Italy Blog #7:Venice: The Oddities of a Gondola and the Gondola Shop

Rob and Tom pose in rainy Venice

In this seventh blog about our trip to Italy, we're still in Venice and we'll show you the Gondola Shop and tell you about what makes gondolas so unique.

GONDOLA MAKERS!  - this craft has been around since the 1500s, and there are 2 main manufacturers of Gondolas in Venice that we learned about.

Watching others take a Gondola in the rain

THE ODDITIES OF A GONDOLA: each one is a unique piece.  
1) Each gondolier has his own gondola and each boat is customized to its gondolier, to his weight and height.
2) In fact, there's an iron weight on the front of each boat to help the boat balance.
3)  They're curved! Looking at them head on you can see that gondolas are NOT straight like a kayak - that's all about balance, rowing, and steering... see below.
4) The steering position, the oar and the forcola where it rests are designed and manufactured considering the height and the arms of the gondolier. This need to customize gondolas is not an artistic habit, but rather responds to its peculiar navigation technique based on arm strength. 

THE GONDOLA SHOP - The main shop where the majority of gondolas are made is called Squero di San Trovaso. Its located at Fondamenta Bonlini, 1097, 30123 Venezia, Italy. That's the shop where we stopped (from across a canal) and got a look at how the gondolas were being made and repaired.

Gondola shop at Squero di San Trovaso

THE OLDEST GONDOLA BUILDER? - The oldest gondola builder is in Tramontin Squero, as the Tramontin family has been handing down the art since 1884 and has been the pioneer of the modernization of construction techniques, renewing methodologies used since the 1500s and 1600s. The construction technique of gondolas is virtually unchanged since the days of Giovanni Tramontin,

HOW MANY GONDOLIERS TODAY? According to thatsvenice.com, there are some 450 authorized gondoliers distributed over the five hundred gondolas in the city today.There are a lot of water taxis to get people back and forth, and gondolas seem to be pretty much used for tourists. There were a lot of hardcore visitors when we were there because they took the open gondola rides in the rain... while we took covered taxis. In fact, since it rained almost the entire time, we never did take a gondola ride

OUR SHORT VIDEO OF THE GONDOLA MAKING SHOP!


NEXT: Faces and Murals on Buildings 

THEN: Venetian Tour Guide Book Recommendation: Dan Brown's Inferno

THEN: Tom's Favorite Shop, Mozart Played Here,St. Mark's (Wet) Square)