Sunny skies, High clouds;
Hi Temp 89, Finally, a cold front!;
Sunrise 7:10, Sunset 7:53
We woke up docked in Venice.
Today is deparkation day so we were up a half hour before the alarm thinking that we would need to fight for seating in the buffet. (Turns out there was plenty of room.)
Our suitcases were long gone – never to be seen again until …
We finished packing our backpacks and headed up to breakfast.
Sadly Mamsen’s was closed this morning so our hopes of a final waffle were thwarted.
Instead we opted for the buffet and seating on the Aquivit Terrace.
Posts along the bottom mark the channel
The channel thru the lagoon is interesting.
The average depth of the lagoon is 1.5 meters.
So a passage-way for boats larger than a fishing boat has been dredged and is maintained.
The pilings mark the passage.
After breakfast we still had a few minutes before our scheduled departure time so we fround a warm, but not too hot, place in the pool room to relax and read.
Then we joined the others in the Green 3 group to wait until our group was called.
They called and we moved to the luggage mess where we found our bags, wheeled outside, threw them on a trolly…
We saw oyster farms 
A traditional brick water tower 
Colorful houses 
Fancy church – not the gold leaf image above the door. 
Teh Alberoni Lighthouse and the modern Torre dei Piloti (Pilot Tower) 
The gap between the Pellestrina and Lido Islands – Adriatic Sea beyond 
Sometimes you put your house on stilts. 
First view of St. Marks and the Campanile
Along the way our guide provided information about what we were seeing, what we would be doing the next 3 days, and other general information.
For instance, He talked about the Moses Gates – a project to install movable gates on the sea floor at the three entrances to the lagoon. The purpose of the gates is to seal off the lagoon during high ocean tides. They are designed to protect the area from tides as high as 3 meters (9.8 feet). They have been used for tides as high as 1.3 meters (4 feet). Construction began in 2003 and were first used to prevent flooding in 2020. The original projections were that the gates would need to be used 5 times per year. In the first two years of their operation they were used 49 times.
As we drew closer to the city we saw increased traffic and a closer view of sights along the way.
Finally we pulled up to our hotel’s dock.
A short walk thru the garden (We’ll do that walk daily so I’ll get shots tomorrow) we entered the lobby.
As it was just 11:00 and our rooms weren’t ready Giovanni gave us a 20 minute break and then took us on a walking tour to the nearby Jewish Ghetto.
There we met a representative from the museum who talked about the history of the ghetto and of Jews in Venice, then took us to three of the synagogues in the area. We started in the “Italian Synagogue” built in 1575.
Next we viewed the Sephardic synagogue, founded in the mid 1500s and rebuilt in 17th century.
Our guide commented that in that time there were no Jewish architects so the only people who could take on a synagogue project were people used to designing Christian churches. The result is a building that bears much resemblance to a church than a synagogue. For example, no Jewish architect would place the pulpit that high above the congregation.
The final synagogue has an interesting history. In Spain in the late 15th century Jews were given a choice to convert to Christianity or leave the country. Many left, but others converted – at least overtly. Later some number of them moved to Venice and resumed their Jewish identity. This caused some tension among the Jews currently living there so they formed their own synagogue in the late 17th century and built the third example on our tour.
Following this tour we were turned loose for the rest of the afternoon.
We found a likely looking restaurant in the neighborhood and had an excellent lunch (Cheryl – Caprese salad, me – Seafood Risotto). It may have been the food or the Limoncello spritzer / local beer but we barely made it back to the hotel and got checked into our room before nap time.
Refreshed, we wandered a bit before finding dinner.
Dinner this evening was ‘on our own’ and we remembered a likely looking place that we had seen earlier in the day.
So we sort-of wandered in that direction.
You can see the domed bell tower from our room
On the way back we noticed some interesting sculptures in the wall of a building.
These are two of the historic “Moor” statues located in Venice’s Campo dei Mori.
They are traditionally thought to represent the Mastelli brothers, 12th-century Levantine merchants who migrated to Venice from the Peloponnese.
Across from out hotel we noticed a Gondola garage.
Back in the room we finally took a close look at the art piece at the head of our bed.
After some blogging and reading it was off to dreamland.
Tomorrow is a rather large day with St. Mark’s square and envrions.
Till then,
R