Jewish Heritage Tour of Italy

Day One: Sunday: DEPARTURE

• Depart the U.S.A. on an overnight flight to Venice Italy

Overnight: Flight

Day Two: Monday: ARRIVAL IN VENICE

• Arrive at the Marco Polo International Airport in Venice.
• Meet your guide educator begin with an orientation tour along the alleys, bridges and canals as an introduction to Italy and the compelling beauty of this unique city, as well an orientation to the Jewish journey – Jewish Memory as History.
• Ride a gondola through the canals of Venice.
• Check into your hotel tine to rest and relax before dinner
• Welcome dinner and orientation with your tour educator.

Overnight: Grand Hotel Dei Dogi, Venice

Day Three: Tuesday: VENICE & THE WORLD’S FIRST GHETTO

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• 2,000 Years of Italian Jewry: Introduction by your tour educator.
• Visit the Island of Murano to tour one of its many glass-making workshops.
• Sail to the colorful Island of Burano, noted for its lacework and colorfully painted houses.
• Lunch on own.
• Unchanged Legacy: Tour the Jewish Ghetto, the home and center of Venetian Jewish life, 1515-1848. Visit the Great Synagogue and Jewish Heritage Museum in the Nuovo Ghetto.
• Return to the hotel.
• Dinner on own and evening at leisure.

Overnight: Grand Hotel Dei Dogi, Venice

 

Day Four: Wednesday: ROLLING HILLS & THE BEAUTY OF ITALY

• Breakfast at the hotel and check out.
• Visit Ferrara, established almost 1,000 years ago. Over the centuries, Jews migrated here from Rome, Spain and Germany. The community eventually numbered 2,000 souls; and with its ten synagogues, became one of the most flourishing and important in Italy. Even though Jews have lived in Ferrara since its founding, it was not until the 13th century that their numbers grew large enough to be granted political status and certain privileges, protected by the Edict of 1275.
• Depart Venice and travel through the beautiful countryside of Tuscany where Jewish life flourished between the 13th and 15th centuries. In the 1940s, the region was a refuge for Jews fleeing persecution.
• Visit a local Tuscan Farm in the countryside for wine tasting with local specialists and a dialogue about Italian culture. Lunch on own, en route.
• Lunch on own, en route.
• Continue south towards Florence and check into the hotel.
• Dinner then free time to explore the streets of Florence at night.

Overnight: Plaza Hotel Lucchesi, Florence

Day Five: Thursday: JEWISH FLORENCE & THE CRADLE OF THE RENAISSANCE |partial walking tour

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• The Jews of Tuscany.
• Begin the tour of Florence with a close look at the Jewish world once centered here. The stories that emanate from the late 14th-century ghetto and the Moorish-style synagogue built in 1882 will be enhanced by a visit to the Museo Ebraica (Jewish Museum).
• Lunch on own, en route.
• Visit the Uffizi Gallery, one of the oldest and most famous art museums in Europe.
• Walk to the Duomo, celebrated for its magnificent dome designed by Brunelleschi, and view the Baptistery’s renowned “Gates of Paradise” by Ghiberti.
• Continue with an exploration of the open-air art museum of Piazza della Signoria, ending at the Ponte Vecchio, or the “Old Bridge.”
• Return to the hotel.
• Dinner and evening at leisure.

Overnight: Plaza Hotel Lucchesi, Florence

Day Six: Friday: JEWISH STORIES ON THE ROAD TO ROME

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Check out of the hotel, depart Florence and drive south towards Rome.
• Stop along the way in Pitigiliano, once known as “La Piccola Gerusalemme” — Little Jerusalem — because of its once-thriving Jewish community. Though the community is no longer, one can still walk through the restored synagogue, mikveh and kosher butchery, and even enjoy a glass of kosher wine.
• Lunch on own, en route.
• Continue to Rome, and take a panoramic tour of the ‘Eternal City’ and its vistas.
• Check into the hotel.
• Kabbalat Shabbat services at a synagogue in Rome.
• Shabbat dinner with the local Jewish community or at a restaurant.

Overnight: Grand Hotel Palace, Rome

Day Seven: Shabbat: THE HIDDEN TREASURES OF ROME REVEALED

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Optional Shabbat morning services
• Shabbat lunch.
• The Roman Empire and the Jewish People: Introduction by your tour educator.
• Embark on a walking tour to some of Rome’s most beautiful structures, including the Spanish Steps, Europe’s longest and widest staircase, the Trevi Fountain, the largest baroque fountain in the city, Piazza Navona (Navona Square) and more.
• Tour ancient Rome, including the Coliseum, the Roman Forum and other monuments that recall Rome’s great historic past. View the Arch of Titus, perhaps the best-known symbol of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.
• Return to the hotel.
• Havdalah
• Dinner then evening at leisure.

Overnight: Grand Hotel Palace, Rome

Day Eight: Sunday: SACRED ROME

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Michelangelo and the Jews: Introduction by your guide tour educator.
• Enjoy a special visit to the Vatican Museum and view some of the seldom-revealed Jewish historic relics preserved there.
• Continue to the Sistine Chapel, followed by a visit to St. Peter’s Basilica, built in the late Renaissance.
• Lunch on own.
• Continue to the Great Synagogue, built in 1904, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage housed inside it. 
• Tour the Jewish Ghetto, established by Pope Paul IV in 1555. Rome’s Jews were stripped of their rights and forced to live in the walled-in, overcrowded area. The medieval streets wind their way towards the square from which Jews were deported during the Holocaust.
• Return to the hotel.
• Farewell dinner and group reflection at a Roman restaurant.

Overnight: Grand Hotel Palace, Rome

Day Nine: Monday: DEPARTURE

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Check out of the hotel.
• Group Transfer to the Rome International Airport.
• Departure flight to the U.S.A., arriving the same day.