Rowing Your Boat

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Sept 6, 1999 | by Stephen Goode

If you're interested in a career change, you might want to know that it's a lot easier to be a gondolier in Venice than it is to become a taxi driver in New York City, where all sorts of restrictions (not to mention prohibitive costs for licenses) would inhibit your plans to hack for a living.

A recent issue of Colors magazine offers five steps to become a gondolier: "1) Ask a gondolier to teach you how to row for free. 2) Pass a rowing exam to become a member of the exclusive Venetian gondoliers' guild. 3) If you don't have a secondary-school diploma in tourism, take a course in Venetian culture and foreign languages. 4) Enroll in the Chamber of Commerce. 5) Buy a gondola and find a parking spot. And if you're a foreigner, don't worry. The Gondola Board will accept you."

Or, adds Colors, if you're inclined to find physical effort a bit much for your constitution, just buy the proper hat and T-shirt, available in many shops in Venice, and pretend.

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