The Fisherman's View, by Janie Davies Fitzgerald

Boats of Venice, by George Henry Smillie (USA) 1885

The Fisherman’s View

Our sails chuff, chuff in the slight morning breezes and the wooden planks of my boat creak as they expand in the warming sun.  We wait for the covered gondola to pass our bows.  At least his passengers will not get reddened from the sun, and he can move with his oar while we remain still until the wind decides to be our helper.  He is out quite far and is in our territory.  We need to be away from the city and in the fresher water to cast our nets.  He needs to go back to the canals and pick up some star-crossed lovers for an enchanting morning cruise.  

The lagoon is like textured glass with its reflecting riplets.  I love seeing the vibrant colors of burnt siena, forest green, and yellow ochre reflected back at me.  It was worth buying that new sail.  We are temporarily becalmed here, so I banter with my fishing friend about the prices our fish will fetch, the ongoing repairs on the canal bridges, the new restaurant down on the piazza where I eat several times a week, and the annoying flow of tourists clogging the canals and sidewalks on these perfect summer days.  Oh well, those tourists are eating our fish, I think.  I have to take the bad with the good. 
 
The scene behind us is truly superlative. Blush pink clouds dot the azure sky above the city.  The dome of the church of Santa Maria della Salute is burnished by the newly risen sun, and it glows a silvery white.  This hour of stillness as the city slowly awakens and I float on the water is my favourite.  My home with its pastel colours looks like it is constructed out of jewels.  Indeed, this beloved Italian city is the crown jewel of the Mediterranean.  

Janie Davies Fitzgerald

Janie Davies Fitzgerald is a retired middle school English teacher, a voiceover actor, a tutor, and an educational consultant.  She spends her free time as an avid reader, a writer, a poet, a scrapbooker, a genealogist, a gardener, and an amateur photographer.  She grew up fascinated by art as she watched her grandmother paint, and her husband is an artist as well.  Art has always been an integral part of her life.  She loves spending time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and her local art museum, The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York. ​