Mr. Easton has the good fortune of visiting Venice about twice a year.
He gives a great narrative for this sequence of images.
I've highlighted his quotes in white.
"The pictures were taken just a couple of weeks ago, July 28 to be precise. It was pretty hot, above 90 degrees at 10:30 am.
My interest, while watching from across the rio was how few power tools, or devices with mechanical advantage, they use."
"As we see the first photo, one of the guys has moved two blocks and a board into position, ready to turn the boat."
"A few seconds help from others and it's done."
"The middle picture of the group shows that two boats had been turned, and it looks like the squero has some visitors."
"Somewhere along the way, one of the guys was scrubbing the bottom of one of the boats with what looked like an abrasive pad.No motors, no rotary power, just muscle."
Some of the buildings of Squero San Trovaso are recognizable in this next shot.
"A short while later the fellow in the black shirt, the one with glasses, came rowing down the rio with another boat needing service."
"They organized the rollers, collected spare hands, and had it up on the hard in less than 2 minutes."
If there were a magazine for gondoliers, I think this next shot would look good on the cover.
Mission accomplished!They may not look like gondoliers in their shorts and bare chests, but most of these guys probably row these beautiful boats every day in the canals of Venice.
Our photographer wraps it up by pointing out:
"Up in one of the "down east" boat shops in Maine, they would still be running the winch line down the railway and firing up the winch engine."
Thanks to Bob Easton for this great sequence of photos.
They make it seem as if we're sitting across the rio, watching it all unfold, and wishing we could be one of those guys dragging the gondola up onto the flat.
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