Venice day 2 & 3
I honestly don't know when we woke up shabbos. could have been 7am, could have been 1630. how can a beautiful (albeit so incredibly old) hotel like the Westin not have clocks in the room? even the phone doesn't have a screen so you can't check the time there.
because of the time snafu of Friday night, the Rabbi wouldn't tell me when to be there in the morning. he said no matter what time i show up i'll be fine. i asked twice and he said not to worry about it.
we woke up, dressed and walked nice and slow, determined not to let the weather or the long way to Chabad, get to us. it's Shabbos in Venice for crying out loud! we're feeling blessed to be experiencing the world and getting to travel. ye, that feeling left us after walking for for sure over an hour and asking for directions. the guy made that face you make when you have bad news but don't mind giving it... he's like you need to walk to the other end of the city. go that way for about 30 minutes.
to beat the heat we kept going in to little shops that had the door open and pretended to look around just to enjoy the AC.
we finally got to Gam Gam and the place was empty. no worries, the Rabbi had assured us. we sit down and ask the waitress for ice and water. she says no problem but she can't serve us lunch. the kitchen is closed. apparently 'come any time' means up till 1300. now it was 1430. The waitress was a different one from the night before and she gave us some attitude. like she's been working here for a year and never heard of such a thing. she can pack us up some food to go if we want. yahoo. (that bad attitude continued on to Sunday evening so we cancelled our dinner rezzi and went instead to Ghimmel Garden)
I don't know who the guy was that walked in but he looked like a local. I got the impression that he was the Rabbi's son or maybe son in law. anyway he just walks in and goes straight to the kitchen and starts packing up some stuff (not for us, the waitress was doing that). he sees us standing around and asked what's going on so we explained. he says we should take our food to the Yeshiva and there are people there with AC and tables... we're more than welcome to join.
Shul on Sunday. on Shabbos there were 3 long tables with benches and chairsit was the best Shabbos afternoon ever. we felt so welcome at Chabad and comfy in the cool shul that we decided since it's so late already, we'll just stay the afternoon and then go back to Gam Gam for our third meal.
That Shabbos was Gimmel Tamuz so there were quite a few people in shul the whole afternoon. soon my husband made friends with a few yeshiva bochrim and i had a couple women there too. we shmuzed the afternoon away and before we knew it, it was time to make our way back down the street for dinner.
after the meal we went back to the square and there were tons of people there. it was so amazing to see girls and couples from everywhere and just randomly making conversation with other jews. the men tried to squeeze in to the shul but ended up spilling into the ghetto and there was another minyan that formed right there in the street.
after maariv everyone was outside and the Rabbi started a circle and all the men were singing and dancing and all i could think about is that i wished i had my phone to take some pics/video. my husband having made a few friends had a blast. a few people walking by took some pictures and it looked so beautiful looking in from the outside. here you have a whole bunch of yidden singing and dancing merrily like it's a holiday.
after Havdala (also made on the street) we got very clear directions from the Rabbi and made it back to the hotel in record time. we did stop to watch a cool street performer.
Sunday:
We checked our bags with the concierge and requested the free taxi to see Murano.
The factory that the free taxi takes you toSome pictures i took sneakily
$50k and it's yours (although he took it down to 35k in the blink of an eye) including shipping to NYOn the Venice thread other members discuss the hard sell. we had no such thing. we watched the guy make a horse and the guide/owner showed us around upstairs then showed us to the gift shop downstairs. then when we were ready to leave he called the taxi to take us back to the Westin. easy peasy.
it was a nice little trip and it was free so why not. i didn't know the way back is free too so that was a pleasant surprise. we were going to take the bus back to the Ghetto, spend the rest of the day there, then walk back to San Marco, get our bags and take the airport bus from there. instead, we went back to the hotel, took our stuff and got the bus (€7 each) to take us within 5 minutes of the ghetto.
we dropped off our stuff in the shul (on our achreyis) and checked out Ghimmel Garden. it's a really pretty outdoor restaurant. we wanted a late lunch but they weren't serving anything yet. only drinks and stuff. so we got some strawberry 'ice cream'. not really ice cream. was more like super sweet sorbet
hub loved it. me not so muchWe really wanted to try their food so we decided to make an 1800 reservation there instead of keeping our 1830 at GG. after walking around in (on?) Strada Nuova we went back to Ghimmel for our early dinner
we got Frulala on Strada Nuova. Delish!! a must try (€6 cash only)Dinner at Ghimmel Garden was so good. we both love pasta and had yet to try real Italian pasta. this was our chance and i only regret not getting the risotto to go because i've never had dairy risotto (Nobo's is meh).
tagliatelle ai quattro formaggi- 4 cheese pasta. i added mushrooms. HEAVEN!!!Italian Spaghetti (we later asked for Mozzarella to add to this). was goodEggplant Parmigiana . very good!after dinner we went to Gam Gam to get take-out for the flight/layover. they were out of everything beef so we got shnitzel. was nothing special but then again it's just shnitel.
the station to take the bus back to the airport doesn't have a ticket counter so if you don't have tickets make sure to get some before heading there.
addio , Veneziasome final thoughts:
- America can learn from Europe in regards to the whole roundabout thing. it literally makes traveling so much easier.
- I didn't experience the metro outside of Paris but it was only OK. the whole underground smells of piss.
- The masks that are everywhere in Venice have a very long history that goes way back. I did learn that part of that history is that people would wear them and beat Jews outside of the ghetto during the war
- if not for DDF (Dans Deals Family) i would never have traveled. i would not have known where to go or what to look out for, where to eat/daven, whats a must see and what to skip
- again thanks to @vacationlover, @lubaby @emkay @yehoshua, and so many others that chimed in when i asked for help. thanks for the replies, the PMs, the suggestions and ideas
- planning a trip takes a lot of work and has many details. take the time to plan and read up on where you want to go. make a basic outline and print all your itineraries!
Thanks for all the love, guys! this is my first TR and even though it's not upbeat 100% of the time i see it's appreciated. I did have a great time and it was really good to get away from life if only for a bit. plus i got to see so much in 10 days! i'm already excited for my next trip. i'm thinking China??