I’ve put off writing this for awhile: Venice was an amazing city to enjoy a comfortable quiet evening and day in. When we arrived at the train station and walked over the Grand Canal into town, entering the narrow corridors that make up the city was not unlike walking through the halls of a very large apartment building. The corridors were compressed on either side by buildings with life spilling out onto them from either side. Often the boundaries between interior and exterior spaces seemed to blur together. At best this made for a very unique space and at worst it provided a very confusing maze the first time entering. Fortunately we had GPS, Greg Positioning System, to lead us safely to our hotel: one of the best night’s rest I’ve had in Italy yet, thanks to the lack of vehicles and people on the streets it was very quiet. Very refreshed the next day we headed out to explore St. Mark’s cathedral and the rest of Venice.
St Mark’s like the rest of the city is sinking. At first it was difficult to understand what we were seeing. The cathedral’s interior is overwhelmingly large and dark. This disguised the fact that the building has been settling unevenly into the ground and that the clean lines that were undoubtedly there when the building was first constructed are now curved and uneven.
After St. Mark’s, we split up to look around the city individually. I wanted to go explore the Jewish ghetto in Venice. According to everything I’ve read: this one is the very first as it was created in 1516. The word “ghetto” comes from the Iron Foundry located near the site. I was disappointed when I entered the core of the ghetto, because being a Saturday, it was Sabbath, and nothing was open and no one was around with whom I could speak. I took the bridge out of the museum lined central piazza and selected one of the narrow corridors that would take me out of the vacant ghetto.
On my way out I was surprised to see a restaurant that was full of orthodox Jews. This seemed really strange because orthodox Jews do not open shop on Saturday, or even cook. So I needed to figure out what exactly they were doing. I was standing outside for awhile with a really confused look on my face when a orthodox rabbi, whom I identified through his awe inspiring massive white beard, looked me up and down and said a few things that I did not grasp and then more bluntly said Jew pointing at me and gesturing for me to come in, so I did. A man working the kitchen introduced himself as Yanev and asked if I would like some food. I asked him what was going on. He told me that this was the location where all the orthodox Jews in the ghetto gather on Saturdays and that all the food is cooked a night in advance and provided for people in between attending services and that they liked to receive visitors here. I was very happy to hear that and impressed with how friendly everyone was. They kept bringing me food, humus, fish, potatoes, and even some vodka until I’d had a full meal. I took one picture… apparently that was against the rules. Oops
St Mark’s like the rest of the city is sinking. At first it was difficult to understand what we were seeing. The cathedral’s interior is overwhelmingly large and dark. This disguised the fact that the building has been settling unevenly into the ground and that the clean lines that were undoubtedly there when the building was first constructed are now curved and uneven.
After St. Mark’s, we split up to look around the city individually. I wanted to go explore the Jewish ghetto in Venice. According to everything I’ve read: this one is the very first as it was created in 1516. The word “ghetto” comes from the Iron Foundry located near the site. I was disappointed when I entered the core of the ghetto, because being a Saturday, it was Sabbath, and nothing was open and no one was around with whom I could speak. I took the bridge out of the museum lined central piazza and selected one of the narrow corridors that would take me out of the vacant ghetto.
On my way out I was surprised to see a restaurant that was full of orthodox Jews. This seemed really strange because orthodox Jews do not open shop on Saturday, or even cook. So I needed to figure out what exactly they were doing. I was standing outside for awhile with a really confused look on my face when a orthodox rabbi, whom I identified through his awe inspiring massive white beard, looked me up and down and said a few things that I did not grasp and then more bluntly said Jew pointing at me and gesturing for me to come in, so I did. A man working the kitchen introduced himself as Yanev and asked if I would like some food. I asked him what was going on. He told me that this was the location where all the orthodox Jews in the ghetto gather on Saturdays and that all the food is cooked a night in advance and provided for people in between attending services and that they liked to receive visitors here. I was very happy to hear that and impressed with how friendly everyone was. They kept bringing me food, humus, fish, potatoes, and even some vodka until I’d had a full meal. I took one picture… apparently that was against the rules. Oops
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