The first time... I arrived by night, upon a sea as black as ink, frightening every moment to sink. The night was so dark, just hither and yon the glistening of a poor light. I rushed into the alleys, then onto Saint Mark's Place, not even daring to look up, scared of its immensity. Again I rushed to alleys and in the end I paused near a bridge. I remember the canal, silent and tender, and my thought, “Venice is a city where you can cry”.
The Lagoon shows... the primitive yet true life of Venice, ignorant of mobiles and the comfort of civilization, struggling with the powers of nature, wind, fog, currents, loneliness; nevertheless a paradise of impalpable and friendly magic. It also shows the thousand-year old life of the few fishermen remaining in this area of North Lagoon in 1980, at that time almost inaccessible and unknown even to Venetians.