Name: The American Gondolier
Author: David F. Black

What the Story Is About

The American Gondolier

Long Beach, California, 1982. Two friends. One impossible idea.

When Mike O'Reilly spots a waterlogged Pakistani fishing boat rotting in a neighbor's rose garden, most people see junk. He sees the beginning of something. David Orlando—Mike's oldest friend—sees every flaw in the hull and every reason it won't work. He says yes anyway. What follows is the story of how two young men with no investors, no permits, no experience with Italian anything, and more belief than sense built a gondola business on the canals of Naples, California—and then kept going to Austin and Nashville and on to the BVI.

The American Gondolier is a novel inspired by true events: a story about friendship and the stubborn kind of optimism that refuses to quit. It's about the people who show up—the crew that sands and hammers and stays for the beer, the attorney who doesn't lose, the neighbor who gives you her boat for free and just asks for a ride when it's done. It's about what happens when a small idea refuses to stay small, and two men discover that the question was never whether it would work—it was how far they were willing to take it.

David F. Black

David F. Black co-founded Gondola Getaway in 1982—the first and longest-running gondola service in North America, still gliding through the canals of Naples Island today. The American Gondolier is his first novel, inspired by the real risks, setbacks, and quiet triumphs behind that unlikely dream. He is currently at work on the next book in the series, The American Gondolier: Protected. David lives with his wife in the same island community where it all began.

From the Publisher

Three books. One expanding legacy.

A true-life beginning gives way to an international story of hidden history, family honor, and the courage to build a freer future.

Book One

The American Gondolier — Book One of the Trilogy

What begins as a simple idea on the water becomes something far larger than a business. When David sets out to bring Venetian gondolas to the quiet canals of Southern California, he isn't chasing a business plan—he's chasing a possibility. What most people dismissed becomes a test of resilience, conviction, and imagination. Money runs thin. Doubt creeps in. The practical world pushes back. Yet the vision refuses to release him.

The American Gondolier is a story about risk—not the reckless kind, but the kind that asks whether you have the courage to build something that doesn't yet exist.

A Note to My Readers

While the foundations of Mike and David's journey in the first book were deeply inspired by my own real-life years building a gondola business on the canals, their spirits and ambitions ultimately grew bigger than reality. The American Gondolier Trilogy expands into a thrilling new fictional landscape across its final two chapters. In Book 2, Protected, David's past collides with a decades-old family secret, taking him from the calm of the British Virgin Islands into a high-stakes thriller across Venice, Vienna, and Cuba. The story ultimately reaches its explosive finale in Book 3, Legacy, where the hunt for history, family honor, and freedom culminates on the shores of Havana. Thank you for walking the real canals with me—I can't wait to take you on the wild ride that comes next.

The American Gondolier: Protected book cover

Book Two

Protected — Book Two of the Trilogy

A Historical Thriller · Coming Soon

The American Gondolier: Protected — May 2009. A WWII ledger is found sealed in a wall at the Squero di San Trovaso in Venice. Giovanni Bellini summons David to Venice to authenticate it as the only living kin of its author: David's uncle, Frank Orlando.

The ledger documents Frank moving three Jewish families out of Venice by boat in 1943, then—after his capture—intelligence gathered in captivity on a Nazi operation running looted treasure through Cuba toward Argentina. Frank escaped and sealed the record before disappearing.

David follows the ledger from Venice to the Caribbean, to a ship sunk at 350 feet off Cuba and the fortune inside it. Against him: Viktor Stein, Austrian, 74, working the same trail. Alongside him: Massimo Rinaldi's dive operation, Kiki, Rose, and Alejandro Reyes—a Miami heritage trustee who turns out to be running far more of the ground game in Cuba than David understood.

Book Three

Legacy — Book Three of the Trilogy

Legacy is Book 3.

The spine: David, Rose, Kiki, and Massimo return to Cuba alongside Alejandro Reyes to fund the liberation of the Cuban people—through pressure, positioning, law, and legitimacy. Never violence. Alejandro's decade of waiting ends; he activates the heritage trust Rose built and moves to make the treasure the legal, public property of the Cuban people. His restraint is his character: the violent option is available in every chapter, and he refuses it.

The obstacle: a legal war on two fronts. In Havana, General Óscar Prieto. In Washington, Congressman Wade Hollis, who sits on the subcommittee with jurisdiction over Cuba sanctions and feeds intelligence to Prieto through a Panama-routed channel. They don't attack the trust head-on—they attack the provenance chain, using Title III of Helms-Burton to file a colorable claim, get a hearing, and let an American judge freeze the money. A frozen asset frees no one. Mirroring them: Alejandro, and Senator Bobby Diaz.

What People Are Saying

“The American Gondolier tells the story of one of the most unusual Italian-inspired businesses in America — two young men with no boatbuilding experience who put Venetian gondolas on a California canal. What makes it particularly fascinating is that the imitation eventually earned its way back to Venice. A wonderfully circular story, and a charming read.”

— Wendy Holloway, host of the Flavor of Italy podcast

Blog Post

Rich Archbold

Press-Telegram

He is public editor of the Press-Telegram.

Archbold arrived in Long Beach in 1978.

He was the longtime executive editor of the Press-Telegram and managing editor before that.

He writes a weekly column and coordinates the Press-Telegram's myriad community connections.

Press-Telegram Story

Media inquiries and review copies: use the contact form below.

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The AmericanGondolier Trilogy