9 Day's of Mosaic Traditions of Italy

We will meet our local guide and embark on a walking tour of this vibrant city with its maze of canals.

Venice is the only Italian city where one can find an intact Jewish ghetto. The Ghetto Nuovo has remained essentially unchanged since its founding in 1515. We will have a one way transfer by boat to the ghetto for a tour and a visit to the synagogues there. We will learn of famous Jewish physicians, philosophers, poets, commentators and Kabbalists who contributed to Venetian culture and history. Leisurely explore the sights and sounds of this floating city.

Tuscany and Florence. Along the way we will stop in Ferara, a city in which Jews flourished from the 13th to the 15th centuries. We will visit the ghetto and the fabulous synagogue of Ferrara. Our next stop will be Nanatola, a small farming village that was a refuge for 107 Jewish children orphaned during the Nazi occupation of Europe from 1941–1944. We will learn about the Villa Emma Foundation that was established in Nonatola to promote peace and Holocaust education. Then we continue through the Tuscany countryside to the city of Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance.

We'll drive through the Chianti vineyards to the medieval city of Sienna. Jews have lived here since the beginning of the 13th century and Sienna served as the center of Jewish scholarship in the 16th century. We will visit the synagogue that was built in 1786 and view the ghetto fountain, one of the few remaining relics from the ghetto. We will have a free time this afternoon to explore this wonderful city.

You will be introduce us to the Jewish influence of the Florence Renaissance. We will then start our walking tour of the Jewish Ghetto, which dates back to the late 14th century and early 15th century. We will walk the streets and squares that were once within the walls of the ghetto and visit the synagogue of Florence, which opened in 1882. It was built in the Moorish style inspired by Constantinople’s Byzantine Church of Hagia Sophia. The Nazis used this synagogue to house military equipment. On the second floor of the synagogue we will visit a Jewish Museum that houses a rich collection of Judaica. In the afternoon we will be at leisure, perhaps to visit the Fine Arts Academy and see the famous David by Michelangelo, or to stroll along the River Arno and walk across the Ponte Vecchio Bridge.This evening please join us for the shabbat services at the synagogue and a shabbat dinner afterwards with the members of the Jewish community.

Free time in the morning before our afternoon tour of the Uffizi Gallery with an art historian. The Museum is housed in a Renaissance palace of the Medici. Highlights of the collection include the Boticelli Room, Da Vinci’s Annunciation, and the Medici Venus. It is considered to be one of the finest art museums in the world.

We leave Florence and drive to Pitigliano, a beautiful ancient town completely built in stone, on top of a remote hill in the most unspoiled part of Tuscany. Pitigliano was once a glorious Jewish community. We will visit a perfectly restored synagogue, the rooms of an ancient yeshiva, the Mikva, the bakery, the butcher shop, an old cemetery and a kosher winery. We will drink and toast “Le’chaim!” to the Jewish people. Pitigliano was nicknamed “La Piccola Gerusalemme” (little Jerusalem) because of its once large and thriving Jewish community and the shape and color of its hills and walls.Departing Pitigliano, we will head towards Rome, the Eternal City.

We'll take a tour of the Vatican and see the Jewish historical relics housed there. This afternoon you will have free time to enjoy all the many splendors of Rome.

A walking tour through the Jewish Ghetto which was created on the 26th of July 1556 when Pope Paul IV Caraffa ordered the Jews to be forcibly moved to the area around the Portico d’Ottavia. We will visit the Great Synagogue, which was consecrated in 1904 and houses the Museum of Jewish Culture. Our guide will take us through the medieval streets where many Jews still live and we will see Deportation Square where Jews were deported to the ghettos and death camps of Eastern Europe. Our tour will end in the Ghetto and you will have the rest of the day at leisure to enjoy the grandeur of this wonderful city.