The prosperity of cities has often relied on exclusion, and wall building was frequently inseparable from city building. In Europe, precedent for the divided city of the twentieth century was the Jewish ghetto of sixteenth century—epitomized by those in Venice, Rome, Ferrara, Bologna, and Florence. The proposed Rome Prize project is conceived in three parts: (1) scholarly examination of the historic advantages derived from internal and external partitions in Italy cities; (2) field-based investigation of the physical development of five historic Jewish ghettos in Italy; and (3) exploration of the ghetto prototype’s influence on existing urban segregation other cities, especially Rome with respect to its marginalized Roma community. This proposal uses the historic built environment of five Italian cities as a document with which to interpret and assess public policy in the management of cities with respect to physical segregation of minority ethnic groups.