Venice gets first female gondolier

Venice is to get its first female gondolier, ending nine hundred years of Male dominance in the profession...

Giorgia Boscolo, 24, has become the first woman to pass the Italian city's strict gondolier exam and be granted a full license.

She will now join the previously all-Male Venetian gondoliers' guild and can officially row tourists through the city's narrow Canals.

The mother-of-two is also entitled to don the traditional white-and-blue striped shirt, black trousers and - as the gondoliers' code requires - matching shoes.

However, she can only stand in for a Male colleague if he wants to take a day off.

The ancient profession used to be passed from father to son before a ‘school' for gondoliers was set-up.

Students spend hundreds of hours on the Venice Canals learning how to handle and steer a distinctive banana-shaped boat.

They also have to demonstrate perfect knowledge of Venice's Canals and the city's landmarks in a series of practical and written tests, which include exams in English and sailing law.

Two other women enrolled in the course, but did not pass the exam.

Boscolo can row tourists through the city's Canals but only when a Male colleague wants a day off

Venice's mayor, Giorgio Orsoni, admitted that there had been a 'tendency of excessive machismo' inside the 425-strong gondolier's guild.

'I'm delighted with Giorgia's achievement and I'm sure that following on from her example other women will pick up the coveted oar of a gondola', he said.

Boscolo said she had inherited her love for navigating the Canals from her gondolier father, who retired last year.

'I've always loved gondolas and, unlike my three sisters, I preferred to punt with my father instead of going out with my friends', she said.

'I am so happy to be the first female gondolier. It feels as if I am in dreamland and I am delighted to have fulfilled an ambition I have always had as a child.'



Boscolo's father Dante had some reservations about his daughter's new job but is confident about her skills: 'I still think being a gondolier is a man's job, but I am sure that with experience Giorgia will be able to do it easily.' 



And Boscolo has dismissed critics who have questioned whether women would be strong enough to control the large boats.
'Childbirth is much more difficult,' she said.

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk