Гондольер в Венеции

About the job

With their straw hats and stripey shirts, Venice’s distinguished gondoliers have been deftly rowing passengers through the narrow canals of the lagoon city for centuries. Now they are seeking to add to their number to ensure that the tradition of their ancient profession endures.

Today, there are only 433 gondoliers. The profession used to be exclusively male, with its coveted licences usually handed down from father to son. But now the profession is open to anyone who is an EU citizen.

Venice’s city hall has announced this week that it is on the hunt for new gondoliers.

Requirements

• Being 18 or over
• Having a high school-level education
• Knowing how to swim, and possessing a medical certificate that proves “a healthy and robust constitution”.
• Being able to move the gondola around is the most important thing
• Trainees would also be taught key words in non-European languages to avoid incidents

Application process

• First, budding gondoliers must apply to a training course – Arte del Gondoliere, or Art of the Gondolier. They will only be eligible for that if they prove they can row, or at least show signs of having what it takes to develop the skill.
• For anyone familiar with learning to drive in Italy, the training process is equally rigorous. Trainees must undertake 30 hours of theory lessons, during which they will learn the waterways equivalent of the highway code.
• They will also be taught English and French, and about the history, art and culture of Venice, with a particular focus on how the city was built and its water routes.
• Then they will embark on 10 hours of practical training, involving rowing a gondola with its single oar, under the guidance of a master gondolier.