La Dolce Vita (barge)
Encyclopedia
The La Dolce Vita (The sweet life) was built in 1897 in Groningen, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. She originally served as a cargo barge in Holland. She presently serves as a hotel barge
Hotel barge
The Hotel Barge came into being following the decline in commercial and freight carriage on the canals of Europe. Many working barges have been converted into floating hotels of varying degrees of luxury...
, owned by silver Venice lda and operated by European Waterways
European Waterways
European Waterways is an international company based in Berkshire, England that operates a fleet of 21 river cruising vessels along the rivers and canals of Europe.-Company history:...
.
History
The original barge was powered by sail. She was first motorized in the 1950s and in the 1960s was lengthened by 10m (with square chines)Chine (boating)
A chine in boating refers to a sharp angle in the hull, as compared to the rounded bottoms of most traditional boat hulls. The term hard chine indicates an angle with little rounding, where a soft chine would be more rounded, but still involve the meeting of distinct planes. Chine log...
.
In 1975, she was purchased by Peter Mastenbroeks. She was shortened back to her original length of 23m (x5m) and her name was changed to Lobbes. In 1979, she was transformed into a sailing barge.
She was sold in 1983 and continued to be operated as a sailing barge by a French couple. Around 1988, she was sold to a new owner in Venice and converted to a hotel barge in 1990. She continues her life as a hotel barge there today.
She has worked in Holland, throughout Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. She has also sailed under the names of "Hoop en Vertrouwen" (Hope and Confidence), "Gerris", and "Lobbes".
La Dolce Vita currently has 3 passenger cabins allowing her to carry up to 6 passengers. She also has separate crew quarters which house the crew of three. The crew consists of the captain, tour guide/deck-hand, and chef. The crew is generally Italian with one crew-member who speaks English.