Italy, April 2 Some 900 years of male-dominated gondola history may be at an end with a court's ruling that a woman can be a gondolier on Venice's canals.
"We won, we won!" Alexandra Hai said Sunday. "I am delighted. It has been my mission." A regional court decided Alexandra Hai can ferry guests to three hotels, ending the 35-year-old German woman's 10-year fight to become Venice's first female gondolier, The (London) Telegraph said Monday.
Hai has yet to pass a basic gondola-steering exam, which she has failed three times. She had been plying the canals illicitly after getting a job with a hotel when she was caught and fined. But her bosses helped her win her appeal.
"It was a matter of principle," Franco Martini, her employer, told The Telegraph. "The male gondoliers were not stingy with their insults and disgusting gestures." Roberto Luppi, president of the 425-member Italian Gondola Association, emphasized the need for her to demonstrate her ability to safely guide the 500-pound, 35-foot gondolas through the canal system.
"It is very important to be able to steer a gondola. That is why we have the exam," he said in the newspaper article.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
