Stumbling Stone Jewish Tour

Florence, its Jewish History and its Synagogue

We will explore Florence and its iconic monuments with a private guided walking tour focusing on Florentine Jewish history.

It’s an immersive experience discovering the sites connected to the presence of the Jewish community of Florence and the stumbling stones as permanent memorial to Florence’s Holocaust victims.

Stumbling Stones as Permanent Memorials

They are square-shaped plaque made of bronze, laid on cobblestones on city streets, right in front of the victimes’ homes, engraved with the victimes’ full name, birth date, when they were captured and death.

As the Talmud says, “a person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten“. A way to resist, a way not to cancel history.

Artist Gunter Demnig first created them in 1992 in Cologne as a new vision of urban remembrance. He installed the first in Berlin four years later. He has now laid over more than 70.000 small stones, personally taking care of the installation of each single piece.

Republic Square and the Former Jewish Ghetto

The tour combines Florence highlights such as Repubblic Square where the ancient Jewish ghetto used to be, Signoria Square , medieval Florence, Duomo Square with the fabolous Ghiberti’s Paradise Door, to anedoctes about Jewish families and the role they had in Florence and Tuscany in the past centuries.

Get to know about the powerful Medici and the relations they had with cultivated Jews who travelled for them, looking for extraordinary antiques or just being very closed to them as teachers, businnessmen and bankers.

The New Synagogue of Florence and the Jewish Neighborhood

The perfect end for the Jewish private tour is the visit to the stunning synagogue of Florence, an unexpected eclectic Moorish style building, combining local taste and materials with middle-eastern architecture.

David Levi, a wealthy bachelor with no direct heirs left his patrimony for building the New Synagogue. Inaugurated in 1882, it changed Florence skyline with its unmistakable green dome, re-affirming the existence of a lively Jewish Florence life.

The elegant Florentine Jewish neighborhood, once considered to be dangerous and suburban, is now absolutely worth a visit. It’s a way to savour the unconventional atmosphere of jewish and typical local restaurants, coffee shops, workshops and flea markets in one of the most animated areas of Florence.

FOCUS ON

• Synagogue and Jewish Neighborhood
• Stumbling Stones
• Florentine and Moorish Architecture
• Florence Highlights: Duomo Square, Republic Square, Medieval Florence
• The Medici and the Jews