Adventures in Jewish Italy

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Adventures in Jewish Italy

Adventures in Jewish Italy & Adventures in Italy design hand-crafted and luxury travel experiences throughout Italy.

23/12/2024

We wish everyone Happy Channukah and we hope in the miracle of the return of all hostages home soon!

22/12/2024

We wish our Christian friends, colleagues & clients: Merry Christmas!

19/12/2024

Amazing afternoon at Pilotta Palace! Do you know that Parma has one of the most important Jewish manuscript collections in the world? The De Rossi Collection includes also printed works from the Library of the Abbot Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi (1742-1831) who taught oriental languages in the theological faculty of the University of Parma from 1769 to 1821.

The collection, purchased in 1816 by Maria Luigia of Austria as a gift to the Royal Library of Parma, is made up of 1,432 codices from the 11th to the 16th centuries, many of which are splendidly illuminated, and 1,464 printed volumes, whose publication date is between the 15th and 18th centuries; to these are added 10 Greek manuscripts, 85 Latin ones, 31 in the vernacular and several in various other languages.

The Fund, which stands out for the antiquity and quality of its texts as well as for the preciousness of its miniatures, houses, in addition to the Bibles, numerous Psalters, philosophical, legal and Kabbalistic texts, testimony to the intellectual and spiritual wealth of the Jewish groups of the Diaspora and their many cultural activities.

19/12/2024

Archeological Museum at Pilotta Palace in Parma.

19/12/2024

Regio Theater in Parma 😍

19/12/2024

Duomo di Parma & Battistero. Building of the Cathedral began in 1074 under Bishop-Count Guibodo, following the terrible fire that destroyed the previous early Christian basilica.
Since then it has always been a symbol of the lively religious tradition of the city, but also a monumental work of art, which through the centuries has been enriched with priceless treasures. Here the essential nature of Romanesque sculpture coexists with the sumptuousness of Renaissance painting, creating one of the most fascinating places of worship in the Emilia region. The Baptisery was designed by Benedetto Antelami, and built between 1196 and 1216. The Baptistery of Parma is one of the most important monuments of the transition from Romanesque to early Gothic architecture.

19/12/2024

Parma again and again

18/12/2024

In love with Terre del Ducato di Parma 🩷

18/12/2024

Stunning

18/12/2024

Enchanting today! Very intriguing the museum of culatello even for people who can’t eat it!

18/12/2024

Parmesan Cheese Experience!

17/12/2024

The synagogue building of Bologna was bombed in 1943, rebuilt after the war and completed in 1954.

Jews had been allowed to return to the city with Napoleon’s conquest. For several years, they used small oratories, mostly in private residences. When the opportunity arose, the community bought the building in Via Gombruti 19 (number 9 according to the current numbering) and appointed engineer Guido Lisi to build a synagogue, that was inaugurated in 1877.

In the early 20th century, the community decided to further expand and enrich the temple, and appointed the renowned architect Attilio Muggia. He designed a hall with a similar layout to the previous one, with a ceiling with cloister vault with a skylight, and with Art Nouveau-style decorations on the walls. The new temple was inaugurated in 1928.

Attilio Muggia’s son, engineer Guido Muggia carried out the post war reconstruction redeveloping the pre-existing building’s characteristics in a modern version.

The main façade and entrance face Via Finzi. The hall is covered by a large barrel vaulted ceiling; running the length on either side there are two ambulatories of the ground floor and the loggias of the women’s gallery on the upper level. Originally, the tevah was placed within the balustrade of the aron and the benches were aligned in parallel rows facing it. Today, the tevah has been relocated to the wall opposite the aron and the benches are positioned looking to the central space.

17/12/2024

In 2017 the Beth Yedidiah, a new synagogue hall dedicated to Renzo Yedidiah Soliani was inaugurated in the complex. Soliani had been both the president of the Community of Bologna and a cantor of the Synagogue. Built in the foundations of the main temple, the new space is an excellence in the Italian synagogue architectural and artistic landscape. The hall is covered by evocative ribbed brick vaults. Beneath the glass floor, you can admire the remains of a Roman house or domus (1st-2nd century) discovered during the restoration of the Community building.

16/12/2024

Enchanting Apennines of Emilia

16/12/2024

Authentic, beautiful and noble farmhouse above Parma 🩷

16/12/2024

While some 14th century sources refer to it indirectly, the Jewish community in Parma was only able to develop in two distinct periods: that spanning the 15th and 16th centuries, and the years following the turn of the 19th century. Indeed, the Papal Bull of 1555, which established ghettoes and limitations for the Jews in the papal territories, had led to the expulsion of the Jewish populations of Parma and Piacenza, cities which a few years previously had become feuds of the Catholic church. Duke Ottavio Farnese had, however, permitted them to open loan banks in sixteen towns in the surrounding rural areas (later reduced to seven towns), where small Jewish communities had continued to live uninterrupted. It was only in the 1800s, when the duchy was annexed to Napoleonic France, that a Jewish community could once again settle in Parma.
The existing synagogue was built in 1866 within the community’s building, purchased in 1822 and left bare of any exterior identifying features. The hall, on the uppermost floor, has an oblong shape, interspersed with pilasters clad in marbled stucco. It features the typical layout of the period, inspired by Catholic churches: opposite the entrance sits the 18th century aron, originally from the synagogue of Colorno; in front of it is the tevah, made at the same time as the synagogue was designed, as were all the other furnishings. The central space is entirely occupied by benches for the public, arranged in parallel rows. Above the entrance, the hall is enclosed by the women’s gallery. A plaque on the parapet commemorates the synagogue’s inauguration.

16/12/2024

Following their expulsion from Parma and Piacenza, Duke Ottavio Farnese granted the Jews permission to settle and open loan banks in various small towns in the surrounding countryside. A Jewish community then remained in Soragna uninterrupted, living in generally calm conditions under the rule of the Meli Lupi marquises. In 1584, they granted the Jews to purchase land for a cemetery and the building in which the synagogue is still situated. However, the building’s current appearance is mainly due to major renovation work carried out in 1855. The prayer hall is on the first floor: a large, neoclassical-style room, its walls interspersed with trabeated pilasters, with a frescoed vaulted ceiling by Giuseppe Levi, a Jewish painter from Busseto. Like many synagogues of its time, it emulates the layout of Catholic churches: the tevah is placed in front of the aron, and the public seating, in rows facing it, fill the central space.

In the late 1970s Fausto Levi, the President of the Jewish Community of Parma, decided to collect via the synagogue documents and mementoes of the small communities which had died out, those which previously lived in the countryside around Parma and Piacenza. This led to an invaluable permanent exhibition which is both illustrative and educational. It covers various themes: from the Jewish settlements in the region and in Italy as a whole, to Jewish daily life and feast days. One room explores the years of racial persecution during the Shoah. Displayed alongside the explanatory panels are objects belonging to Simone Samuel Spritzman, a survivor of the deportations; he took notes about all the people he met during his imprisonment. The museum also commemorates all of the region’s synagogues, with their original furnishings on display; in addition, the exhibition contains prayer and study texts, and the Scrolls of the Law, with fine fabric and silver adornments. The collection of ketuboth displayed in the women’s gallery is of particular interest.

15/12/2024

Exploring one of the oldest balsamic vinegar producers in Modena.

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