[Venice, August 20. Giorgia Boscolo smiles beside her gondola, background, in Venice's Grand Canal. After nine hundred years of male dominance in the profession, Venice is going to have its first official female gondolier.]

Giorgia Boscolo, 24, has passed her final exam and, if granted a license, will this week become Venice's first female gondolier. The exam is a challenging one, covering Venetian geography, waterways and history.

Giorgia Boscolo is the first woman in nine centuries to be a gondalier in Venice. [Reuters]