Cantieri Navali Brindisi

The new mayor of Venice, Giorgio Orsoni, has rejected an offer from a Brindisi shipbuilder to produce fiberglass gondolas for the northeastern lagoon city. Orsoni, who took office on Thursday, said the traditional Venetian gondolas and the city’s water taxis should be made of wood…The offer to build fibreglass gondolas came from Giuseppe Gioia’s Cantieri Navali Brindisi shipyards…

An offer from a Brindisi shipbuilder to produce fiberglass gondolas for this lagoon city has been flatly rejected by the city agency responsible for the sector, the Nuova Venezia daily reported on Wednesday.The offer came from Giuseppe Gioia’s Cantieri Navali Brindisi shipyards which said it was putting the final touches on a prototype gondola which was an exact replica of the original in wood but made with weather-resistant and easy-maintenance fiberglass…

A certain signor Giuseppe Gioia, who owns the Cantieri Navali Brindisi shipyard, spent Wednesday evening defending his much-derided idea of building fibreglass gondolas for Venice…

…Costs for tourists wishing to take a gondola ride are high, typically starting at 80 euros for 40 minutes during the daytime. Mr Gioia says that these costs could be greatly reduced if fibreglass gondolas were introduced.

One of the biggest issues a tourist to Venice will have is whether or not to pay over 80 Euros for max 40 minutes of being slowly rowed around the canals in the gondola. In fact, this is our number 1 “What Not to Do in Venice,” since you can just as easily take a smaller gondola called a traghetto across the Grand Canal for pennies. And now the rip-off gondola rides could possibly get worse with the introduction of plastic gondolas. The Independent reports that an Italian shipyard has construction lookalikes of the famous black boats in fiberglass, which has easier maintenance and cheaper cost to own…

Venice’s gondoliers have expressed their outrage at plans by a shipyard in southern Italy to sell fibreglass gondolas for use on the city’s famous canals. The shipyard claims that the new boats are low-cost, weather resistant and easy to maintain, but Venetian authorities have baulked at the idea of replacing the traditional wooden gondola…Despite an offer from Cantieri Navali shipyard to supply gondoliers with cheaper, fibreglass boats, Venice Ente Gondola said the originals had become an internationally-recognised symbol of the city and that they “can only be made of wood and built by our artisans using traditional techniques”…

…A shipyard in southern Italy has offered a low-cost, wipe-clean version of the famous boat, which it says is an exact replica of the wooden original but with the added advantages of weather-resistance and easy-maintenance…Giuseppe Gioia’s Cantieri Navali shipyards, in the southern port of Brindisi, was said to have offered to supply their fibreglass boats, incorporating “aircraft technology”, for rather less than…

Venice’s gondoliers have expressed their outrage at plans by a shipyard in southern Italy to sell fibreglass gondolas for use on the city’s famous canals. The shipyard claims that the new boats are low-cost, weather resistant and easy to maintain, but Venetian authorities have baulked at the idea of replacing the traditional wooden gondola…