The coronavirus pandemic has placed a heavy burden on Venice's vast tourism industry. But as it emerges from lockdown, the city is attempting to ease another load from the shoulders of its gondoliers.

A new restriction will see the maximum capacity on the city's famous gondolas reduced from six passengers to five, CNN reports.

And it's not social distancing that prompted the change -- it's the ballooning average weight of tourists flocking to the destination.

"Over the last 10 years or so, tourists weigh more -- and rather than having them step on a scale before they get on, we are limiting the number," Andrea Balbi, the president of Venice's Gondola Association, confirmed to CNN while explaining the rule.

The change applies to Venice's quintessential slim boats that slither along the small canals. The maximum occupancy in the larger "da parada" gondolas, which serve mostly as taxis across the Grand Canal, has also been reduced, from 14 to 12.

Venice currently licenses 433 gondoliers and 180 substitutes, but it has recently cut the number of gondolas in service because of the pandemic and the steep decline in tourists.

Italy's coronavirus lockdown was so dramatic that the city's canal water became visibly clearer, due to the massive reduction in traffic.