Gondoliers told to stop crooning Cornetto songs

Venice: Venice's gondoliers have been criticised for serenading tourists with "culturally deficient" songs that have no relation to the lagoon city.

The boatmen are under attack for ignoring local ballads and instead crooning songs from other parts of Italy such as O Sole Mio — the tune forever associated in British minds with the Cornetto ice-cream television advertisements.

Tourists pay up to 200 euros (Dh1,011) to be serenaded as they are taken around the city's canals.

Of the 10 songs that visitors most frequently request from their gondoliers, only three have the vaguest connection to Venice.

The rest come from other parts of Italy such as Naples and the holiday island of Capri. They include Nel blu, dipinto di blu, Italy's 1958 Eurovision entry and one of the country's best known songs, and That's Amore, the 1953 song from the film The Caddy, which was sung by Dean Martin and is not even Italian. Gondoliers who sing such songs are "culturally deficient", Venetian councillor Alberto Mazzonetto said.

Distorted image

"They are ignoring the Venetian identity in a way that is detrimental to tourism. They're offering a distorted image of Venice as a sort of cultural Disneyland which has little to do with local traditions," Mazzonetto said.

He said the city's Gondola Authority gets 600,000 euros a year in funding, had "a great deal of power" and should encourage the revival of Venetian songs.

"The authority can sanction gondoliers if, for example, they wear tennis shoes instead of approved footwear. It has a code of discipline but it has never tried to influence the gondoliers' repertoire."