ROME (EJP)---From 8 to 10 December, the tiny town of Pitigliano, in southern Tuscany, hosts the 10th edition of Italy’s most important Jewish Film Festival, the PitiFest.

For several hundred years Pitigliano, located at the border between the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal States, was home to a small yet thriving and long-lasting Jewish settlement, mainly made up of people fleeing recurrent papal persecutions in Rome.

This is why ten years ago Pitigliano, also known as "the small Jerusalem" for its important Jewish past, was chosen as the setting for the festival: film and documentary screenings, book presentations, exhibitions, concerts, and guided gourmet events focusing on kosher products will animate the splendorous alleys of the Medieval town.

"The aim of the festival is to divulgate the history, the traditions, and the art of the multifaceted aspects of the rich culture of the Jewish people,” Michela Scomazzon Galdi, the festival’s founder and director, told EJP.

This year’s theme features a journey towards discovering the Jewish culture through different means of artistic expression, including film, photography, music, dance, and video.

The film section will explore the ’search for roots’ theme, with a special screening of "Everything is illuminated,” based on the renowned and very poetic novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, in which the young protagonist from New York travels to the Ukraine to look for his origins.

Another section, called ’not to forget’, is dedicated to the importance of remembering, of telling the stories and the history of the Jewish people. The “window on Israel” section will be presenting many installations, proof of the existence of a lively art scene in Israel.

Guided tours through the old ghetto are not to be missed.

Even though there are virtually no Jews left in town, the synagogue, built in 1598, with furnishings of the 17th and 18th centuries, is still officiated every now and then thanks to the visits of Jews coming primarily from the nearest congregations, such as Livorno, in northern Tuscany, and Rome.

The synagogue was restored in 1995. The former ghetto area also hosts the remains of a mikveh (a special pool designed for ritual immersion), the suggestive Matzo oven, a kosher butcher, a kosher wine cellar and dye-works.

As far as the Pitifest gourmet events are concerned, visitors will sample the local flavours resulting from the combination of Maremma – the area partly coincident with the province of Grosseto - cuisine and Jewish food.

For more information on the festival, check: www.pitifest.it.