Katie and Robert Burns glided up the St. Croix River, with flutes of champagne in hand, to celebrate Katie’s 30th birthday last week.
People on shore stopped to point and take photos — with the Stillwater Lift Bridge as a backdrop — as the couple headed north.
The reason for their sudden celebrity status? They were in an authentic Venetian gondola, complete with a serenading gondolier dressed in a navy blue-and-white striped shirt and straw hat.
This year marks John Kerschbaum’s 25th year in the gondola business in Stillwater, which he lovingly calls “the most romantic city in the Midwest.”
Kerschbaum said he got the idea to launch his business, Gondola Romantica, in 1998 after seeing a photograph of a gondola in a local newspaper.
Growing up in Afton, Kerschbaum, 67, said he always loved boating on the St. Croix. He used to lead canoe trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario.
“I saw that photo, and I thought, ‘God, that would be fun to do in Stillwater. Yeah, I could offer gondola rides,’” he said. “I got on the phone right away to canoeing buddies and boat-building buddies and said, ‘What do you know about gondolas?’ Nobody knew anything about gondolas.”
It took about 18 months, but Kerschbaum, who was then working as a tree trimmer, eventually tracked down a man in Venice – “an ex-pat named Tom” – who was willing to teach him to row a gondola in the Venetian canals and find him an authentic, used gondola to purchase.
“I suddenly found myself on an airplane to Venice to buy a gondola,” he said. “It’s been far more fun than I ever imagined.”
The total cost to purchase and ship the gondola, which is 37 feet long, 4 feet wide and weighs 1,100 pounds, was about $26,000, he said.
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“It barely fit into a 40-foot shipping container,” he said. “It was shipped to New York, put on a train to Minneapolis and then trucked to Stillwater. I just had to meet them at Wolf Marina here in Stillwater.”
Kerschbaum bought his second gondola a few years later from a retired businessman who had bought it to use on Christmas Lake in the western suburbs, he said.
“He just thought it’d be a cool thing to have, so he and his brother each brought one over from Venice,” he said. “When I got my boat here, I got a lot of press and stuff, and so he contacted me, and I gave him a couple of rowing lessons.”
When Kerschbaum’s business began to take off and he needed a second gondola, he contacted the man to see if he would be interested in selling his. “He wasn’t using it, and I had a need, so I bought it off of him,” he said.
Never fallen in
Gondolier John Kerschbaum takes Robert and Katie Burns of Inver Grove Heights for a cruise on the St. Croix River near Stillwater on Friday, May 2, 2025. Kerschbaum, 67, estimates that he has given more than 20,000 gondola rides during his 25 years in business, and witnessed hundreds of marriage proposals. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Kerschbaum stores his gondolas at his house in Stillwater Township during the off-season. The season generally runs from May through the end of October; his latest gondola ride was Nov. 7.
The flat-bottomed boats are made out of eight different kinds of wood: larch, fir, oak, elm, cherry, mahogany, lime and walnut. It takes about 800 hours to build one new, “if you know what you’re doing,” he said.
Each gondola is asymmetrical, meaning the port, or left, side of a gondola is longer and rounder than the starboard, or right, side, he said.
“It’s built with a twist, so it leans to the right,” he said. “That does two things: It makes it easier to steer, and it makes it so it won’t flip over like a canoe. You can put a couple thousand pounds of cargo in it, and once you get it going, it takes about the same amount of energy as walking to row it.”
Kerschbaum estimates he has given more than 20,000 gondola rides since 2001, and, no, he’s never once fallen in, he said.
“Not yet,” he said. “My friend Greg (Mohr), who lives in California, says there are two kinds of gondoliers: those who have fallen in, and those who are going to fall in. You never want to get too cocky.”
Some of the college kids who work as gondoliers at Gondola Romantica during the summer have fallen in. “The rule is, if you fall in at any time, you’ve got to bake the other gondoliers a rhubarb pie,” he said.
Gondolier John Kerschbaum aboard his Venetian gondola on the St. Croix River in Stillwater on Friday, May 2, 2025. Kerschbaum has been putting on the traditional black pants and striped shirt, topped with a straw hat wrapped in a red ribbon, to take guests out for 25 years. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
The gondoliers at Gondola Romantica all wear black pants or shorts, a striped shirt and a straw hat with a red ribbon.
“I probably have, like, seven or eight striped shirts in the closet to use, so I always have a clean one,” he said. “Most of them are from Venice. They’re all navy and white.”
Fun fact: The straw hat and striped shirt is actually a British sailing uniform from the early 1900s that the Venetians adopted when they started giving rides to tourists, according to Kerschbaum.
Gondoliers in the 1500s in Venice wore the clothing of the lords of the household that they served, “so I’d be a servant of the household,” he said. “Each family had their private gondoliers that roamed around. Gondoliers were elevated from a lower working class to the upper working class because everything happened on the gondola. The gondoliers knew all the family secrets.”
Memorable rides
Kerschbaum takes the gondolas out rain or shine — if his customers are willing. “Some people don’t mind the rain, and then some people will have no part of it,” he said. “Some of my nicest, most memorable rides have been in the rain.”
He once took a couple out during a “pretty steady rainfall” and headed just north of the Stillwater Lift Bridge. As he steered the gondola from the Wisconsin side of the river to the Minnesota side, the rain suddenly stopped, he said.
“The sun came out, and right over our heads, we had a double rainbow,” he said. “You know, you could almost see the pot of gold – that’s how close it was. She looks back and says, ‘You don’t get the rainbow without the rain.’”
Kerschbaum said his favorite time to go out is during the week when the river isn’t busy; nighttime rides are especially romantic, he said.
“We’ve got to talk about the stars and the moon,” he said. “Full-moon rides are awesome. First of all, you get the lights shining off the water, especially if it’s a quiet night. The water is like glass. You’re gliding along, and you got the full moon shining.”
One late October night, with his clients buried under a pile of comforters and blankets, Kerschbaum steered the gondola under a sky filled with stunning light.
“We had the river to ourselves,” he said. “The water was like glass, and the Northern Lights were out. You just couldn’t plan a night like that. It was just magical. Nobody wanted to stop, you know? I’ve never had it happen again.”
Kerschbaum estimates he has witnessed “hundreds” of proposals through the years. No one, thus far, has said “No,” he said. There have been same-sex proposals, and on two different occasions, the woman has proposed to the man.
John Kerschbaum’s Venetian gondola has its own parking spot next to the riverboats on the St. Croix River at Stillwater. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
The gondolas are docked at the municipal docks, just west of the Majestic Star dinner cruise boat and just south of the former Dock Café. “Once, this good-looking couple comes down, and this guy is squirrely,” he said. “I get him in the boat, and we’re right in front of the Dock Café, and this guy can’t stand it. He gets on one knee and proposes to his girlfriend.”
Each ride lasts either 45 minutes or an hour, and Kerschbaum will sing upon request. “I do ‘Santa Lucia,’ ‘O Sole Mio’ and the Doris Day song, ‘Que Sera Sera,’” he said.
Once, at the end of a long day, a tired Kerschbaum sang a couple of songs for a couple, but was “kind of going through the motions,” he said. “I knew I was off. It wasn’t my best performance.”
The couple clapped politely and then asked if they could sing for him.
“Well, they were freaking professional musicians,” he said. “They did a song with harmony, and it was so beautiful. God, I felt really embarrassed. He said something to me, which was very wise, and I’ll never forget. He said, ‘Music and politics are way too important to leave it to the professionals.’ In other words, sing your song. Have fun. Create a moment. You don’t have to be a professional to have fun.”
Kissing under the Lift Bridge
The Burnses, the couple from Inver Grove Heights, got to ride in the gondola named Amore. Four names – Valentina, Maria, Angela and Alicia – are engraved in metal near the bow of the boat. “The names are usually the names of the gondolier’s wife and children,” he said.
Robert Burns planned the trip as part of a surprise overnight trip to Stillwater for Katie Burns’ 30th birthday. He booked a reservation at the Lora Hotel in downtown Stillwater and made a dinner reservation.
“He planned this whole thing,” she said. “Thank goodness he has two older sisters because otherwise, I don’t think he would have come up with this on his own. It’s been a nice surprise.”
Katie Burns brought a blanket for the couple to use, and then Kerschbaum added another from his collection. He then took Robert Burns’ cellphone to snap a photo of the two before setting off.
Robert and Katie Burns, of Inver Grove Heights, kiss at the beginning of their gondola ride on the St. Croix River. (Courtesy of John Kerschbaum)
“OK, this is the one where you’re kissing,” he said, cuing the couple to kiss. “This is the one where you’re kissing.”
In Venetian folklore, if two lovers kiss in a gondola under the Bridge of Sighs, their love will last forever. Kerschbaum told the Burnses the same thing will happen if two lovers kiss in a gondola under the Stillwater Lift Bridge.
“I tell the young kids, if they’re dating, ‘If you absolutely know you don’t want true love, don’t risk it,’” he said.
The couple drank champagne left over from their wedding engagement and got to see a great blue heron, a couple of ducks and an osprey.
“It was a beautiful misty day,” Katie Burns said.
“And John was ready with a nice, warm blanket,” Robert Burns said.
The couple recognized “Que Sera Sera” when Kerschbaum sang it to them, Katie Burns said. “He sang a song that I’ve heard Robert sing,” she said. “He’s like, ‘A lot of young people don’t know this song,’ but Robert does.”
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A highlight was watching the lift portion of the Stillwater Lift Bridge being raised to let a larger boat pass underneath.
“Katie had just asked if it still went up, and I was like, ‘I think it’s still operational,’ and not two seconds later, bam! Up it goes,” Robert Burns said. “It was just like I planned it. It was fun to be under the bridge and see it from a different way. … We’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
Gondola Romantica
Where: 525 Main St., Stillwater
How much: One-hour cruise is $159.95; 45-minute cruise is $129.95
For more information: www.gondolaromantica.com
