Venice’s Grand Canal ferry gondolas are facing unprecedented tourist crowds, driven by Google Maps promoting the €2 cross-canal service as a cheaper alternative to the €9.50 water bus fare. This surge frustrates locals, who traditionally used the sparsely attended ferries for a mere 70 cents to bypass crowded “vaporetto” water buses packed with visitors.
Long queues now form in the calli (alleys) leading to ferry stations, with tourists waiting to board “da parada” gondolas—functional variants of the traditional boat, lacking the iconic iron prow and oared by two gondoliers—specifically designed for this transit service.
“This has become the latest trend for tourists wanting a cheap gondola ride, thanks to influencers and Google,” states Andrea Morucchio, a Venetian multimedia artist. “The losers are Venetians, who struggle to access a public service. Realistically, if ferries relied only on Venice’s dwindling population—now barely over 50,000—they’d be nearly empty. So this resident-born service has adapted to the dominant tourism industry.”
Aldo Reato, City Councilor for Gondola Promotion, acknowledges the pressure: “With 23 million annual visitors, it’s obvious everyone uses the public ferry service. But we gondoliers haven’t neglected locals. At the critical San Tomà crossing, we boosted service with two boats running 12 hours daily, ensuring smooth operations. We remain firmly on the Venetians’ side.”
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