Venice Gets First Female Gondolier

First Woman to break into 900 Year-old Club

(ANSA)Venice, June 26 - Venice on Friday got its first official female gondolier when a married mother-of-two passed her test, breaking into one of Italy's last male bastions.

Giorgia Boscolo, 23, passed a gondoliering course introduced by the city council in 2007 to become the first certified woman gondolier in the lagoon in nine centuries.

While she waits to finish her apprenticeship, Boscolo will be able to ferry passengers around as a sort of 'second captain'.

''I'm immensely happy and proud but today my day starts like every other, taking the children to school,'' she told ANSA.

Boscolo inherited her passion for navigating Venice's canals from her gondolier father, Dante, when she was seven.

''I've always loved gondolas, and unlike my three sisters I preferred to punt with my father instead of going out with my friends''.

She dismissed concerns from male gondoliers that she isn't strong enough to handle the 11-metre-long, 500-kilogramme boats, saying ''childbirth is much more difficult''.

Boscolo's father said he was happy for his daughter.

''I still think being a gondolier is a man's job because it requires a lot of physical effort,'' he admitted, ''but I'm sure that with experience Giorgia will be able to do it easily''.

Dante's colleague, Roberto, said: ''Giorgia deserved it because she worked really hard, coming along with us in her free time to learn the trade''.

Before the establishment of the 'school' for gondoliers, the profession was passed down from father to son.

TWO OTHER WOMEN FAILED TO MAKE THE GRADE.

Two other women enrolled on the course failed to match Boscolo.

Neither Alessandra Taddei, a local woman who belongs to the Venetian rowing club, nor German-American Alexandra Hai, who has fought a 12-year battle for the right to become a gondolier, passed the test.

Even before the official course was launched in 2007, Hai had taken the gondoliers' test four times, steering her boat along canals and performing tricky manoeuvres. But each time she failed, saying that examiners were ''overly strict''.

She has accused the 425-strong association of Venetian gondoliers of deliberately keeping her out because of her sex, but the association has refuted this claim fiercely, saying she simply isn't good enough.

Hai, 42, did however win a small victory when a court upheld her right to ferry hotel guests about in a gondola even though she has no licence. She is employed by a Venetian hotel to offer precisely this service.

There are 40 places on the gondolier course, which lasts six months.

It includes 400 hours of instruction in using the distinctive single oar that is used to propel a gondola through the water.

Students must learn how to steer the banana-shaped boats from the back and the front. They also have to take English courses, study sailing law and demonstrate perfect knowledge of Venice's canals and landmarks.

For more on the Venice Gondoliers visit WebVisionItaly Venice Channel show: The Gondoliers of Venice and for more on the fraternity of the Gondoliers.