Tips for gondola tours: 60 euros or how not to get ripped off

We had a recent trip to Venice and wanted to have a little ride on a gondola, but without spending a small fortune.
So how do you get to tour Venice on a gondola without the gondolier making off with your lunch money?Firstly, you need to suss out the situation, which means finding gondolas parked in some of the smaller waterways and not just picking the first of the 500 sitting around St.

Mark’s square.
If you speak Italian, better still, otherwise be firm, but polite about your enquiry.
The first question to ask is how much will a small tour cost.
You also need to find out how long the gondolier intends to spend with you because let’s face it, 100 euros for half an hour is a lot of money.

There are no set rates or tariffs so the gondolier will generally be a bit evasive and reluctant to be held down to a specific offer.