Giorgia Boscolo, will be Venice's first-ever female gondolier, (in 900 years), a blonde 24-year- old mother of two who passed her final exam last week. Boscolo says she 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'' 
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. Hai had taken the gondoliers' test four times.

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. 

Venice's first ever female gondolier trainee passed her final exam this week and her name was added to an official list of those allowed to practice this age-old profession. 
Mother-of-two Giorgia Boscolo, 24, took courses for a year and completed an apprenticeship before taking the exam. She can now ask for a 'full' gondolier's license and in the meantime can 'substitute' her future colleagues. 

Boscolo's achievement was hailed by Aldo Rosso, the former head of the city's gondola agency, who said "I'm so happy for Giorgia and in a little way share her joy because it was under my presidency that the first woman was admitted to the gondolier's course". 

In June 2009 Boscola passed the entry exam to a special course introduced by the city council in 2007. 

A month later, under the watchful eye of a licensed male gondolier, she ferried Venice residents and tourists from the San Toma jetty wearing the traditional white-and-blue striped shirt, black trousers and - as the gondoliers' code requires - matching shoes as well as non-regulation gold nail polish. 

Boscolo says he 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 said after passing her entrance exam. 

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

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

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, 43, 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. 

http://www.lifeinitaly.com/news/venices-
first-female-gondolier-passes-final-exam
 

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