Council calls for applicants for rigorous training course involving boat handling, language lessons and theory classes
, Venice’s distinguished gondoliers have been deftly rowing passengers through the narrow canals of the lagoon city for centuries. Now they are seeking to add to their number to ensure that the tradition of their ancient profession endures.
“Being able to move the gondola around is the most important thing,” said Andrea Balbi, the president of Venice’s gondoliers’ association. “The pre-selection process helps us to understand this, and then they begin the training.”, the training process is equally rigorous. Trainees must undertake 30 hours of theory lessons, during which they will learn the waterways equivalent of the highway code.
“There’s a generational change: people retire and need to be replaced,” he said. “So we do the training courses whenever there is a necessity. People who apply themselves to this profession do so because they are in love with Venice and are convinced that they are bringing forward the traditions of the gondola and the city.”Gondoliers have often fought to keep their profession intact. When Venice introduced a public motorised water bus service in the 1880s, gondoliers held their first strike.
“You usually find that the young ones only want to take selfies,” he said. “It’s families or people over 30 who show more curiosity about the city and want to know its history and how it was built.”
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