A torchbearer carries the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics torch on a Gondola along the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. The torch relay passed through Venice on Tuesday and will finish in Turin on Feb. 10. By its end, the relay will have covered 7,022 miles and involved 10,000 torchbearers.

Venice, Italy ? A ride in a gondola up the famed Grand Canal helped torchbearers of the Turin Olympics avoid protesters Tuesday.

A small group protesting a plan to save the city from high tides was held back by police as the flame entered Venice.

Twelve gondolas were provided for 12 torchbearers, including track athlete Manuela Levorato and 1960 Olympic heavyweight boxing champion Francesco De Piccoli.

Cousins Igor and Rudi Vignotto, perennial winners of the city’s historic gondola races, received the biggest cheers from the thousands of spectators lining the Grand Canal. Chinese figure skater Chen Lu, a bronze medalist at the 1994 Lillehammer and 1998 Nagano Games, was among the torchbearers on the streets.

The day’s relay ended with the lighting of a cauldron in Piazza San Marco.

Alex Zanardi, the former Formula One driver and two-time CART champion, carried the torch earlier in the day in Padua. Zanardi lost both legs in a collision during a CART race in 2001 and has two prosthetic legs.

The flame is to arrive in Turin on Feb. 10.