License to operate Venice's water taxis is diffiuclt to obtain - unless you are "family". Photo / Mael Balland, Unsplash
License to operate Venice's water taxis is diffiuclt to obtain - unless you are "family". Photo / Mael Balland, Unsplash
Tourists may have only just returned to the waterways of the Italian city but the gondolieri are already complaining of "overweight" tourists.
The traditional water taxis have had to reduce the capacity for safety, blaming the size of passengers.
New orders from the Venetian Gondoliers Association have reduced the load of the small da nolo class boats to five people and the larger da parade water taxis from 14 to 12.
"Compared to 10 or 15 years ago, tourists weigh a bit more," the association's president Andrea Balbi told The Guardian.
"We don't have scales to weigh people, and so we reduced the number of passengers."
Balbi's counterpart at the Association of Substitute Gondoliers, Raoul Roveratto put it less diplomatically, telling Italian newspaper La Repubblica that "overweight tourists" could cause boats to take on water and sink:
"Advancing with over half a tonne of meat on board is dangerous."
Fares are fixed at €80 ($140) per half hour, though this can now be split between fewer passengers.
The classic boats and their striped gondoliere (and now gondoliera) has been a typical sight on the canals since 1094.Today there are just 433 full time boatmen, and 180 substitutes.
Until 2010 women were banned from the profession.
Venetian boatmen have complained that today's tourists are 'too heavy'. Photo / Unsplash
The gondolier's licence and membership of the Gondoliers Guild is a much coveted item. After passing exams in local history, navigation and foreign languages – a professional gondoliere can earn € 130,000 ($225,000) per annum.
However the guilds have said the exams will be relaxed this year, to allow the children of gondolieri to inherit a licence. Now – providing they can show four years apprenticeship – the offspring of gondoliers can skip the exams.
While some worry this will mean that the profession into floating "mafia" – the guild has said the decision was about keeping the tradition "in the family".
"It is about continuing a tradition," said Balbi. "Who better than a gondolier can know the trade of a gondolier?"
Talking to reporters Balbi said "finding someone from Paris, New York or any other city would not be a continuation of tradition – it would be a like a pizza maker who isn't from Naples."
On June 16, tourists returned to Venice after a three-month lockdown. The tourism hot spot in Northern Italy was one of the first places in Europe to enact a shutdown to contain the coronavirus, after local outbreaks of the disease.
