Jewish Ghetto & Great Synagogue of Rome

Rome's Jewish Ghetto occupies a small riverside quarter that has been home to Europe's oldest continuously present Jewish community, documented in the city since before the Christian era. In 1555 Pope Paul IV confined Roman Jews by papal bull to this walled, gated district along the Tiber, where cramped and often flooded conditions persisted for over three centuries until the ghetto walls were finally torn down after Italian unification in 1870. Today the quarter is one of Rome's most atmospheric neighbourhoods, its narrow streets radiating from Via del Portico d'Ottavia, lined with kosher bakeries, Judaica shops and trattorias serving distinctive Roman-Jewish cuisine, above all carciofi alla giudia, whole artichokes deep-fried until their leaves crisp like petals. The quarter's landmark is the Great Synagogue of Rome (Tempio Maggiore), completed in 1904 with a distinctive square aluminum dome unlike any other roofline in the city, built as a deliberate symbol of Jewish emancipation after centuries of confinement. Inside, the Jewish Museum of Rome traces over two thousand years of the community's history through ritual objects, textiles and archival documents, including material relating to the 1943 Nazi deportation of Roman Jews. The synagogue and museum can only be visited together on a guided tour, and a photo ID is required for the security check at entry. History runs deeper still in the neighbourhood: the ruins of the ancient Portico d'Ottavia, a monumental colonnade built by Augustus for his sister, stand at the district's edge beside the Teatro di Marcello, an ancient theatre whose outer arcades resemble a smaller Colosseum. A visit combining a wander through the streets, a meal and the synagogue tour takes about two to two and a half hours; the neighbourhood itself is free and open at all times.