wohoo!! all right, cooler, keep up the good work! :)

Where does this gondola come from? Venice?

Yuppers, they are most closely associated with Venice & I used reference pics of a traditional Venetian gondola, (pointed nose, curved hull, "V" shaped open oarlock, etc. :-), when putting this together, although you can find similar watercraft in a lot of different places

It looks a little plain compared to the ones seen on the canals in the movies. Is this model based on common types in the Adriatic?

Otay... here comes more than you ever wanted to know about gondolas :-) As to what my design is based on... I just d/l'ed pics from the web & scanned a couple from my library so I could get an idea of the hull shape & relative dimensions, but it most closely resembles illustrations I found of a a couple of traditional styles (Sdolo & Sdolo da barcari) that were featured in a book on the History of Venice :-) Two traditional gondola decorations that I did leave off (because of my relative lack of skill as a modeller) are the "fero" (iron decoration at the prow) & "felse" (a removable tent-like apparatus used for privacy) Once I manage to beat Lightwave into submission I hope to add those later. I didn't bother to "dress it up" because most of the traditional accoutrements,(lanterns fore & aft, various bench type seats, pillows, etc., etc.) are available in FreeStuff or elsewhere & I saw no need to "reinvent the wheel :-). Just as an example Del has a wonderfully detailed lantern in FreeStuff that would be perfect :-)

Curiosity aamply fulfilled. Well researched.