Quoting Goethe.

Eventually, you all will get tired of me posting about churches I've been to, but until then, I'll keep posting about them. And even then I'll keep doing it, because there are a ton of churches in Italy.

Today, in our Art and Architecture History class, Filiberto asked if we would want to take a short drive to see some churches, because there are only four of us in the class. We thought it was offered as an alternative to class, so we enthusiastically said yes, only to find out he meant after our classes were finished for the day. Did I mention it's snowing here? And how much I was looking forward to just crawling in my bed for the entire afternoon/evening? Have the charms of Italy worn off? Absolutely not. But the bitter cold can be a strong deterrent. I felt like an Italian nonna today, walking in my coat, hunched over with a scarf wrapped like a shawl and my hat covering as much skin as possible. But I had said I'd go, and I'm in Italy, so I sucked it up and went. Did I fear for my life as we whipped around the wet, winding streets of Macerata? Yes. It was the first time I've been in a car since my parents dropped my off at the Cincy airport on January 8th, and I felt a little carsick. We hit 140 km/hr on the interstate, which is a scary number to see on a dashboard, even if it's only almost 90 mph. Only.

But I digress. We didn't die on the drive and arrived safe and sound at the Santa Maria A Pié di Chienti (Saint Mary's at the foot of the Chienti River). This church was absolutely phenomenal for one major reason: back in the good ol' days, windows in churches were small because they were afraid open spaces would weaken the walls too much and cause collapse. Additionally, glass was not produced on a large enough scale to cover the windows they did have, so they used thin pieces of alabaster to cover the windows. As a result, how we see the churches, with electric light, is a lot different than how people used to see them. But this church still had the alabaster windows, and we walked around for a bit to see how it would have looked when it was built originally. And goodness, the huge frescoes, barely discernible in the dim lighting, appear so different than how we see them today. First, it's hard to see the details, then they gradually come into focus, and it's like some magical being is coming at you from the ceiling and all the walls. If I were a peasant in those days, I'd would have been terrified of the entire building because of those intimidating and mystical paintings. Today, with electric lighting, the only scary part of the church was the older man (churches here have volunteer caretakers during the day) who politely showed us around the church, then realized we weren't Catholic and tried save our souls -- he told Filiberto to translate "Jesus loves everyone" for us (because he loves everyone but only Catholics are saved).

Filiberto would have me note that this is not the original Romanesque facade, it was renovated in the 1700's and so is actually Neoclassical.

The church was also pretty cool for another reason, Charlemagne is supposed to have been here! Of course, that was over a thousand years ago so who really knows?

We also saw an example of the super secret mark people would put on churches when they offered protection for the Knights Templar. The conspiracies are alive and all around me!! Maybe I'll find some hidden treasure? Though I'd settle for finding a Riley look-a-like...

National Treasure, anyone?

Next, we headed to S. Claudio al Chienti, also a place that is also supposedly connected to Charlemagne. More importantly, this church is where I'll be getting married, if I get married while in Italy (though DePauw and my parents are strongly against it). Wow. The outside was gorgeous. It was really small inside, but the upstairs was a completely separate space for the Lord of the region to have his own private service. Life has always been good for the 1%, I suppose. The only thing upstairs was a creepy bust, and Filiberto showed us how the head detaches (here, messing with a historic artifact like that is no big deal) because it was taken from a Roman statue and reused. Roman artifacts are everywhere. In the walls of churches, used for holding the holy water, sitting in the aisles of churches. Italians are not big on wasting things.

Now... imagine the bridal party on the staircase to the right.... church bells ringing.... yep.

Finally, we had our Cross Cultural Communication class today, and we talked about culture shock. It was pretty interesting (and much more informative than DePauw's "this is what it looks like, but it can also look different" line graph). We talked about the differences between Italian culture and American culture. I've mentioned most of the already, but I just want to run down the basic list of things our class came up with:

1.Voice: Italians speak louder, and use their voices to demonstrate passion much more than Americans do. They also are more focused on who is speaking in a conversation.

2. Body Language: The "personal bubble" is a lot smaller, though people are less likely to talk to someone they don't know, or smile at strangers (unless, as Angelica preciously said, they have a "secondary interest" in getting to know you...), and men are much more comfortable touching each other.

3. Time: Schedules are more relaxed, meals are later and last longer, there are breaks for lunch, social things happen later at night, and you eat your pastries and drink your coffee before you pay at café's (they are confused when we try to pay immediately at café's, and we are confused when they don't have us pay).

4. Space: Narrower streets that don't make a grid (97% of the time, I'm lost), piazzas are the important focal points of the town and places to gather, and there is an emphasis on utilizing all parts of the space. 

5. Clothing: Darker colors, jeans are worn but are not the staple pant like in America, men wear tighter pants, going out clothes are not as glitzy, brands we wear aren't worn here, and people are always dressed presentably when they're in public (no sweatpants!).

And my favorite part of the class was when Angelica put up a quote by Johann Wolfgang Goethe: 

"As you find the Ocean deeper and deeper when you advance on it, similarly you experience with knowledge. It's impossible to understand present without knowing past and it would be necessary more time and more calm to compare one with other." (Translated from Viaggio in Italia, 1786). 

Just.... love.

Disclaimer: Since it was dark and rainy today, these photos are from wikipedia.com, not from my camera. You probably figured that out with the picture of Justin Bartha.