Travel
college student, looking for work on a
job board; young and strong. This is a
fee-and-tips business where only the
strong survive, literally. After several
weeks of just rowing around the
harbor to practice in a borrowed boat,
a candidate must demonstrate the
strength and ability to conduct
hours-long tours for tourists before
allowed a hire for fare. Many
prospective gondoliers fail for
lack of stamina or drudgery of the
qualification process. When adjudged
qualified, the newly minted gondolier
begins a trade going back to 17th
century Venice. Even today in Venice,
a person must pass an apprenticeship
with comprehensive practical exam.
Gondola in Channel
Islands Harbor,
Oxnard, Ca., tours
the homes and
boats on the canals.
Our gondola, Teresa, was custom built
in the USA in the 1980s before being
acquired and reconditioned by our
gondolier. Construction of a new and
larger boat is underway in Seattle at
a boatbuilding school. The new boat
will seat six people and is 30 feet in
length. It is a Batela, a coa de
gambaro, one of only a handful not
built in Venice, that will enter service
this August.
Once well into my wine, I pounded
out oar cadence like a Roman galley
drummer in Ben-Hur. Changing the
tempo from battle speed to attack
speed, and announcing this to
Mark, the friendly banter ceased
but the boat speed never changed.
Clearly, I was not Quintus Arrius,
the Roman fleet admiral, and in
command of the boat.
In spite of my attempts to redirect
the planned voyage, our gondolier
gave a pleasant rendition of several
49