Campo de' Fiori & The Jewish Ghetto

During the 1500s, Campo de' Fiori was the geographic and cultural center of secular Rome, site of dozens of inns. From its center rises a statue of the severe-looking monk Giordano Bruno, whose presence is a reminder that religious heretics were occasionally burned at the stake here. Today, circled by venerable houses, the campo is the site of an open-air food market held Monday through Saturday from early in the morning until around noon (or whenever the food runs out). Take bus no. 30, 40, 62, 64, 70, 87, 116, 492, 571, or 628 to Corso Vittorio Emanuele.

Built from 1514 to 1589, the Palazzo Farnese, on Piazza Farnese, was designed by Sangallo and Michelangelo, among others, and was an astronomically expensive project for the time. Its residents have included members of the Farnese family, plus Pope Paul III, Cardinal Richelieu, and the former Queen Christina of Sweden, who moved to Rome after abdicating. During the 1630s, when the heirs couldn't afford to maintain the palazzo, it became the site of the French Embassy, as it still is (it's closed to the public). For the best view of it, cut west from Via Giulia along any of the narrow streets (we recommend Via Mascherone or Via dei Farnesi).

Palazzo Spada, Capo di Ferro 3 (tel. 06-6861158; www.galleriaborghese.it), built around 1550 for Cardinal Gerolamo Capo di Ferro and later inhabited by the descendants of several other cardinals, was sold to the Italian government in the 1920s. Its richly ornate facade, covered in high-relief stucco decorations in the Mannerist style, is the finest of any building from 16th-century Rome. The State Rooms are closed, but the richly decorated courtyard and a handful of galleries of paintings are open. Admission is 6€; it's open Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30am to 7:30pm. To get there, take bus no. 46, 56, 62, 64, 70, 87, or 492.

Also in this neighborhood stands the Sinagoga Romana (tel. 06-6840061), open only for services. Trying to avoid all resemblance to a Christian church, the building (1874-1904) evokes Babylonian and Persian details. The synagogue was attacked by terrorists in 1982 and since then has been heavily guarded by carabinieri (a division of the Italian army) armed with machine guns.

On the premises of the synagogue is the Museo Ebraico di Roma (Jewish Museum of Rome), first opened in 1959, displaying the works of 17th and 18th century silversmiths, precious textiles from all over Europe, parchments, and marble carvings saved when the ghetto synagogues were demolished. The exhibits trace 2,000 years of the history of the Jews of Rome. Open Sunday to Thursday 10am to 5pm (June 11-Sept 4, 10am-7pm), Friday 9am to 2pm (June 11-Sept 4, 10am-4pm). Admission (includes guided tour) is 7.50€ for adults, 4€ for students, and free for children 10 and under. For more information about the museum, check www.museoebraico.roma.it.

913 Churches, 1 Synagogue: Jews in the capital of Christendom

Nestled midway between the Isola Tiberina and the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, Rome's Jewish ghetto was designated during the administration of Pope Paul IV between 1555 and 1559. At the time, it enclosed several thousand people in a cramped 1-hectare (2 1/2-acre) tract of walled-in, overcrowded real estate that did much to contribute to the oppression of the Jews during the Italian Renaissance.

Jews had played an important part in the life of Rome prior to that time. They migrated to the political center of the known world during the 1st century B.C., and within 200 years, their community had grown to a very noticeable minority. Most of it was based in Trastevere, which for many years was referred to as the Contrada Iudaeorum (Jewish Quarter). By 1309, ordinances were passed that forced Jews to indicate their religious and cultural backgrounds with special garments, and their ability to worship as they wished depended on the indulgence of the pope.

In 1363, additional ordinances were passed that limited Jewish cemeteries to an area adjacent to the Tiber, near the present-day Church of San Francesco a Ripa. During the 1400s, the Jewish population regrouped onto the opposite side of the Tiber, in an area around the square that's known today as Piazza Mattei.

In 1492, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain killed, tortured, forcibly converted, or forced the emigration of thousands of Jews from Spain. Many came to Rome, swelling the ranks of the city. Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503), whose political sympathies lay firmly with the Spanish monarchs, grudgingly admitted the refugees into his city, on condition that each pay a hefty fee in gold. His papal bull defined the borders of the Jewish ghetto within the boundaries of the Sant'Angelo district and later enlarged them to include the muddy, frequently flooded banks of the Tiber. Water levels often reached the third floors of the houses of the poorest families, who were forced, by law and economics, to settle here. Piling humiliation on humiliation, the residents of the nearly uninhabitable riverbanks were forced to pay for the construction of the embankments that prevented the neighborhood from flooding. For centuries, no one could enter or leave the ghetto between sundown and sunrise.

In 1848, the walls that had defined and confined the ghetto were demolished under the auspices of the relatively lenient Pope Leo XII. In 1883, during the surge of nationalism that preceded the unification of Italy, the ghetto was abolished altogether.

Tragically, on October 16, 1943, the segregation of Rome's Jews was reestablished when German Nazi soldiers rounded up most of the Jews from throughout Rome into a re-creation of the medieval ghetto and imposed a ridiculously high ransom on them. Amazingly, this fee -- more than 100 pounds of gold per resident -- was eventually collected. Having made the payment, the Jews were rounded up and deported to the death camps anyway, one of the most horrible episodes of Italy's participation in the war years.

Today the neighborhood, centered on Piazza Mattei and its elegant Renaissance fountain, lacks any coherent architectural unity; it's a colorful hodgepodge of narrow, twisting streets and occasionally derelict buildings. One of the most unusual streets is Via del Portico d'Ottavia, where medieval houses and pavements adjoin kosher food stores and simple trattorie that almost invariably feature carciofi alla Giudea (deep-fried Jerusalem artichokes).

Although it bears the scars and honors of centuries of occupation by Jews, today this is a Jewish neighborhood mostly in name only. Its centerpiece is the synagogue on Via Catalana.