Daily Times

Venice gondolas are now limiting the number of passengers they can carry, a move considered necessary by gondoliers due to “overweight tourists”. Earlier, a gondola da nolo that takes tourists on a tour of the city’s famed canals carried up to six people. The bigger gondola da parade, on the other hand, used to take up to 14 passengers across the Grand Canal. Now, the number of passengers has been reduced to five and 12 respectively. Raoul Roveratto, the president of the Association of Substitute Gondoliers told Italian daily La Repubblica, “Tourists are overweight,” leading to the decision to lower capacity. Andrea Balbi, president of Venice’s Gondoliers Association, was quoted as saying by The Guardian, “It’s true that compared to 10 or 15 years ago, tourists weigh a bit more.”