VENICE, Italy – Cross any bridge in Venice and listen for the accordion music drifting up from the canal. Look down, and there will be a gondolier ferrying starry-eyed tourists along the narrow waterways.
By tradition, they are stripe-shirted, locally born and male.
But a German woman has won the right to join them – despite having failed the exam to be a gondolier.
The Veneto Regional Tribunal has ruled that the Locanda Art Deco hotel, Alexandra Hai’s employer, can transport guests around the city in its own gondola.
The ruling, under appeal by City Hall, challenges enduring Venetian tradition.
“This tribunal has opened a crack that undermines what was the closed caste of gondoliers,” said Mariagrazia Romeo, a lawyer representing the hotel.
The issue is not about excluding outsiders, the gondoliers say, but about maintaining traditions that have drawn tourists to their black-lacquered gondolas for generations. For them, the image and uniformity is part of their service.
“It’s not like gondoliers want a monopoly,” said Roberto Luppi, president of the association of Venice’s 425 official gondoliers. “It’s about safeguarding long-standing traditions.”
Licensed gondoliers have to pass exams and prove themselves capable of steering the sleek boats along congested canals. They have a dress code detailing even the width of the stripes of their shirts. They must observe rules on how their gondolas are fitted, down to the colors of the chairs and benches – and face sanctions in case of violations.
In return, they charge princely sums to ferry romantics around the city’s waterfront palazzi.
Romeo concedes Hai failed the exam, officials say more than once.
But Hai does have a boating license, which so far has been sufficient, and in court documents the hotel describes her as a “capable and passionate gondola pilot.”
The case started when the hotel appealed a City Hall ruling banning it from transporting guests in its gondola.
The Locanda Art Deco is the only hotel using a gondola for guests, said Antonio Iannotta, who heads the city’s gondola office. The city’s upscale hotels typically use motorboats.
“If, hypothetically, each hotel employs a gondolier, there’s a risk: there can be one who dresses in red, another one in white, another who paints the gondola in yellow,” Iannotta said.
While the regional court ruled the hotel could use its gondola for guests, it said private gondoliers must also meet professional requirements to ensure the safety of passengers. The ruling did not specify what kind of requirements.
In the meantime, Hai is at work on the canals.
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