The place where our hero, Daniel Deronda, first meets his biological mother. Unlike Leubronn, Genoa is very much real and actually feautures in another famous work of literature - that being the Merchant of Venice, written by Shakespeare many, many years before the author would have even been born. Ironically, given the sympathetic rendering of Jews and Jewishness in the novel, Merchant of Venice is often a bit of a slog for the modern reader because of its casual antisemitism. Actually, the whole of Mirah and Deronda's relationship can be read as almost the exact opposite of Lorenzo's with Jessica - poor jewish girl converts rich 'Christian' man and brings him into her family vs rich jewish girl elopes with poor christian boy and abandons her father.
Located in Italy, the epicenter of the former roman empire, it should come as no surprise that Judaism has a long and varied history here as well. Following the conquest of Israel in 66 BC, a number of jewish migrants travelled to and settled in Rome. While not exactly viewed as equal citizens, much of Roman society was not and the real oppression of jews in the country followed the reign of Constatine and the promotion of a christianized roman state, and the 315 edicts established against them for the supposed murder of Christ.
Timeline of Jewish History in Italy, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/timeline-of-jewish-history-in-italy.