| Lana did not sleep well last night, waking at 4AM and not
being able to go back to sleep. I slept like a rock. We were up around 6 and out at 7, to do some walking and picture taking in the early morning light. At the top of Rialto Bridge we met a couple from California that were on a Rick Steves tour. They had been in Venice 4 days, and were headed somewhere else today. They talked favorably about some of the tour guides they had, and since we had such good luck with guides in Rome, we decided to try it here.
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Back to the hotel, after breakfast I made a few calls and found a company that was giving a tour around San Marco at 11:10. It was 10:30 by now, so the timing was right, and it was inexpensive at 17E per person. The lady on the phone told me to meet the tour at the Royal Garden Gate, and said that it was “at San Marco”. I didn’t ask for any more details. Travelers Tip…ask for details.
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A nice breakfast spread. |
Since we had plenty of time, we took a round-about route to San Marco, many times being pretty well lost. It’s easy to get lost in Venice…the streets are a crazy maze of canals, dead-ends, and tiny alleys, and the buildings are high enough that you are in a man-made canyon, so that even tall landmarks (steeples, bell towers, etc) are obscured. Add to that the long street names, many of which are very similar, in a language that you don’t understand, and, well, you get the point. Anyway, we emerged in the square exactly two minutes before the tour was to start. And there was no obvious “Royal Garden Gate”. After asking a few people, we figured out where it was and hustled over, arriving about 10 minutes late. The tour was still there, so all was well…we paid our money and joined in. Our guide was a native Venetian lady with very good English, beautifully accented. She took us through the Basilica, around the square, and to Marco Polo’s house.
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I don't know what this poster had to do with "Doctor of Obstetrics", but it sure caught my eye. |
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After the tour we headed somewhere I don’t remember, and had lunch of pizza and sandwiches in a little bar. Then we wandered out of the touristy areas and into the Jewish Ghetto, visiting the Museum, three of the synagogues (pictures not allowed), and the Holocaust monument. The guide was a short little Italian Jew that sounded like Father Guido Sarducci. He had a neat, dry sense of humor. “Do a lot of Jews still live here in the Ghetto area?” “No, 400 years was enough”.
In one of the synagogues he explained that the Jews had not been allowed to use marble to adorn their houses of worship, so they faux painted the walls to look like marble. Over the ages, the faux painted walls have become more valuable than the marble that they mimic. "So you see," he quipped, "there is justice."
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The plaque reads, in several languages: Men, women, children, massed for the gas chambers Advancing toward horror beneath the whip of the executioner Your sad Holocaust is engraved in history And nothing shall purge your deaths from our memories For our memories are your only grave
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After the tour it was getting close to dark, and we walked back to the hotel to plan dinner. We were hoping that Bepi would be open since they had not been the night before, but no luck. We chose a place from the Frommers guide that sounded good and was close to the hotel. It was Ai Tre Spiedi, and we had our best meal so far there. I had tortellini stuffed with ricotta and spinach, and we both had pork chops for seconds. Best pork chop either of us had ever eaten.
Dinner over, we strolled down to San Marco. It was about 9 PM, and deserted. The crowds of yesterday, probably cruise-shippers, were gone, and there may have been 30 people there. A light fog had rolled in, giving the square and surrounding streets a ghostly, ethereal look. It was beautiful.
Sometime on this day we discussed what we wanted to do over the next few days. We had discussed going over the Cinque Terra. Lana really wanted to see some of the beautiful Mediterranean coastline, and since we had skipped Sorrento, Cinque Terra made for a nice option. However, a quick look at the TrenItalia website showed that there were no direct trains, so it was going to take us over 5 hours to get there. We really didn’t want to lose that much time traveling. As we walked down one of the side streets, Lana said “Why don’t we just go to Tuscany a bit early? We can find someplace nice south of Florence and spend a couple of nights, then head back to Florence for the 4 nights we already have reserved”. That made a lot of sense. Decision made. We would just have to come back to explore the Med.
Back at the hotel, Lana was tired (remember, she didn’t sleep well the night before), but I was still feeling energetic, so I took the laptop to the hotel bar for a drink and to work on the journal. Shortly after I arrived a young British couple, Richard and Olivia, arrived and we struck up a conversation. They were in the real estate business in Jersey, so we had a lot to talk about. Next time I looked at my watch it was after 1. I didn't get much done on the journal.
