Sorry but I couldn’t resist that title. Today once more we wandered. Alan and Noelle wandered over to Santa Maria dei Miracoli this morning. It is a beautiful church in a campo very close by our apartment. They then came back and got me and first we went up to the Ghetto (see, thus, the title) and had lunch at GamGam Kosher restaurant. There were succoth booths outside but they were full so we ate inside. We had a delightful meal, totally non-Italian (by choice, they have lots of Italian specialities). We each ordered a fried artichoke and the waitress did ask if we really wanted three orders. Assuming they were like the ones in Rome, we said sure. Well, they were totally different! There were artichoke hearts with the inner leaves, heavily battered, deep fried and served with “techina” which was a green sauce that we are not sure how it is made. One order would have been plenty. Alan had lamb kebabs which were terrific, I had Shwarma which is described as “a sizzling skillet of onions and spices together with tender cuts of juicy chicken” and Noelle had hummus, falafel and latkes. We were all stuffed and actually skipped dessert! We then walked through the ghetto and back to the Cannaregio Canal, down to the Railway station, over the Grand Canal, through Santa Croce, into San Polo, and around San Polo touching on Dorsodoro a little. Everywhere we wanted to go was just closing or had closed 20 minutes before we got there! It was a beautiful walk, so it really didn’t matter that we were thwarted at every turn. We finally settled down in Campo Santa Margherita and had a coffee. While we were drinking our coffee a darling little dog kept wanting to play fetch. He would bring a rubber ducky over and drop it near your feet. He then would stare at it just like Sinatra (one of our grand-dogs for those of your that don’t know) does. Alan was his new best friend and played and played fetch with him. It was really cute. We continued our walk, again finding everything closed, until we reach our home Campo SS Giovani e Paolo and, thank goodness, Rosa Salva was open; so Alan and Noelle got gelato and we got breakfast pastries. Back home, at last, off came the shoes. Alan is now walking Noelle to the Fondamenta Nova where she will get the Alilaguna back to the airport and go back to England. It’s been fun having her here and exploring Venice with her. Arrivederci, Noelle!

Santa Maria dei Miracoli

Kebabs

Shwarma

Fried artichokes