The Roman Jewish Ghetto

Rome's Jewish community is the oldest in Europe, predating the city's empire and outlasting its fall. On this walking tour through the Roman Jewish Ghetto, you'll trace more than 2,000 years of survival, from ancient slavery and papal persecution to deportation, emancipation, and the extraordinary cuisine that emerged from centuries of poverty.

The tour starts on Via Arenula, at the gateway to the Ghetto. You'll enter through a circular metal gate and walk the same narrow streets where thousands of Jews lived under papal rule for over 300 years – forbidden to own property, forced to wear yellow in public, and locked behind gates each night. Along the way, you'll pass the Fontana della Pianta, a 1590s marble fountain rescued from the demolished Piazza Giudea, and explore Via della Reginella, a dark, twisting lane that still feels like the Ghetto it once was.

The tour continues down Via Portico D'Ottavia, pausing at Boccione bakery and the restaurants that have made this one of Rome's top culinary destinations, before reaching the ancient Portico D'Ottavia itself – the site where 1,024 Jews were assembled on October 16th, 1943, before being deported to Auschwitz. The tour ends at the Tiber riverbank, where the guide reflects on how Rome's Jewish community – now spread across the city – still gathers in the Ghetto each Shabbat.

On this 60-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Visit the Great Synagogue of Rome, with its distinctive square aluminum dome and mix of Ancient Roman, Egyptian, and Art Nouveau styles
• Discover Piazza delle Cinque Scole, where Jews cleverly disguised five separate synagogues as one to satisfy papal law
• Learn how Roman-Jewish cuisine – including the now-iconic carciofi alla Giudia – grew from the leftovers and scraps that others discarded
• Browse Limentani, the oldest Jewish business in Rome, founded in the Ghetto in 1820 and still operating today
• Hear how the Jewish community raised 50 kilos of gold in two days to avoid Nazi deportation – and what happened next
• See ancient stone menorah carvings embedded in the walls of Via della Reginella, placed there as reminders of centuries of Jewish presence

This is one of Rome's most quietly powerful stories, and these streets tell it better than any museum could.