Venice gondolas to get mandatory number plates

VENICE. Gondolas with a number plate. The provincial administration of Venice has approved new city council regulations, which will be put into operation for the public gondola service. Gondolas will need to be fitted with a number plate and a plastic reflector so that local traffic police can identify them even at a distance.

In recent days, the president of the “Bancali” gondoliers association Aldo Reato explained the operating procedures for the new regulations to the managers of the various ferry services. Moreover, now all 430 gondoliers with a licence will be obliged to display not only their rates - on a sheet attached to the prow light – but also their number plate. This will probably include three alphanumeric characters in metal, displayed on the prow below the traditional iron prow-head.

Not everyone in the sector has welcomed the news. However, the city council has made its decision. Other new regulations concern, for example, the explicit prohibition of piloting means of public transport (including gondolas and water taxis) under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In addition, gondoliers will be forbidden to speak on their mobile phone while navigating. The city council has also announced even greater surveillance on “decorum” concerning gondolas such as wearing the prescribed uniforms, the prohibition of using car tyres as fenders to prevent lateral collision or the increasingly widespread practice of removing the “riccio”, or iron prow-head, from the gondola so that it can pass under bridges at high tide. Initially, a swivel mechanism was used to lower the highest part of a gondola but now, on many of them, the “riccio” has disappeared, thus mutilating the symbol of Venice.

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