“Venice, Italy surprised me beyond words while I was visiting…I was in my early 20s and was taking a minor in Shakespeare at the time of my trip. Up until that point, my greatest interest besides traveling was Holocaust history & Shakespeare. I would have never thought that reading the play “The Merchant of Venice” would have linked my two interests as much as it did… Do you know where the word “ghetto” comes from? Well during a class session I learned that the word “ghetto” was first used in Venice, Italy to describe the part of town that the Jews were forced to live in during WWII. Many of these Jews, living in the Ghetto, were sent to concentration camps in the early 1940’s. The town is really off the beaten path and finding the right bridge to take to cross over can be a bit confusing. Visiting was actually overwhelming and weighted heavy on my heart. There’s such a strong sense of the past in the air and the plaques depicting their history sure …