Venice is loaded with canals. There are 170 small canals and 2 large ones. You can’t walk around the city without crossings canals. The city is even more loaded with boats. There is no telling how many there are in the city at any given moment. With two choices for transportation, walking or boating, you can imagine there are a lot of boats. When you add all the tourist movement on boats; all the business, construction, and commerce on boats; and add the more than 400 gondolas floating around, you can easily see that the city is teeming with boats.

On our walking tour of another part of the city today, my focus in pictures was on canals and boats. I took a picture of every canal we crossed in two and one half hours of walking. Here is the result.

We got out to the lagoon, and there were more boats.

Now, for a few more scenes thrown in from the day.

This is the house Marco Polo grew up in. You say which house? It was all of the buildings around this square. 

An unusual church. Marble inside and out and all around.

This is actually a Greek Orthodox Church, with another leaning tower.

We took a gondola ride. I probably would not do it again, but it was an interesting ride. You get to see Venice from a totally different perspective. The only picture I took on the ride was this one. Check Jason’s and Clay’s blog for more pictures.

Today (Tuesday) we head for Rome. We have a 4 hour ride on the fast train to get there. I am looking forward to the ride and to the time in Rome.

On our 4th day in Venice, we did a walking tour of another part of the city. After you have been here a while, you notice that the streets and houses are similar all over the city. That does not make them less interesting. I could spend a long time just looking at each street scene, each canal, each beautiful church building, and a lot of other scenes in the city. 

The walking tour of the city was one of the best days we have had. One focus for the day for me was on the many church buildings in Venice. There are 128 Roman Catholic church buildings in Venice and a few of other denominations. We have not seen any of the others. Most of the Roman Catholic buildings are named in honor of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The city was founded on the anniversary of the Roman Catholic observation of the annunciation of the birth of Jesus to Mary. I suppose that is the reason for so many church buildings named for her.

A second focus was on street scenes. There are wide streets, decorated streets, and very narrow streets. I have tried to show you some of all of them in the pictures.

A third focus was on the steps in the city. I am talking about some specific kind of steps, those on the bridges over the many canals in Venice. To get around the city you have to cross many canals, and to cross the canals you have to walk over bridges elevated so the gondolas and other small boats can get through them. I have included most of the ones we walked over, although I missed a few. These steps are the reason Venetians are so thin.

Finally, we walked through the Jewish ghetto in the city. The ghetto is old and the conditions thankfully do not apply now, but many years ago the Jewish people had to live in this place. There were gates that were locked at night to keep them in and opened at 6:00 a.m. to let them out to go to work. The Jewish people were limited in their occupations. They could sell used merchandise, be doctors, or loan money at ineterest. The buildings there were taller than i the rest of the city to allow more people to be packed into a small area, As always, the Jewish people adapted, and today there is a strong Jewish community there.

Not many words from here on out today, but a lot of pictures.

Churches

Streets

Here is how they move material around within the city

Many squares

Steps

Couldn’t resist putting this one in.

An interesting sight on one bridge. “Lovers,” instead of carving their names on trees, write them on these locks and lock them to the bridge. I guess the advantage is that if the relationship goes bad, you can unlock easier than you can remove a carving.

The tragedy: the Jewish Ghetto. The words are, “field of the new ghetto.”

The square

Residences

Synagogues

The gates that were locked at night.

The bars of the gates fit into these slots.

A Jewish restaurant where we had a great meal.

Two more interesting pictures.

Ever see a ship in a light bulb?

A Venice ambulance

For many more pictures and much better stories, see Jason’s blog and Clay’s blog. Just click on the blue and you will go directly to their blogs.

We began our day with breakfast and the morning devotional. Jim Parker is leading the devotional in Venice. Jason did that in Florence, and Clay will do it in Rome. After the devotional, we headed out to get in a Venice taxi (the boat) for a boat ride to the islands. There are a number of islands in the lagoon where Venice is located. The first one we saw was Murano where the glass factory is. When I say glass factory, don’t get the picture of a factory that makes glasses. It is an art studio and museum. The famous Murano glass is known around the world. They do make some production items that are sold in shops in the area, but their main work is in original art pieces that range from drinking glasses to animals, to real looking aquariums with fish (but no water) to chandeliers to tributes to Picasso and other artists. Because the works are originals and are so valuable they do not allow us to take pictures in the show rooms. Here are a few from the outside and the workshop area where the glass is blown.

The front of the factory

 Street (er, canal) views from Murano

Some of the tamer chandeliers made there

We went into the workshop and watched a glass master blowing a couple of glass items. He first made a simple pitcher with a handle. I did not get a good picture of that, but you might check out Jason’s blog. He may have gotten a picture. Here are a few of mine showing the glass master at work, and the horse he made. The horse is hard to see because it was clear glass on a white background, but maybe you can make it out.

Ah, here is the pitcher

The beginning of the horse

When we left Murano, we went to Burano, a quaint little island with a great little town square (and a great little coffee shop). We walked around there for a while after drinking coffee.

Leaving Murano

Another leaning tower. This one in Burano.

More canals

Approaching Burano’s town square

The main street

The coffee shop

A quaint little house

A colorful street

Another canal on Burano

We next went to Torcello (pronounced torchello), a small island that has a seventh century church on it. Here are a few views.

A modern well head. There are many, many of these around Venice.

A side view of the church as it is today

The ancient church baptistry

A view of the church that shows the original seventh century building (the lower part)

A unique door handle on the more modern church beside the old one 

An ancient well

A Roman Tribunal’s seat from the first or second century (not from the island). It was brought in to an archeological museum on the island.

When we left Torcello, we headed back to Venice. We ate lunch at the Ristorante Florida. (Felt right at home). We then did laundry and walked around the city some. Here are some views.

A light house on the way back

Marco Polo was from Venice (we did not eat here, just passed it on the street)

We did stop here for coffee

Our waiter?

Another view of St Mark’s Square

St Mark’s cathedral

The group at Nono Resotto where we ate supper (again).