JEWISH HERITAGE          |          JEWISH TUSCANY
   

Day 1 · Tuesday · Rome

The oldest community in the Diaspora and is a nucleus for Jews in the 2nd Century BC, reaching 40,000 in a population of 800,000 in the year 70 DC. Here, as throughout Italy, the diverse rites of prayer were maintained between the ancient Italian and later arrival of Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews. A community today numbering 15,000 persons, it is a center of Jewish culture and seat to the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), the organism regulating and safeguarding Jewish life in Italy.

Morning:
Arrival at Rome FCO airport and transfer to hotel
Evening:
Welcome dinner in hotel
   
   

Day 2 · Wednesday · Rome

Morning:
Guided walking tour of historic center
Lunch:
Unscheduled
Afternoon:
Evening:
Ristorante Due Ladroni
   
   

Day 3 · Thursday · Rome

Morning:
Guided walking tour through the Foro Romano where the Arch of Titus, constructed by Domitian c. 81 A.D, depicts Titus and Vespasian's defeat of the Jews with slaves carrying forth a seven-branched candelabra and furnishings plundered from the Temple of Solomon.
Lunch:
Unscheduled
Afternoon:
Musei Vaticani and the Basilica di San Pietro
Morning:
Unscheduled
   
   

Day 4 · Friday · Rome

Morning:

Unscheduled

Lunch:

Unscheduled

Afternoon:

Browse for Judaica and guided tour in the Jewish ghetto, designated by Pope Paul IV's bull of 1555; Great Synagogue, built 1901-04 in "eclectic" style; Jewish Museum, a large collection of ritual objects, precious fabrics, documents, and incunabula.

Evening:

Sabbath dinner at Da Giggetto

   
   

Day 5 · Saturday · Ostia Antica, Pitigliano & Siena

The first Jewish settlement was in 1579 following the Jewish expulsion from the papal states. It is a picturesque village once called "Little Jerusalem" for its sizeable Jewish population in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Morning:
Depart Rome for the archaeological zone of Ostia Antica where, amidst Roman baths, theatres temples and forum, is a synagogue thought to be constructed between the first and fourth centuries
Lunch:
Il Tufo Allegro in Pitigliano
Afternoon:
Guided tour of Jewish ghetto and synagogue
Evening:
Check into hotel in Siena countryside
   
   

Day 6 · Sunday · Siena

After the community was first established in 1229, Jews played an important role in the economic life for another 350 years. After centuries of relative tranquility, Florentine anti-Jewish measures were also applied here with the city's decline of power in the 16th Century.

Morning:
Guided walking tour of historic center, synagogue and ghetto
Lunch:
Unscheduled
Afternoon:
Unscheduled
Evening:
Dinner at the Antica Trattoria Botteganova
   
   

Day 7 · Monday · Chianti Classico & Florence

Morning:
Winery visit and tasting at Castello di Monsanto in Barberino Val d'Elsa
Lunch:
Osteria Le Panzanelle in Radda in Chianti
Afternoon:
Check into hotel in Florence
Evening:
Dinner in hotel
   
   

Day 8 · Tuesday · Florence

Although there probably existed a Jewish community and cemetery in the Roman "Florentia," documents date the community to the 13th Century. Under the early Medici, there were cultural exchanges between the Hebrew scholars and Christian humanists. Following the vicissitudes of Florentine political life in the centuries following, Jews passed periods of both calm and insecurity.

Morning:
Unscheduled to relax, browse or shop
Lunch:
Unscheduled
Afternoon:
Unscheduled
Evening:
Unscheduled
   
   

Day 9 · Wednesday · Florence

Morning:

Guided visit in the historic center (former ghetto), Tempio Israelitico and Jewish Museum

Lunch:
Vineria Cibreino
Afternoon:
Visit the Galleria dell' Accademia, at leisure
Evening:
Dinner at Mamma Gina's
   
   

Day 10 · Thursday · Florence

Morning:
Guided visit in the Galleria degli Uffizi
Lunch:
Unscheduled
Afternoon:
Unscheduled
Evening:
Omero in Arcetri
   
   

Day 11 · Friday · Ferrara & Venice

Since 1100, Ferrara's history was indelibly entwined with that of the Jewish community. Over the centuries, migrating Jews from Rome, Spain and Germany gathered here with ten synagogues and a population of 2000. It was a crucible for Sephardic culture under Ercole I d'Este in the late 15th Century .

Morning:
Depart Florence and travel to Ferrara and Venice
Lunch:
Ristorante Guido in Ferrara
Afternoon:
Guided visit in the historic center, synagogues and (optional) cemetery
Evening:
Check into hotel in Venice, Sabbath dinner in hotel
   
   

Day 12 · Saturday · Venice

Jewish origins in the lagoon remain unclear. In 932, Doge Candiano II called upon Henry I of Germany to forcibly convert all Jews. Sometime in the 10th Century, Jews began trading on the Rialto. In this, the world's first ghetto (1516), remain numerous synagogues or Venetian "scola" attesting to the unique and diverse origins of the community and the only Jewish quarter in Europe almost entirely preserved.

Morning:
Guided visit in Piazza San Marco, the Basilica and Palazzo Ducale
Lunch:
Osteria Mascaron
Afternoon:
Unscheduled
Evening:
Unscheduled
   
   

Day 13 · Sunday · Venice

Morning:
Unscheduled
Lunch:
Gam-Gam
Afternoon:
Guided visit in ghetto, synagogues and Jewish Museum, early return to hotel
Evening:
Tour by water taxi; farewell gala seafood dinner Trattoria di Gatto Nero on the island of Burano
   
   

Day 14 · Monday · Venice

Morning:
Transfers to Marco Polo airport or Santa Lucia train station for departure or further destinations
   
   

Included are all:
·accommodations (four-star hotel; bed & breakfast; double room occupancy)
·meals and pre-selected wines
·ground transportation and transfers in air-conditioned coach
·entrances to museum and monuments
·services of registered guides
·visits and tastings

Optional extras not included are:
·travel insurance
·air or train fares
·taxis or transfers to and from airports or other arrival and departure points not specified
     in the program
·single room supplement
·meals not indicated in the program
·additional drinks
·rentals (car or mobile telephone)
·obtaining documentation
·personal hotel expenses (drinks, laundry, telephone calls)
·gratuities