A German woman has failed in her attempt to become Venice's first-ever female gondolier, blaming male chauvinism for her exclusion. But officials of the Gondola Authority, the body responsible for regulating the city's 400 or so licensed gondoliers, retorted indignantly: "Alexandra Hai simply wasn't good enough on the day."
Ms Hai (32), was awarded 6.7 in her rowing exam earlier this month, just short of the pass mark - seven - to qualify as an officially-recognised substitute gondolier with the right to fill in for licensed colleagues when they are on holiday or ill.
Despite not being formally qualified, she has been plying a gondola across a canal at Santa Maria del Giglio for the last three years. "The truth is that the gondoliers are a closed caste that doesn't want to open up to women," Ms Hai complained. She said the exam had taken place in a tense atmosphere and her chances had been damaged by a loose oarlock, which nobody had taken the trouble to adjust. Ms Hai said she was failed because she scraped gently against a parked gondola. "She did the exam like all the others and it went badly for her," an official of the Gondola Authority, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
"There were a lot of very competent people who were failed as well. Some of the men had marks of three or four, so she shouldn't feel too badly."
As one of 55 failed candidates out of a total of 124 Ms Hai was in good company: Mr Igor Vignotto, a local rowing champion, was also found to be unworthy of the title of substitute gondolier. "It may be true that being a gondolier is considered a purely male profession, partly as a matter of tradition," Mr Franco Vianello Moro, president of the Gondola Authority, said. "But there is no question of the examiners being prejudiced against Alexandra."
The exam requires would-be gondoliers to demonstrate complete control of their narrow, curved vessels, as well as a knowledge of foreign languages and the history of the main Venetian landmarks.
Ms Hai is now considering whether or not to challenge the exam board's verdict in court and is reviewing her future. "I don't intend to take to the fake canals of Las Vegas," she told a newspaper. "I wanted to be a gondolier here, where I live and where, even though I am a foreigner, people have made me feel at home, calling me `our girl gondolier'."