The "Fruit Crate Gondola"

In the few days before and after New Years Eve, 
it seems everybody is talking about all of the things that happened in 2017.
Lots of global politics and major national stories have gotten plenty of attention. And I understand the need for that, 
but there's so much other stuff to talk about.
As for me, I don't want to cover any of the subjects that everyone else has already hashed out.
Chances are they've done a better job than I would anyway.

Instead, I want to talk about...the "Fruit Crate Gondola!"

You heard me correctly.
A guy named Angelo Boscolo built a gondola, a real gondola, 
using the wood of 350 fruit boxes from the Rialto market in Venezia. 

According to this article in Nuova Venezia 
(someone who gave this story the attention it deserved),
On the day of the Madonna della Salute, Mr. Boscolo launched it in the Grand Canal. This is not his first adventure as a "do-it-yourself master carpenter" - in the past he also built a pupparino using the "benches" of the San Giacometto market and a "zero kilometer bragozzetto", as he calls it, with artichoke boxes - but he has certainly completed his biggest adventure: to create a real gondola.
 "Actually it is 30 centimeters shorter and according to tradition it should be made with 9 types of wood", explains Angelo Boscolo, a few minutes before the launch, "I used ten of them, those of the fruit boxes that friends gave me."  
The gondola of the "Cantiere dei burloni", as it is impressed in the trasto, with another very Venetian motto: 
"Who knows how quiet, who does not know how to ask, 
El mona already knows everything". 

I am hoping that I can see, and maybe row this unique gondola the next time I'm in Venice.

If you can, check out the videos on the Nuova Venezia website.
http://nuovavenezia.gelocal.it/venezia/cronaca/2017/11/21/news/venezia-la-gondola-di-di-angelo-costruita-con-350-cassetta-di-frutta-1.16145894?refresh_ce