Exploring Venice: The Lido, Mario, and the ghetto

Yesterday we visited the Lido, the large island that is the main barrier between Venice and the Adriatic Sea, to spend some time on the beach. Even though it's October, it has been hot and humid, and the water was fine. There were shells everywhere, and it was possible to get very far from shore but still have shallow water. The waves were small and gentle, and overall it made for a nice, relaxing beach experience. I definitely plan to go back at least a few more times before it gets colder.

As a note of interest, since the Lido is so long, it's the only one of the island with roads for vehicular travel. A ferry takes cars there from Piazzale Roma, the main hub where the busses and trains arrive in Venice.

Later in the evening, we made our way to the Campo Santa Margarita, which is where students usually hang out in the evening. While there, we met an Italian guy, Mario, who was born in Venice and is currently a student of architecture. He came up and asked us where we're from, and we chatted for awhile. He took Sara, Audrey, and I to the Due Dragoni (two dragons) bar and bought us prosecco, a kind of sparkling white wine which is apparently a typical Venetian drink. When we parted for the night, he gave us the Italian kiss on both cheeks, which was a little awkward because Americans just don't do that. But overall it was a cool authentic Italian experience.

This morning, we had a tour of the Jewish ghetto, which is just the area where Jews were allowed to live before Venice opened to them. They probably wouldn't have been allowed to stay in Venice at all, but they were able to lend money, something the Christian population couldn't do because it was considered a sin. The Venetian ghetto was the world's first; the word "ghetto" comes from the Italian word for "foundry" because the ghetto was built by foundries. There were five public synagogues (and some private synagogues built by wealthy families) of which we were shown three. It was forbidden to take pictures inside, but here are a couple of outside pictures.

You wouldn't know what you were looking at unless someone told you, because the buildings look basically the same as the rest of the buildings in Venice. They are not typical synagogues, which would have been built at ground level. Because space was (and still is) at a premium in Venice, especially in the ghetto, the synagogues share space with apartments and shops. It is forbidden for anything to be built above a synagogue, so they are all on the top floor.

This is a monument to victims of the holocaust, who were taken from the ghetto to Auschwitz or other concentration camps.