Then make sure to check out the pages over at JewishGen.org where they offer a wide variety of interesting page and resources which cover topics such as History of Jews, Surnames and Heraldry.

From the Short History of Italian Jews written by Nardo Bonomi page:

Italian Jews adopted family names since the 11th century, usually, they either translated their Hebrew names or adopted the name of their place of origin : that’s why family names are a good resource for genealogy. – Nardo Bonomi