By now we have been almost a week in Venice and yet our last day was still packed. The first on our agenda was a visit to Rialto Market, “the” place to be for fresh seafood and vegetables. Since we were going to be moving around a lot we decided to get a daily pass for the vaporetto. As we started our walk we watched the busy delivery traffic along the canal with all delivery vehicles being boats. One of the boats had a dog sitting on top at the front. We also passed by the ambulance boat and the police boat.
As we approached Guglie bridge we paused briefly at the small market at the foot of the bridge. It has nice variety of seafood on one side and vegetables on the other. But that was just a small preview of what we were about to see at Rialto Market. The vaporetto was quite crowded; a lot of passengers were locals and many of them disembarked with us at the market.
The famous Rialto Market has two parts to it: Erbaria and Pescaria. Erbaria is the fruit and vegetable market and Pescaria is the fish market. Both are very impressive. We saw more types of fish and other seafood than we could imagine in addition to a huge selection of fresh vegetables.
After visiting the market we took the vaporetto back to Cannaregio for a guided tour of the Ghetto. The Venice Ghetto was the first to Europe and was founded in 1516. The area was once a home of the foundry, or geto, and the word ghetto is derived from it. We visited three of the five synagogues, all of them quite ancient. The oldest one is dating to 1528. During these centuries, Venice was the only place in Europe where Christians were not allowed to kill Jews without penalty; but the Jews were restricted to build their synagogues in an humble enough fashion not to compete with the grandeur of the Christian cathedrals. Because the space was limited, the buildings in the Ghetto were 6 or more stories high, so the synagogues occupied the top floors.
From there we went back to vaporetto stop. We rode the vaporetto along the Grand Canal to San Marco passing more boats on the way including one with UPS logo at the foot of the Rialto Bridge. Only in Venice.
We had lunch at a restaurant around San Marco and then took the boat to the Island San Giorgio Maggiore where we could ascend the campanile for a nice view of the Venice.
The church San Giorgio Maggiore was designed by Andrea Palladio, the famous Venetian architect.
We capped the day with the visit to Museo Correr. It occupies a large portion of the procuratorÕs offices surrounding the Piazza San Marco. Various exhibits cover the history and life of the Venetian Republic with displays of maps, coins, armor, nautical maps and costumes, including an incredible pair of 15-inch platform shoes. There is also a nice picture gallery and a great collection of ancient art in the adjacent Archeological Museum. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed.
