I bought an old retired gondola from Roberto Tramontin back in 2013. We’ve had some good experienced with it, but we never got to use it as much as it deserved. It is now been retired. Goodbye Gondola!
With the end of my engagement in Venice Kayak, I had to remove it from the marina on the Certosa island. It is not easy finding a mooring in Venice for an almost twelve metre long boat, but I made an agreement with the good people on the Lazzaretto Nuovo to keep it there.
Unfortunately the times are not what they were, and a traditional Venetian boat moored in the lagoon is now subject to more waves and current than ever before.
Within a few months I had to realise that if the boat stayed there, I would lose it for good. It would be reduced to pieces in the winter.
I conferred with Gerolamo Fazzini, the primus motor of the Lazzaretto Nuovo, and we decided that it would be a good addition to the collection of old traditional boats in the museum on the island.
Last week we pulled it out of the water and moved it inside the 16th century Tezon Grande, where it now sits along the other museum boats.
Naturally it’s been sad to say goodbye to the gondola, but I’m a lot happier to see it in a museum than destroyed by the moto ondoso of the Venetian lagoon.
Goodbye Gondola!
Antonio Vivaldi, the composer from the 18th century who wrote The Four Seasons, also wrote operas to be performed in Venetian theatres. They were rather modern for their time, and one of Vivaldi’s critics published a pamphlet against him, called “Il teatro alla moda“, which has an interesting incision on the cover.
It shows a small Venetian boat with a man rowing alla valesana. The rower is not a poor man, but dressed according to the fashion of the time.
What I find particularly interesting here, is that it shows that for a respectable and prosperous man, rowing around the city of Venice was as natural as riding a horse anywhere else.
