Crossing Bridges When We Come to Them.

Venice is putting on her mysterious face for us, masking her glory and disrepair in a shroud of mist.  Every corner provides a new perspective and the difficult thing is to stop taking photos long enough to actually look. 

The canals and the bridges that cross them are so different from anything else we have seen and each one is beautiful in a different way to the last.  We love walking through the winding streets and over the bridges (so much that we have walked over some of them several times...once again sometimes on purpose). 

Yesterday we introduced ourselves to the city - just getting here in the vaporetto was amazing.  Our journey took us around the outside of the main island and up the San Marco canal.  We reached dry land and then took an equally circuitous route to find the flat.  Remembering that the blue bits on the map are actually canals rather than large streets may help with navigation although we swear the street shown on the map does not exist - we checked today from the other direction.  Perhaps it sunk.

We are staying in Castello, at the end where the normal people live.  From our window we can see the San Marco canal - it's difficult to tear ourselves away from the view to do ordinary things like eat breakfast or go to bed. 

After settling into our flat we walked down to the water.  The mist had descended and Venice was retreating into the distance.  San Marco was soft in the dusk light and we both agree the basillica is the most impressive building we have seen in Italy.  We went inside briefly but we need to return to see its true beauty as it was unlit (perhaps to discourage late visitors like ourselves).  We wandered the streets trying to absorb the atmosphere of the city before returning to the end of our street for dinner in a restaurant appropriately called The Galleon - the inside was just like being in a ship only it didn't rock.  We had both the special spaghettis of the day - the chef served half of each onto each of our plate since we were sharing!  They also gave us, gratis, deep- fried artichokes to start and chocolate biscotti to finish - we think waiters are concerned that we aren't eating enough since we only ever order primi piatti - they keep giving us free food.

 Today we explored the Ghetto, travelling along the Grand Canal to get there.  Walking through the sottoportego and into the campo, we felt truly aware that this was once an area in which the Jews lived thier separate lives.  The square gives a real sense that this is an area that belonged to us - no churches or Christian imagery - just a Jewish presence in the heart of Venice.  There is even a Yeshiva - we saw a group of boys learning with a Rabbi there. 

The "Corner Synagogue"
(wooden bit with skylight)

There are five synagogues, three of which we could see.  The guide was very good and explained some of the history of  the Jews of Venice as we went.  The synagogues were ornate and opulent - they all seemed much bigger than you would imagine the tiny buildings could house.  The buildings in the Ghetto are also extra tall to accommodate all the people that had to squash themselves into the locked area.  There were at least three different Jewish communities there - Ashkenazi, Sephadi and Italian, and we enjoyed imagining how they might have lived.  We also went through the museum and looked at the collection of artifacts stored there.  We had a delicious kosher lunch at the nearby restaurant Gam-Gam after the effective spruiker enticed us with hot fresh crunchy falafel balls.

We have been following the suggestions of a guide book we found in the flat - today we tried to find the "most photographic points" in Venice - we are not sure if we are supposed to be taking the photo of the bridge or the view from it so we are hedging our bets each time.  Actually in true J&j style we tend to wander off track a lot and just enjoy getting lost in the streets and following the Christmas lights still strung betwen the buildings, since they seem to lead to the prettiest places - we are not affected by sparkling objects... much.

Not that our decisions are affected by other visual stimulus either, we chose our restaurant tonight by the flying fish picture hanging above the door and were once again happy with our choice.  Each night we seem to get some new taste or dish to try.  Tonight's freebie was the pumpkin soup to start (we must have looked hungry and cold) and the truly spectacular part was the tiramisu - since this was invented in Venice, we felt that it was important that we ate it here.  Looking forward to more tasty cultural experiences tomorrow as well as a visit to the islands of Murano and Burano.  Might need to get out more money in the morning...







...we are certainly not confessing we have already bought another suitcase to contain our purchases to date including two new pairs of boots we bought in Lucca...