Private Jewish Ghetto & Trastevere Tour
with Incredible Off-the-Beaten-Path Sights in Rome's Hidden Streets
with Incredible Off-the-Beaten-Path Sights in Rome's Hidden Streets
Discover the charm of Rome’s Jewish Ghetto and Trastevere! Admire the highlights of the quarter, explore Teatro Marcello, the Turtle Fountain, and the spot where Julius Caesar was assassinated in Largo del Torre Argentina. Your five-star guide will give you all the details about this intriguing corner of Rome, its rich food culture, and its best restaurants!
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| See Rome from a different perspective on a 3-hour stroll amongst the stunning churches, top-notch kosher kitchens, and ancient ruins of the Jewish Ghetto. |
| Have a knowledgeable, English-speaking guide all to yourself – filling you in on the rich history of the oldest Jewish community in Europe and giving you insider tips along the way. |
| Visit the top highlights of the Jewish ghetto, including the Great Synagogue of Rome, the Theatre of Marcellus, Largo di Torre Argentina, the Tiber Island, and more! |
Roam through a lesser-known quarter of the Eternal City and fall in love with its incomparable charm. Meet your very own Rome insider in Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere and get ready for an enlightening journey filled with intriguing stories, impressive statistics, and incredible artistic and architectural sights. The Rione di Trastevere, or “Trastevere District”, is perhaps the most charming, picturesque neighborhood in all of Rome. With ivy leaves clinging above streets too narrow for cars and clothing lines strewn with colorful assortments of hanging laundry, the ambiance is undoubtedly Italian. The friendly, bohemian vibes welcome locals and visitors alike, but its distance from the Metropolitan underground systems keeps it a bit secluded – giving it a far less touristy feel than you get in the city center.
Start your tour with a visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of Rome’s oldest churches, widely considered to be the first Roman church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Here your local tour guide will begin to paint a picture of Rome’s rich history as you admire stunning mosaics inside, which glimmer and cast a golden glow all along the interior. Discuss the ancient beginnings of the church and the resilience to which it owes its existence today. Spend some time strolling the cobblestone streets and collecting insider tips from your cicerone! Trastevere is full of wonderful restaurants and shops, and it also hosts a lively nightlife. Once you’ve got a feel for Trastevere, we’ll make our way across the Tiber River to the very heart of the Jewish Ghetto – but not without stopping for an overhead view and introduction to the Tiberina Island, of course.
One of the oldest Jewish communities in the world thrives here in the heart of the Eternal City. But the area wasn’t always as lovely and picturesque as it is now. At the time of its creation in 1555 the quarter was undesirable and prone to flooding from the Tiber. This is why, when Pope Paul IV promulgated the Papal bull Cum Nimis and stripped the local Jews of their rights and citizenship, they were sent to this area to live. A wall was built around the ghetto limiting the mobility of the Jewish people. Discuss the harsh living conditions and obstacles that this Jewish community overcame and you will certainly admire their resilience! Nowadays there are about 14,000 members of the Jewish community in Rome – that’s a third of Italy’s total Jewish population!
Boutique shops, Kosher kitchens, and bakeries line the streets of this neighborhood, as a visual sign that the once unseemly ghetto is now a thriving neighborhood, rich with entrepreneurs and hosting some of the highest market real estates in Rome. Within the area, the endangered Judeo-Italian dialect, known by only 250 people in the world, is sometimes spoken, using Italian prefixes and suffixes with Hebrew and Aramaic roots. In general, the quarter boasts some of the finest dinings in the city – but their fried artichokes are a specialty snack that simply can’t be missed! Stroll the streets in amazement as we celebrate the rich heritage of a neighborhood that has been a center of faith and worship since the Middle Ages and get a deep sense of the community within the walls of the Great Synagogue of Rome.
Go off the beaten path to admire the lesser-known relics that have stood for more than 2,000 years symbolizing the reliance of Ancient Romans in the heart of the Ghetto. You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy this not-so-introductory tour – in fact, most visitors stand completely awe-stricken in the shadow of the Theatre of Marcellus, also referred to as the Jewish Colosseum! Though the open-air amphitheater was a direct inspiration for its larger neighbor, most people don’t know it exists until they see it! Learn about the origins of Rome’s first grand arena and the evocative remnants of the Portico d’Ottavia and other structures that once surrounded it.
Let your cicerone lead you through cobblestone streets and elegant alleys past Baroque palaces in pretty piazzas and admire the famous Turtle Fountain, which originally carried drinking water to Rome via the famous 1st century Acqua Vergine aqueduct. Explore the borders of the ghetto and get an up-close look at the remains of the wall, which was finally destroyed in 1888. Stand over the archaeological gem at the center of Largo di Torre Argentina and discover the exact location where Julius Caesar was assassinated. Reminisce about the Ghetto and the remarkable people, culture, and traditions that have evolved from it – and finish just in time to grab lunch at one of the city’s top restaurants at the center of it all!
Tour Highlights
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