June 26, Venice Day 6

We meet Darrel and Nora for a final brekky together. Their airport vapo leaves our local dock-stop at 9:15 so, sadly, hugs and kisses all around but, by the time Cynthia and I get to the dock to begin our day, we meet again for a bittersweet good-bye. GREAT traveling companions.

We meet Michael at the top of the center stairway of the Rialto Bridge for our second “city” tour: “A City of Nations” will focus on the the ways that different immigrant groups over time have changed Venice and been been changed by it. First up: The German Exchange building, a very large warehouse-cum-hotel originally built in 1228 (rebuilt after a fire in 1505). The European traders were required to stay there and give up their weapons. But, being basically HRE Christians, they were treated marginally better than the Ottoman Turks, who were required to live in their own Exchange. Again, the Venetians TRUSTED NOBODY, basically isolating foreigners and taxing their goods.

We walk by the monument to Paolo Sarpi who — loooong story short — rescued Venice in 1607 from a Papal Interdict — think excommunication that forbade trade. We walk into an enclave run by the Lucchese family — weavers, not mafioso — who established a “school”: a civic institution NOT directly controlled by the Catholic Church, which gave the Lucchese community some independence. (This strategy of establishing “schools” would be used over time by other immigrant groups in Venice.)

We walk into the northern sestieri (section) of Cannaregio, where the Jews were forced to live in a ghetto with five “secret” synagogues: German and Italian (Ashkenazi) and French, Greek, and Spanish (Sephardic). Yes, they all were respected for their skills, knowledge and wealth, and abused in every way that Jews have been abused and taken advantage of everywhere in the world.

Michael leads us to two churches both named for St. George, built by Armenians. One has stunning mosaics, the other with beautiful paintings by Carpaccio. Elsewhere in the city, Jeff and Lauren are dodging paparazzi in 80 degree humidity.

We stopped for a cocktail (Hugo for C and Negroni for D) in an air conditioned cafe. Somewhat refreshed we spent about 40 minutes on a valporetta to return to our hotel. There we were moved into a new room, number 56. It is actually the room I requested when first booking but it was not available. Our first room, #44, was nice and very large. It was in the extension of the hotel just across a canal. Room #56 has a private balcony and is in the mail hotel building (where breakfast is served).

Showered and dressed we leave for dinner. We reserved months ago for Osteria alle Testerie. The food was amazing! Without a reservation you cannot get in. Expensive but wow!

After dinner we took a boat to and past San Marco. Then caught a returning boat all the way to our hotel. Seeing Venice by night is delightful. Our return trip was accented by lightning. Rain started just as we reached our stop. We got inside just in time for a downpour.