‘But I’m enjoyin’ myself.’ The two men were walking on the wooden planks set up beneath the Basilica. All around them – and at other points in the Piazza San Marco, the Piazzetta, and the Molo – there was water, in some places almost a foot high, much higher than it had been last night. The rains had ended earlier in the morning. The sky was dark gray, but Urbino didn’t think the rain would return, not for a while yet. He suspected that some very cold weather would soon be setting in. But the rains had already done their damage to the city, as had been evidenced by his walk last night and the one this morning to the Danieli. ‘I heard sirens last night,’ Eugene said as he and Urbino drew closer to the edge of the plank to let a young woman going in the opposite direction pass. ‘Were they blarin’ because of the flood?’ ‘I’m afraid so.’ ‘Thought it was a fire.’ They stepped down from the planks to the dry ground beneath the Clock Tower and entered the Mercerie.
