The Jewish community in Florence is working on a wide-ranging project to promote Jewish heritage in Tuscany — among other things, to encourage at least some of the millions of tourists who visit Tuscany each year to add Jewish heritage sites to their itineraries.
An article on the Italian web site ObiettivoTre summarizes the Toscana Ebraica project, and includes an interview with the IT professional, Giuseppe Burschtein, who is in charge of the digital aspects of it. “Today, tourism is ever evolving,” Burschstein said. “A simple trip is not enough; people want to live an experience.”
Features of the project include carrying out a complete inventory of Jewish heritage sites in Tuscany, creating videos and photo documentation of them that will be uploaded online, and creating tourist itineraries to these places, enhanced with augmented reality information that can be accessed by smartphones and tablets.
In addition, the management of the Synagogue and Jewish Museum in Florence and the Synagogue in Siena were recently professionalized. Both are now being administered by Codess, which also administers the Jewish Museum in Venice.
Other platforms already exist:
— the web site Firenze Ebraica (Jewish Florence) which has some material in English
— Videos (also viewable in 3D) showing Jewish heritage sites in Tuscany. The first shows Florence, Siena and Monte San Savino — the Jewish community’s “Opera del Tempio” section oversees restoration and maintenance of these sites.
The Jewish community in Florence is collaborating in this project with local and regional authorities and tourism boards and is seeking EU and other funding.
1 comment on “Jewish Tuscany — News on New Digital Itineraries Project”
It is great! I feel Jewish people should retrieve their roots and history throughout the world and share with everybody flountly and proudly. I am a Jewish senior citizen living in Rome, where there are tons of track of the Jewish passage through the history to share. If you’re Jew, ask me if you like. (w.p@live.it).
Also, on the internet, there is a Israel’s telephone book in English that you can easily look through and, maybe, retrieve friends and other people related to you (it happenend to a few people, including me). Do check: http://www.israelpb.com and you’re there.