Wednesday, March 28, 2012

There are a lot of churches in Italy!



We spent a lot of time visiting old churches: there an awful lot of churches in Italy! The first is the one in Santa Albana Stura, which is where Younger Son will marry FiancĂ©e. The village is only small and it has another two churches only slightly smaller than this. I loved this one and its paved area outside. I can imagine it full of excited and happy Italians (and Welsh - oh, and English) come September. 

It reminded me of the television serial of the book about a French village and the decision to erect a public urinal in the main square. I told Husband this; he agreed but also couldn't remember the name of the book. Every car journey and empty-brained moment I had after that I struggled to scrape the name from the depths of my memory. It wasn't until we were passing Swindon on the M4 on the way home yesterday that I suddenly declared, 'Clochemerle!'

Don't you hate it when that happens?

This little village church is the Sanctuary of Vicoforte. It took 300 years to build and has one of the largest elliptical domes in the world. It also must have one of the most ornate interiors.
And it's only a tiny little village!

As you can see from the photos we visited Italy at a quiet time. The area isn't particularly tourist-orientated although plenty of skiers pass through in the winter and the region just to the east is famous for black and white truffles and Barolo and Barbaresco wine. In September, about the time of the wedding, the region really comes alive when there is a cheese and wine and truffle fair.

4 comments:

Leslie: said...

Such a lot of exciting times for you all right now. I loved Italy but did not get that far north. Would love to go back and see that area, too.

CherryPie said...

It looks like you have been having a great time :-)

Furtheron said...

Whilst not a Christian I love churches - I love the fact our one in our village (town now) has been around nearly 700 years. That continuity in one place the devotion to all that has a deep meaning to me

Liz Hinds said...

One day, leslie.

we were, cherrypie.

And the churches were open and so peaceful - and cool - furtheron. Admittedly the gold-laden altars did have big signs saying they were alarmed!