3 Best Sights in Italy

The "dispersed museum" comprises three of the Ghetto's five synagogues (the 16th-century Tedesca, Canton, and Italiana) plus a compact, well-arranged museum that highlights centuries of Venetian Jewish culture. Among the artifacts on display are splendid silver Hanukkah lamps and Torahs, beautifully decorated wedding contracts handwritten in Hebrew, and an important library. The recently created and wonderful Giardino Segreto della Scuola Spagnola, a secret garden with rich plant life and a sukkah, is also open to the public occasionally. Tours of the Ghetto and its synagogues in Italian and English leave from the museum hourly.

Jews were well settled in Florence by the end of the 14th century. By 1574, however, they were required to live within the large "ghetto" at the north side of today's Piazza della Repubblica, by decree of Cosimo I. Construction of the modern Moorish-style synagogue began in 1874 as a bequest of David Levi, who wished to endow a synagogue "worthy of the city." Falcini, Micheli, and Treves designed the building on a domed Greek cross plan with galleries in the transept and a roofline bearing three distinctive copper cupolas visible from all over Florence. The exterior has alternating bands of tan travertine and pink granite, reflecting an Islamic style repeated in Giovanni Panti's ornate interior.

Down a small street around the corner from Il Campo, this synagogue is worth a visit simply to view the two sobering plaques that adorn its facade. One commemorates June 28, 1799, when 13 Jews were taken from their homes by a fanatic mob and burned in the square. The other memorializes the Sienese Jews who were deported during World War II. Visits are permitted every half hour, and guided tours in English are available by prior arrangement.