On Thursday we went to visit the Jewish Ghetto and two Jewish Synagogues.  Before we went to see the synagogues we went to see the home of Octavia, the sister of a Roman Emperor from over 1700 years ago.  Sadly, it was covered in scaffolding and we could not see a lot.  Plus since it was so old and quiet, I couldn’t get any pictures of the inside.  Down the street from Octavia’s home was a theater that looked like a much smaller version of the Coliseum.  I thought it was pretty fascinating that people were able to live on top of the thousand year old building.

The Jewish Ghetto did not leave much of an impression on me.  It looked like all the other parts of Italy, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between the cities if we hadn’t passed through a gate to prevent driving.

The first synagogue we went to was the Spanish Synagogue that was underground and very small.  It had some parts of the original five synagogues of Italy in it.  The second synagogue we went to was the Great Synagogue.  This one truly deserved the name Great.  It was magnificent and huge.  Everything was colorful and filled with rich minerals and beauty.  I could clearly see why it wasn’t destroyed during the Holocaust even though Italy was an Axis.  It was positively stunning.  I was extremely happy when our tour guide told us we were allowed to take pictures because my instructors told us that in previous years they weren’t allowed to.