Venice Part 2

Thursday morning, the sun was shining and the air was warm. We walked over the Rialto Bridge, marvelling that people had been doing just that since the bridge was built in 1591.....imagine....people have been crossing this bridge for over 500 years, stopping to take in the view and then past the Rialto Market (fish and fruit & veg) that has been there since 1097 - that's over 1000 years of shopping for fruit in the same place....so of course we had to buy some grapes and peaches just to feel part of history. We continued walking to Fondamente Nuove to catch the vaporetta to Burano, a 45 minute journey across the lagoon, passing the cemetery island. The island is famous for its lace making, although the majority of lace for sale on the island is now made elsewhere and for its colourful houses - some say that the houses were painted in a myriad of colours so sailors could recognise their own home as they made there way back across a foggy lagoon but in reality the reason for the colourful homes is not known. 

We wandered the colourful streets in the sunshine before catching the vaporetta back towards Venice and the island of Murano, most famous for glass-making! 

There were some amazing glass sculptures on display. The blue glass is called The Comet and was made for Murano's Christmas in 2007.

Back in Venice after a lovely lunch in the garden of a trattoria on Murano we wandered around Cannaregio, the most populated of all Venice's six districts and away from the main tourist trail. With tranquil canals it is also home to the Jewish ghetto - the word ghetto originated in Venice, the Jewish population being forced to live on a small island in 1516, to the abandoned site of a 14th century foundry - known as a ghetto in Venetian dialect. The islands access points were guarded at night both protecting and segregating its inhabitants. The ghetto was disbanded in 1797 with the arrival of Napolean. Of course, during the Holocaust the Venetian Jews were sent to Germany - of the 247 who left, only 8 returned.....

That evening we took a vaporetto along the Grand Canal, enjoying the views at night time once again, this time from the water and then took a walk around Dorsoduro - another of Venice's six neighbourhoods.