In Venice, a Young Boatman Steers a Course of His Own
VENICE, Italy — From the time he was a child, Edoardo Beniamin could envision paddling a gondola through the waterways of Venice, his native city.
He saw himself, dressed in a striped jersey and ribboned straw hat, following his father and an uncle into a profession that has served as the enduring symbol of La Serenissima for a thousand years. “To be a gondolier was always my dream,” Mr.
Beniamin, 22, said one bright winter day in a Venice rendered vacant by a wave of Covid-19 sweeping across Europe. Seated at an outdoor cafe near the San Zaccaria waterbus station on the Grand Canal, Mr.
Beniamin explained why his childhood imaginings had felt to him unrealistic. “In the gondola business, it matters a lot if you are the son of someone,” he said. “But I really didn’t think it could be possible, since girls could not do it.” A slight man with a thatch of coppery hair and facial scruff, Mr.
