About this walk
This loop of around one and a half kilometres runs through the ghetto of Rome, where the Jewish community has lived for more than two thousand years and where it was locked behind gates from 1555 until 1870. You pass the only street that survived the demolition, a house that dates itself from the founding of Rome, the fish market under an imperial gateway, and the square that carries the date of the raid in its name.
The walk starts and ends on Piazza Mattei. Everything is out on the street apart from the synagogue with the Jewish Museum, which requires a ticket.
The stops
Walk them in order; each story plays when you reach its pin.
- 1Stop 1
The Fountain of the Turtles
Four bronze boys nudge turtles over the rim, on a square beside the oldest Jewish quarter in Europe.
- 2Stop 2
The street that stayed
The only street of the old ghetto that survived the demolitions of the 1880s.
Read the story - 3Stop 3
Five gates, three centuries
In 1555 the Jews of Rome were shut behind gates that only came down in 1870.
Read the story - 4Stop 4
The house that dated itself
A house from 1468 that dates itself from the founding of Rome: the year 2221.
Read the story - 5Stop 5
The fish market under the gate
For centuries the fish market stood under this imperial gate, and a rule about fish heads is still carved into the stone.
Read the story - 6Stop 6
The dome that's square
A synagogue that deliberately stands out, with a square dome and the Jewish Museum inside.
Read the story - 7Stop 7
16 October 1943
The morning the neighbourhood was surrounded, and the brass stones that have lain in the pavement ever since.
Read the story - 8Stop 8
The theatre that became a palace
A theatre built by the emperor Augustus that turned into a fortress, then a palace, and today holds apartments.
Read the story
Ready when you are
Walk The ghetto with ROODS.
8 stops through Rome. Open ROODS in your browser, walk to the first pin and the story plays.
- Stories on a map, with narrated audio
- Walk at your own pace, stop where you like
- Runs in your browser. An app is optional.
