Saw a blurb in the local fish wrap about Venice getting its first ever female gondolier (sp?).

Obviously a huge step forward for Italian women's movement, etc. but will tourists want to be punted along by a female gondolier - and seranaded by a female voice?

The lady successfully passed the rigor gondolier test - her father was a gondolier so she learned from a child, etc.

Would you just as soon have a female gondalier?

When we stayed at Locanda Art Deco in 2007, they were advertising the first female gondolier.

http://www.locandaartdeco.com/venice/venicegondola.htm

Except at that time, I think there was some licensing problem and we couldn't actually book with her.

We ended up picking one at random. The gondolier we had didn't talk much, and didn't sing much, and we were fine with that. It was dusk, and the canals were so much more interesting in the silence.

Go- lets me think that a female gondolier may be in big demand - the novelty and women rights types. More power to the first female gondolier in nine centuries, the article said.

I'll pass. If I can't have Mario, no ride for me. (But I wish her luck. Is her gondola named, "Cherry Grove?" If so, a whole new marketplace could open up in Venice. Nothing wrong with that.)

Wow, that's cool! I would just as soon have a ride in a girl-powered gondola....that is, if I could afford the insane rates they charge.

Hell, I'm not even going to Venice and I say "isn't that nice" ...............among other things. lol