Gondolas.
You hear the name Venice or even Italy, and this is immediately what you think of.
These iconic boats have been around for centuries, nearly
since this crazy city of islands was formed.
Why have writers and movie directors gravitated
towards Venice as their setting of choice?
Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice,
to the Italian Job, and even the recent Spider-Man film
all share the backdrop of the city's bridges and canals.
This was the place to be.
The grand canal was like
the Fifth Avenue of New York.
But this cinematic and culturally iconic city is on the brink of extinction.
When I was a child in school, it was in the seventies.
The average of a giant tide was like
three or four in the winter time.
And now you have 10 or 12.
Wow.
Not just from rising sea levels, but from a disappearance of the time
honored trades and local color.
What is happening to the
art forms that have long called Venice home?
And what can we do to save these trades before they're gone for good?
Learning a skill that resembles the craft of a concert
violin maker takes time, practice, and dedication.
Our instant gratification world has a hard time
grasping this idea.
The violin maker, the potter,
the welder have all spent years mastering their crafts, learning
the ins and outs that can only be learned by experience and tradition.
So why are people not pursuing these careers?
In the case of Venice's gondola makers, it's a tale
of what happens when global warming, economics, and tourism overrun
a group of islands the size of Manhattan, all without skyscrapers and roads.
This was a marsh.
A Marsh, really? Marsh. Wow.
What started from muddy islands.
But, at its core, it's a tale all too familiar in the world.
A misconception of and an under appreciation for what a trade is.
There are today roughly 430 gondolas in town.
Right?
There were 10,000 gondolas
at the time of the Republic in the 1700s.
Wow, that is crazy.
Everybody in Venice, especially the aristocrats,
had their own gondola and it was like the limousine
of the time.
In large part, it's the gondolas themselves that draw people to Venice.
I even somehow fell into paying hundreds of dollars to be chauffeured
by a striped-shirt gondolier with his signature hat.
I did resist the
urge to spring for a violinist.
These boats have been around for centuries.
In fact, the first mention of them is before 1094.
Each gondola is unique, taking twelve months to construct.
The boat is 32 feet or eleven meters long.
It originally had a cabin for cold days and to hide nobility.
It wasn't until 1562 the city decreed
they all had to be black.
Before drivers tried to outdo each other
with crazy, over-the-top colors and decorations.
Black was chosen so they would blend in more with the color of the lagoon.
All gold leaf is real.
The front is called the bow iron.
These six metal lines represent the six sestiere or districts of Venice.
Training to drive takes over 400 hours, and drivers
have to pay upfront for their boat, which costs around $28,000.
Perhaps why
only three to four gondoliers earn their license each year.
And yet we rarely think
to ourselves who made the boat we're floating on?
To save the boats we have to ask
ourselves that question and then redefine what creating gondolas
from scratch by hand really is.
A centuries
old art form.
I headed to the squero or boatyard, which happens to be
one of the oldest in Venice dating back to the 17th century.
This is one of only three workshops left where gondolas are
constructed and repaired.
as the world collectively decides what success looks like,
they put a monetary value on each profession.
The trades have taken a backseat recently.
The intricate gondolas of centuries past are soon to be manufactured in factories,
just like the hand-made blown glass ornaments, custom cabinetry,
Venetian masks and countless
other artisanal products before them.
This is fascinating.
Thank you for your time.
And to me, you're an artist.
It's amazing. Needs to be preserved.
Do we really value art and artisans?
Our actions speak louder than our words.
What can we shift
in our own mindsets and practices that might save trades like this
that are on the brink of extinction?
The art of gondola making is like
none other.
Let's do whatever it takes to keep it around.