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Photo: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
While racial and ethnic neighborhoods had existed prior to the Venetian Ghetto, Venice's ghetto was the first "ghetto" (coming from a Venetian word for the Iron Foundry that had been on the site) and "ghetto" eventually came to mean any neighborhood that was made up of a single ethnic/racial group. Today, Jewish life is still very active in the ghetto, and elsewhere in Venice, and is home to five synagogues. Visiting on Saturdays or late Fridays (the Jewish Sabbath) will prove very fruitless because all shops, restaurants, and other Jewish places will be closed.
The Venetian Ghetto was the area of Venice in which Jews were forced to live by the government of the Venetian Republic. The English word ghetto is derived from the Jewish ghetto in Venice. The Venetian Ghetto was instituted on 29 March 1516 by decree of Doge Leonardo Loredan and the Venetian Senate. It was not the first time that Jews in Venice were compelled to live in a segregated area of the city. In 1555, Venice had 160,208 inhabitants, including 923 Jews, who were mainly merchants.
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One of the last industries left in Venice, the Orsoni Furnace produces fine glass panels and mosaics using the same technique since 1888. The small factory can only be visited on certain dates.
Ca' d'Oro museum
A collection of paintings and statues in a former palace from the 15th century. One of the best examples of Gothic architecture in Venice, sculptures, bronzes, paintings of Mantegna, Giorgione and Titian, Flemish and Dutch paintings.
Small oratory facing the old monastery dei Crociferi, painting circle by Palma the Younger.
Teatro Malibran was built in 1678, and is now part of La Fenice. Tickets for opera, ballet, and symphony performances are available at La Fenice, various locations around the city, or by phone +39 041 2424.