Gondola Stuff: Wooden Puzzle

I picked up this puzzle at a tobacco shop in Venice and had some fun putting it together.

First the body of the gondola, with the ferro on one side and the popa di ferro on the other.

That’s quite a jaunty gondolier! He’s even wearing the requisite striped shirt and straw hat. His oar looks more like a pole, but lest there be any confusion, gondoliers don’t push the boat with a pole–they row with an oar.

The finished gondola, gliding on the glossy black lagoon.

You can even buy this gondola unpainted. But what color would you paint it but black? It’s been black for hundreds of years, ever since the Senate decreed it must be so in the Sumptuary Laws.