Thursday, August 26, 2010
“Thisss eeezz Poveglia…!” and he let the words hang in the salt-thick sea air. I stared silently at the island as it floated on the mist and myth that surrounded it. It was almost dusk and as the sun set behind the silhouetted island, for a brief moment, the sea and the island’s bell tower seemed to have been set on fire… reminiscent of the tall flames that used to crackle on this island centuries ago… flames, the smoke and the screams… screams that rent sky, until the fire doused the screams…But I’m running ahead of my story…
We had reached Venice. From Venice’s Marco Polo airport, we hopped into a water taxi that wound its way towards the Venetian lagoon and as the arches and canals of Venice drew closer, I went and stood by boat’s and prow, soaking in the spray and taking in the vistas. As the famed canals and villas of Venice closed in, I glanced to my left and saw a lonely island drifting by. Tall cypresses stood silently, imprisoned by a boundary-wall that surrounded the island. I asked the boatman, a young man in a baseball cap, about the island but he did not respond. I thought he hadn’t heard me over the din of the motor-boat engine but before I could complete the question a second time, he replied “Cemetery! The dead of Venice are here.” Separated from the bright lights of Venezia by a tongue of water, this island, like a bolt of lightning on a dark night, illuminated a terrible legend that was lost in the recesses of my mind - a forgotten tale of another Venetian island where horrible things had happened. It was the dark side of Venice that I’d forgotten about…“Is this… er… the haunted island?” I asked. The boatman turned, looked at me, blinked and said,“ No… it’s the cemetery.” Then he was quiet. A few awkward minutes passed and then as he navigated the boat into a canal that ran into the city, he said “Poveglia! …That’s haunted!”......
Originally Posted By http://prashantobanerji.blogspot.com/2010/08/island.html
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