Italy - Day 7 (Venezia)

The trip to Venice was very short - we only arrived yesterday morning and left this afternoon already. Our last morning was spent with Tony showing us a few more churches and other sites. One of the islands we visited was called "The Ghetto" because that is where the ironworkers used to live (way back when).

Venice used to have a strong Jewish population because they served as the primary financial sector. In the Ghetto (pictured below) they have a memorial set up to commemorate all of the Jews that were sent to death camps from Venice (also way back when).

After that we took the boat back to Piazzo San Marco, this time actually going inside the Basilica. It was astonishing - the inside was covered in mosaics - two tiny bricks of glass put together with a layer of paint in the middle - can you imagine how long that would have taken to complete???(another picture stolen from the Internet... I wanted you to see the mosaics)

Next to the basilica is Doge's Palace (pictured above) which is connected to the prison next door via the Bridge of Sighs (picture below). The reason it is called the Bridge of Sighs is because that is the last view convicts would have of Venice before they were imprisoned.

Another view of the outside of the Basilica.

For our "last lunch" we went to another little family owned restaurant where we tried squid as an appetizer!

The walls of the restaurant were completely covered with pictures and drawings from guests so we decided to make our own drawing and hang it up on the wall :) We each signed our name from the state we came from and of course Tony being from England had to draw his own country.



After lunch we headed back to the hotel, packed up, and went to the airport to fly back to London. This weeklong adventure to Italy was definitely a highlight of my trip abroad - CAN'T WAIT to return.. someday!! :)