Venice 11

Venice 11

I've shared several photos of gondolas in my previous posts in this series but wanted to share other images since the gondola is one of the visual icons of Venice.

The gondola is a traditional Venetian flat-bottomed boat that was used for centuries as a means of transportation in the city of Venice. It is estimated that there were nearly ten thousand gondolas there at one point. Today, however, there are only around 400 gondolas used for taking tourists around the city at established prices. The gondola industry is very regulated and gondoliers have to be trained before they can own one of them. As well, all gondolas are the same and modifications have been prohibited since the mid 20th century. I also read somewhere that the first female gondolier was recently licensed.

Each gondola can take six passengers and a normal ride is 40 minutes. The price may differ among gondoliers but you can expect to pay a minimum €80 ($115), the official recommended price. If you want musical accompaniment or singing, you can expect to pay a lot more. At night the cost can be double the official rates so customers are advised to negotiate the price before taking a ride. As you can see from the photos I've shared so far, often there are many gondolas travelling the same canals, however, when I was there in the early morning, most gondoliers were just getting their boats ready and only a few were actually carrying tourists. It was a good time of the day to make images of gondolas.

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