Tourist headbutts Venetian gondolier over boat selfie
It’s rough out there for a gondolier.
Venetian boatmen often have to contend with crowded waterways and rude tourists who spend the whole ride distracted by their phones, shout or dangerously stand up and cause boats to capsize.
And apparently, rowdy tourists also headbutt.
That’s what happened recently to one Venetian boatman when a group of four climbed on his stationary gondola to take a selfie, unbeknownst to him. According to local newspaper La Nuova Venezia, the gondolier asked them to disembark and a standoff ensued, during which the gondolier got swiped at and headbutted.
It happened at the picturesque destination of Ponte dei Bareteri, or Bareteri Bridge. Video from an onlooker posted to Facebook shows a man threatening and shoving the gondolier, knocking off his traditional wide-brimmed, ribbon-adorned straw hat. The conversation gets more heated as the man starts air punching at the gondolier, then headbutts him four times before actually socking the boatman in the jaw.
La Nuova Venezia reports that the group of four consisted of two South American children and their parents. The children were not visible in the video but a female companion is seen and heard yelling in the background. This is not the first time an incident such as this has happened with tourists, according to the newspaper, since the popular city has been waging a battle with overtourism.
