Tours / Jewish Tour of Florence: places, history and traditions

Jewish Florence Walking Tour

The Jewish community of Florence today numbers almost a thousand people, not many if we think that Florence is a city that grew rich and developed on the trade in fabrics and on banks, without which the vaunted Florentine Renaissance would not have taken place due to lack of money and most likely, geniuses of the caliber of Brunelleschi, Donatello, Michelangelo, Botticelli, just to name a few, would not have emerged.

Without the businesses and banks of the Medici who knows where and how the great Florentine artists would have expressed their talent. Even before the arrival of the Medici family, in the Middle Ages many Jewish merchants moved to Florence, because the trade in fabrics was the source of the city's immense wealth and under Cosimo the Elder de' Medici and Lorenzo the Magnificent the Jews were truly a populous community, in harmony and in business with the first branch of the Medici family.

The history of the Jewish community in Florence continues for many centuries until the creation of the ghetto in the 16th century, its dismantling in the 19th century and the creation of the amazing Synagogue, up to times closer to us and cruelly obscure both for the city of Florence and throughout Europe.

To understand more join our tour, we will see together the places where there are still traces of the pre-existing life of a thriving Jewish society in Florence.

• The Ponte Vecchio, symbol of Florence, the only bridge that survived the Second World War, with the typical goldsmith shops known all over the world
• Borgo San Jacopo, where we will go to find some memories of Jewish life in the Middle Ages
• The Jewish Ghetto no longer exists, but with all the charm of Piazza della Repubblica, the elegant nineteenth-century square built over the now decayed and completely dismantled ghetto. We will read together the traces of the ghetto era in this sparkling square of lights and colors
• The former nineteenth-century synagogues set up on the edge of the ghetto, awaiting the completion of the Synagogue
• The Piazza del Duomo with the fantastic Gates of Paradise, made in gilded bronze by Lorenzo Ghiberti in the Renaissance period. We will read together the panels with the stories of Genesis.
• The current Jewish quarter, with excellent kosher restaurants and the small Jewish school
• The Synagogue, a wonderful 19th-century building in Moorish style, with its green copper dome that stands out among the roofs of Florence and stands out clearly from all the other buildings
• The museum of Jewish traditions in Florence, where we find everyday objects of Florentine families in their beautiful homes. You can also admire sacred vestments, such as stupendous ancient Parochets.

We are waiting for you to discover the traces of an exciting Jewish history together in Florence!