On A Grand Tour

We had a historic theme for our third day in Venice. After more croissants and cappuccinos, we headed across our little bridge into Piazza San Marco and stopped by the Museo Correr for a little Venetian history. Lots of sculptures, paintings of naval battles, weapons, manuscripts, and decorative rooms ranging from the time of the Venetian Republic to the later Napoleonic and Hapsburg reins, we headed out for some fresh air and new scenery.

We pointed ourselves in the direction of the neighborhood of Cannaregio for more canals, bridges, architecture, and charming outdoor restaurants. I couldn’t get enough of this neighborhood, minus the oppressive heat. The great part about hot days in Italy though? They can always be cured by gelato and a chilled aperitivo.

After exploring, chasing the breeze off the canals, and of course, stopping for our daily cicchetti, we made our way to our afternoon’s objective, the Campo di Ghetto Nuovo, or the Jewish Ghetto. Our current word “ghetto” comes from the Venetian Ghetto, which has existed since 1516 and was where the city’s Jewish population was forced to live. The nightly curfew was enforced by closing the only two bridges connecting the island to the rest of Venice. This section of the city has the tallest buildings because there was no room to expand outwards. This was also the site that saw the deportations of Venice’s Jewish population to Auschwitz during World War II. This campo feels just steeped in history. We decided to have dinner on the campo, which turned out to be the most exquisite meal we ate our entire trip. While enjoying our Italian wine, grilled octopus, pasta, and limoncello, we noticed a gathering forming on the other side of the square, which turned out to be a Shabbat celebration. Witnessing the Jewish population of Venice continuing to gather to celebrate in a place that holds so much history, both good and bad, for Jewish Venetians was extremely poignant and not something I will forget soon.

We decided to get out on the water and do some island-hopping the next day. We first headed to the quaint island of Murano for centuries-old churches, less crowded canals, and of course its signature historic glass. We explored all kinds of small alleys, dipped into empty churches, and had an incredible canal-side lunch. Too many Murano glass purchases later, we headed over to the island of Burano. This was my favorite stop; Burano is a quiet and extremely colorful town. The row houses are literally every color of the rainbow and simply glowed in the late afternoon light. It was perfect for an evening stroll down the empty canals with gelato. As if our tired feet hadn’t had enough, once back in Venice, we took one last nighttime stroll…all the way across Venice.

We didn’t want to leave Venice but didn’t let our impending departure let us miss one minute of Venetian fun. We hopped up on our final morning and headed to St. Mark’s Basilica to strain our necks marveling at the golden mosaics adorning every square inch of that gorgeous place. We of course needed one last lunch on a canal, one last Aperol spritz, one last round of cicchetti, and one last plate of pasta. Yum. I think my soul belongs in an Italian kitchen.

Why go straight to the train station when you can take the scenic route? We hopped on one last vaporetto for a ride up the Grand Canal to admire the grand palazzos in the daytime. The sunlight sparkling off the water, boats crisscrossing the canal, and peaked Venetian arches are quite simply magical, though it was slightly sobering to see the ground floors of many buildings uninhabitable because they are flooded. We slid into our train seats with four minutes to spare and said “arrivederci” for now to Venice.