We’re all familiar with the stupenda, increasingly-popular Vogalonga, the “race” (held this year on May 11) in which any and every type of oar-powered boat may participate. (I’ll be in caorlina with five other women, in the requisite white attire traditional for any regata). This upcoming Friday, April 25th however, the weekend of the Festa della Libertà , the Festa di San Marco, and the Festa del Boccolo, there’ll be an added event: Vogo e Ti Defendo: I’ll row, and defend you.
Organized by the rowing clubs of the city and lagoon, this civic demonstration and mini marathon is reserved only for the Voga all Veneta, and is designed to highlight the increasing threat and continuing damage that the augmentation of motor traffic (from taxis to transports to high-powered outboards to monster cruise ships) has on existence on not only the delicate lagoon environment, but on the practice of one of the most historic and uniquely Venetian activities ancora vissuto today, the Voga alla Veneta.