When in Rome...Day 2

As I said in my last post my Mom had lined up tours to keep us busy while we were in Rome.  For those of you who don't know, my Dad is Jewish and my mom converted to Judaism before they were married.  Why do you need to know this?  Well, the tours my Mom set up were with Jewish Roma a company that does tours of the Jewish ghetto, Vatican and other locations in Rome. Our very first tour took us to the Jewish ghetto.

The first Jews to come to Rome came from Israel in 160 B.C. and they have been in the city ever since.  Micaela, our tour guide, told the history of the Jews in Rome and the persecution they suffered.  The Jewish ghetto was established by Pope Paul IV in 1555 and he required all of the 2000 Jews in Rome to live there.  It was  a walled area with three gates that were locked at night.  The area of Rome chosen for the ghetto was the most undesirable area of the city because of flooding by the Tiber River.

Catholic churches were built at all edges of the ghetto in an attempt to convert as many Jews as possible.  There are even stories of the Catholic nuns taking Jewish children, baptizing them and then returning them to their parents as "Christians".  At the time it was illegal for Jews and Christians to live together, so parents were forced to either convert or give up their children.   

This was one of the original churches on the edge of the ghetto.  It had a painting of the crucifixion above the door with scripture in Hebrew below. 

Many of the buildings standing in the ghetto today were the original architecture from 1555 and before.  There were also remnants of columns and other buildings that had fallen.  The area is now a very chic place to live with expensive property.

The old fish market

Columns and ruins

The main piazza is a happening place filled with little old ladies gossiping, people shopping, restaurants and musicians.  This guy below was playing Hava Nagila over and over again! 

My Dad in another Charlie Sheen shirt....he's obsessed!

As we were walking along pretty much everyone knew our tour guide, Micaela.  She is one popular girl in the Jewish community.  This little old lady came to her window to say hi.  She has lived in that same apartment all here life and refuses to sell it...even though people want to pay her a lot of money for it.

Most, if not all, of the restaurants in the ghetto keep kosher since most of it's residents are Orthodox Jews.  We actually came back and ate at this restaurant the day after our tour....sadly it was not good!! I won't go into the details but it was the most expensive, bad meal ever. 

Jewish art on the wall of buildings

During the Holocaust, many Jews in Rome were taken from their homes in the ghetto and sent to concentration camps.  Today, there are plaques on the street outside of the homes with names and dates of people that were taken and never returned.  A few survivors who were able to return to Rome still live there today.

Our tour group

The last stop on our tour was the Synagogue.  If you are thinking it looks like a church, it does on the inside as well.  Back when it was built in 1870 the only architects in Rome were used to building churches and had never built a synagogue before...so it came out looking a little "churchy". 

Micaela, our guide

After we finished our tour with Micaela we had another tour to show us the highlights of Rome.  More on that to come tomorrow!