Pitigliano is a town located about 80 km south-east of Grosseto. The quaint old town is known as the little Jerusalem, for the historical presence of a Jewish community has always been well integrated into the social context that here had their own synagogue.

Pitigliano and its area were inhabited in Etruscan times, but the first extant written mention of Pitigliano dates only to 1061. In the early 13th century it belonged to the Aldobrandeschi family, and by the middle of the century it had become the capital of the surrounding county.

For several hundred years Pitigliano was a frontier town between the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and, to the south, the Papal States. For this reason, the town was home to a flourishing and long-lived Jewish community, mostly made up by people fleeing from Rome during the Counterreformation persecutions.

Map: Pitigliano
Map: Pitigliano