Jewish Heritage Tour of Italy: 3 Sample Itineraries (7, 10, 14 Days)

1. Plan around Shabbat. Jewish museums and synagogues in Italy are closed to visitors on Saturdays and on Jewish holidays. On Fridays most of them close early. So put the Jewish sites between Sunday and Friday morning. Keep Saturday for walking and rest.

2. Watch out for Mondays. Many Italian museums close on Mondays. This includes MEIS, the national Jewish museum in Ferrara, and the ruins of Ostia Antica near Rome.

3. Call ahead for small places. In big cities you can buy a ticket and walk in. In small towns a synagogue may open only on set days or by appointment. Archives are slower. If you want to see an original family record, the request can take months.

One more thing: carry your passport. Most synagogues in Italy have a security check at the door.

Start on a Thursday. Shabbat then falls in Rome, the city with the largest Jewish community in Italy.

Day 1 (Thursday): Rome. Arrive and rest. In the evening, walk through the old Ghetto. Start at the Portico d'Ottavia, the Roman ruin at the end of the main street. Have dinner here. This neighborhood is the home of Roman Jewish cooking, and the fried artichoke is its best-known dish. Read more in our guide to the Roman Ghetto.

Day 2 (Friday): Rome. Go to the Jewish Museum of Rome in the morning. One ticket covers the museum, the Great Synagogue (opened in 1904) and the small Spanish Synagogue. On Fridays it closes early. If you want to go to a Shabbat service, ask the community some days before.

Day 3 (Saturday): Rome. A slow day. Walk to Largo 16 Ottobre 1943. The square is named for the day when more than a thousand Roman Jews were arrested and sent to Auschwitz. Look down as you walk. Small brass stones in the pavement carry the names of people who lived in these houses. In the afternoon, go to the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum. Its carving shows Roman soldiers carrying the Menorah from the Temple in Jerusalem. If you do not use money on Shabbat, buy the Forum tickets before.

Day 4 (Sunday): Florence. Take the train to Florence (about an hour and a half). Visit the Great Synagogue, finished in 1882, with its green dome, and the Jewish museum inside. Then walk to Piazza della Repubblica. The old ghetto stood here until the city pulled it down in the late 1800s. More in our Florence guide.

Day 5 (Monday): your family's day. If your family came from Tuscany, this is the day for their town and its archive. If not, take the train to Livorno (about an hour and a half), the port city that never had a ghetto.

Day 6 (Tuesday): Venice. Take the train to Venice (a little over two hours). In the afternoon, visit the Ghetto, founded in 1516. Its five synagogues are hidden on the top floors of plain houses. You can go inside only on a guided tour, and the tour does not always show the same ones. The Jewish Museum of Venice has been under restoration for several years, so check what is open before you go. More in our Venice Ghetto guide.

Day 7 (Wednesday): Venice. Spend one more morning in the Ghetto, or visit the old Jewish cemetery on the Lido, in use since the 1300s. Visits there are guided and run on set days. Fly home from Venice.

Start on a Sunday. Shabbat falls in Florence.

This route adds three places that most tours miss: Pitigliano, Livorno and Ferrara. Livorno and Ferrara are important for Sephardic families. Both cities opened their doors to Jews from Spain and Portugal.

Day 1 (Sunday): Rome. Arrive. Evening walk and dinner in the Ghetto.

Day 2 (Monday): Rome. The Jewish Museum, the Great Synagogue and the Spanish Synagogue. In the afternoon, Largo 16 Ottobre 1943 and the brass stones.

Day 3 (Tuesday): Rome. In the morning, the Arch of Titus and the Forum. In the afternoon, take the local train to Ostia Antica (about 40 minutes). Among the ruins of Rome's old port there is a synagogue, found in the 1960s. It is one of the oldest known synagogues in Europe.

Day 4 (Wednesday): Pitigliano, then Florence. Travel by car with a driver. Pitigliano is about two and a half hours north of Rome. The town stands on a cliff of soft volcanic rock, and people called it "Little Jerusalem". Visit the synagogue from 1598 and the rooms cut into the rock below it: the ritual bath, the wine cellar, the oven for matzah. Then drive about three hours to Florence. More in our Pitigliano guide.

Day 5 (Thursday): Livorno. Take the train from Florence. In the 1590s the Medici invited Jewish merchants to this new port and promised them freedom. Livorno never had a ghetto. The old synagogue was destroyed in World War II. The new one opened in 1962 on the same spot. Visits are arranged ahead. Many Sephardic families passed through this port, some for a few years and some for centuries. More in our Livorno guide.

Day 6 (Friday): Florence. The Great Synagogue and the museum in the morning, then Piazza della Repubblica. Shabbat begins in the evening.

Day 7 (Saturday): Florence. A slow day. No tickets and no drivers.

Day 8 (Sunday): Ferrara. Take a morning train (about an hour and a half). Go first to the Jewish cemetery on Via delle Vigne, because it is open only in the morning. Giorgio Bassani, who wrote The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, is buried here. After lunch, visit MEIS, the national museum of Italian Jewish history and the Shoah. Then walk down Via Mazzini, the main street of the old ghetto. The building with three synagogues at number 95 is closed for restoration, and it is planned to reopen in 2027. Sleep in Ferrara. More in our Ferrara guide.

Day 9 (Monday): Venice. Take the train (about an hour and a half). Ghetto and synagogue tour in the afternoon.

Day 10 (Tuesday): Venice. The Lido cemetery or a free morning. Fly home.

Your family's day: swap it for Day 5, or add one day in the region your family came from.

Start on a Monday. The first Shabbat falls in Venice and the second in Rome.

Day 1 (Monday): Turin. Arrive. In the evening, walk to the Mole Antonelliana, the tall tower that is the symbol of the city. It began in 1863 as a synagogue. The project grew too big, and the community gave the building to the city. More in our Turin guide.

Day 2 (Tuesday): Turin. Visit the synagogue that the community built in its place, opened in 1884, and the streets of the old ghetto. This is the city of Primo Levi. Visits are arranged ahead.

Day 3 (Wednesday): Casale Monferrato. About an hour by car from Turin. From the street you see only a plain wall. Inside is a synagogue from 1595, covered in gold and painted plaster. Next to it is the Museum of Lights, with Hanukkah lamps made by artists of our time. The synagogue opens to the public on Sundays. On other days, arrange the visit ahead. Piedmont has many more small Jewish towns, and you can read about them in our Piedmont guide.

Day 4 (Thursday): Venice. Take the train (about four hours). Evening walk in the Ghetto.

Day 5 (Friday): Venice. Synagogue tour in the morning. Shabbat begins in the evening.

Day 6 (Saturday): Venice. A slow day. Venice has no cars, so it is an easy city for Shabbat.

Day 7 (Sunday): Ferrara. Take an early train (about an hour and a half). The cemetery in the morning, MEIS after lunch. Sleep in Ferrara.

Day 8 (Monday): Florence. Take the train (about an hour and a half). The Great Synagogue and the museum in the afternoon.

Day 9 (Tuesday): Livorno. A day trip by train from Florence.

Day 10 (Wednesday): your family's day. Archives are open on weekdays, so this is a good day for it.

Day 11 (Thursday): Pitigliano, then Rome. Travel by car with a driver.

Day 12 (Friday): Rome. The Jewish Museum and the two synagogues in the morning. Shabbat begins in the evening.

Day 13 (Saturday): Rome. A slow day: Largo 16 Ottobre 1943, the brass stones, the Arch of Titus.

Day 14 (Sunday): Rome. If your flight is in the evening, see Ostia Antica in the morning. Fly home.

With one more day, add Padua, 30 minutes from Venice by train, or Mantua.

These three routes follow the main line. Many families do not.

Some came from Ancona, the port on the Adriatic Sea. Some came from Sicily or from the far south, where Jewish life ended with the expulsions of 1492 and 1541. A trip there looks different. You see fewer synagogues and more streets, old ritual baths and archive rooms.


In that case the route starts from your family's town, and the famous cities come second.

All three routes are good trips. But they show everyone's Italy. If your family lived here, one day should be only yours.

On that day you do not visit a famous place. You go to one street. You stand in front of one house, or the place where it stood. You see the page where a clerk wrote your great-grandmother's name. You go to the cemetery.

You cannot plan that day from a guidebook. First, someone has to find the records: which town, which street, which years. At Radici this is where we start. Our archivists in Italy look for the documents, and then we build the route around what they find.
This is also true for families who only passed through Italy. Many Sephardic families lived in Livorno, Venice or Ancona for one or two generations on the way to another country. Those years often left records too.

There are two ways to travel with us:

• La Mappa. We do the research and prepare a personal itinerary with maps, family addresses and introductions to local communities. You travel on your own.
• Il Viaggio. Our private Jewish heritage tours of Italy. We arrange everything and travel with you. It is for one family of up to four people and usually lasts seven to ten days.

Give it time. Six months before the trip is comfortable, because archives answer slowly.

How many days do I need for a Jewish heritage tour of Italy? Seven days are enough for Rome, Florence and Venice. Ten days let you add small towns. Fourteen days cover the north and Rome. If you have only five days, choose two cities, not three.

What is the best time to go? Late April to June, and September to mid-October. Check the Jewish calendar first, because sites close on holidays. See when to plan a Jewish heritage trip to Italy.

Can we keep kosher and Shabbat on this trip? Yes. All three routes keep Saturday free. Rome has the most kosher restaurants. In small towns, kosher meals must be arranged ahead.

Can we follow these routes on our own? Yes. Trains connect all the cities. You need a car and driver only for Pitigliano and Casale Monferrato. Book synagogue tours ahead.

Do we need family research before the trip? For a general heritage tour, no. For a trip to your family's own places, yes. The first step is a preliminary assessment of what records exist for your family's name and town.