Gondolas

You mainly see gondolas in one place on this Earth – Venice. There is more history and meaning in them that you would probably expect. And there are only a few hundred of them – you can only be a gondolier if you receive a license from the Venice’s guild. The first gondolas were used already in 11th Century, when the flat bottom boats were driven through the shallow channels of Venice. In the 16th Century, Venice’s laws forbade gondoliers from painting their boats in any other colour than black. They also became unified in shape and size. A gondola could weigh up to 700 kg and have 280 component pieces. It could also be built from only 8 different kinds of wood. This tradition of building gondolas remains alive also today. However, capturing these historic boats in a photograph is not a simple task due to the constant movement of the waves. However, I found a way to do it: waking up before sunrise. Despite the many tourists ashore already at 5am, all the boats were moored and thus did not create any additional waves.