A Gondola Ride In Venice

There is a legend about gondolas in Venice, and it says:

"If lovers kiss on a gondola at sunset under the Bridge of  Sighs as the bells of St Mark's Campanile toll, the lovers will be given eternal love..."

Evening Along The Grand Canal

The GONDOLA is one of the most iconic symbols of Venice.  These long, flat bottom boats were designed to navigate the conditions of the often shallow lagoon of Venice.  For hundreds of years, the gondola was the primary transportation mode in Venice,  only to be replaced by motorboats in the last century which have significantly added to the erosion problems in Venice.  Nowadays, the venerable gondola is reduced to barging gawking tourists through the scenic canals so they can take selfies and scratch this activity off their "Bucket List." OK Confession time: A gondola ride has been on my "Bucket List" for as long as I can remember and I was concerned that it was a cheesy tourist activity.  I was relieved to learn that a gondola ride is still a small authentic piece of a genuinely Venetian experience.

We arranged to meet our new friend Giulia Z in front of the famous Cafe Florian in Piazza San Marco after our tour through the Doge's Palace.  Giulia Z is a sixth generation Venetian, born and raised in the neighbourhood east of the Rialto bridge. We connected through our American Tribal Style® belly dance worldwide community.   We had decided to meet for a Venetian hot chocolate after she got off work in the afternoon;  perhaps catching the sunset over the lagoon, and Giulia Z knew the perfect spot.  Piazza San Marco was absolutely packed with mobs of tourists forming conga lines behind tour leaders holding up a bright "follow me" flag.  We needed to retreat to somewhere quiet!

Gondolier Waiting For Patrons

Heading out of Piazza San Marco by going under Napolean's offices, we passed the Bacino Orseolo gondola stop behind the square.  Approaching the stop, we heard a chorus of "Ciao, Giulia!" coming from some of the young gondoliers.  I asked Giulia: "Do you know these guys?" and Giulia told me she knows several gondoliers having grown up in Venice, which only has a population of about 55,000 people.  I thought this was fantastic...and spontaneously said: "Then let's all go on a gondola ride!" TIP #1: Gondola rides in Venice are expensive. At the time of this writing, the fee was €80 for about 40 minutes.  All prices are posted at the gondola stops, at the tourist info offices and at "Ente Gondola".  You can arrange for individual tour itineraries, specific times (like a midnight tryst) or even organize music by booking a gondola with the "Bancale" or Chief of each gondola station or by contacting the Gondoliers Association.  This is very popular for weddings, anniversaries, engagements and all sorts of special romantic occasions.  Here's the thing we discovered; a gondola ride is NOT Disneyland for grownups. It is an authentic Venetian experience steeped in centuries of tradition.  Not only is a gondola "ride" a tour, but it is a glimpse into the past of a unique cultural tradition that is vanishing before our eyes.

Gondola Detail

TIP #2:  IF YOU WANT TO GLIDE UNDER THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS YOU NEED TO QUEUE UP AT THE MOST POPULAR GONDOLA STATION IN FRONT OF THE DOGES PALACE; MOLO GONDOLA STATION.   There are several gondola stations around Venice, but it is not that unusual to find gondoliers parked next to a bridge on one of the quiet side canals.  You don't have to worry about "rogue" or "fake" gondoliers ripping you off.  The "gondolieri" have a regulated gondoliers association and issues licences to around 433 members, and they all know each other, so no need to be concerned.

Evening View From The Gondola

Giulia Z introduced us to her friend Tommy, a young gondolier with an infectious smile, and arranged for us to have a half hour gondola ride.  TIP #3: ESTABLISH THE PRICE AND THE ROUTE YOU WILL TAKE BEFORE YOU STEP ONTO THE GONDOLA.  Don't be shy to ask if you can be taken to see specific landmarks or on alternate routes.  The evening is a perfect time for a gondola tour, the bustle of the workday is winding down, and most of the tourists have gone back to the mainland or onto their cruise ships.  It is also a time where you can watch the sunset on the Grand Canal and all the lights slowly turn on along the quiet waterways.  We had to convince Giulia Z to come along for the ride with us; she had never been on a gondola before.  Yup, you have that right, most Venetians don't go on gondola rides not because it is a touristy thing to do, but because it's costly.  TIP#4:  YOU CAN SEAT UP TO 6 PEOPLE IN A GONDOLA.  You can always team up with one or two couples if you want to save some money.  Only one pair gets the coveted love seat at the back of the gondola though.

In Good Hands With Our Gondolier Tommy

Our gondolier Tommy navigated us through the narrow waterways like a pro, because he WAS a pro.  Tommy told us that gondoliers must go through rigorous training.  A potential gondolier must go to school for 12 months, login 400 hours as an apprentice over a 6 month period and write a significant comprehensive exam to get a licence.  The exam covers everything from how to handle the 35 1/2 foot, 1,300-pound boat in narrow waterways as well as Venetian history, history of the gondola, history of noted landmarks in Venice and basic knowledge of several foreign languages.  Everything about the gondola in Venice is regulated by the 1000-year-old gondoliers guild, from the dimensions and colour of the gondolas themselves to the width of the stripes on the gondolier's shirt!  I am not kidding.  In fact, women are traditionally not allowed to be gondoliers. In 2007 Alexandra Hai was the first female gondolier in Venice and there is a second female gondolier that holds a licence.  The big news that rocked Venice in 2017 was that Alex Hai is now Venice's first transgendered gondolier.  WAY TO GO ALEX!  Alex works privately for hotels and has his own private gondola tour company.  Click Alex Hai Tours to book a tour with an amazingly experienced & passionate gondolier.

Rialto Bridge At Sunset From The Gondola

You see, Venice wants desperately to hang on to and preserve this all but vanished piece of their history.  A gondola ride may seem expensive, but if you consider the cost of purchasing a gondola (which is minimum $40 thousand US dollars) the maintenance on the boat (the hull needs a new coat of varnish every 40 days), plus all the time and money for gondolier training and licencing, you can better appreciate the value you are getting when you step into a gondolier's boat for a tour, not only a "ride".
Tommy took us out into the open waters of the Grand Canal where the hustle and bustle of the boat traffic, water taxis and Vaporetti made the Grand Canal feel like a freeway.  Then IT happened.   The magic moment of a sunset while slipping under Venice's iconic Rialto Bridge as the bells of St Mark's Campanile tolled was an event that would echo inside my romantic heart forever.  I don't know if Luke and I will achieve eternal love because we were not sailing under The Bridge of Sighs, but I will be eternally grateful to Giulia Z and to Tommy who turned this "bucket list item" into a treasured cultural experience. Soon we pulled back into the gondolier's station in Bacino Orseolo TIP #5: You ALWAYS pay at the end of your gondola tour, and a tip is always appreciated but never obligatory.

Heaven's Hot Chocolate

We decided to end our evening together with a nice Venetian tradition of a hot chocolate at one of Giulia Z's favourite cafès; Cafe del Doge.  Coffee was brought to Europe by the Venetians via Turkey in the early 1500's.  It didn't catch on at first because coffee was considered a "Muslim drink". But coffee was so popular (and addictive) that in 1600 Pope Clement VIII deemed coffee a "Christian drink" and by 1683 the first coffee house in Venice opened in Piazza San Marco.  Today Venice has some of the oldest running cafes in the world.  Cafe Del Doge is on the other side of Rialto Bridge in the San Polo district of Venice.  This small cafe with it's steamed up windows offered THE best hot chocolate drinks I have had in my entire life.  This was a transcendent experience!  Thick and creamy, almost like warm liquid pudding topped with rich whipped cream. THE NECTAR OF ANGELS!  Here is the best part: Cafe Del Doge makes sugar free AND vegan versions of their hot chocolate that are equally as good!  We also bought some ground coffee to bring home in decorative tins as a souvenir because their coffee was damn good too!

American Tribal StyleⓇ belly dance in Venice

All hopped up on chocolate and coffee we decided to take in a view of the Rialto bridge from the shores of the Grand Canal. Giulia Z led us along Fondementa Vin Castello which a quiet sidewalk between the Grand Canal and the Palazzo dei Camerlengi.  We decided that as American Tribal StyleⓇ belly dancers this would be a scenic place to end a perfect night by an improvisational dance with the Rialto Bridge in the background.  We fired up our Bluetooth speaker and threw off our winter coats and let the music carry us away like the gondolas floating down the serene canal.

Check out this Video of the Canadian, the Italian & the Venetian improv dancing for the first time together ... THAT'S eternal 💖

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