Canale delle Galeazze

It happened! I actually slept last night!! Our alarm woke us up at 8 this morning and I felt great. We grabbed breakfast in the hotel breakfast room which was really cute and had beautiful chandeliers decorating it. We had eggs, some type of savory egg tart, apricot croissant, chocolate croissant and plain Italian bread- just so we could put some blueberry jam on it. Delicious!

We decided to just play the day by ear and started walking out past Saint Marks square and quickly decided we didn’t want to wait in the 2 hour line for the Doje’s palace. We instead walked the 26 minutes to the Jewish Ghetto- the first ghetto created and glad we did. As you approach the ghetto, you notice a change in the buildings. None of the buildings in Venice were very high, but now you have much larger apartment buildings- in order for more people to live there. You have to cross a small bridge and go through a low tunnel to get to the actual ghetto. This used to be gated off at curfew time so the Jewish people couldn’t leave. We decided to grab lunch and ended up at Majer Venezia bakery and had the most simple and amazing prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich on fresh ciabatta along with a slice of Mediterranean pizza. They were delicious!

After lunch we headed back to get tickets to our tour of the ghetto. It was interesting to note this has been the only place we’ve come to so far that has checked our bags and put us through a metal detector. Tells a sad story, but it needs to happen. We then started the tour. The ghetto was established in the 1500s and it was interesting that Jewish people from all over came there and requested to be let into the ghetto. This was because the ghetto had become a place of commerce for the Jewish people and where they were given approval to live and work. We then went to the leventine and the Sephardic synagogues and they were absolutely beautiful. The detail and designs were gorgeous and the synagogues were still in use today.

After the tour was over, we did a little shopping and then started to wander again. We ended up at the end of Venice with a beautiful view of Murano (and a nice breeze). Back we went to Saint Marks square where we sat and each had an aperol Spritz aperitivo and listened to the beautiful orchestra serenade us. That is, until a soundcheck started for the concert that evening and we were surrounded with terrible practice music blaring from concert speakers.

We left to do some more walking and searching for shoes (it’s very important to have sandals here we realized) and ended up back at the hotel where I started today’s blog. 1 paragraph in and I was asleep! So a quick nap, shower, and we were back out again.

Now here’s the best part of the day. We wandered over to intercept Becky and Mike as they got off the boat. The Oliver’s made it! Woohoo! One more quick stop at the hotel, a little more wandering to show them Saint Marks square and then dinner at Vino Vino near our hotel where we chose to sit in a cute little garden in the back.

Of course we all got drinks and had to split a charcuterie tray. Plus, Dave had been wanting to try the Venetian specialty of fried sardines. I think we all agree we could have done without them. Main meal consisted of gnocchi for Mike, carbonara for Becky, ravioli for me and a whole fish for Dave. We finished and then you guessed it, we wandered a bit more to gelato at Suzo again. It was delicious. Now we are off to bed. Tomorrow we will explore Venice bit more then we are off to Tuscany (via rental car…gulp!)

Walking tally: 27,170; 11.06 milesRead more

More pics from beautiful Venice. For lunch when they brought us our wine, they also brought a bowl of potato chips. Funny combo! Of course, I made sure I got one more gelato before we went home! Much smoother and tastier than any ice cream in the USA!Read more