The Lido Riviera
What a full day! Determined not to get lost, I set out for the Ca’Rezonnico by vaporetto, which would drop me right in front of the Palazzo/museum. After I blew it off yesterday, I’m almost embarrassed to say this is my new all-time favorite Venice museum. I guess I just don’t have the imagination to appreciate the art just randomly spread around poorly lit rooms, but the Academia left me cold yesterday. This is as much about the furnishings and décor as about the incredible art, and just when I thought I’d had my fill of Tiepolos, along comes this! There is a Murano glass chandelier in there that dates from the 17th century that could have been designed last week. I spent about two hours there -- usually past my max for most museums.
Then I took the vaporetto to the Lido. This is very different from the rest of Venice. It reminds me of Coronado; it’s a beach resort, but very suburban/residential. It has a small but nice commercial area, some cars and busses, but no real traffic, lots of bikes and pedestrians, it’s fairly well-to-do, but not at all opulent. I walked along the beachfront nearly to the end of the island in one direction and took the bus back to the little pedestrian center, then walked along the “bay” Riviera in the other direction. I saw the Jewish Cemetery, which was closed.
By the time I got back, school was cleaned up and closed. The “graduates” had their certificates, their photos taken, and had had a little party. They also had another “field trip” to the foundry because they were making a special kind of gold smalti that they don’t do very often and it was a rare opportunity to see. Almost everyone had wrapped up their projects already, but Charlie was still plugging away. (He’s back in the studio now wrapping it for transport home.) We’ve got a ton of chips to carry back to finish his piece. At least I don’t have to worry about the glass breaking in transit! He says he really learned a lot and enjoyed the class. I know I loved my week.
It turns out the Miami couple are “modern orthodox” Jews and they planned to go to services tonight in the ghetto. We asked to tag along, thinking it would be an interesting experience. They had been last week and knew the ropes. So, passports in hand (they check them for security), we walked the two blocks from our hotel. Well, the time of the services change every week with the setting sun, and we got there after it had begun. No problem -- in fact it was a blessing; it made the service shorter. Off I go upstairs behind the mehitza (Jeannie decided not to come) and Charlie and Michael go into the sanctuary. Didn’t bother to take a prayer book, because I can’t read Hebrew or Italian. The women followed along in their books, but did not open their mouths. Could not recognize any of the prayers, the chanting is so completely different. And we must have missed the kaddish. I missed my Dad’s yarhzeit last week, and specially wanted to be there for that. Oh well, Dad would turn over in his grave (if he had one) if he knew I ever said it.
But the real event came next. The local Chabad runs a kosher restaurant (which is very good; we’d eaten there not knowing it’s provenance). Well, they host the whole community for dinner (free, because they can’t take money on Shabbat) afterwards. Actually, except for the yeshiva boys and the rabbi and his family, most of the guests are international tourists. The locals go home for dinner. This was a huge meal, starting with Israeli type antipasto, which included challah, hummus, at least six or seven kinds of salad. That was followed by fish, chicken soup, pot roast, chicken, and dessert served by the students (and some Gentile employees). All washed down with wine, Coke, and my personal favorite, water. This was the most orthodox event I’d ever been at, with lots of singing (everyone) and dancing (men only) and praying (everyone) and hand washing (everyone) and an interpretation of the Torah portion (one student who went on longer than most Seders) more praying, and finally, escape. It was really an interesting and delicious experience for the first hour, but by the end of the second hour I was pretty ready to get back to pack..
I can’t believe how many new experiences I crammed into this day.
We leave Domus Orsoni tomorrow and will spend our last night in Italy at a hotel in Mestre, a little closer to the airport for our very early departure Sunday.
21,716 steps (none of them unintentional)
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