Thursday, Somewhere in Venice: Lost Again!

Just in case any of you reading this are wondering how we can get lost so often in Venice, take a look at these direction signs:

It probably means that you can get to San Marco either way, but I think the actual translation is: just walk around in circles until you find it!  A couple of days ago we saw a young man wearing a t-shirt that said, in BIG letters, I'm Lost!  I think I need a tattoo.....

We had a busy and full day on Thursday, even though some of our plans didn't quite work out.

First thing in the morning we did a "dry run" to the Sant Lucia train station.  We wanted to find out just how long it would take us to get there--don't want to miss our train to Florence on Saturday! The answer?  Just about an hour from the time we leave the apartment.  We have found that getting from point A to B on the vaporetto in Venice is a time consuming process, and one could probably walk much faster if it weren't for that pesky "getting lost" problem!

So that mission accomplished, we hopped back on the vaporetto and headed for the Rialto market to buy some supplies for a couple more meals.  Fruit, and some more of those delicious greens for a salad.  David tried to talk me into trying horse meat, but nothing doing!  I know, I know--if I'll eat squid ink, why not horse meat?  It just doesn't seem right.

We stopped at a cafe/bar and picked up a wonderful bruschetta type thingy for dinner--I can't remember what they called it--but it was delicious!  We will probably have another for dinner tonight--I'll take a picture.

After dropping of our groceries and dinner, we went back out-our destination being the Jewish Ghetto area of Venice.  We wanted to explore this area and thought it would be a good place for lunch.  We found the general area without a problem, and strolled the very busy streets.  Was different than we expected, and we ended up having a small sandwich and a beer at an Irish Pub!

 Fortified with food and drink, we set off to find the actual island and the Jewish Museum.  We even had a map with route marked.  Well........up and down along both sides of the canal, wandering in the narrow lanes--we just can't find the street.  Finally David sees a sign across the canal (of course it's on the other side!) so back up and over the bridge--and we found the street!  No wonder we didn't recognize the sign--it's wrtten in Hebrew!

We walked through the dark passageway, over a small bridge, and we were in a small square with 3-4 story buildings all around.  This very small area was where thousands of  Jews lived during the war, and each night they were locked onto the island.  Many were deported to the concentration camps, never to return.

It was very interesting--there were several police around, which was unusual as we had not seen many in Venice.  The increased security may have been because it was a Jewish holiday (which we hadn't realize before), but in any case it really didn't feel right taking photos in this area.  I would have felt as though I was intruding.

I had really wanted to go to the Jewish Museum--but of course it was closed because of the holiday! So after reading the memorial plaques around the square, we crossed the bridge back out into the sunlight.

We consulted our map (a lot of good that does!), and decided to explore the Santa Croce area and visit a large church there.  We actually found the church, it's big and pretty hard to miss!  Well, it was closed,   Rats!

By now our feet were tired, and we were in need of a gelato--and we found a lovely one:

 David had hazelnut and pistachio, I chose blackberry and grapefruit.  Very good, but not the best gelato we've had in Venice.  When I told the nice man we were from Alaska, he gave us a big smile and said "welcome home".  I just loved that!

So many flavors--so little time:

 We decided to catch the vaporetto back to our "home" stop.  Although a nice leisurely stroll back would have been lovely, we just we NOT up to getting lost again!

We spent a relaxing evening in our apartment, and enjoyed our simple dinner of salad and that delicious bruschetta thingy.

Friday is our last day in Venice, we have very much enjoyed our time here, but we both agree that 5 days would have been plenty.  Heck--4 days would have been enough if we hadn't spent about one whole day lost!

We are excited to see Florence and explore a new city....so stay tuned.