Photo of the Day 5

Venice, Italy, 1994
Photograph by Sam Abell

Spectators in motorboats wait for the racing gondolas to pass during Il Palio Delle Quattro Antiche Repubbliche Marinare, a regatta which pits rowers from each of Italy's maritime republics—Venice, Genoa, Pisa, and Amalfi—against each other. With streets no bigger than sidewalks, rowing is serious business in Venice, which has 42 boating associations and no cars.

The next Palio will be held in Venice in May 2007.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Venice: More Than a Dream," February 1995, National Geographic magazine)