Today was going to be an easy short day.. 20m down the street is a leather shop, the smell of which lured us in. We didn’t want to leave and wish we had more tourist dollars to spend.  Lou scored a great leather hat and lots of other little trinkets. We then had to go back to the motel to drop off the purchases.

Our aim was to head to the Jewish Synagogue however a few wrong turns later we were at the Victor Emmanuel monument which we had planned to visit after the Jewish area. Emmanuel was the man who unified Italy in 1890.  Before this Italy was a number of independent states. It is hard to describe the building but we will try.  It is imposing and spectacular and it is impossible fathom the scale of the building. There is one picture we have included from the balcony of the monument which shows the courtyard and building where Mussolini gave his addresses to the people and the building dead in front with the green balcony was Bonaparte’s Mum’s place.

The Jewish Museum was amazing. The artefacts held there represent the journey these people have taken over the many years. The Jews were part of the Roman community for the last 2000 years, however the Catholic church didn’t like them much.  At one stage they had we told they could only live in one area of Roma was gated and locked every night, could only have one Synogogue and couldn’t do their own occupations and could only be money lenders and sellers of second hand cloths.  Later this was extended to include that the men wore yellow caps and had yellow cloth sewn on their clothes and the women had to wear yellow scarves.  At the time the yellow scarf indicated the profession of women as prostitutes. They have been continually persecuted at every level including only allowed to build in an area that was under the level of the Tiber.  This meant that their homes would be continually flooded unless they built higher than three floors. This type of pressure was put on them with the hope they would convert to Catholism. The guided tour of the Synogogue was interesting including that this is the largest vaulted ceiling and is only 1cm lower than St Peter’s.

We walked home and collapsed for a while before going out to the Opera at a church.  We were conned….. so we decided to walk the streets of Roma and it was an amazing evening discovering more ruins in Roma and ended up at the Colosseum and walked all the way back.  Great Night..