Tour or attraction guides may get a little too chatty for some of us to bear, but the things they say do carry weight. A group of tourists in Venice, Italy learnt this the hard way after their gondola capsized, sending them falling into the river.
The incident apparently occurred because they failed to listen to the gondolier — the person steering the gondola — who told them to sit still in the boat.
Insisting on taking photos, the tourists allegedly kept moving around to capture the scenery. Their movements threw the gondola off-balance, eventually overturning it and sending all five of them straight into the water.
According to X user Monica who uploaded footage of the incident, the gondola overturned in Venice River because the tourists wouldn’t stay in their seats.
She also stated in a reply that the gondolier had earlier warned the tourists not to stand up.
More specifically, 8world News reported that the gondolier told everyone to sit still and not move when the boat was about to pass a low bridge.
This was because they had to keep the centre of gravity low to pass through, 8world News cited ANSA News Agency.
Unfortunately, the tourists seemingly ignored the instructions and kept moving around the boat to take photos, throwing the vessel off-balance. The gondola subsequently capsized and everyone fell into the water.
Thankfully, water levels were low at that time, so there was no danger of drowning.
Nevertheless, a female tourist who was reportedly afraid of water was seen screaming while grabbing onto the hull of another gondola in an attempt to climb aboard.
Source: @Monica09058845 on X
Meanwhile, the others made their way slowly to the rescue gondola to be taken to safety.
The gondolier who had tried to warn the group also purportedly fell into the river but began rescuing passengers promptly and bringing them to shore.
Luckily, nobody sustained any injuries. Locals on the shore also reportedly helped the tourists to wring out their wet clothes.
While slightly scary, we hope the incident is a wake-up call for the tourists to heed important advice from professionals.
Also read: Boat With Durians Capsizes In Guangxi, Citizens Eat Them & Get Food Poisoning
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Featured image adapted from @Monica09058845 on X.
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