ROME -- In light of the 500th anniversary of the construction of the Jewish ghetto in Venice, a range of events and cultural initiatives will be taking place in the city this year. On Monday a presentation of projects, designed by the Venetian Hotel Association (AVA) to promote these events, took place in Rome, showcasing 350 different structures to be accommodated in Venice and on the mainland by the Venice Jewish Community.

 The celebrations mark 500 years since the city's Senate, on March 29 1516, issued a decree that almost 700 Italian and German Jews relocate to an isolated area of the city, which became the first 'ghetto' in history. Funds have been raised by the Venice Jewish Community to restore the glass windows and main door of the Scola Spagnola, the most impressive of the city's synagogues.

 Among the projects presented for the celebrations were the promotion of traditional Jewish cooking, the production of tourist maps showing the main sites in the history of the Jewish community and of the ghetto, and a variety of 'packages' available to buy including accommodation, museum visits, meals and even a Jewish cooking class.

 "The packages designed by the Venetian Hotel Association offer the possibility of living the Venice ghetto in all its various aspects: from its history to its cooking, from its religion to its stories, from its art to its traditions," said Lorenza Lain, councillor of the AVA's five star hotels. "The half millennium of the Venice ghetto is not just a memory and a celebration of an important historical place in a unique city, it represents a tangible, concrete and real symbol of history."   ft