic sea.

Venetians talk a lot, and of few, selected topics, among which matters of love and boats are very prominent. More or less, we can suppose that on the speedboats on which the local youth dashes across the lagoon the former topic is prominent, while on rowing boats one manages to talk about both things (and little else). With the vela al terzo, on the other hand, the boat becomes a totalizing experience, in which time dissolves and the lagoon blends with the sky. Inevitably, every topic that is not the boat itself disappears, and it doesn’t take long to find yourself completely quiet, sliding on the lagoon in an unreal silence broken only by the noise of the surrounding water.