Venetian Paddles From Vienna to Budapest in Gondola

A 71-year-old Italian man completed on Wednesday a 300-kilometer (190-mile) journey down the Danube from Vienna to Budapest -- by gondola.

Vittorio Orio was greeted in front of the Hungarian capital's riverside parliament building by a handful of Italian diplomats and journalists after his five-day trip down one of Europe's main waterways.

The Venetian, who raised money for a cancer charity with the trip, said he chose the River Danube "as a symbol of the union of different nations and peoples."

Orio's past exploits have included directing his vessel from the Swiss city of Basel to Amsterdam in the Netherlands, across the English Channel and from Venice to the Vatican to visit the pope.