The map above might help understand Venice. It is one of many islands in the Venice Lagoon. The Grand Canal winds through the island dividing it into two large sections. Off the map to the right (East) beyond Lido and the other barrier islands is the Adriatic Sea. North and slightly east of Murano is the island of Burano. Our visits to both Murano and Burano are shown later.
Helene took us to San Giorgio island where there was an outstanding panoramic view of Venice. The picture on the left shows the entrance to the Grand Canal. Our hotel is just a little ways up the canal on the right. The panoramic picture on the right shows a portion of the island east of the entrance to the Grand Canal.
Most of the boats we saw were either water taxis, vaporettos, or commercial boats moving cargo from one place to another. However, there are also private, pleasure boats. I think the boat on the right is larger than what is allowed in the Grand Canal.
We wanted to see the ghetto. This is where the word "ghetto" originated coming from the Italian "getto" meaning casting or the Venetion "geto" meaning foundry. We looked at the map and saw it was quite a ways from the hotel so we needed to take the vaporetto. Even from the vaporetto stop it was going to be a bit of a hike. We get off the vaporetto, start our trek and finally come to the bridge to the ghetto. CLOSED! Under construction! We had an additional 2 bridge walk to get to the ghetto. Once there, we were a bit disappointed. The synagogues are on the 3rd floor of the buildings and we didn't feel we could walk up 3 flights of stairs. The net result was we strolled around the square, looked in the shop and then went on our way.
This is the bridge we were supposed to go over!
A very quiet, pleasant square
Another view of the square.
Seems David is EVERYWHERE!
This ugly face on the Church of Santa Maria Formosa may be to keep the evil spirits away.
The winged lion with a foot on the books became the symbol of St. Mark and of Venice. We'll see it again in Rome.
A wall of books in an old book store. Some of the store contents were kept raised to avoid getting wet at high tide.
There are some wonderful structures in Venice. Helene took us to see this interesting residential building.
This is Campo San Giovanni e Paolo one of the larger squares in Venice. The building, Scuola Grande di San Marco, is now a hospital. The picture on the right is a closeup of the arch over the entrance. Notice that here again is the winged lion.
If you have gondolas, you must have a gondola repair yard. Here it is!
This is our hotel looking from the Grand Canal.
While wandering around Venice, I saw quite a number of chess sets. Most, if not all, were made of glass and of course carried the label of "Murano Glass". That by itself wouldn't have roused my interest. However, I fould it very amusing the variety of opposing forces. It was no longer "white" vx "black" as is customary in most chess sets. Now it was historical foes.
Caesar Agustus vs Cleopatra
