TFI - Travel - Venice

Venice is a beautiful, sinking city! 

Once we were in a little island called Burano in Italy waiting for our boat to ferry us back to Venice from where we were to catch a train back to Zurich (last train of the day actually). We did not have any margin of delay by the time the ferry arrived at the island (they call it water bus! the one that goes to Venice airport from the railway station is called 'water bus to airport', really!!!).

We boarded the ferry but it did not leave as intended. It kept waiting way beyond. Nobody in the boat except the crew spoke Italian and hence we had to wait impatiently fearing that we would miss the train. Soon, a small contingent of people appeared on the shore, carrying a very old chap in a wooden chair. The boat crew became animated, waved at this contingent and eagerly helped transfer the chaired-passenger into the ferry - this old chap must have been popular I guess as lot of local people were waving at him when the ferry finally started pulling off. We reached Venice just in time to see the train chugging out of the station without us onboard!. We had to spend a night in Milan and reach home only the next afternoon though the flip-side was that we could catch a glimpse of the magnificent church of Milan (early morning, no crowd, closed shops, occasional tourist couple like us leaning on each other in the square in front of the church with Espressos in their hands, birds flying lazily above...you get the picture!) before boarding our train. For whatever reason I can't really think of, I still remember that old chap sitting like a Royal in that age old wooden chair in a tiny island holding up a ferry for more than half an hour!!!!

When I went to my office the next day, my boss asked my why I did not turn up the previous day and I said 'An old man in a tiny Italian village changed our plan!'.