Things to do

Rome · Italy · Landmark

The Colosseum

The amphitheatre built with the spoils of the Churban, and the arch beside it that shows the Menorah being carried out of the Beis HaMikdash.

• The Arch of Titus stands a few minutes away at the edge of the Forum, on the same ticket. Its relief of the Menorah and the Temple vessels being carried in triumph is the reason many Jews come to this corner of Rome at all — and for centuries the kehilla here would not walk under it.
• About 2.5 km from the Jewish quarter by the Portico d'Ottavia, which is a comfortable walk or one bus.
• Timed entry, booked online. It sells out in season; this is the one thing in Rome worth booking before you fly.

Piazza del Colosseo 1, 00184 Roma

Rome · Italy · Jewish heritage

The Ghetto and the Great Synagogue

The oldest Jewish community in Europe, in the streets it has lived in since before the Churban, with the Great Synagogue and the Jewish Museum at its centre.

• This is also where the kosher restaurants are, so it is the natural base for a Rome trip rather than a stop on one.
• The Great Synagogue can only be entered on a museum ticket and with security checks; bring passports.
• The Portico d'Ottavia ruins are in the middle of the quarter, so the sightseeing and the eating are the same few streets.

Via Catalana, 00186 Roma

Rome · Italy · Landmark

The Roman Forum

The centre of the ancient city, and the place the Arch of Titus actually stands.

• The Arch of Titus is at the Forum's eastern end, not at the Colosseum — the two share a ticket and most people walk between them without realising which they are looking at.
• About 600 metres from the Portico d'Ottavia, so it is a walk from lunch rather than an expedition.
• The same timed ticket as the Colosseum and the Palatine, booked once for all three.

Via della Salara Vecchia 5/6, 00186 Roma

Rome · Italy · Landmark

Piazza Navona

A baroque square on the outline of a Roman stadium, with Bernini's river fountain in the middle of it.

• Under a kilometre from the Jewish quarter, and open ground rather than a ticket — one of the few sights in Rome that costs nothing and needs no plan.
• The square is closed to traffic, so it is somewhere a pushchair and small children can be let loose.

Rome · Italy · Landmark

Castel Sant'Angelo

Hadrian's round mausoleum, later a fortress and a papal refuge, with a terrace over the Tiber.

• About 1.6 km from the Jewish quarter along the river, and the bridge in front of it is worth the walk on its own.
• The climb to the terrace is a spiral ramp rather than stairs for most of the way, which is easier with children than it looks.

Rome · Italy · Park

Villa Borghese gardens

Eighty hectares of gardens above the city, with a lake, a zoo and the Galleria Borghese inside them.

• About 2.7 km from the Jewish quarter — a bus, or a walk with a stop in it.
• The park itself is free and open; the Galleria Borghese inside it is a separate timed ticket that sells out well ahead.
• Rowing boats on the lake, and bicycles for hire at the gates, which makes this the easiest afternoon in Rome with children.

Rome · Italy · Family

Bioparco di Roma

Rome's zoo, seventeen hectares inside the Villa Borghese gardens.

• Inside Villa Borghese, so it pairs with the park rather than competing with it.
• About 2.9 km from the Jewish quarter.

Viale del Giardino Zoologico 1, 00197 Roma

Rome · Italy · Viewpoint

The Gianicolo

The hill across the river with the widest view of Rome's domes and bell towers.

• About 1.4 km from the Jewish quarter, over the river and up — the climb is the whole cost of it.
• Free, unfenced and open at any hour, which is unusual for a view of this kind.

Rome · Italy · Nature

Appian Way Regional Park

Sixteen kilometres of the ancient road, with aqueducts and open country, inside the city boundary.

• About 7 km from the Jewish quarter, so this is a half day rather than an afternoon.
• Sundays the road is closed to traffic, which is the day to walk or cycle it.
• The Jewish catacombs in this area are not open to casual visitors and are not what this listing is about — the road, the aqueducts and the fields are.

Rome · Italy · Jewish heritage

Ostia Antica

Rome's excavated harbour town, which holds the oldest synagogue yet identified in Europe.

• The synagogue dates to the first century and was rebuilt several times up to the fourth — older than any other found on this continent.
• About 22 km from the Jewish quarter, reached by train from Piramide in around half an hour.
• A large open site with little shade; it is a morning in summer, not an afternoon.

Rome · Italy · Museum

Vatican Museums

Among the largest art collections in the world, in the Vatican — a church complex, and the collection is largely religious art.

• About 4 km from the Jewish quarter — the far side of the river, not a walk.

Viale Vaticano, 00165 Roma

Venice · Italy · Jewish heritage

The Venetian Ghetto

The first place in the world to be called a ghetto, in 1516, with five shuls built one above another because there was nowhere else to build.

• The shuls are reached only on the museum's guided tour — they are upper floors of ordinary buildings and there is no other way in.
• The tallest buildings in Venice are here, because the community could build up and not out.
• Kosher food in Venice is limited and often needs ordering ahead. Do not arrive on a Friday assuming you will find something.

Campo di Ghetto Nuovo, 30121 Venezia

Venice · Italy · Landmark

Piazza San Marco and the Grand Canal

The square and the water that Venice is, walkable end to end from the Ghetto in about forty minutes.

• The walk from the Ghetto crosses most of the city and is the sightseeing, not the commute.
• Vaporetto tickets are bought in advance or from machines — worth sorting before Shabbos if you are staying past it.

Piazza San Marco, 30124 Venezia

Venice · Italy · Museum

Doge's Palace

The seat of the Venetian Republic for a thousand years, on the square itself — council chambers, the armoury, the prisons and the Bridge of Sighs.

• A government building rather than a church — the state rooms, the courts and the cells are the visit.
• Timed tickets, and the queue without one runs along the waterfront in season. Book before you fly.
• Ten minutes' walk from the Ghetto is not true of this one: it is across the city, about forty minutes on foot or a vaporetto ride.

Piazza San Marco 1, 30124 Venezia

Venice · Italy · Landmark

Rialto Bridge and the market

The oldest bridge over the Grand Canal, finished in 1591, with shops along both ramps and the produce and fish market on the far bank.

• Free, open, and never closed — it is a street, not a sight with a door.
• The market on the eastern bank runs mornings and is shut by early afternoon; it is the reason to come early rather than the bridge itself.
• Halfway between the Ghetto and San Marco, so it falls on the walk rather than needing its own trip.

Ponte di Rialto, 30125 Venezia

Venice · Italy · Viewpoint

Accademia Bridge

A wooden bridge at the quiet end of the Grand Canal, and the view along it that everybody photographs, towards the dome of the Salute.

• Free and always open. Early morning is the difference between a photograph and a crowd.
• Pedestrians only, like everywhere here — Venice has no cars at all.

Ponte dell'Accademia, 30123 Venezia

Venice · Italy · Viewpoint

San Giorgio Maggiore bell tower

The best view of Venice, from the island across the water — a lift to the top of the campanile and the whole city and lagoon laid out beneath it.

• The view people queue an hour for in St Mark's Square is here with almost no queue, and it includes St Mark's Square — which the tower in it cannot.
• A lift rather than stairs, a few euros, cash. Six people at a time, so a short wait at the bottom is normal.
• Vaporetto line 2 from San Zaccaria, a few minutes across the water. The island is the church and the tower; there is nothing else on it.
• The tower is part of a church, and the lift is reached through it.

Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, 30133 Venezia

Venice · Italy · Landmark

Murano

The glassmaking island, a mile north across the lagoon — the furnaces were moved here in 1291 to keep the fires away from the city.

• Vaporetto from Fondamente Nove, about ten minutes. Murano and Burano are usually done as one day, in that order.
• The furnace demonstrations are free to watch and end in a showroom; nobody is obliged to buy.
• Quieter and more walkable than the main island, which makes it easier with children.

Murano, 30141 Venezia

Venice · Italy · Landmark

Burano

The painted island — every house a different colour, by regulation — about seven kilometres out, and the lace-making that made it.

• About forty-five minutes by vaporetto from San Marco, so it is half a day rather than an hour.
• Small enough to walk end to end in twenty minutes, which is why it works after Murano rather than instead of it.
• Bring food or plan around it: this is a long way from the kosher options in Venice.

Burano, 30142 Venezia

Venice · Italy · Nature

The Lido beaches

Eleven kilometres of sand on the barrier island, and the only place in Venice where there is anywhere to swim.

• Ten minutes by vaporetto from San Zaccaria. It is a normal island with roads and buses, unlike the city.
• Much of the beach in front of the town belongs to hotels; the free public stretches are at the northern and southern ends.
• The one thing in Venice that gives children an afternoon of their own.

Lido di Venezia, 30126 Venezia

Venice · Italy · Nature

Giardini della Biennale

The public park Napoleon made by draining the marsh, at the far eastern end of the city — trees, benches and room to run.

• The park itself is a public garden and free to walk in; the pavilions inside it are ticketed only during the Biennale.
• Venice has almost no green space, so this is the answer to an afternoon with small children in a city of stone.
• A long walk from San Marco along the waterfront, or a vaporetto to Giardini.

Sestiere Castello, 30122 Venezia

Venice · Italy · Museum

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Twentieth-century art in an unfinished palazzo on the Grand Canal, with a sculpture garden behind it.

• Twentieth-century modern art, including nudes and surrealist work.
• Small enough to see properly in an hour and a half, which is rare for a collection of this standing.
• The garden and the canal terrace are part of the ticket and are the quietest place to sit in Dorsoduro.

Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Dorsoduro 701, 30123 Venezia

Venice · Italy · Jewish heritage

The old Jewish cemetery, Lido

Ground given to the kehilla in 1386 and used for four hundred years — around 1,200 matzevos, and the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe.

• Closed to the public except on the museum's guided visits — there is no walking in. Check the times with the Museo Ebraico in the Ghetto before going out to the Lido.
• A combined ticket covers this and the shuls in the Ghetto.
• The meeting point is Riviera San Nicolò at the corner of Via Cipro, not the cemetery gate.

Riviera San Nicolò, 30126 Lido di Venezia

Florence · Italy · Jewish heritage

Great Synagogue of Florence

A Moorish-revival shul of 1882 with a green copper dome, still the kehilla's, with a museum upstairs and a garden around it.

• Ten minutes' walk from the Duomo, so it fits into a normal Florence day rather than needing one of its own.
• Security at the door; bring passports.

Via Luigi Carlo Farini 6, 50121 Firenze