Gondolas are one of the most famous images of Venice. We’d say that, just like a visit to Caffe Florian, a gondola ride is a must in Venice. If you’re going to Venice with your whole family or a group of friends and you’d like to know whether you can just get a gondola for all of you, we might have bad news for you. How many people can fit on one gondola in Venice?
It used to be that gondolas would take 6 passengers back in the day, but this has been changed in 2020 to 5. Why? Because of overweight tourists, who have become so prevalent that the average weight of a group has increased enough to warrant decreasing the limit. There may even be cases where the gondolier will ask a group of 5 to take one person to another gondola, in case the weight total is too much.
Venetian boats have also reduced their limit down to ten passengers, though it used to be 14. Once again, the Venetian authorities are not pulling any punches, saying outright that tourists are just heavier than they were 10 or 15 years ago.
Of course, you may make the argument that this is unfair for children, who count as one grown passenger, and lighter people. But the gondoliers don’t really have either the equipment or the time in the moment to weigh people and make sure that both the gondola and the passengers aren’t at risk because of an overload. There have been cases where overloaded boats have had water get inside before. As such, currently the limit of passengers on a single gondola is five and it is mighty unlikely that this will go back up anytime soon given how things are going worldwide.
See also:
