Arrival in Venice, Cemetery, La Traviata

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Up early this morning, bags out at 6:00 AM to be trucked to Venice and taken to our hotel while we began our study.  So we walked to the nearby main train station of Rome and caught a 7:50 AM fast train to Venice.  We use small radio devices with ear pieces to hear our professor (Haim) and our guides, and we all sat together and used them on the train to study an excerpt from Black Sabbath, A Journey Through a Crime Against Humanity by H. Katz, published in 1969.  We read of the deportation of Jews from Rome during WW II, and related that to the expulsion of Jews from many places during our long history.  The passage we read spoke to the extremely inhumane treatment of the Jews during a train stop and the humanity of the Italians who observed what was happening.

We arrived at the Venice train station late in the morning, and immediately took a boat to Lido Island which houses the Jewish cemetery, founded in 1386.  On the way we passed sights which were quintessentially Venetian, including the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s square:

People are buried underground on the Venetian islands, unlike, say, New Orleans, which has a similar relationship with the water but where people are “buried” above ground.  After lunch on Lido Island, we walked to the new (19^th c.) cemetery where we had a study session reading a sonnet of Sarra Coppio Sullam (1600-1641):

O divine form of mortal life, 

And sublime end of God's works, 

 In which He expresses Himself and His power 

And made you a queen of as much as He created;

Mind that informs man, in whom the immortal 

Adjoins the mortal, and that resides amidst the prime 

Essences in flying from the deepest 

Parts where heaven bends down to you: 

May stupid thought that lives amidst ephemeral objects 

Desist now from investigating you, however, 

For you uncover yourself only when you approach God

And for human breasts to be made content here,  

May it be enough to know that "the angels themselves 

Are appointed to guard and serve you." 

  

We read responses to Sullam’s sonnet, as well as sonnets by other authors who are buried here in the Jewish cemetery.  We were only able to peek through the gate to the old Jewish cemetery as it is not open to visitors:

We then sat in a canal side boat taxi waiting room and had another study session with Shaul Bassi, PhD, who lectured us for about 45 minutes on the history of Venetian Jewry.  Jews had been expelled from Venice, but in 1509, with the city-state in trouble economically, the Jews were invited back as they were perceived to be excellent merchants and traders.  In negotiation with the city, the Jews actually negotiated for a separate place and the word ghetto was invented and used, perhaps as a corruption of another Italian word, perhaps not.  There are, apparently, many versions of the etymology of the word, but all agree it comes from Venice.  The Venetian ghetto was settled in 1516 in an area which had housed a foundry and which had the only square in Venice which did not have a church facing one side.  The talk was full of great information.

Finally we took a boat to an area adjacent to St. Mark’s Square and walked from there into the square:

It is beautiful, even overwhelming, and we will have a formal tour tomorrow.  For those who have never been there, on each side of the enormous square are shops and cafes, and there is schmaltzy live music at the cafes, which accounts for a cup of coffee costing 12 euros.  Click here to see:

  

We walked to our hotel, crossing over many bridges and enjoying many sights such as these:

We washed up, had a quick dinner, and walked to the Palazzo Ververigo Minotto where we had a real treat.  There is an opera production called Musica a Palazzo which performs operas in a reduced version in the rooms of the Palazzo.  We saw La Traviata in three rooms of the Palazzo, one act in each of the three rooms. The final act was in a bedroom (as it is in the opera).  The audience was very small, maybe 75 people, and we were in intimate contact with the singers and the piano quartet who played the music.  In between acts we were given champagne as we passed from one room to the next.  A truly unique opportunity.