Fine (The End)

Today is what we refer to as our “Jewish Day”. We went for a long walk all the way up to the old Jewish ghetto, which happens to have been the first in the world (go Venice!).

We took the guided tour through three of the tiny ghetto’s five synagogues. The synagogues are very plain from the outside. The only way to see that it is a synagogue is that there are five arched windows in a row. See them up there? Five!

The synagogues were also housed in the top floors of these buildings. This is because the city would not let the Jews build a freestanding synagogue until a later period.

Here is an illegal picture of the ceiling of the German synagogue. I took it right before the tour guide said “no pictures please”. The synagogues are very ornate and differ as they were built by Ashkenazim and Sephardim all hailing from different countries. A lot of them have similar characteristics to the catholic churches in Venice since they were built by the same craftsmen.

Even the ghetto has its evil bakeries.

After the tour we found “Gam Gam” the kosher restaurant in the neighborhood. We were treated to light and crispy latkes

and an assortment of vegetarian goodies like hummus, falafel, veggies… It was probably the lightest kosher meal either of us has ever had.

Here we are at eating al fresco.


Tonight we will go back to “our place” for one final dinner. The name is “Al Portego” if you happen to be in the neighborhood.

Don’t ask me how to get there though.
The food is out of this world.

Mmmmm....


And so we bid farewell to Venice in all its touristy kitsch and former glory. It is still a fascinating place to see. And as Al Gore will tell you, you better go see it soon. We are off to the airport tomorrow via water taxi. For the record we when all is said and done, we will have taken 5 airplanes, 1 bus, 4 trains, 2 taxis, and 5 boats on this trip! I would like to thank my mother for this wonderful experience. We have always talked about doing something like this together and I feel very fortunate to have actually been able to do it.

So this is Julie and Pei-hsin, signing off from Italy (and promptly going into gelato withdrawal).
Arrivederci!


(sigh)