We decided that we were definately going on a gondala before we left home. We saw the gondeliers and gondalas on the first day but we didnot want to rush in to it - picking a spot where we wanted...
The next day (coldest of the whole trip and my partners birthday) as the sun was going down and we made our way back towards our hotel we were approached by a gondalier.
This was strange as we had just crossed the Rialto bridge and were in the middle of loads of shops, away from the main canals where they watch for passengers.
I said no straight away, as you do, and he began to persuade us, 'only 50 Euros, the price will go up soon as it is going dark' I said no again, but he was really nice and chatty so we didnt walk off - It was quite amusing to here his sales pitch 'I am a traditional gondalier, my father taught me, we have been riding the gondala for 6 generations'. I replied, with the fact that I was cold... he said 'I have a blanket' I said maybe tomorrow, he said 'It may rain tomorrow and you will regret it, you can look at shops when it rains...' We gave in!!
It was lovely he walked us to his gondala round the corner, which was parked on the Grand Canal, at this point I said do you sing, and he replied saying that it would rain if he did...
He ended up singing Que Sera, Sera! and Like A Virgin (as we passed under the bridge where Madonna shot the video) He also showed us where Casanova and Marco Polo lived as well as giving us a great insight in many Venetian things.
It was brilliant, we decided that we had just been on a gondala ride with the best gondalier in Venice!!
Make sure you get a chatty gondalier, other people were sat there going past some amazing things and their gondalier didn't say anything!!
You can also barter a price...
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on Dec 30, 2005
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