A couple of floors below where Bill Gates was delivering his keynote to the 40th Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last night, newly married couples and tourists were being ferried around canals on gondolas.
Gates’ paean to the pleasures of Vista, Microsoft's new operating system, was delivered in the huge Palazzo ballroom of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas which had over 4,000 chairs set out for the audience, all of which except a few hundred were filled.
Two floors below the ballroom is a waterway system consisting of replica Venetian canals in which gondolas, steered by gondoliers in striped jerseys and red ribbons, strut their stuff.
The Americans, as Americans do, have improved on the bog standard Gondola Mk1 as used in Venice, Italy for 500 years. US gondoliers don’t actually have to row their gondolas with a crummy old oar, they merely press a button with their foot which activates an electric motor driving a propeller.
Many Italian gondoliers might envy this modernization of their antediluvian conveyances, but they would not approve the health and safety regulations displayed to potential customers of gondolas in Venice, Las Vegas.
Gondola passengers are banned from smoking, drinking, eating, spitting and throwing things. They have to wear a seat-belt at all times, and intoxicated passengers aren’t allowed on-board.
If ‘elf ‘n safety ever gets to Venice, Italy, there goes the gondola industry.
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Comments (3)
Mr Manners, I think you are missing the point about the Health and Safety
Issue. I have seen the Gondolas in Italy and they look, to me, very
dangerous contraptions which desperately need bringing into the 21st
century. We have seatbelts in cars and we wear helmets on bicycles so why
not in gondolas? In fact I would suggest they explore the use of airbags to
protect against a sudden stop. The farsighted Americans are again leading
the way in gondola transport safety, which may allow gondolas to become
more accepted throughout the world as a normal day-to-day transportation
option.
Posted by stven dow | January 9, 2007 1:27 AM
Posted on January 9, 2007 01:27
Yeah, safety belts... that's so romantic. I felt like I was in a fishing boat. The employees are overweight fisherman.
Posted by r | July 26, 2008 2:46 PM
Posted on July 26, 2008 14:46
Maybe that's what they're there for - to prevent people getting over-romantic
Posted by David Manners | July 28, 2008 10:59 AM
Posted on July 28, 2008 10:59