This is the moment a gondolier from Venice is headbutted and slapped by a South American tourist when he complained about them taking a selfie in his gondola.
The traditional flat bottomed boats which used to be the main way of travelling around the river city but nowadays they are mainly used by tourists with numbers limited to 400 licensed gondoliers as opposed to the thousands that once plied their trade in the area.
Video credit: CEN
The prices are fixed but are still high as the numbers are strictly regulated, and the row reportedly started when the family of four climbed onto an unmanned gondola in order to take selfies without asking for permission.
When the gondolier took them to task, the angry father who was with his wife and two children can be seen berating the traditionally garbed gondolier, and can be seen knocking off his hat and pushing and headbutting him as a young girl believed to be his daughter tries to persuade her father to stop.
Throughout the exchange the gondolier argues back, but does not respond to the violence by hitting the angry man back.
The footage was reportedly shot on the Bareteri bridge in Venice, the capital of northern Italy’s Veneto region.
The video shows the tourist jostling and threatening the gondolier, knocking off his traditional straw hat before headbutting him and hitting him in the face. In the minute-and-a-half clip, the gondolier argues with the man but does not hit him back.
Other gondoliers have experienced trouble with rowdy tourists, according to La Nuova, which says a similar argument broke out near the same bridge last year.
Netizens and tourists were not on the same page about this confrontation. One called ‘Yerle’ wrote: “I hope he reported it, Venice does not need this kind of tourist!!”
And ‘Giulio Pirola’ said: “It’s okay that they went in to take a picture, why should they have to pay for taking a picture, if they want a ride than that is okay and they have to pay 80 euros. The tourist did a good thing in teaching him a lesson.”
But ‘Peripatetic’ added: “Seriously? The gondola is private property. Imagine if I climbed inside your car just to take pictures, what would you do then?”
There was no comment as to whether police were involved in the incident and the identity of the man reportedly from South America was also not revealed.
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Story By: Jana Tomovska, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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