Venice is comprised of 118 little islands. The map separates the islands into what is our equivalent of zip codes and is color-coded. We walked two of the colors yesterday, then our plan was to walk two other colors today. But what you soon find out with Venice is that everything is really close to each other (that is, if you don't have luggage with you!) and is very walkable. 5 minutes walking gets you from one color portion of the map into another, so we actually ended up walking ALL the colors today! Along the walk, we saw traditional Venetian desserts:
We saw suppliers unloading products from their boats onto land, and men waiting there to load up the supplies. Since there are no cars in Venice, men physically have to carry the supplies all across town to where ever the purchaser is located via these carts:
Stores selling masks (the really expensive ones! I think this one is around 180 euros) weren't open yet when we walked by, which is the only reason why I was able to get pictures, as most stores don't allow you to take pictures:
We passed by a store that sells vino (wine) by the liter. The prices were hella cheap! Oh my god! Since we had a really great cabernet yesterday at a restaurant, we really wanted to buy wine, and this is the cheapest we've ever seen. Unfortunately, you need to bring your own plastic liter bottle to fill up (either that, or you use their plastic bottles and we didn't trust that) and since we didn't have one... ;(
The fruit and vege market on della Leonardo:
There is a corner pizza shop called L'Angelo della Pizza that sells by far the best food we've had in Venice.
They stuff the pizza full of cheese and fillings, then fold it over like an open calzone. We bought one at first:
And discovered it to be so gooey yummy that we ended up buying a bunch to-go so we could assemble our own gourmet pizzas ~__^ at our hotel, as we agreed the pizza needed a touch more seasoning. The pizzeria is close to Billa, so we stopped by there to pick up arugula (rucola in Italian), cocktail shrimp, prosciutto, and a cabernet sauvignon, which was absolutely delicious!
... and this is the pizza we came up with in our hotel room!
After lunch and a quick power nap, we went to the Jewish Ghetto. The word originated from Venice, as this Jewish Ghetto was the first in the world. Venetians would not allow Jewish people to live in the city, and were only allowed in because of a shortage of funds, in which they needed the Jewish to loan money to them. The Jewish population was specifically allocated this piece of land, and they were not allowed to live outside the ghetto walls, which made it almost a prison to them. Christian guards guarded the gates at night and there was a curfew after which the bridges were drawn up and all the Jewish people had to be within the ghetto walls. Soon, Jewish ghettos sprung up in Rome and Florence, but Venice was the first. The ghetto is actually REALLY small, it is basically a small courtyard with all these buildings concentrated one next to each other:
We walked to the Venezia Casino, which we learned costs 10 euros per person to enter! Plus the money you'll lose playing their slots, we didn't think it would be worth it. There weren't many people in there at all.
It was a hot day, and Venetians also like slushees ^.^. We bought a strawberry flavored one, which was pure heaven on such a hot day like this one!
After dinner, we took a stroll along the water.
We saw the Bridge of Sighs, which is part of the Doge's Palace. It is named such because prisoners used to be walked through this bridge on their way to their respective executions, and they sighed when walking on this bridge because this was their last view of Venice before dying.
The Leaning Bell Tower (haha) of Venice:
I can't say enough how gorgeous Venice is at night. Many tourists have left for the day (many are from tour groups, cruises or stay at nearby Mestre, which is a lot cheaper) so Venice seems more spacious and as if the whole city is at your feet. It is incredibly romantic!
San Marco's Plaza at night is pretty lively, with no less than 3 cafes having bands play classical or Italian music (we've actually seen older couples dancing/swaying to the music! It's so cute!):
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