‘Brava Gondoliera! Brava!’: Venice Gets its First Female Gondolier
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 05.14.07 | 2:22 PM ET
Photo of gondoliers on the Grand Canal by Meet Alexandra Hai, Venice’s first female gondolier. Ever. She’s 40 years old. She’s of German and Algerian descent. A court ruling says she’s allowed to paddle only for guests at a particular Venice hotel. And she’s stirred up the ire of many of her male counterparts. “To gondoliers,” Peter Keifer writes in the New York Times, “the job is fit only for a man, since it involves strength, ability to navigate currents and paddle in reverse, and even the aesthetics of the gondoliers of yore in their black-and-white striped shirts.” Sounds like something from 1,000 years ago, which is almost how long women had been on the outside looking in until Hai came along.
Hai, for her part, says she’s been miscast in the role of fighter and pioneer.
“There is nothing worse than to do something like this,” she told Keifer, describing her 10-year struggle for acceptance. “It is sad to waste my entire life like this. I would have preferred to do something more useful in life, like helping save the rain forests.”
The Telegraph, which covered Hai’s achievement last month, reports that Hai said she promises not to wear jeans and that her gondola is clean and built according to tradition.