Venice, Italy: That's Amore!

Quick....What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Venice?

I don’t know about you, but a gondola ride with a man serenading his passengers while rowing through the flooded alleyways of the city is the first vision that pops into my mind. The ship offers a tour that takes guests on a 35 minute gondola ride and I figured what a better way to get my feet wet (not literally) than to just join the guests.

In Venice, the ship docks a bit of a distance away from the main part of the city and St. Marks square. Most guests travelling on their own will take a water taxi to get to the square, but if they were on a shore excursion with us, we provide a motor launch (a 60-seater boat) from the ship to reach the square and the start of the tour. The group for the gondolas took the motor launch over to the dock in the city where we walked 3 blocks or so and up and down three bridges to reach the area where we boarded the gondolas.

The guide had explained that when we embarked the gondola, there would be a hooker. Needless to say, this perked a few ears! A hooker is a man (maybe woman, but there weren't any there at the time) who stands at the side of the gondola with a long stick with a metal hook at the end. His function is to grab the side of the gondola with the hook and hold it into place while the Gondolier told people where to sit in order to balance out the gondola. The picture below of the gentleman with the white shirt, black pants and a long stick with a hook is a hooker.

As we rowed away from the docks, there was one gentleman serenading (in both English and Italian) all of the gondolas at the same time because his boisterous voice echoed through the alleyways between the buildings. One thing I had never thought nor realized about gondolas is how unbalanced they are. The guide pointed out was that the gondolas are a bit larger on the right (I believe) so that when the gondolier stands on the left to steer, it balances itself out. With five of us sitting in one gondola, there were several times where I was scared to move or breathe because of the sensitivity it had to motion and I felt as though I was fall right out! I will say that I’m glad I finally got the opportunity to do it, but I will never again do it with a group of five people – too many! I told Kieran that if we do it – it’ll just be the two of us….