Lying in bed in our Venice hotel room early this morning, wide awake, I was thinking about a place in Venice called the Jewish Ghetto. I had read about it and was intrigued. It would be a lengthy hike, but I decided to go for an early-morning walk to check it out.
Last night we went for a gondola ride. Negotiating a reasonable, (to me), price had been rough, but I have to admit, the ride was nice. There’s something about being in one of those magnificent gondolas, drifting along with nothing to do but soak in the experience. I’m glad we did it.
Shhhhh….
I got up, cleaned up, and got dressed. I made too much noise and woke up my formerly-still-asleep Better Half. She assumed I was heading out for one of my short early-morning walks.
“I’m off, mi amore.” I said. “I’ll bring you back a coffee.”
“Sounds good,” she said. And I was out the door.
A small Jewish community thrived in Venice since ancient times. Venetian Jews were mostly merchants and moneylenders. The Church didn’t allow money lending or charging interest, so they had the lending market cornered. Like just about everyplace else, they weren’t treated very well, but they dealt with it.
In 1492, things changed. The same year that Columbus sailed the ocean blue, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella decided to kick all Jews out of Spain. A lot of them settled in Venice.
The Jewish population in Venice grew dramatically. The Venetian government reacted by creating a zone where Jews had to live. They couldn’t leave before dawn, and they had to be back by dusk. During the day, though, they were free to go about their business wherever they wished.
The First “Ghetto”
The Jewish zone was a small island where a foundry had been. As one might imagine, the site of a former foundry wasn’t the choicest real estate in town, but that’s what they got. The Venetian word for “foundry” was “ghetto”, so the place became known as the Jewish Ghetto. That was the first “ghetto.”
The Jews made the best of it, and eventually the Ghetto became a decent place to live. Non-Jewish Venetians went there to shop and to do business. The Jewish Ghetto became a thriving community.
Space was limited, so as the Jewish population surged, they built up toward the sky in the form of mini Venetian skyscrapers. They built up to 6 or 7 stories high. This was 100’s of years ago. The same structures are still there today.
I left the hotel, heading north towards the Rialto Bridge. I passed the bridge and kept going. The farther one gets from the Rialto Bridge, the more spread-out the neighborhoods become. It’s definitely the quiet part of Venice.
Lost in Venice? Again? Really?
The Jewish Ghetto turned out to be further out than I had thought. I’d been walking fast for quite a while, but still no sight of the Jewish Ghetto. Maybe I passed it without knowing? Nope. I still had a ways to go. Dang.
I finally stumbled onto an entrance to the Jewish Ghetto. Made it! Whoa. It looked pretty spooky. No way I was going in there. Besides, this wasn’t some tourist attraction. People live here.
Well OK, then. That’s it for the Jewish Ghetto. I came. I saw. Now I had to make up some serious time getting back to the hotel. Someone there would be wondering what happened to me.
Instead of hoofing it back, I spotted a vaporetto, (the Venice version of a city bus), pulling into a vaporetto stop nearby. I ran to the vaporetto stop and just barely made it in time to get on board.
Mamma Mia
The driver pulled way out into the canal and then turned around 180 degrees. Hey! He was heading the wrong way! The exact opposite of the direction I needed to go. Mamma mia.
The vaporetto went way out past the train station, past where cruise ships dock, and through an industrial area. The driver finally turned and headed down the Canale della Giudecca toward Piazza San Marco. We were a long way from the hotel, but at least now we were headed in the right direction.
I disembarked at Piazza San Marco and hoofed it back to the hotel, lickety-split. I followed the same path we took on the night we arrived in Venice, when we slogged it to the hotel in the dark with our luggage. It went a lot faster this time!
At the hotel, I got two coffees, climbed the stairs to the room, and gave the secret knock. My wide-awake and all-cleaned-up Better Half opened the door. “Oh, thank you for the coffee! Uh… why are you all sweaty?
“No reason, my darling. It was a wee bit warm downstairs in the restaurant where the coffee is.”
To be continued…
Note: The photo of the Jewish Ghetto at the top of this post is from Vivovenetia.
