Venice Gondolas: Everything you ever wanted to know about the most romantic transport in the world. Gondolas and gondoliers in Venice

How wrong were the Europeans - treasure seekers, embarking on a dangerous unknown in search of countless diamonds with emeralds! The treasury full of jewels was very close - between the Alps and the Mediterranean. Her name is . The Lord was pleased to create this country in the shape of a boot. This thought came to him not by chance: the Creator decided to fill it with a huge number of magical gifts. So Italy absorbed all the splendor of prehistoric times, the eras of antiquity and the Middle Ages, the "new" centuries. She was destined to play the role, perhaps, of the main European attraction. How many "Oscars" Italy has collected for it, probably no one will say today, not a single photo, not a single map.

Venice - a priceless decoration of the Italian boot

If Italy is a gift boot, then, by far, the most tempting present in it is Venice. The city of Epithets, the capital of Uniqueness, the country of Romance and the universe of Majesty. Sung by the best sons of different eras, this luxurious young lady becomes even more alluring and reverent with every century. Venice is a mysterious map, an exquisite fresco, fairy palace, painting, exquisite sculpture.

From " mainland Nothing separates it, but in this city everything is different from the rest of Italy and the rest of the world. When the faces of most cities are turned to heavenly horizons, endless fields and harsh mountain ranges, our heroine - wise, inspired and with a touch of sadness - looks into the water surface. With love, hope and faith.

Regal serenity spread over 118 islands

What area is enough to contain all the serenity of the world? Anyone who has fallen in love with the sights of Italy forever knows the correct answer - exactly 118 islands. Venice was located on them. Nature and history - wise ladies: highlighting mainland for the local industry, they skillfully scattered everything of cultural value over the picturesque islands.

The role of the "veins" of the body of Venice was assigned to the channels and ducts. The map of the city says: in total there are 150 of them in the city, all domestic transportation is carried out through them. A bright stroke in the overall picture was the elements without which today one cannot imagine the sights of Venice and with which numerous photos are full - 400 exquisite bridges connecting different parts of the Venetian lagoon. The local islands have long been elevated to the rank of places of worship by tourists, representatives of the global film industry, masters of photography, architecture, painting, and simply true connoisseurs of beauty. It was they who called Venice a special name - "Serene".

The face of Venice: longed-for reality in a haze of imagination

When people who have not yet been to famous city on the water, it turns out in the hands of a photo or a map with local attractions, the same thought comes to their heads - to know the essence of this island diva. Does it really exist? Is it true that its bridges are so romantic and its canals a little sad? What in him could captivate the minds of Byron, Madame de Stael, Hemingway, Maupassant, Thomas Mann? While exploring the local sights, tourists never cease to be amazed by the flower-strewn balconies and angels decorating the old wells;

It seems that the charms of the main decoration of the Adriatic can be admired endlessly, because every house, every street, palaces and museums, theaters and cathedrals breathes uniqueness in it - unparalleled sights of mankind.

From the garden field to the symbols of the most beautiful city

It is often said that the charms of Venice are Italy itself. And a constant assistant in their study is a map on which all local attractions are indicated. So, we stock up on impressions, clear the memory of cameras for unforgettable photos and go!

One of the "earthly" symbols of the city is Piazza San Marco. Mecca of traveling personalities, the main character tourist photos, a place considered the Venetian center and beautiful square on the ground. Once it served the townspeople ... a huge garden. With the arrival of the relics of St. Mark, everything changed: a cathedral was erected, later surrounded by a majestic square. The cathedral itself has long been awarded the title of "Venetian attraction No. 2". Today, in addition to it, the square flaunts the 3rd most important city decoration - the Doge's Palace, the Mint, the Procuration and the Correr Museum.

Grand - a word that does not need translation

And even if one of them is water, and the other is terrestrial - both of these sights are similar to each other. With its grandeur. In the 9th century, architects built the Doge's Palace in order to hit foreign ambassadors, and, it should be noted, they succeeded. The luxury of the residence of the Venetian rulers and now plunges visitors into awe with its sophistication of decoration and Gothic grandeur.

The admiration of tourists invariably causes and the main street(if the water surface can be called a street) of the city - the Grand Canal. S-shaped almost 4-kilometer "snake" divides central part into two halves. Sailing along it, sitting in the famous gondolas, it is hard to deny yourself admiring the architecture of the buildings that dotted the banks of the canal. It will be hard for someone to believe it, but they were built in the XII-XVIII centuries.

Exclusive: Venice attractions

What else is worthy of attention in a unique area that all of Italy is proud of? Still the same tourist map advise you on your next course of action. Most likely, she will take you to the Correr Museum, formed on the basis of the richest collection of the noble Venetian Teodoro Correr. Further, the map will point to the Campanilla bell tower - a platform from which the entire lagoon is visible at a glance. Don't forget to take a photo majestic temples cities:

• Cathedral of San Giovanni e Paolo,
• the walls of the churches of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari,
• Santa Maria della Salute,
• San Giorgio Maggiore.

The map and other sights of Venice - bridges - will not bypass attention. The whole world has long been covered with photos with the Bridge of Sighs and the Bridge of the Academy. The favorite places for tourists are the Rialto Bridge and the Barefoot Bridge.

Bridge of Sighs is a romantic name. But it does not mean romance at all, but the last breath of the condemned, who were led along this bridge from prison to the place of execution.

There are few options for moving around the city - boats and the famous gondolas. water travel to the songs of a gondolier will cost much more than on a regular boat. But how can you deny yourself a walk along the picturesque shores on another Venetian attraction? By the way, gondoliers do not charge a fee for one person, but for the rental of a boat as such.

It is more rational to go on a gondola ride in a small group than alone.

The Venetian Lagoon, or Why Sadness Replaces Admiration

Only one attraction of the colorful lagoon will not be told by the map and the photo is unlikely to tell you - about its duality. She, like the whole of Italy, is able to boil human passions and give incredible peace. The severity of the cathedrals in it peacefully coexists with the cheerful riot of festivals. Neither detailed map, not the clearest photo will convey the courage with which old City with hundreds of traditions and centuries of history, fighting for survival in the battle with the advancing water. It's no secret that he's losing this fight. But he does not tell millions of tourists about it. Well, this is Venice. That's what she is.

As you know, not a single map, not hundreds of photos can replace a "live" video. Watch, enjoy, marvel and don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments.

I wanted to write an article about boats in Venice, and with bandaged hands, it's not easy. But when I came across these two articles. I decided to repost them without changes. And you are interested, and I don’t suffer)))) But it would be better if I didn’t write! Here is part one. now the second one will

Original taken from andanton to Venice 1. Water world - part one

How do they deliver food to cafes? There are also a lot of tourists, they need to eat somewhere.
- Also on boats.
- What are you giving me?! This is impossible. How can tons of food be brought in by boat and lifted out of the water? And besides, what am I, in Italy, or something? They have such clunkers, three-wheeled cargo scooters ....
- There is nothing even one-wheeled, let alone three-wheeled.
- Well, there are bicycles! It cannot be. Healthy lifestyle and all that...
- No bicycles.
- Can't be. Okay, but the garbage, how is the garbage taken out? Old city Crowds of people roam the narrow streets. This means mountains of rubbish. Where and when does the garbage go? They don't carry it in their hands, do they?
- Don't know. No trash. On boats, they probably take him out at night.
- And the furniture? Ibid luxurious palaces I heard. How are the quad beds and banquet tables delivered to them? Or Venetian glass? It doesn't fit on the boat! How big does a boat need to be to deliver furniture?
- Listen, how do I know? You go to a furniture store and ask. Transported somehow ... Their front doors open into the water. You have a car at the door, and they have a motorboat. Probably, sofas are also dragged into houses from the water ...

With such dialogues, my wife pumped me up before the trip to stir up interest.

You leave the airport, there is a taxi. Water.
- The airport is also in the water with seaplanes?
- No, planes are ordinary. Airport on the coast. But the taxi rank is already in the water.
- What if I don't want a taxi?
- Then the bus. Water. It's called a vaporetto.
And where will he take me?
- Will bring you to the stop. Everything is like everyone else. Only in water.
- They're frogs, right?
- Something like that...

Everything turned out to be true. Of course, we all read, and some saw floating inhabited islands on Lake Titicaca; river flower market near Bangkok; pile villages in Asia and Africa. But the combination of modern industrial culture with the airport, cars, high-speed trains with the Aboriginal way of life on Lake Titicaca. Is such a miracle possible? The reality exceeded all my expectations. In fact, miracles begin right from the airport.

Life in Venice is supported by boatmen. Motorized workhorses transport goods through blood vessels - channels, remove garbage, transport people - create traffic. For the vast majority of tourists who look into Venice, all boats in the canals are gondolas. In fact, there are many more of them - about a hundred, adapted not for carrying tourists, but for specific utilitarian purposes.

True, the Maritime Museum in Venice was closed. Not forever, of course, for a while, for reconstruction. Only the giant boat pavilion in the shipyards of the Arsenal works. In this hangar, rowing workshops were once arranged, and in the 16th century, after a catastrophic fire that destroyed most Palazzo Ducale. it was temporarily adapted for the meetings of the Great Council, the main body of power of the city. After the annexation of Venice to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, the premises were transferred to military engineers for warehouses and workshops.

The 18-oared "Scalè reale", a ceremonial boat that brought King Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a united Italy, to San Marco on his first visit to Venice. Now the bronze king is forever parked on the Schiavoni embankment. And the ship last time launched in 1959 - he brought the body of the Venetian Pope Pius X to Venice for reburial in the Basilica of San Marco.

Side to side with the ship parked a gondola with a black "plumage". Although it belonged to a Venetian noble, it is devoid of any signs high status the owner - neither carpets and silk draperies, nor gilded ornaments were carried by the gondola. There are many speculations about when and why the most elegant Venetian boat. At the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, gondolas were decorated provocatively, so much so that such a public display of wealth seemed excessive to the Senate of Venice. To encourage modesty, he set high fines for their owners, and then decided to equalize everyone altogether, deciding that all gondolas should be painted black. According to another hypothesis, the black color was adopted in memory of the thousands of victims of the plague in Venice. But everything turned out to be much more prosaic: black in Venice is not associated with mourning - the funeral boats were purple - but with the use of resin as a sealant.

Over time, the gondolas, adapted to serve tourists, regained some of their former splendor: golden carvings and gilded decorations - the gondola again became a pleasure boat.

This felze is another part of the gondola that has not survived our time. In the city of forbidden pleasures, felzi booths were used to protect from bad weather and indiscreet eyes. When the gondola was used for amorous dates, the gondolier prudently kept the secret of his clients. Secret letters were passed through the gondoliers. In the city they are still a powerful force, part of the conscious Mannerism of Venetian life. But since the 1930s, when the booths were removed, all the intimate life of clients has been public, showing off to hundreds of thousands of other tourists.

Now the feltz gondola can only be seen in maritime museum and at Ca Rezzonico, a museum of 18th-century Venetian life. Akroyd writes that the gondola that has served its purpose (and its service life is about 20 years) is taken to Murano and burned there in glass furnaces to give energy to another local craft. I don't know if this is true, or one of the Venetian legends.

And these are working boats that are still in use: some are used for fishing, others are used for regattas, and others are restored by reenactor enthusiasts. They row or sail, or install a motor. These are punt boats adapted to work in the shallow waters of the lagoon.

The Venetian gondola has long been a constant symbol of this Italian city on the water. Such unique in their design and boats are nowhere to be found. Just like the unique Turkish or Arabic ones, Italian gondolas have passed through the centuries, retaining not only their original design but also relevance in today's world.

There is a version that the inhabitants of Venice appeared long before the emergence of the city itself on the water, back in the 4th century, and its first creators were the ancient Romans. The name, which in translation means “boat”, also came from the ancient Roman civilization.

Such a boat turned out to have a lot of advantages, thanks to which it easily “took root” on the canals of Venice. Light, comfortable, roomy, characterized by good maneuverability in corners and a decent speed of movement - the Roman "fundola" fell in love with the inhabitants of Venice and became an integral part of their lives.

However, the Venetians themselves like to tell a different story of the origin of the gondola - more romantic, in the spirit of their hometown. According to this legend, once a couple in love could not find a place where they could retire, and then the month took pity on them, went down into the water and became a gilded boat - a gondola, on which the lovers spent the whole night.

Design features of gondolas

Many mistakenly believe that all Venetian gondolas are the same, but in reality there are only a number of nuances that, when building such traditional boats, are invariable rules and are determined by the city authorities. In general, the creators of gondolas are not limited in creating the original boat according to the wishes of the customer.

The length of modern gondolas is within 11 m, and despite the fact that the width of such a Venetian boat is only 1.4 m. Such a traditional Venetian boat is created from 280 parts, which are cut from eight types of wood. The standard gondola has an elongated shape with a high stern, a slightly raised figured bow and a flat bottom. This design allows the fastest and most convenient movement through the narrow canals of Venice. Operated only by the oar of the gondolier, the gondola is capable of moving at a speed of up to 4 km / h, and despite the fact that the weight of even such an empty boat is at least 400 kg.

A distinctive feature of the design of the gondola is the ferro - an elegant knob on the bow of the boat, which many take for decoration. In fact, it has several practical functions. Ferro serves as a counterweight to the gondolier and protects against collisions, and it also determines the possibility of passing a boat under bridges.

Gondola design as a tribute to history

Historical sources claim that the first gondolas were painted in various colors, and only over time acquired their standard strict dark color.

The usual dark color of the gondolas, for which they are poetically called "black swans", is explained by various legends. According to one of them, the city hall issued an official decree on the use of an extremely strict dark color for painting boats in order to stop the struggle of the local aristocracy, who wanted to demonstrate their superiority with all sorts of decorations.

According to another version, the variegated colors disappeared as a sign of mourning for those who died at a time when the plague dominated Europe, which claimed the lives of many Venetians. Another legend says that a lover secretly visited the wife of the ruler of Venice on a black gondola, and then, trying to hide such a shame, the doge issued a law in which everyone had to repaint the boats black.

Prestigious profession - gondolier

Gondoliers usually work exclusively on their own boats. The cost of a gondola is rather big and can range from 25 to 75 thousand euros. However, the profession of a gondolier in Venice is inherited.

Only beginners in any case (outside of family traditions) are required to take a 9-month course in the art of managing a gondola and pass a difficult aptitude test as a result. In addition, everyone who wants to be engaged in transporting tourists along the canals of Venice must also confirm their successful fluency in English.

As a rule, this profession is purely male, but there are cases when women also received the right to drive a gondola. In 2010, young Georgia Boscolo, the daughter of a gondolier, continued her father's work, becoming the first woman in modern history to operate this traditional boat Venice.

Modern gondolas

The process of making a gondola is not easy, so only up to 20 of these boats are created per year, each of which is made exclusively to order. Gondolas are made, as a rule, at small boat yards in Italy. The price of one such boat can be up to 40-75 thousand euros.

One of the most prestigious such manufacturers in Venice is the shipyard Squero San Trovaso. Excursions are often organized here, which allows you to personally admire how new gondolas are created and old ones are restored. On this gondolas are still created by hand, exclusively according to ancient technologies and using the tools of those times. It takes up to 4 months of work to create one such boat. At another shipyard in the city, Roberto Tramotina, modern tools and methods are used to create gondolas, which makes it possible to speed up the process of creating a gondola, reducing the time to 2 months.

It seems that there are countless gondolas in Venice, but in fact there are now a little less than 450 of these boats, although during the time of the Venetian Republic there were more than 7 thousand. In all its grandeur, numerous gondolas in Venice can be admired in early September. On the first Saturday of the month, a grandiose parade of gondolas and gondoliers takes place, combined with the traditional regatta of such boats - Regata Storica, which covers a route of 7 km.

At the risk of incurring class hatred, I will replace the word “boat” in the title with “yacht”.
Penichette 1020FB is not quite a boat and certainly not a boat - it is a houseboat, by analogy with its land counterpart - an autocamper.
The name "yacht" is shorter and clearer.
Perhaps someone at the word yacht has an image of a boat Dimon or Abramovich.
It's not my fault - for rent without a license they give only an orphan likeness of an icebreaker.

A yacht of this class can be rented without a license (skipper's license) and any special management skills.
How to do it (choose and rent) - I wrote, if you are interested - read it.

So, we entered the Venetian transport artery from the side of the canal Canal di St Spirito, leaving island I on the left. S.Clemente and on the right are the ruins on the island I. la Grazia(I. is the abbreviation for "island" on the navigation map).
That is, we got into the thick of the seemingly chaotic movement between the islands La Giudecca And Venice.
Actually went straight in front of the square San Marco- we have seen its tower for the last 2 hours, while moving along the Lido island.

Traffic in Venice

What to say…
Shock of course.
Car ferries, barges, vaporettos, private taxi boats, yachts and just motor boats.
Opposite us, across the strait, crowds of tourists at the stops of gondoliers in Piazza San Marco, a little to the right of a four-story yacht, and a little to the left a cruise ship(I did not count the floors, but not less than 10).
And waves, waves, waves.

The waves, like the movement in the strait, are chaotic.
But having gathered all my will and courage into a fist, I turned the steering wheel to the left and drove along the coast, first to the north, and then defiled along the coast of Venice.
No, we did not roll over, we did not drown, and no one crashed into us.

Primary chaos at first glance, at the second already meaningful look turned out to be the order of things here:
- fast boats that rush in front of you at a safe distance turn aside, the vaporetto sees your maneuver and corrects its trajectory from stop to stop, car ferry - it just goes in the center.

In general, as I understand The best way go in Venetian waters: keep straight and do not fuss when maneuvering - boldly turn and you will be let through.
And although the movement on the water is akin to movement on land - right-handed, if necessary - you can drive in the opposite direction. Just mark it and not rush around if someone faster is walking head-on.
True, this does not work with a car ferry. But the car ferry goes through the center and everyone is afraid of it.

Marinas in Venice

On the navigation map, which you will be sold for 10 euros upon receipt of the rented yacht, the marinas are marked with a blue anchor icon.
In the center are three marinas - one across the strait from Piazza San Marco, two on the island of Santa Elena ( St'elena) is the next island south of the Biennale ( Biennale).

We got into the nearest one.
That's what it's called - Marina Sant'Elena.
A place for a 10-meter penichetta per night costs 60 euros.
There is water, electricity and free wifi.
The vaporetto stop is a 5-minute walk.

What’s good is that in the marina you don’t have to cut circles and look for a place.
As soon as we entered, the manager appeared on a bike and showed us two places to choose from.
Helped to moor and tether.
I took the captain's book (given with the yacht when renting) and a passport.
Payment both in cash and by card.

After a madhouse with noise, waves on the canals, here is peace and quiet.
There are few people on the yachts - the majority are on a permanent basis, so they appear on weekends.
There is a pizzeria in the marina, but I recommend leaving the territory and walking past the church to the vaporetto stop - you will not miss a small pizzeria with tables outside.
Very democratic prices, and the prices in Venice are jacked up and the quality of cooking is ugly.
You can also buy alcohol here.

Note

This information is useful for those who are going to rent a yacht (houseboat) and make independent travel along the Laguna of Venice.
The rest of the above written can not be read.

Traveling in Venice

The center and all the tourist attractions of Venice can be reached by vaporetto from the St’Elena station.
But we decided to take a walk and did not regret it.
They did not go into the depths of the streets.
We passed the Biennale, the Arsenal and reached Piazza San Marco, however, without going to it.
Some of the photos taken during this walk.