It is said that Venetians only enter a gondola twice in their life: their wedding and their funeral. Today it is almost exclusively a tourist venture. But until the 18th century, gondolas were once mainly used by Venetian noblemen, who paid gondoliers and their service. Gondoliers were essentially taxi drivers, and so always abreast of the gossip surrounding the city’s elite members, who went to brothels, gambling houses, or on private gondola tours with their lovers. And it is precisely because they knew so much about so many, that
gondoliers were excused for being loud and brash. Although this is because they are used to shouting at one another across the water in order to be heard at a distance. When you turn a corner on a small canal, your gondolier will shout his “Oé” as a warning to other gondoliers, a sound which has become part of Venice itself. Gondoliers are extremely proud of their job and of being the upholders of a century-old tradition, which they also maintain by speaking strictly Venetian dialect rather than Italian; although it is probably best that most of what is said is not understood.
