You could earn up to £127,000 a year doing the ‘world’s most romantic job’ in iconic city – but there’s a catch
THIS job could fetch you up to £127,000 a year while residing in what’s known to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world – but there’s a catch.
Venice is looking for new gondoliers to row tourists down picturesque canals – and potentially get a six-figure salary to do so.
Venice attracts over a whopping 30 million visitors each year – a lot of whom enjoy being rowed around the city.
Dubbed the “world’s most romantic job”, Italian city water taxi drivers have been doing the role for centuries in the tourist hotspot.
But now Venice’s city hall announced that it is on the hunt for new recruits to join the ultra-exclusive ranks.
If you’re wanting to give up your desk-bound nine-to-five and move to the hotspot for the role, a few criteria need to be met beforehand.
Applicants need to be aged 18 or over, have a high school-level education and know how to swim.
They also have to be able to show a medical certificate that proves “a healthy and robust constitution.”
On top of this, wannabe water taxi drivers must speak Italian, be able to provide first aid and understand the history of Venice to be able to inform keen visitors.
But that is not all – once applicants get through the initial stages, they must then embark on an “art of the gondolier” course.
In somewhat of a catch, the course lasts a whopping six months – or 400 hours and costs €1,000, or around £846.
At the end of the teaching, successful applicants receive a certificate enabling them to obtain a boating license in the reputable “gondola driver” department.
Then they get their own 11m gondola – but it requires regular maintenance from the owner to keep it spick and span for tourists.
While the training may seem time-consuming and pricey, it’s believed to be worth it as gondoliers can earn a significant amount of money if they do the job well.
According to Civitatis Venice: “The official tariff of a 30-minute ride on a gondola is €80 (£68.10).
“The price goes up to €100 (£85.10) from 7 pm onwards. If you want the gondolier to sing or to play an instrument during the ride, you will have to pay extra.”
The tariffs suggest gondoliers could be earning thousands on a busy day and night.
The role of a gondolier used to be extremely hard to get into if the licence to do the job wasn’t handed down by their father.
It was also a role exclusively done by men.
But now any EU citizen is able to enter the romantic profession.
Venice is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has often been rated as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Wannabe gondoliers may want to hurry as applications close on August 27.
At the beginning of June new rules were brought into Venice in an attempt to bring tourist numbers to a more manageable level.
Local officials therefore imposed new measurements, which will ban tour groups of more than 25 people.
Loudspeakers have also been banned in the city, because officials claim that they cause both “confusion and disturbances”.
Loudspeakers are often used by tour guides to communicate with their groups, who they lead through the narrow streets and bridges throughout the canal city.
Those tour groups will no longer be able to exceed 25 people from now on, which it is hoped will reduce the number of people heading to the city each day.
The measures were first announced back in December with officials saying they wanted to improve life for residents in the city.
At that time, Simone Venturini, the city’s councillor for tourism, said: “We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents.
“We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”