The gondola has always intrigued and inspired artists and writers with its elegance and aura of mystery; it has been compared to everything under the sun, from a coffin to a sea-shell, from a violin to a serpent and even a floating slipper.
The first gondolas date back to a 1000 thousand years ago and were rather shorter and wider; it is only in the early 18th century that the gondola aquires the slender shape it has today, ideal for gliding nimbly along the web of narrow waterways that make up the city. The gondola is in fact asymmetrical, as it lists to the left, which is compensated by the single oar of the gondolier rowing on that same side. Simply a wonderful piece of engineering, unique in giving you what Mark Twain called ‘the gentlest, pleasantest locomotion’ you will ever know.
