Who is Silvia?

Out of the corner of my eye, I spied an entrance to a courtyard adorned with flowers. As I peeked my head in, I found an intimate courtyard in the shape of a square but with four very irregular sides. It was very quiet and all I could see was a fixture in the middle, perhaps an old well. As I focused my camera on the flowers, I noticed a man walking out of a door smoking a cigarette. I said, “buon giorno” and then noticed something was moving. It was a turtle. 

I could not remember the Italian word for turtle. I tried to find the words out loud, “tortuga? taruga?” and he answered, “tartaruga.”  Ah, so close…

We started talking and I learned that this tartaruga is named Silvia. We watched her crawl directly to the old well in middle of the courtyard. She found a small patch of dirt and immediately started moving her arms quickly in it, as if she was trying to swim. The man explained that she was looking for a spot to lay eggs. As we stood there and watched Silvia in her attempts to make a nest, I could hear some of the neighbors open their shutters one by one, as if on cue. Somewhere within these walls we heard, “look at the turtle!’

Silvia is clearly the star of this sleepy little neighborhood.

Renato and Silvia

As we continued our discussion, I learned that this man’s name is Renato and that Silvia is over 50 years old. Then an older man walked out and joined our conversation. He proudly introduced himself as Renato’s father and the owner of Silvia. As he started to share more of Silvia’s story, Renato picked her up and started petting her. Although I was a bit hesitant, I asked if I could pet the turtle as well and he held her out to me.

I had never touched a turtle before in my entire life and did not think that the first time I would experience this would be in a random little courtyard in Venice. To my delight, it was not what I had expected.