Churches, churches, and more churches

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  Rome, Italy
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Let me begin by saying that Rome has AWESOME thunderstorms!!  In the last week we have had two that blow away any I have ever experienced before.  Last night Jaime had a couple friends who were vacationing in Rome so we went to dinner with them.  After dinner, we walked around a bit and it was warm with fairly clear skies.  We stopped at a bar and were sitting outside under umbrellas when we saw a flash of lightning followed by a HUGE thunder boom.  I knew we were in trouble because of the amount of rain that I saw fall during the previous storm.  The rain started out slowly but with enormous drops hitting the cobblestones.  Then more spectacular lightning and thunder so loud people were beginning to cheer.  And oh boy, when the rain came, it was literally like the sky was falling.  Buckets and buckets of rain poured down.  Oddly enough, we were almost completely protected under the umbrella, but the pour souls one table away were in a low spot on the ground, and as they stood on the umbrella platform, the water began to rise around them.  They were literally ankle deep in water!  We watched and waited for the storm to pass, knowing it wouldn't be long.  When the rain subsided, we rolled up our pants and ran home.  Yes, I ran home in high heeled boots - yay for me!  I then felt less guilty that I hadn't gotten up early that morning to go for a real run!

So, on to the churches.  Our history tour today was all churches.  What can I say other than my feet hurt and I was bored to tears.  Don't get me wrong here...I am actually slightly ashamed to say that it bores me to tears but as I've said previously, I am also accepting of it.  Our Cornell professor, who is literally amazing, led this tour. This man seems to know everything there is to know about architecture and art history in Rome.  This is no exaggeration.  He is a wonderful speaker and so it pains me slightly that I can barely conjure up some curiosity.

I have also previously written of my weird church experience, so needless to say I was a little hesitant about spending an entire day in churches.  What I found fascinating is that there are certain triggers in these buildings that make me feel sick.  One is the excessive decoration and ornamentation.  One of the churches we visited, the Gesu, was so lavishly covered on every surface that it literally made me nauseous to look at.  The barrel vaulted ceiling is covered in frescoes that have some disorienting qualities to them as well, and I was unable to look at them without feeling sick.  I could only stare at the floor or I felt like I wanted to puke.  The second trigger seems to make more sense to me (knowing myself like I do).  When I enter a church that actually has some type of ceremony or typical church use happening, I get very uncomfortable.  It is difficult to simply look at it as a building when there are people in confessional booths right in front of me.  I don't know why exactly this freaks me out; I only know that I don't like it.  Looking forward to more church tours Friday, yippee!

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