The first few pictures on this page are of the old Jewish ghetto. The ghetto is a neighborhood built around a piazza in the Cannaregio sestiere. It was the first Jewish ghetto in the world. The site was formerly occupied by a foundry, geto, in Italian.

A small holocaust memorial in the ghetto.

More of the holocaust memorial.

The synagogue and Jewish museum. We visited the museum; it has artifacts of Jewish life in Venice from the past five or six centuries. Worth a visit.

There are still a few functioning Jewish businesses and institutions in the ghetto. Here's a Lubavitcher school.

This is a famous wrought iron bridge that leads out of the ghetto.

We took a long walk around Cannaregio after visiting the ghetto. By and large, it's a neighborhood not much visited by tourists, a quiet, residential place. We saw many charming canal scenes like this one...

...and this one.

Heading towards a more commercial part of Cannregio, we came across this impressive church, San Marziale.

And the inevitable American commercial enterprise. We did not stop there; instead we had lunch in kind of a dive - a tiny bar/restaurant that catered to blue collar workers. We were the only tourists in there, which in Venice is an unusual experience. It turned out to be one of the best meals we had in Venice, and one of the cheapest, too.

Our walk took us down Strada Nova, a fairly busy and rather pleasant commercial street. Here's a beautiful canal you can see from Strada Nova.

A nice little piazza off of Strada Nova.

Calle San Felice, a pretty little alley off of Strada Nova.

These yellow signs are all over Venice. They point you in the direction of various landmarks. Sometimes they help, sometimes they make trying to find your way even more confusing. We got lost in Venice any number of times, particularly on this walk. I would say being lost is part of the experience of being in Venice; you get to go through all sorts of places you never would have seen otherwise.

Continuing with our walk, we came across this very beautiful church, Santa Maria dei Miracoli, tucked into a residential neighborhood.

Leaving the sestiere of Cannaregio, we entered Castello. Here's a canal scene in Castello.

And another...

And a huge church, Santa Maria Formosa.

Another view of Santa Maria Formosa.

Castello has some really nice shopping districts with narrow streets like the one in this picture.

We saw this store that sold nothing but masks just as we were leaving Castello heading into San Marco sestiere. Fabulous display.

Another picture of the mask store.

Heading back to the hotel, we walked across Piazza San Marco.

The famous pigeons were out in force that day.

San Moise is a large church just a block from our hotel. After our long walk, and having gotten lost so many times that day, it was good to recognize something that we knew meant a bed was close by!

Mom poses for a photo on the bridge into Campo San Moise.

There is a gondoliere stand in front of Campo San Moise. The gondolieres hang out all day there, smoking cigarettes, chatting up women, and soliciting business.

The courtyard in front of the Europa e Regina.