May 24, 2025 Rick Steves Tour Day 6 Seductive Venice “”“I love to get out and see real life and to walk, which is why I love Venice so much – it’s such a great walking city.” – Limahl

After a wonderful breakfast at our hotel we met up with our guide for the morning, Diana. She did a wonderful job navigating us through the city and pointing out several sights and explaining the complicated history of Venice. It was interesting to see some of the ways Venice is handling the issues regarding flooding. Then our guide took us to the workshop of a Venetian mask maker. The craftsman gave us demonstration of the process of a making masks out of leather, lace and paper mache.

The Jewish population of Venice was quite large before World War II but after the war only eight returned from the concentration camps. There are several plaques around the city in front of houses to commemorate the Jewish families that lost their lives. The architecture of the city shows distinctive examples of medieval gothic pointed arches and rounded renaissance arches and our guide pointed to examples of these buildings sitting side-by-side. We were turned loose to wander the streets of Venice about 11:30.

We chose to visit the Sanctuary of Santa Lucia near the train station. We had heard so much about the body of Santa Lucia visiting Sicily this year , that we were intrigued to visit this ancient relic in its home church. We wandered into Campo San Geremia next to the church and found a free museum exhibit called “The Lens of Time” which profiled the history and the art of eyeglasses. It was a fascinating display sponsored by the Italian Association of Optical Goods Manufacturers. Another exhibit that we found in our hotel and in stores throughout Venice is Murano glass. It is something that the Venetians are very proud of. Our group gathered at 6 PM for a drink to celebrate the birthday of one of our fellow travellers. We then found a place for a pizza and salad dinner, topped off by a gelato on the way back to our hotel.