The gondola - the most elegant boat ever built in Venice

In a nutshell: eleven metres, 600 kilos, 280 parts and eight kinds of wood - the gondola is Venetian grace reduced to mathematics, and a ride is the city's signature moment. See what a water taxi costs by comparison, and learn to get around before you board.

The gondola is the only boat in the world of its kind: eleven meters long and weighing more than 600 kilos, yet able to be maneuvered with lightness and ease by a single person with a single oar - which is why, for millions of tourists, it has become the very symbol of Venice. It is unique, like the city it represents, also for its constructive characteristics. First of all it is asymmetric: the left side is 24 centimeters wider than the right, so the boat always sails tilted on one side. The keel, therefore, is not straight but curved toward the right, so that the gondola floats very inclined on the right: this allows it to counterbalance the thrust of the single oar, which would tend to carry it toward the left. It has a flat bottom, which allows it to cross shallows of only a few centimeters. For its construction eight different kinds of wood are used, and no fewer than 280 parts make it up.

The only metal elements are the characteristic ferro - the six-toothed prow iron at the front, whose S-shaped curve is said to echo the Grand Canal's course - and the risso at the stern, said to stand for the island of Giudecca. Under the ferro's stylized ducal horn sits the lunette, representing the Rialto Bridge, while the six teeth would represent the six sestieri into which Venice is divided.

Before the gondola became of exclusively tourist use - that is, a few decades ago - a winter and night cover called the felze was mounted in the center: it was fitted with a door and sliding windows with shutters and curtains, with mirrors and a footwarmer, and served to protect the passengers both from the cold and from indiscreet looks. Today it is completely out of use, because it hinders visibility and is therefore ill-suited to the tourist.

History and evolution

The history of the gondola, marked by a considerable number of transformations that underline its long process of evolution toward its present form and its adaptation to the different needs of navigators and to the changed characteristics of the waters, is intertwined with the history of the city. The origin of the name is rather uncertain and debated: some trace it to the Latin cymbula, meaning little boat, or to cuncula, a diminutive of concha, shell; others fall back on the Greek kundy, little boat, or kuntò-helas, push-boat. The first time the name gondola appears in an official document is 1094: a decree of Doge Vitale Falier that dispensed the inhabitants of a locality south of Venice from providing a gondulam. But until the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century the gondola was not yet clearly distinguished from the other boats of Venice.

It is in the 1500s that the gondola begins to take on some of the characteristics that distinguish it as a means destined mainly for the private transport of people of a certain rank: the passenger fittings were initially rather spartan - two simple cross benches without fixed padding, one of which uses the stern transom as a backrest - and the space for the gondolier appears truly exiguous, forcing him into rather unstable positions. The ferri are reduced to two thin metal blades, and some gondolas already have the felze, giving the boat the appearance and function of a carriage, offering shelter from bad weather and indiscreet looks. In this century the gondolas already appear black on the hull - a color due to the use of pitch as waterproofing, and not to the commemoration of mournful plagues as some legends would have us believe.

The nineteenth-century gondola can be considered a transition between that of the 1700s and today's asymmetric one. During the nineteenth century the squeraroli, the boatyard workers, carried out a whole series of modifications, perhaps not showy but in some cases of fundamental importance. First of all, the stern part is progressively raised from the water for greater maneuverability, since the length of the gondola reaches 11 meters: by increasing the height at the stern, the gondolier enjoys better visibility, while at the same time the part immersed in the water decreases. The front part also begins to rise from the water, although a truly notable raising - such as to give the boat the shape of a slice of moon - would come only in the twentieth century: the reasons are linked to maneuverability, for the smaller the immersed part, the easier it is to make the boat rotate on itself, a maneuver as important as it is frequent in the city's narrow canals. Although not very evident, another great change occurs in the 1800s: the plan of the gondola begins to become asymmetric - the asymmetry shifts the center of gravity of the boat toward the right side, so that afloat the gondola keeps a trim inclined to the right; and since the boat tends to rotate toward the left by virtue of the thrust of the single oar, the inclination to the right counteracts this tendency.

In the 1900s the structural changes begun in the previous century take on a more decided character. The raising of the prow area is ever more marked and implies a further reduction of the part permanently immersed in the water: this means greater maneuverability and gives a slender appearance to the bow. Moreover, a prow lying very low on the water, as in past centuries, would slip too easily and deeply into the rough waves of the basins - today's water traffic is not even comparable with that of the past, not to mention motorized traffic and the problem of the wake. The asymmetry also takes a notable leap in our century: while the nineteenth-century boat presented a still modest asymmetry of only 3 cm of greater width of the left side with respect to the median line, today we witness a displacement of a full 24 cm.

The gondola today

In the early 1800s Venice counted some 10,000 gondolas. Up to the early Middle Ages the aristocracy favoured horses, but once horses were banned from the city's streets in the 14th century, the nobility took up the gondola as a dignified means of getting about. The boat became the everyday way to travel between the lagoon's islands: flat-bottomed, with neither keel nor rudder, able to cross the countless shifting sandbars, while the oarsman stood up to keep a lookout. In the Age of Decadence, would-be Casanovas used the boats for romantic encounters, and a gondolier's professional code included never revealing what happened beneath the canopy, where such romances were discreetly conducted. These days roughly 400 gondolas remain in service, and they carry tourists only. The boats are prettier than ever, but they work as they always have: a single oar both propels and steers, and the hull curves slightly to one side so that the oar's thrust sends the boat straight ahead.

The sleek, ornate boats measure roughly 35 feet in length, five feet across, tipping the scales at around 1,100 pounds; they glide along at some three miles per hour - walking pace - and propelling one demands about the same effort as walking. Every gondola wears six coats of black paint, the legacy of a 17th-century decree issued by a doge to stop nobles competing over who had the most elaborate rig, yet every boat keeps its own trim, fabric and flourishes, from the sinuous carved-wood oarlock - the fórcola - to the metal prow ornament, the ferro. Building one takes roughly two months, and prices run from about €40,000 to €60,000 by specification. From time to time the hull gets a fresh coat of varnish, the defence against a wood-eating creature that lives in the lagoon. A gondola lives about 15 years, and a single refinishing can stretch that to 25. The city's most photogenic boatyard, a gondola workshop, is visible only from the outside, in the Dorsoduro neighbourhood: follow the Rio San Trovaso along its Accademia bank and, as you near the Giudecca Canal, look across the water to your right and you'll see the gondolas pulled up on the bank. The boatbuilders hail from the Dolomites, Italy's mountain region of master woodworkers, and keep this little corner of Venice feeling refreshingly alpine.

Taking a ride

A gondola is not a water taxi: every ride is a loop, and setting you down anywhere other than the departure point costs extra. Gondola ranks - servizio gondole - dot the canals all across the city. Since your gondolier may offer commentary or conversation along the way, chat with a few and pick the one you like; feel free to study the map together and talk over the route - it also reveals whether you enjoy his character and language skills. Agree on the price, route and length of the trip before you step in, and pay only at the end. While prices are fairly firm, they may ease a little in the daytime. A handful of gondoliers push for extras, especially tips: tipping is neither obligatory nor expected - but if your gondolier completes the full half hour and keeps you entertained along the way, a tip of five to ten percent is a fair gesture; if he is surly or cuts the ride short, withhold the tip. If you have hired musicians, ask for a Venetian song such as 'Venezia La Luna e Tu'; requesting 'O Sole Mio', a Neapolitan standard, would be the equivalent of asking for 'Swanee River' from a Chicago lounge act. Watching the euros? Round up fellow travellers and split the fare - with as many as four companions, although just two of you will claim the cushioned seat for two.

A full hire is not the only way to enjoy a gondola. You can board one used as a traghetto, as very many Venetians do, to get from one bank of the Grand Canal to the other: the crossing takes about a minute and costs around €2, standing or sitting. Some of them quit by lunchtime, from 12:30 onwards, and every last one stops by 18:00; no transit pass covers them. The most famous traghetti are those between the Frari and San Samuele and between Santa Fosca and the Rialto Market. After dark the vaporetti run almost empty, and the slow line-1 boat - labelled N after 23:30 - turns into a wonderful night cruise of the Grand Canal.