Rainy days in Venice

Venice is a fun place to be, even in the rain, which it has been doing for the last two days, but it doesn't matter.  We took long walks into the remote areas and enjoyed seeing where the Venetians live.  This is a densely populated city, or rather, was, at one time.  There are still areas with many people living close together.  We like the quiet parts of the city best, with their little stone bridges over the canals and the laundry hanging above.  We visited the original Ghetto, a tiny island in town where the Jews were forced to live.  It felt sad there.  Last night we rode a boat across the water to Giudecca, a nearby island, where the radical Venetian aristocrats were exiled, and we each did a painting looking back at Venice. By the time we went home, it was dark and raining....umbrellas, backpacks filled with painting supplies, lots of wind.  

This morning we stayed in our room and played music, then ventured out for some lunch and exploring.  We took a boat ride, then strolled in the rain through Castello and saw, among many other amazing sights, Carpaccio's paintings from 1502-1509 in an old church built in the 1400's.  Everything is old here.  Makes our lives feel like a speck in time.  Glad to be making art and writing so we, too, can leave something behind when we're gone.  Tonight we went to a Vivaldi concert with friends, also in an old church.  What a great sound in there!  Then we tromped with our buddies through the darkened, wet streets to the Fenice, the opera house, and had a drink next door under an awning and watched the opera let out.  Good laughs, good friends, good times in Venice.