Gondolas Ride in Venice
San Marco
Venice, Italy
You can’t help but notice how impressive the gondolas are on any visit to Venice. They are wonderful craft that look so bold and distinctive with their lacquered black exteriors and gold adornments. Everyone tells you they are overpriced and touristy but ask them if they’ve done it themselves and the answer is invariably “yes”. Put simply, it’s something you must do at least once if you’re ever visiting Venice.
The canals of Venice are really beautiful. There really is no place on earth quite like it. The canals actually connect 118 islands. There are 150 different canals here and most are only around 3 to 4 metres deep. In case you’re interested, some other quirky facts are that the canals do freeze in Winter and they do have sharks in them! That said, they are still so beautiful and exploring them in a gondola is indulgently lovely.
Any gondola ride - or in fact walk around Venice - means lots of bridges. They’re everywhere. With so many canals you need lots of bridges to get across them In fact the canals are crossed by around 400 bridges. It’s lovely stopping on the bridges and looking at the canals but it’s also great going under them on a gondola ride. It’s a whole different view.
The Rialto Bridge is probably the most famous bridge in Venice and one of the top ones in Italy. It crosses the Grand Canal which is similar in many ways to the main street in most cities. We crossed it many times and going under it was an interesting experience with all the tourists staring down at you and taking pictures. The Grand canal is around 4 kilometres long, up to 90 metres across in some places and around 5 metres deep. .
Stripped back to their basics a gondola looks very different. But dress them up with their gold and red decorations and they look majestic. Gondolas have been around here since the 11th century. Once there were nearly 10,000 gondolas but now it’s limited to around 400 and all are licenced. They were once extremely ornate but to simplify things a law made it compulsory for them to all look the same.
So, is it expensive and how long does it take? The cost is fixed at 80 euros and the trips take about half an hour. A trip at night will cost half as much again. Some will tell you it’s overpriced and touristy. They’re probably right but a gondola ride is still a “must do” at least once on a visit to Venice.