Ghetto di Venezia in Venice

You're standing in the Venetian Ghetto, the Jewish quarter in the Cannaregio district. Take a look at the houses around you. Notice how tall they are? Nowhere else in Venice will you find buildings of six storeys or more. There was a reason for that. By the late seventeenth century around five thousand people were packed into roughly two hectares. They couldn't spread out, so they built up.