Getting to the Ghetto
The Jewish Ghetto is in the area called “Cannaregio” – We recommend staying in Cannaregio. However, the Eruv covers most of the city, on the same side of the Grand Canal as the Jewish Ghetto.
Facing the canal, with your back to the station, turn left. You will immediately see the large “Ferrovia Bridge” on your right. Do not cross this bridge. Walk past this bridge, continuing along Lista Di Spagna (five minutes) until you reach the first bridge, “Guglie Bridge.” Cross Guglie, immediately turn left, & walk along the canal (one minute). You’ll find GAM-GAM on your right, at the main entrance of the Jewish Ghetto. Or, take vaporetto 4.2 or 5.2 (GAM-GAM can be seen from Guglie Bridge).
Four options:
1. AliLaguna – around €15 / 30-40 minutes – public water boat that stops throughout the city, including a stop right by GAM GAM Kosher Restaurant, called “Guglie” (goo-lee-ye).
2. Autobus – around 1.50€ / 25 minutes – bus right outside terminal takes you to the Venice parking lot called Piazzale Roma. From there, you can take a city boat (vaporetto) or private boat taxi to your hotel
3. Taxi Car – around 40€ / 20 minutes – pick up right outside terminal and takes you to Piazzale Roma.
From there, you can take a city boat (vaporetto) or private boat taxi to your hotel
4. Private Taxi Boat, around 100€ / 20 minutes – Take the electric walkway inside the airport 7 minutes to boat dock. Taxi Boat takes you directly to your hotel
Museum and Tours
The Jewish Ghetto is the centerpiece of the story of the Jews in Venice. The Ghetto’s Museo Ebraico (Jewish Museum) offers a tour which takes you inside a few of the 5 Synagogues & explains the history of the Jews of Venice & the synagogues in which they prayed. 40 minutes, tickets bought at museum prior to the tour. Can’t travel to Venice at this time? Discover our Virtual Tours on Rebbetzin Unplugged.
Jewish Ghetto Tour Timetable:
June to August
Sunday-Thursday 10:30am until 7:30pm
Every hour on the half
Friday 10:30am until an hour before Shabbos.
Closed Saturday
Rest of the year
Monday-Friday 10:30am until 3:30pm
Every hour on the half
Sunday 10:30am until 4:30pm every hour on the half.
Closed Saturday.
Jewish Cemetery
The Jewish cemetery at the Lido di Venezia (30 minutes from the Ghetto by boat) has the reserve of a fenced woods and, at the same time, the enduring quality typical of an archaeological outcropping.
The “House of the Living”
It is a characteristic common to other Jewish cemeteries in Italy and in Europe, where the alternation of care and abandonment over the span of many centuries, reflects the historical record – bad and good – of their communities.
The gravestones emerge from a sea of overgrown grass, inclined or flat, or leaning against the brick wall, in the shadow of trees that have grown wild: some have grown so as to embrace the edge of a stone or to have split it. We find not only the funereal cypresses, but plants of many species, casually or intentionally left as a sign of life (Bet ha-chayim, “house of the living” is, in Judaism, the euphemism which designates the cemetery).
The light of the lagoon filters through the leaves. Traces of an order – a garden, efforts of an earlier age – are now confused by the wild vegetation and the half-submerged tombs recall a return to the earth, leaving on the surface a residue of white stone – a silent disorder – or, on the contrary, a re-emergence of memory.
San Nicolo di Mira
The cemetery grounds have their origins in a vineyard adjacent to the Benedictine monastery of San Nicolo di Mira. It was given to the Jews in perpetuity for the purpose of burial in 1386, in a period when the relationship between the Jews and the Serenissima was becoming more organic and formalized. (In fact, one year earlier, 1385, the candotta de banco (banking license) was granted to certain Jewish families in Mestre.)
When, during the course of the 1800s, a new cemetery was opened in an adjacent area, and the Lido was urbanized, the excavations revealed many graves long hidden from sight. The tombstones are reunited in a small site in the old cemetery, once again enclosed. Many stones have lost their original place and the many Jewish “nations,” once distinct, now find themselves strewn together in the entrance area (originally reserved for the Sephardim) facing towards Venice.
On that shore landed the funeral gondolas of the Hevrat Ghemilut Hassadim, the Jewish burial society. Leaving from the ghetto, the cortege of boats traversed the lagoon, taking a route which avoided passages and bridges from which someone could have thrown objects and trash in mockery of the Jews.
San Nicolo di Mira
The cemetery grounds have their origins in a vineyard adjacent to the Benedictine monastery of San Nicolo di Mira. It was given to the Jews in perpetuity for the purpose of burial in 1386, in a period when the relationship between the Jews and the Serenissima was becoming more organic and formalized. (In fact, one year earlier, 1385, the candotta de banco (banking license) was granted to certain Jewish families in Mestre.)
When, during the course of the 1800s, a new cemetery was opened in an adjacent area, and the Lido was urbanized, the excavations revealed many graves long hidden from sight. The tombstones are reunited in a small site in the old cemetery, once again enclosed. Many stones have lost their original place and the many Jewish “nations,” once distinct, now find themselves strewn together in the entrance area (originally reserved for the Sephardim) facing towards Venice.
On that shore landed the funeral gondolas of the Hevrat Ghemilut Hassadim, the Jewish burial society. Leaving from the ghetto, the cortege of boats traversed the lagoon, taking a route which avoided passages and bridges from which someone could have thrown objects and trash in mockery of the Jews.
Travel Info F.A.Q.
Where Can I Park My Car?
As is known, there are no cars in Venice. There aren’t even streets to drive on, only to walk. At the entrance of the island, you will find parking garages at PiazzaLe Roma that charge daily rates around €30, regular car taxis and regular public auto buses. You can also park on the mainland, in the next city of Mestre (around €10 a day) and then take a 10-minute train ride to Venice. Specific parking info is easily found online.
Where Can I Store My Luggage?
There is paid luggage storage at the train station, which is a five minute walk from the Jewish Ghetto. It is easily visible on Google maps.
Interested in Moving to Venice?
Come find out why the magical city on water is one of the world’s best cities to live in. Great career opportunities (even in English or Hebrew) and comfortable apartments are available. Let Chabad of Venice help you make a dream come true!
Mikva Reservations
The mikva is run by the Italian community and they require reservations, preferably with 24 hours notice. 39 041 715 012 or 39 34 9219 9797