Giudecca

This guide to Giudecca in Venice traces the island's name back to exiled families once judged and banished here by the Republic, then follows the plague that swept Venice in 1575 and killed roughly a third of the population. It covers how health authorities lashed together thousands of boats into a floating hospital on the lagoon, and the vow a desperate doge made if the city survived. Listen for how that promise still shapes a ritual Venetians repeat on the island every summer.