Day 34

Thursday August 30

6:30am - woke up :( :( :( :(

8:05am - went down to breakfast. There was no one there so I went into the restaurant where there was a guy. Told me to sit anywhere. Breakfast is some prepackaged nasty toast "biscuits" (they shouldn't bother) with butter and jam on the table, some yogurt (blech), and then he brings out juice and a couple croissants which were good. He asked if I wanted coffee or a cappuccino or something and of course, I would want a cappuccino LOL. So he made me one. That was nice.

8:20am - walked over to the Rialto market - had a bit of trouble finding it but once I did, it was smaller than I expected. Just a few rows of stalls selling mostly the same stuff at fairly cheap prices, but still it was all beautiful. Then next to it is the huge fish market where most of the restaurants in town get their stuff. I bought some plums, a couple nectarines, and a couple kinds of tomato (a big one and a few little cherry ones) - all for 2.90. then at another place I bought some of what look like concord grapes, for 1 euro. Mmmm. Fruit.

Walked back to the hotel and put the stuff away. Creepy dude was washing the floor outside, hurrah. Left and went to Piazza San Marco.

9:45am - figured I should get in the line for the Basilica San Marco since my Doge's Palace tour until 10:25. if the line went fast I'd be able to see the church and then go around the corner to the palace. The line went fast. Was inside by about 10:05. Wow, it's unreal inside. All the mosaics and gold. Apparently they light it up from time to time and then it's REALLY amazing but not til later in the day I think. Anyway bought a couple postcards of the inside for a big 80 cents since no pictures allowed.

10:20am - go into the special line for the Doge's Palace (which I can see from my hotel), which lets me bypass the regular line, nice. The guy tells me the 10:45am tour is canceled and that we all go into the 11.35am tour. He says the 10:45am one doesn't run during the summer. I am like ohkkaaaaayyyy why did they let me reserve it then LOL. Anyway no problem I paid (10 euros instead of 16 because of my rolling card, so the card just paid for itself and then some), got my ticket and sticker, and had an hour to waste. Was going to sit on the bench in the shade in the piazza and just people-watch but I was like no, I'd much rather shop!!! So since everything is so close, I went back to that beautiful mask shop and bought myself a gorgeous little purple one (duh) for 22 euros - not bad since it's 100% handmade. She was very nice and told me that because it's papier-mâché (OneNote corrected the spelling with the accents, I am not that good ;)), I don't have to worry about it breaking. Hooray! She packed it up nicely with bubble wrap and all and I was on my way. On the way back I found another mask/glass store selling little hand-painted magnets. Bought one for 3.30. Very cute and, of course, purple :p Wandered in and out of a few more shops and dropped the stuff off at the hotel since it is so close to the Palace anyway. Very convenient.

11:15ish - skip the line again and go into the courtyard where the tour started. Now I realized that I could have explored the rest of the Palace (the tour I was going on only takes you to specific parts that the regular ticketholders can't go but you can then go explore the rest of the palace on the same ticket, so it's really quite a good deal). No problem I will just do it after. Sat in the shade til the tour started.

11:35am - tour started. A short (ok, even shorter than ME) Italian girl who kept apologizing for her English (which was really perfectly adequate) starts the tour, explains things along the way, and we get to see the "secret" parts of the palace, which was also criminal and civil law courts, data centers, and prisons. Pretty neat really. You go ALLLLLL the way up to to the top floor and actually above the ceiling under the roof. This was a bit scary. You get to see some of the offices (which were dark and so stuffy, can't imagine it on an even hotter day), and the prisons where Casanova was kept and how he escaped. All pretty interesting. While we were on the tour somewhere it started POURING. I mean it was raining so hard that she had to close some of the windows up top because it was raining in. It was also thundering and I presume lightning. And of course, I didn't bring my umbrella OR my jacket with me since it was fine this morning when I left. Oy.

1:00pmish - so the tour ends just before 1 and you are left inside the palace. I wandered around through some of it, across the Bridge of Sighs into the newer prisons, where the Doge actually lived, etc. Considered waiting out the rain in the cafeteria but it was unsurprisingly crazy busy. Bought 3 post cards of some of the pretty interiors for 3 euros since again no pictures, and left. By then it had luckily mostly stopped raining. The Piazza outside was like FLOODING. People were taking pictures with bare feet and water up to their ankles! To get back to the hotel I couldn't take the back way without being ankle-high in water so I walked around the front of the palace and back. The water was at the top of the canals. Amazing, one little storm for a couple hours - granted it was heavy but still - and the place was starting to flood. Can't imagine what happens when a real storm lasting a couple days rolls in. Anyway dropped the stuff off at the hotel and grabbed my umbrella and jacket in case it came back. Set off to head to the Jewish ghetto and find some lunch.

1:30pmish - getting really hungry, the place in Rick Steves's book right up the alley from my hotel that he said was great for lunch appears to have closed, so plan B. Keep wandering, nothing is hitting my eyes as looking great, keep walking towards the ghetto (or so I assumed), found a place finally that had reasonable pastas and the like and no cover. Called the Malibran or something like that. Had spaghetti with garlic and oil, was quite tasty and just enough to eat for a late lunch after 2pm. Pasta was 6 euros, soda (in a bizarro large sized 330ml can) was 4 euros WTF! Water wasn't much cheaper so whatever. Total was 12.20 including an extra 1 euro for tip which I probably shouldn't have left but whatever.

2:30pmish - walked to the Ca d'Oro vaporetto stop not too far away and validated my 72 hour pass. Took the boat 2 stops to S. Marcuola and followed the signs to the Ghetto. It was pouring so hard and the raindrops were so big that it sounded like hail hitting the boat. Luckily by the time I arrived at S. Marcuola, it had mostly stopped.

3:20pm - Found the museum pretty easily after a short walk, just in time for a guided tour starting in a few minutes (every hour on the half hour). Guided tour with admission to the museum was 7 euros with my rolling card (saved another 1.50 euros!). The guy at the ticket desk was the one who held the tour and there was only 3 of us, a couple (maybe from France?) and me. It was so fascinating, perhaps because it was just 4 people, but we got to go into 3 of the old synagogues built in the early 1500s (1520s-1530s or so) and hear about the other 2 (there are 5 and those 2 are still functioning). Only 15 Jews live in the ghetto anymore and only 420 jews live in Venice (though he explained that this is actually the same % of the Venice population as before WWII which is interesting since the city's population has about halved in recent decades). And of course, something I didn't even realize til he said it, the reason the Venice synagogues didn't get ruined during WWII is because Mussolini was an ally of Hitler. Lol duh Debra.

Something most interesting was how well the Jewish population was treated in the 1500s-1700s under the Doge's power. He let them come in and it was actually a larger body (if I recall correctly, the Pope) who required the ghetto to be formed. He explained that it was ghetto because of the German Jews who first settled, they couldn't pronounce the Venetian word for 'foundry' - he joked that if the ghetto area had been a bakery instead, then the word ghetto would be something entirely different. So anyway, they were allowed to build these synagogues on the top floors of the building. And because the population kept growing in the Venice ghetto because, relatively speaking, the Jews were treated really well in Venice compared with the rest of Europe at that time (aka they could pray freely), they were allowed to build up. So the ghetto has the tallest buildings in all of Venice.

Anyhoo, the best thing about the tour was that the guide was so happy and proud to be Venetian, and he says, this is a really diverse city, but here, we are Venetians. And even the synagogues have red curtains in them - the symbol of Venice. So I found that so interesting and kind of heart-warming in a sad way because it is a city in such decline (except for its tourism), yet the people who actually live here are so proud to do so. He said something like "I hope you take a little bit of Venice home with you and that you are not just a tourist" or something like that and I thought it was really beautiful.

4:20pmish - went back to the museum and very briefly looked at the museums exhibits, which were similar to the ones in Vienna just a lot smaller, then to their little café/bookshop and bought a traditional Jewish Venetian cookie (forget the name but it's made with almonds and very tasty) and a cold bottle of water. Then bought a little "guidebook" to the Jewish stuff in Italy. It has lots of pictures inside (couldn't take any in the synagogues) and has stuff about Florence and Rome too so for the price (6.20) I figured I'd actually even use it while I'm here.

Made my way back to the S. Marcuola stop and hopped on the Vaporetto 1 (there are 2 that go down the big main canal, the 1 is slower and the 82 is faster and makes fewer stops).

5:25pm - Got off at the Salute stop across the canal to go into the Santa Maria della Salute church - this huge round beautiful church. Pictures were allowed, just no flash (no problem for me). First church here I've encountered that let you take pictures.

5:45pm - got back on the 1 and went to more stops to my stop, S. Zaccaria. It's weird being on the boat. They are not that stable and I get a teeny bit icky feeling being on them, and even now in my hotel room a half hour later (6:30pm) I kinda feel like I am still rocking. :S

6:40pm - went to the S. Zaccaria dock and caught the 82. Meant to get off at S. Toma, but misread the map and missed it, so got off at the next stop at the Rialto bridge. Found a couple places that came highly recommended off TripAdvisor and other places, might check them out tomorrow or the night after.

7:30pm - Made my way to Campo San Polo, a big square filled with locals, and found the Brrraria la Corte, which also came highly recommended on TripAdvisor and in Rick Steves's book. Had, well, the same meal as last night LOL a lemon soda (limonata) and pizza margherita. Was a little cheaper than last night but a 2 euro cover charge including service, so it washed out. I didn't leave any extra tip because the service was kind of poor. So total 10.30.

8:30pmish - Decided to walk back instead of taking the vaporetto because really it wasn't that far and my feet aren't feeling too bad at the moment. In the Campo San Polo, there was like a temporary movie theater full with stadium seats and ticket windows. Absolutely wild.

Passed, of course, La Botique del Gelato and just had a 1 euro "single" of chocolate. I put "single" in quotes because it's really more than one scoop, aka an amazingly cheap deal for 1 euro.

9pmish - made it to San Marco and took a few pictures with the camera's night scenery mode. Didn't love how the ones I took out yesterday came out.

9:15pm - back at the hotel, really tired. Hope to sleep better tonight.