First female gondolier

A German woman has won a 10-year battle to steer a gondola through Venice - the first woman to do so.

Alexandra Hai, 35, successfully challenged the all-male Venice Gondola Association and city authorities. Ms Hai failed the gondola test three times - and was also fined once by police for illegal gondoliering.

Ms Hai will be able to take tourists to small Venetian hotels. But officially she cannot claim the title "gondolier".

Ms Hai, the daughter of an Algerian civil servant and a German midwife, moved to Venice from the US in 1996 and became fascinated with gondolas.

She found a job with a small hotel chain there.