Jewish Ghetto, Venice: synagogue tours at €15, the museum under renovation, closed on Saturdays

💡 The Short Version: The visit is the synagogue tour: €15, plus a €2 advance fee online, run by the Jewish Museum in English every hour from 10:00 (from 9:00 on Fridays). The complex is closed on Saturdays and Jewish holidays. The museum’s permanent exhibition is being renovated, so the tour is the product. Last entry is 17:15 from Sunday to Thursday and 16:15 on Friday. Tours resold elsewhere cost three to six times as much: the synagogue tour with a local guidead is from €49, and the Ghetto walking tourad from €89. Buy from the museum at ghettovenezia.com.

The tickets

The Jewish Museum of Venice runs the synagogue tours and sells tickets at ghettovenezia.com and at its ticket office in Campo del Ghetto Nuovo 2882, in Cannaregio.

• Free: children under 6, disabled visitors and one companion, and ICOM card holders.
• English tours run every hour from 10:00 to 17:00 from Sunday to Thursday, and every hour from 9:00 to 16:00 on Fridays. Italian tours run on the half hour.
• Meeting point: the Ghetto ticket office in Campo del Ghetto Nuovo.
• Private tours are by appointment, every day except Saturday. Two synagogues cost €100 plus the €17 ticket for each person.
• The museum: its permanent exhibition is closed while the renovation is finished, and the museum’s page says the reopening is scheduled for autumn.

Which tour to buy

• Book the museum’s €15 tour. It is run by the museum and costs the least.
• Book a resold tour only for a longer walk. The €49 tour is 1.5 hours with an authorised local guide and two synagogues, and the listing says synagogue tickets are bought at the meeting point. The €89 tour is 2 hours through the Ghetto Nuovo and Ghetto Vecchio, with the synagogue access arranged through the Jewish Museum.
• Check the day. The complex is shut on Saturday, and the Jewish holidays close it too. The museum’s opening-hours page lists them.

Tours worth paying for

A guide gives the history of the streets round the synagogues. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

Synagogue tour with a local guide

From €49 · 1.5 hours · 136 reviews

Venice: Guided Tour of Synagogues with a Local Guidead is run by Hili srl in English. It starts at Campo di Ghetto Nuovo and visits two synagogues with one of the guides authorised for the role. The listing says synagogue tickets are bought at the meeting point, with the guide’s help, and that shoulders and legs must be covered down to the knees. Cancel up to 24 hours ahead for a full refund.

Ghetto walking tour with synagogue visits

From €89 · 2 hours · 409 reviews

Venice: Jewish Ghetto Walking Tour with Synagogue Visitsad is run by Walks In Europe, as a small group or privately. It walks the Ghetto Nuovo and the Ghetto Vecchio, then enters historic synagogues through the Jewish Museum. The listing says the museum is under restoration and closed, that the synagogues visited depend on the season and religious celebrations, and that belly, shoulders and knees must be covered. It is not suitable for wheelchair users. Cancel up to 24 hours ahead for a full refund.

What to see

The Senate decreed on 29 March 1516 that the city’s Jews live together in the Ghetto Nuovo, the first ghetto in Italy, and the English word comes from it. The museum says the name most likely comes from the foundries that once cast cannon on the site. The Levantine Jews were housed in the Ghetto Vecchio from 1541, and the Ghetto Nuovissimo was added in 1633. The enclosure had walls and gates that shut at night until the Republic ended in 1797.

Campo del Ghetto Nuovo. Photo: Marc Ryckaert, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

1. Campo del Ghetto Nuovo. The square with the museum and the ticket office.
2. The Levantine and Spanish synagogues. The tour’s usual pair. The Italian synagogue replaces the Levantine on Fridays.
3. The five synagogues. The German, Canton, Italian, Levantine and Spanish synagogues are the source of the museum’s collections of silver, textiles and rare books, and the three oldest, the German, Canton and Italian, are 16th-century.
4. The Jewish Museum. It opened after the Second World War and is being renovated.

The front of the Levantine Synagogue in the Ghetto Vecchio. Photo: Didier Descouens, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What to skip: the €89 tour, unless you want a two-hour walk.

Hours and getting there

• Hours: Sunday to Thursday, 10:00 to 18:00, last entry 17:15. Friday, 9:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:15. The ticket office shuts 45 minutes before closing.
• Closed: Saturdays, Jewish holidays, 1 January and 25 December.
• Where: Campo del Ghetto Nuovo 2882, Cannaregio.

The area is a good place to eat. Cicchetti and bacari and where to eat in Venice cover the bars and restaurants nearby. Madonna dell’Orto, with Tintoretto’s tomb, is a short walk away: see Venice churches. What to book before you go to Venice has the closed days, and Venice in one or two days puts the Ghetto on a day that is not Saturday. To stay in Cannaregio, see where to stay in Venice.