When most people think of Venice one word comes to mind, water and a lot of it..

How Venetians navigate through the tiny canals and the lagoon of Venice is truly magical. There are many ways Venetians like to get around the islands of Venice and in the city itself. Some choose traditional methods like traditional Venetian rowing boats called sandalos. Others prefer the classic hybrid Venetian boat specialist the Sanpierota. A boat you can use with an oar that is held up by the trusty forcola or for the more adventurous users the sail. Most people use vaporettos or known in English as a waterbus. Many Venetians also have their own motorboats. Most of them modern plastic boats with 20 or 40 horsepower outboard engines.

While the most famous boat in Venice is still the Gondola another boat is held in high regard for Venetians and tourists, this boat is the water taxi.

The Venetian taxi is the complete sum of elegance, cool, sophistication and beauty that has come to define Venice. Also, known by Venetians as a “motoscafo” with its beautiful lines and iconoclastic style the Venetian water taxi is the mode of travel in the city preferred when you want to feel more like George Clooney.

Let us dive deep in this article about all things Venetian water taxis….

The traditional mode of travel for many of the aristocratic guests was the Gondola. They were so prized that it even became the mode of travel for people like Peggy Guggenheim who called Venice home.

The first taxi boats to be built in Venice were always in wood using a long shaft drive system, making the boats a bit more complex to drive than the more modern Venetian taxi boat. The engines were placed in the front of the boat. The shape of the boat also differed that they were more in the shape of having a long foredeck and very nicely shaped cabin roofs; the most famous shipyard then was Cantiere Celli. The first taxi boats to be authorized for service began in the 1920’s and were considerably smaller than future adaptations of the taxi boat. The first documented motorboats being built date back to 1919, on the island of San Giorgio, where smaller motorboats for passenger use were being built. The first taxi authorizations were held personally rather than by organizations and only a few had these authorizations. The first Venetian water taxis were small due to the need to travel through the narrow channels in the city. The early taxi boats were built in planking and were very streamlined lines, with a long bow made for a quite max. hull speed rather then planing. Due to the size, these taxi boats carried less people and most taxis had internal engines with less than 100 horsepower. The more complex longer shaft driven drives from this period had more limitations and usually required more attention than the modern engines of taxis today.

While taxis were around officially in the 1920’s the popularity grew in around the 1950’s as more boats became readily available. However, the gondola was still a popular mode of transport along with the vaporetto’s (The Venetian waterbus). With the emergence of fiberglass materials, many taxi drivers and boat drivers alike wanted their boats to be made in fiberglass as a replacement for wood. With fiberglass boats, boats were able to be produced faster, boats became lighter and cheaper to build. Also, for the taxi driver easier to maintain than wood. However, many shipyards still carried on building in wood. The taxi started to become a popular choice for tourists in the 1960’s and in the 1970’s the emergence of a few important shipyards coupled with new engine innovations started to change the style of the Venetian taxi for more of what guests coming to Venice would see today.

Shipyards like Serenella, Cucchini and Tagliapietra have come to define the more contemporary beauty of water taxis in Venice, with each shipyard adding their own unique touch to the evolution of the water taxi.

Serenella shipyard located in Murano became so famous abroad they were getting orders for their unique brand of taxi all over the world.

Taxis built by Serenalla were being shipped to boat enthusiasts all over the world including the United States, Japan, Germany, France, China, Switzerland, Holland, United Kingdom, Russia, Arab Emirates, China, Japan, Australia, and Polynesia. The taxi boats had become so wanted that Serenella, had more brand recognition abroad than in Italy.

The popularity of the Venetian taxi boat had come to now compete with the gondola for the preferred mode of transport by tourists due to new innovations that increased speed and introduction of newer stern-drive systems.

“If you own a Bentley or a Rolls Royce in London, in Venice you would probably own one of these famous thirty-foot cabin boats”.

Robert Speltz’s book ‘The Real Runabouts III’, he notes, of Serenella’s taxi designs.

With Vizanello shipyard and Narduzzi shipyard creating the first hybrid electric taxi models in the city.

As we move to the future, we may start to also see taxi boats in Venice powered by hydrogen cells as the city has moved forward with many green projects in the boating sector. No matter what happens in the future guests coming to Venice can be assured to see beautiful taxi boats with a history that is as interesting as the city itself.

• Normal Taxi – 9.50 meters length on average
• Width 2.20 is the minimum 2.40 is the maximum width
• Z-drive Volvo Penta with 150-250 horsepower (most only use 150 hp due to regulations within the city.)

All of these Venetian taxi boat companies have loads of experience and offer a lot in the way of transport options for tourists coming or going to Venice. From airport drop-offs at Marco Polo airport to transport to Harry’s Bar getting a water taxi in Venice is the coolest way to travel.

Taxi service in Venice is heavily regulated to make sure that companies are safe and guests are safe. There are two types of Taxis, these are taxis with a yellow license or a green license. You will be able to see what type of taxi it is as they are marked on the windows of the taxi by a green sign or yellow sign. Yellow licensed taxis can pick-up guests at random and pick up guests by reservation. They can operate as a transport service but not as an experience-based company offering tours. As there are other companies that are offering these services and that are not allowed to offer services like transport. Companies like Classic Boats Venice can offer such tour experiences in the lagoon of Venice. Green licensed companies can only offer transport in Venice by reservation only and are not allowed to pick up random guests. The rules can be complicated, but Venetians do a really good job to respect them, and taxi drivers are very honest. The fees are standard, and all taxi companies have the same standard fees, so don’t ask for a discount. If needed you can always ask your driver for a receipt as they are required by law to offer you one.

Image Credits: Venice Kayak, Flickr, La Nuova Venezia, Rainews