We thought we'd do the Rickie Stevie guided walk of the Jewish Ghetto--a miniscule piece of Rome we'd not seen before--then watch the sunset from a bridge over the Tiber, walk a bit of Trastavere, and then walk back to the Capitoline for night views of the Forum. A few words of explanation. 1) Jews were in Rome well before the Diaspora, as any good merchants of the day would be. Their presence here explains a lot about early, and later, Christianity. They settled mostly in Trastavere, across the river. Only in the 16th century did the Popes get around to putting them in a ghetto, proscribing what they could and could not do, etc. Later centuries were kinder...until the Germans arrived. In 1943, they rounded up such Jews as they could find, about 2,000, and sent them to places like Auschwitz and Mauthausen. They did not return. What remains in Rome are a few identifiably Jewish streets and establishments, attempting to keep the culture alive. 2) It is impossible to carry a straight story line as you walk the streets of Rome. Any given block might contain something of the Republic or Empire, of the Medieval or Renaissance church, or art or architecture, of later eras, or even things of interest from our own time. The Jewish Ghetto walk is like that. So bear with me...
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The day started well...the #71 bus appeared to be waiting for us at the stop across the street...actually, it was waiting for a demonstration march to pass |
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We're approaching the 25th of April, Italy's Day of Liberation; most of the rest of the nations involved regard May 8th as VE Day; in Italy it's different; the American and British armies advanced no further than Florence, and it was left to partisan brigades, mostly communist, like the one celebrated here, to finish Fascism in Italy, Mussolini's and Hitler's, especially in all the great industrial cities of the north |
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And now we're in the Jewish Ghetto; we've seen these memorial
medallions all over western and central Europe... |
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A nice Catholic church at the entrance,
facing the synagogue...just a little reminder...
you can always convert... |
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| Rome's synagogue |
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| Every neighborhood's got its ruins |
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Remains of a great portal associated with the theater of Marcellus,
built in Augustus' reign
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House built into the ruins, would not relinquish
its property rights... |
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| One bit of the remains of the theater of Marcellus |
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One of the specialties of the area is fried
artichokes |
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| Cucina Ebraica |
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| Pigeon feast |
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| Main drag |
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| Many of the structures quite old |
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| "I want that one!" |
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Interesting fountain; legend has it Bernini added the turtles in
respect of the Jews, who traveled with their houses on their backs |
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| Very old charity donation box |
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| Similarly old reliefs |
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| Sunset on the Tiber |
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| St. Peter's in the distance |
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Now in Trastavere, where we had a great pizza
and calzone dinner at Dar Poeta (thanks, Rebecca) |
