I know that most people just go to Venice, take a wee ride on a gondola, visit the Doge’s Palace and go home but not me (Io). I, the great Baxter Kinshella, am not satisfied with being a mere tourist and so I have signed up for a lesson on how to row a gondola. I am studying very hard and bothering innocent Venetians with my emails trying to find out what I can. So here is my history of the gondola and the gondolier.
I can take as many gondola rowing lessons as I want but I can never, ever, be a true Venetian gondolier for 3 reasons.
1. I was not born in Venice
2. My father was not a gondolier
3. My father can not teach me to be a gondolier.
My first job in securing a lesson was to Google Venice blogs online and searching for the words “gondola” and “teaching” and “rowing” and “forcola”. We will learn of the forcola shortly. But first I found a teacher, who is not, nor ever will be a Venetian Gondolier for she is Australian, she’s a she, and she has a special boat to learn on. A real gondola is 38 feet long but she teaches on a custom built Venetian boat that is smaller and was used some 100 years ago to transport goods. It is much shorter but you still have to stand and face forward when rowing and it has a forcola for your remo (oar). My teacher’s name is Jane Caporal. We will meet her at the marina in Sacca Misericordia which is on the north (nord) side of Venice just at the entrance (entrata) of the Madonna Del Orto canal. She will row down the narrow canal to the Grande Canal where she will take us to a lagoon where we can practise.
The most important part of a gondola or Venetian boat is the forcola. That is the piece (about 18 inches high) that holds the oar. It has many different sections where you can put your oar depending on what you are trying to do. Are you going forward, backward, to the right, to the left, faster forward or stopping? Without a forcola you could not navigate the canals of Venice. They are all custom built depending on the weight and height of the gondolier.
After my fall in the canal (or rowing lesson and remember you row a gondola you don’t paddle a gondola) I shall make haste to the workshop of Signore Paulo Brandolisio who is a forcola maker in Venice. He has a tiny workshop maybe 10-15 minute walk from St. Mark’s Square. He has emailed me to say we are welcome to visit him and what time his shop is open. If you Google his name he has some pictures up of his forcola’s and on YouTube he has a short little video of his shop. It is very small (piccolo). The forcola is always made of a solid piece of Walnut. There is much to know about the forcola but once I am in Venice I will take pictures and tell you more about them.
Now I must get back to studying my Italian. I think I am up to 450 words now.
Ciao!
Baxter goes to Italy 