Venice Prosecco Bender Ends In Illegal Gondola Joyride

A young couple in Italy was arrested this week, but the criminal charges might have been worth it for the story about how they got drunk in Venice and stole a gondola for a joyride.

According to The Local, the young couple was enjoying the views and the romance and a whole lot of prosecco, which sounds like a pretty delightful way to spend an evening. But after a few too many glasses, the prosecco made the couple think that a gondola ride down the Grand Canal might be a romantic way to end the evening. That also sounds like a pretty delightful way to cap off a night. Unfortunately for the couple, they did not own a gondola. There are plenty of late-night gondoliers in Venice ready to take young couples on just that sort of excursion, but instead this couple decided to listen to the prosecco when it told them to just borrow one.

The extremely drunk couple untied a gondola that was owned by the city council and took it off for a paddle along the Grand Canal.

Police noticed the apparently empty gondola floating along around 3 a.m. and went to catch it, thinking it had just come loose and floated away. They were surprised to find the couple sound asleep in the bottom of it, because once a person is drunk enough to take a gondola for a joyride, that person is probably a bit too drunk for the "return the gondola safely to land and its rightful owners" part of the evening.

The police arrested the couple and charged them with theft and reckless endangerment, but it's hard to imagine a punishment more cruel than the prosecco hangover they probably woke up with.