Italy can boast more great artists than you can point a paint brush at: Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bellini and Modigliani, to name a few. Then there’s Tramontin, Ronaldo and Dei Rossi. Who? The unique works of these three (and a few others) may be as synonymous with Italy as the Vatican, for they are among the remaining families of artisans who craft Italy’s most moving of symbols: the gondola.

In the 1500s, an estimated 10,000 gondolas of varying configurations plied the waterways around Venice. By 1878, 4,000 still managed to clog the canals. Today, a mere 500 traditional craft navigate the narrow channels, whose cargo is primarily tourists from around the world.