Wednesday, October 20, 2010

I forced myself to get out of bed early this morning.  It's been cold,  and so I have avoided the 5 am. flirtation with Venice,  but this morning I got back on the 5:15 a.m. vaporetto to San Marco.  I love the experience of going out early in the morning and I wanted to see if the same time and same place would get me different results.  There is a great similarity of course,  same place,  same four gondolas in the foreground,  I wanted to stage the similarity,  but there were fast moving low clouds and that changed the colors to violets and pinks.

And I met the "Official Measurer".  He came on a bicycle,  his crew walked,  and he had "Official Measurer" printed in big letters on his jacket.  He also had a tape measure.   He is in charge of telling his crew where to locate the risers for acqua alta every day that it is necessary to place them..   And apparently the crew reinstalls the risers twice a day,  and then dismantles them twice a day,  every day during acqua alta.  And they bring in the wood for planks by boat every day,  twice a day,  and they take the wood away again,  by boat.    It's a process..   This morning I was painting when they came,  and I was exactly in their planned path,  I didn't realize it,  but they did.  So the Official Measurer rerouted the risers and ordered more risers and more planks (after taking out his tape measure and measuring) so that  they would not obstruct my view or cause me to move.  The resulting riser path slithered around in a backward S like the Grand Canal for 12 feet so that I would not need to move.   It was something.