Jewish Florence

A private Jewish tour of Florence with a local licensed guide, built around the two things the city does not advertise: a synagogue that most visitors never find, and a ghetto that no longer exists.

Florence has had a Jewish presence since at least the twelfth century, and by the Renaissance it was one of Italy’s great centres of Talmudic study. The community’s fortunes ran directly through the Medici — protected by some of them, confined by others.

What you will see

• The Great Synagogue of Florence, built between 1874 and 1882 in Moorish revival style, one of the largest in Europe. Green copper dome, Islamic-inspired geometry, and a Sephardi layout in a Tuscan city
• The Jewish Museum, housed on the upper floors of the same building, with the community’s silver, textiles and documents
• The area of the former ghetto, established in 1571 by Cosimo I and demolished in the 1880s during the redevelopment of Piazza della Repubblica
• The Baptistery doors, where Ghiberti’s panels are read as what they are: scenes from the Tanakh, sculpted for a Christian building
• The medieval streets down to Ponte Vecchio, with the Jewish banking history that ran along them

The Galleria dell’Accademia and Michelangelo’s David can be added on request, with tickets arranged in advance.

The part most tours leave out

The Florentine ghetto is gone. It stood where Piazza della Repubblica is now, and it was erased deliberately when Florence was briefly the capital of Italy and the centre was rebuilt. There is a plaque, and there is the shape of the streets, and that is all.

So a Jewish Florence tour that only walks you to the synagogue misses the harder half of the story. The synagogue was built precisely because emancipation had arrived and the community wanted to be visible after three centuries of being shut in. The two facts only make sense next to each other.

Practical information

• Duration: about 3 hours, private
• Closures: the Synagogue and Museum are closed on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, and hours change between summer and winter
• Dress code: shoulders and knees covered
• From Rome: Florence is about an hour and a half by high-speed train, so this works as a day trip. Tickets and transfers can be arranged

The background reading is in the full guide to Jewish Florence.