In Venice between gondolas, canals and palaces, tourists pour in as residents head out. Local population has fallen to fewer than 50 000 inhabitants, less than the daily tourists visits.
However, next to the historical center, there’s a hidden and silent lagoon surrounded by small invisible villages. A parallel world where residents resist, living a unique life, just in front of Venice. It’s here that young guys bump into little boats running at full speed with their bows raising up into the sky.
They call them “barchini”: small, colourful, fast with souped up engines, driven by Ve- netian teenagers as if these motorboats were motorbikes. They take care of the boat’s aesthetic and accessories, they make it fancy through Hi-Fi, coloured led and light decorations, they work hard to pimp the engine or the stereo system. The cooler and more equipped with options the boat is, the cooler is the guy.
And at the end of the day, after the usual party on a deserted island, here they are, challenging each other in dangerous illegal races to win girls’ hearts, without lights to avoid the police, pointing their bows and wildly heading towards the Serenissima.
Yuri Ancarani
