One Church, Two Church, Red Church, Blue Church

Travel Writing Essay #2 from Italy! 

Enjoy friends and sorry there hasn't been more day to day type blogs...things are SOOO busy here. I post most of the day to day to facebook so feel free to check that one.

One Church, Two Church, Red Church, Blue Church

If Dr. Seuss had said, “Some are red and some are blue. Some are old and some aren’t so new.”  He could’ve been describing the many churches in Italy.  Let me explain. 

Italy you see has more churches than the United States has McDonald’s (relative to size of course).  Not only is there one on almost every corner, there are often multiple ones strung together all within a short walking distance.  According to one internet source, there are more than two thousand churches in Rome, one hundred and forty nine in Venice, and more than fifty in Florence.  I find this vast amount of churches extremely interesting considering the fact that today nearly one fifth of the population profess to be either Atheists or Agnostics, while most of the remaining population claim to a religious affiliation based on tradition but are rarely found practicing or participating in the actual services.  Nevertheless, I figured I owed it to my growth as an individual and new world traveler to see what was so special about all of these buildings (not to mention it’s required for the Study Abroad Program that got me here in the first place).  

I can recall most of the layouts and specific things from the first few churches we visited: Duomo, Santa Croce, and Santa Maria Novella but after the first week and nine churches later things begin to get fuzzy. What I started out hearing as, “This church has many arches from the Byzantine period.” Quickly, became, “This painting looks very similar to the ones in the last nine churches.” But for now let’s only stick to the specifics…

Last week, I was browsing through the Duomo Cathedral located in the heart of Florence.  For me the Duomo was the most memorable of the churches. If you’re willing to hike up the 463 narrow winding steps to the top, you will see a view of Florence well worth the journey. The Baptistery, which happens to be the oldest building in the square, sports beautifully crafted doors on the outside and the inside breathtaking mosaics.  Being my second time through this particular church, I found myself breaking away from my group a little to wander through the mass of other tourists visiting this 1600 year old church. People whispering all around, “Oh, that’s interesting. Did you notice that? Hey honey, look over there. That’s cool.” Tour guides reciting the oh so familiar, “This painting here was done by some artist a long time ago and was dedicated to this place where it has hung for thousands of others to see before you…” Then suddenly a loud booming voice, “SHHHHHHHHHH! (which is apparently the universal sound for shut up) SILENCE. SILENCIO POR FAVORE! SHHHHHHH.” The voice of God maybe? No, only a recording set to play every ten minutes to scare the tourist into keeping their whispering to a minimum.  I couldn’t help but chuckle (silently, of course) to myself as the people roaming the Cathedral immediately stopped talking only to resume their whispering less than ten seconds later.

Today, we visited Masaccio’s painting in the family chapel of Felice Brancacci inside Santa Maria del Carmine. This being my seventeenth church in fourteen days, I was so thankful for our tour guide, Mitzi, who was able to keep my attention by saying, “Masaccio does for painting what Brunelleschi and Donatello do for sculpture.  So basically for all you non-art majors that is like saying this painting today would be like us watching Avatar on acid; very innovative.”  Although, I’ve never personally watched Avatar on acid, this image was enough to spark my interest and made me pay much more attention to the details of this piece of art. 

Being an art major with an art history minor, I can now see why we have spent the majority of our trip “church-hopping”.  The Renaissance is truly represented well here, and thumbnail images out of thick textbooks don’t do the real images justice by any means. However, to the average tourist I wouldn’t recommend the in depth approach my group chose: stick to the most famous two or three and pray you have a funny tour guide.

“From there to here, from here to there, church things everywhere!”  Okay so obviously Dr. Seuss didn’t quite say that, but he could have if he would’ve only visited Italy.