Regatta Storica, Venice Part 2

Part of the enjoyment of the long afternoon was watching the people around us. We had lucked onto two seats in a gondola at the traghetto stop near San Toma. Walking through the alleyways, we saw a sign that said, in Italian, Reserved Seats in Gondolas to View Regatta. So we took two. We sat in the gondola, on the divan, facing out to the Canale, of course at water level, so we were right 'in it'. There were thousands of gondolas, private and commercial, as well as other types of boats, lining both sides and all up and down the Canalasso. People were sitting in huge reviewing stands built for the day (those seats were long since sold before Sunday) as well as chairs set up on the short piers and quayside. We thought we had the best seats. The photo above is Angel in 'our' gondola, King for a Day.

These two Venetian men of a certain age in their wonderful white clothes and sportiva Bardolino hats really caught my eye.Brilliant colors abounded, especially in these balloons. The racing boats were in six or seven colors: orange, red, green, violet or purple, yellow and blue.

The gondola to our right contained five Italian men who all spoke English with us. This is one of them with his bandanna hat and the dog on the gondola to his right.

To our left was a young family in a private gondola. This is the absolutely adorable little girl. She bedeviled her older brother until she fell asleep under an umbrella.