Jewish Heritage Tour with Kosher Food Tasting

It's believed that Jews lived in town since the 13th Century, but the first official documentation attesting to their presence in Florence dates to 1437, when the Republic called upon a group of resident Jews to restructure their "banchi" (banks) in order to take over the indispensable function of lending money, thereby saving Christian bankers—and their souls—from the damning sin of usury. Your journey begins with the most exquisite artistic evidence of the complex relationship existing between the Jewish and Christian cultures: Lorenzo Ghiberti's "Porta del Paradiso", illustrating the most famous chapters of the Tanach in its ten carved panels. We'll proceed to the Piazza della Repubblica, the former site of Florence's Jewish Ghetto. We'll move on to the crowning glory of the city's Jewish community: the Grand Synagogue, hailed as one of the most beautiful in Europe, and its splendid Museum of Hebraic Art & Culture. Your tour ends with a delicious kosher food tasting at Ruth's Kosher Jewish Restaurant.