The island is connected to the mainland by two bridges: the Cestio, connecting it with the Trastevere bank, and the Fabricio, or Ponte dei Quattro Capi, which was built in 62 B.C. and is the oldest bridge in Rome which has arrived to us practically intact. From the island it is also possible to see a third bridge, the Ponte Rotto, which collapsed in the late 16th century. In the past the Ponte Fabricio was called Ponte dei Giudei (Bridge of Jews)
because it joined the Isola Tiberina to the area of the Ghetto where Rome's Jews lived.

The term Ghetto is used to indicate the quarter lying between Monte dei Cenci and the Theatre of Marcellus, lying entirely within the Sant'Angelo district. It was founded by Pope Paul IV Carafa in 1555, and abolished only in 1870, with the end of the Church State. It was surrounded by a wall in which there were three gates, opened in the morning and closed at dusk. In an area of approximately three hectares, in the 17th century around 9,000 inhabitants lived there in frightful sanitary conditions. The Ghetto faces onto the Lungotevere Cenci with the monumental building of the Synagogue, built in 1904,
today also the seat of the Israelite Museum of the Jewish Community of Rome.

Behind the Synagogue runs the Via del Portico d'Ottavia, which owes its name to the ruins of the ancient portico built at the end of the 1st century B.C. by the Emperor Augustus for his sister. Inside part of the monument stands the church of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria, so-called in reference to the important fish market held here from the Middle Ages up to the end of the 19th century. The stone tablet used in the market to remind customers of the obligation to give the Municipal Magistrates the heads of any fish whose length was longer than that of the tablet itself is still there.

The church of Sant'Angelo was one of the four churches where Jews had to go every Saturday with the obligation of listening to the sermons aiming to convert them. It was possible to avoid doing so by paying a fine, but more often the Jews preferred to fill their ears with wax! Today the Ghetto is one of the zones of Rome which, more than any other, has kept the physiognomy, aromas, and flavours of the old city: for a taste of the specialities of authentic Roman and Jewish cooking - carciofi alla giudia (crisp-fried whole artichokes), filetti di baccalà (fried fillets of salted cod), coda alla vaccinara (braised oxtail butcher style) - we recommend the trattorias Giggetto, at Via del Portico d'Ottavia 21a/22 (tel. 06-6861105), and Al Pompiere, at Via Santa Maria dei Calderari 38 (06 6868377). Also make a stop at Boccione, Via del Portico d'Ottavia 1, for cakes, pastries, and unleavened bread baked in the best Roman-Jewish tradition.

Discovering Rome: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12