WHY IS THE GONDOLA BLACK?
Once, gondolas could be painted in different colours but black, suggesting the elegance during the Republic of Venice, finally prevailed. We might take is as a mourning sign but, at the time, such a condition was represented by the colour red. Some thesis on the matter try to provide an answer to such a question: one of them claims that black reminds the fall of the Serenissima; another, supported by historical facts, states that gondolas were painted black following the consequences of a plague epidemics which, burst out in 1630, causing 50000 victims; somebody else thinks that an ordinance was passed imposing black for all gondolas is an attempt to put an end to the luxury with which XVI century gondolas were decorated. Much more poetic but not so true is the hypothesis that the white complexion of XVI century Venice gentlewomen was enhanced by the contrast against the black of the gondolas.
