Italians cross Channel in gondola for charity

The humble gondola, a vessel whose modern-day maritime feats are restricted to ferrying tourists around Venice, may have been underestimated.

Yesterday, Vittoria Orio, a 60-year-old Italian gondolier, piloted one of the boats 22 miles through the busiest shipping lanes in the world to become the first person to cross the English Channel in a craft that originates in the 11th century.

Mr Orio took just over seven hours to row through thick fog from Dover to Calais, sustained only by the Venetian songs he and his partner, Enzo Liszka, also 60, sang to keep their spirits up. Their attempt was in danger of foundering when coastguards refused to let them leave without a support boat. But they were saved when they met an Australian sailor who volunteered to help their passage through the Dover Straits and to waive his £1,000 fee.

His intervention meant they could go ahead with the expedition to raise money for the Baschirotto Institute for Rare Diseases in Vicenza, which treats diseases not covered by the Italian health service, and contribute the £1,000 to the worthy cause.

Mr Orio – a former winner of the Regatta Storica, an annual race in Venice – has previously rowed with his wife, Monika, 46, from Brussels to Amsterdam and has crossed the Adriatic.