The cenotaph of Michelangelo

Inside the Palace of Santi Apostoli, very close by Piazza Venezia, there is the cenotaph of Michelangelo. A cenotaph is a monument which recalls a person buried in another place. It seems that when Michelangelo died, his body was supposed to be buried in one of the cloisters of this palace. But since the great artist made very clear that he wanted to be buried in Florence, the city who loved the most and where he grew up, his nephew, Leonardo Buonarroti, took the corpse of his uncle and sent him to Florence as if he was a bag! The body arrived in Florence the 11th of March 1564. Michelangelo, after his last very adventurous trip, was finally buried in the basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, where he still is today.

Sant'Angelo in the "fish market"

Inside the ghetto there is a church built inside the ruins of what is called the Portico d'Ottavia. This church is actually known with the name of "in Pescheria" (pescheria is a fish market) because of its proximity to the ancient fish market of that area, which today doesn't existing anymore. It seems that every saturday the Jesuits, who were the responsible people for that church, obliged the jewish people living in that area to go and listen to the sermon in the attempt to convert them to catholicism. The jewish people though, to avoid any temptation to be converted, were used to cover their ears with a tampon!