Uwe in Venice

photo by Stine Kunze I LOVE THIS PHOTO.
I can think of no better way to begin.
So many things about it deserve addressing.

First of all, the location, with the Ca' D'Oro vaporetto stop on one side and the Pescheria on the other, we know where it was taken. But it's the when that I think makes it so terrific - the sun is on it's way down, still painting the palazzi on the left side with it's golden hues, but most of the remainder of the shot is bathed in indirect light. The bright sky speaks of a clear fall day, which is further evidenced by the uniforms worn by the gondoliers aboard.

yes, the day, the city, and the lighting are great, but what I really love about this shot can be seen in the gondola.

They are gondoliers, but not just any gondoliers.
These are German gondoliers.
We have here, on one boat, the owners of three separate gondola operations in Germany.

Ingo Stahl sent me this gem recently, with the accompanying text:

Ciao, ciao Greg,
here I present you Uwe Kunze with a foto from Venezia 28.okt.09, the day he had purchased his gondola and we have had a very nice trip through the canali.
Uwe in pope, Jürgen Riegel and I. His pretty nice daughter Stine made the foto. Uwe e Tine sanno benissimo voga veneta. They have build their own mascareta by themself, he is Ingenier and she is studying shipbuilding.

With greetings from Wörthsee, Ingo

So back in October of last year, Uwe Kunze of Kiel went to Venice to buy the gondola we see in the photo. He and his daughter were joined by Jürgen Riegel of Bamberg, and Ingo Stahl from Wörthsee in Bavaria.

Here in the US, gondola operators routinely talk, and visit each other if they can. It's not uncommon for us to end up rowing together on the waters of the Veneto either. It's nice to see the same type of camaraderie among Uwe, Jürgen and Ingo.

Looks like they all went out and bought new long-sleeved striped shirts, Jürgen is wearing a black marinera (typically worn only during the colder months), and I think Ingo's got himself a new hat there too.

Nice boat.
I hope we'll see more of her here on the blog.