A Gondola Ride in Venice
A once-in-a-lifetime experience
I’ve visited Venice twice. There’s something about it I love — and it’s not how cheap everything is. On our first trip to Venice, we shelled out for a gondola ride. You gotta do it — it’s the only place in the world where you can. The four of us met a gondolier and paid €100. We are budget travellers so this was a LOT of money! We were told there are only 400 gondolas left in Venice but at the height of its prosperity, there were more than 10,000!
All about the gondolas
What he didn’t tell us was a gondola has a specific shape and size and its design is full of meaning. Just one gondola requires 280 pieces of timber and costs around €40,000 to build! No wonder they have to charge €100 per ride! Gondolas were specifically designed for the Venetian canals. Unlike ordinary boats, gondolas don’t have a keel or rudder. They are instead steered by the gondolier who stands on the stern of the gondola. A gondola is typically 11 metres long and weighs about 600kgs. The left side of a gondola is 10 inches longer than the right. This helps counterbalance the weight of the gondolier standing on the stern. The curved metal…
