A fine craft | The Wider Image

Lorenzo Della Toffola works on part of a gondola at the San Trovaso boatyard, which produces one or two of the vessels each year using century-old techniques.

“We work in the old style. Everything is done by hand,” the 48-year-old said.

Another Venice gondola builder, Roberto Tramontin, said he uses a few machine-cut parts to makes his boats, in addition to the old-fashioned methods. Even so, it takes two months to construct a gondola from 280 pieces of various wood including lime, oak, mahogany, walnut, cherry, fir, larch and elm, all adding up to a price tag of about 38,000 euros.

Each steered by a lone gondolier in a striped shirt and straw hat, the slender luxury vehicles offer a romantic setting for a serene cruise and, not uncommonly, a proposal of marriage.

There were some 7,000 gondolas in Venice about 700 years ago, according to gondoliers’ association Ente Gondola, but their use as everyday transport has been supplanted by modern boats. The remaining 433 are now primarily a tourist attraction.