Two new Venetian gondolas join Gondola Adventures’ fleet in Newport Harbor
Greg Mohr could tell you everything you need to know about gondolas and then some, according to his wife, Elisa.
And oh, he’ll tell you.
“Gondolas have been around since at least the year 1094. That was the first time someone actually wrote the word down. Now, there are a bunch of things in the world that are called gondolas, but the original gondolas ... topped out many centuries ago at 36 feet or 11 meters,” said Mohr, laughing boisterously. “It’s my suspicion that that’s the longest that can make it around certain turns.”
“We like to say that [gondolas] are the No. 1 symbol of romance in the Western world, and I’m sure some people around the world have opinions, but I’m biased,” said Mohr.
The Mohrs run Gondola Adventures in Newport Beach, with a fleet of 15 gondolas and an even-larger team of gondoliers that come and go.
Their busiest season is around Valentine’s Day. This winter they booked 119 cruises on that romantic holiday alone and a total of 370 cruises between Feb. 1 and Feb. 15 — record highs, according to Elisa Mohr.
Most of the gondolas are bought used and then restored, but two of them — “Bella” and “Luna” (the former is named after the couple’s youngest daughter, Isabella) — came to the harbor fresh from a Venice workshop this past Memorial Day.
“We have known for a long time that we want to get a gondola built in Venice. You’re going to have to figure how to get on ‘the list’ and that list … it’s about a five-year wait,” said Greg Mohr. “There’s always the chance you might get bumped down because of somebody’s somebody’s cousin.
“When you’re not local, you’re not going to get the favorable treatment, and you won’t know that because you’re not there to see. So, we have always just acquired gondolas that were already here. It is a whole lot more affordable. The shipping alone [from Italy] is the cost of a used car. Maybe not in this market now, but it is not cheap.”
Mohr said the family had never even considered the possibility that they’d be able to get new gondolas, but the chance presented itself when they had reached out to an Italian artisan named Saverio Pastor, who makes oars and forcolas — the latter being an oar lock.
“At the end of 2021, I contacted him saying we had some end of the year expense money and that we’d like to order some more oars,” said Mohr. “... We’re an odd client of his, ... and I said to him, ‘Do you know of anybody who is shipping any new or used gondolas to the U.S.?’ You can get your oars [shipped] in that container and you can save yourself $1,000 or more in shipping.”
The answer he received intrigued him.
“He said, ‘No, I don’t know about any containers coming your way. But Roberto dei Rossi, who’s a gondola builder, has three new gondolas that he can’t sell.’ Then, in all caps at the bottom of the email, it said: ‘JUST THINK ABOUT IT, GREG,’” said Mohr, laughing.
Mohr learned dei Rossi continued making the vessels throughout the pandemic, but few gondoliers were working. That left dei Rossi with boats that needed to be sold.
The Mohrs contacted dei Rossi in December and decided to work out a purchase.
“When we opened the container and looked at the boats, I’ve got to tell you; I have seen a lot of gondolas, and I am the kind of person who knows what a gondola can look like,” said Mohr. “I have seen some really beautiful gondolas. I have never seen a gondola this beautiful. They have the finish of a Steinway piano or a Rolls-Royce. They are just absolutely spectacular.
“They’re like a 36-foot-long Stradivarius violin on the water,” he said.
Bella and Luna were first taken out on the water on May 31 at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club with extended family members, a tradition for the business that had its beginnings as a yacht charter company the Mohrs acquired in 1993.
Tustin resident Andrew Ha and his wife, Lynelle, were the first paying customers to take Luna out in Newport.
Andrew Ha said he’d been wanting to do something special for their 11th wedding anniversary. After learning about Gondola Adventures via a Google search, out they went on June 1.
“It was definitely unique,” Ha said afterward. “We’ve never done anything like this outside of [Las] Vegas at the Venetian; nothing compared to this. It was really special and I’m glad we did it.”
Mohr noted his company, which is approaching its 30th year in operation, is not the first to bring gondolas to Newport Harbor. The man who started the city’s Christmas Boat Parade, John Scarpa, whom Mohr calls his “patron saint,” led the way in offering the timeless romantic rides in local waters.
“In a world where newer and more technologically advanced things are always pushing last year’s thing out of the way, we are doing the same exact way it was done a thousand years ago,” said Mohr.
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