Word: gondola
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...Roberto Tramontin, 47, whose family has been making gondolas since 1884, knows something about apprentices. "I've had four of them in the last six years," he says. "I just don't think young people want to work today like they used to." Tramontin, who has one new gondola under construction in his yard and another being restored, says he currently has orders for 37 boats. "We do two a year," shrugs his father Nedis, who is still working even though he will turn 80 in September. "It's not like the old days, when we had more skilled workers...
...Price, now 31, had won a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to spend a year learning how to make gondolas. The problem was that he couldn't find anyone to teach him. Part of it was his own fault: he arrived in Venice in July, just before the locals take off on vacation for a month. So he did research on gondolas for a couple of months, and in September met up with one of the few remaining master gondola makers, Daniele Bonaldo, 69, a squerariolo who had been in the business since he left primary school. "I used to sweep...
...Although you can see it only on close inspection, a gondola is actually asymmetrical, flatter on one side and more curved on the other. "I always say it's because the gondola builders drink so much," Price jokes, though he then explains that the shape is similar to that of an airplane wing, only on its side and in water. It's all related to the way in which a gondola is powered - pushed forward with one oar by one person. The boat naturally veers right because of the asymmetry. But the gondolier rows from the right, which pushes...
...After five years, Price, a native of North Carolina, has become a Venetian at heart. "It's such a small area for so many tourists," he says, shaking his head. "We have to defend ourselves." He has found himself a defender of the gondola as well. "My goal is to help preserve the tradition, and this is the place to do it," he says. "I could go back and make gondolas in the U.S., but it's not as interesting." Besides, who in America knows a real gondola from a plywood imitation? "In Las Vegas you can see some very...
...Italy the demand for gondolas is strong, in part because the art of gondola construction is in crisis. Price points out that there are only five boatyards in Venice that still make gondolas, and that some do more maintenance work than construction. The average age of the six master squerarioli is about 60. And some don't even have one apprentice learning the trade. "Young people in Italy want to make a lot of money and don't want to get their hands dirty," Price says. "But you don't make a lot of money" making gondolas. High labor costs...