GL 350 Blog 3

Walking the streets of Rome, Florence, and Venice has been completely different from walking the streets of Ohio. Rome has much more history behind it than area in America. Because of this, there are buildings throughout Rome that have some sort of significance, even if they are not well-known at all. The architecture is special in Rome. All the buildings are huge when you think about how old they are, and how they have been able to stay standing for so long.
This especially holds true for the churches throughout Rome, Florence, and Venice. Around just about every corner there is another church. Almost all of them are absolutely stunning to look at on the outside. When they are not stunning on the outside then they are on the inside. When you look at all of these churches like San Pietro in Vaticano, San Giovanni di Laterano, Santa Maria del Fiore, San Clemente, and San Marco Basilica in Venice, you cannot help but stare in awe (both on the inside and the outside). We were able to have mass inside Santa Maria, or the "Dome of Florence" and it was an unbelievable experience. We were talking in class about how even if you are not Catholic or even Christian you cannot help but feel moved during the mass because of the beauty of it. We couldn't even follow the language (because it was in Latin) and we all still felt that it was one of the best experiences of the trip so far. That is saying a lot.
Along with this, many of the churches have significant pieces of history. an Giovanni has both a piece of the Last Supper Table and a relic of Saint Peter's communion table. All of the churches in Rome are home to the graves of countless Popes, and other figures. Even the Holy Steps (Scala Santa) are said to be the steps that Jesus Christ walked up to meet Pontius Pilate, and were transported from Jerusalem by Saint Helena. Because of all of this, I think that the past bolsters or improves faith. There is just so much to see here and every where you go there is another church. So, when you walk by a church you find yourself saying, "I wonder what is in that church" or, "Man, I really want to go in there to see what it is like". These are not things you would tell yourself, normally, when you walk by a church back home in Ohio. The history of Rome has made me wonder more than I ever have about each and every Saint, and all of the relics that reside in the churches.
In the book, The Smiles of Rome, one of the stories we read was by the author Margaret Visser. She describes the church as being similar to the theater. She ays that people go to both to be moved by a performance. "The closest relative of a church is a theatre, where people also come together to witness a scripted performance. There is a stage in a church, and seats for the audience; in both theatre and church, people come in order to live through a trajectory of the soul." (Visser, pg. 93). I agree with this statement to a certain extent. In the theater, there is no crowd participation like there is in church. Sure people clap at the end, but that doesn't quite count. In church, people follow in both song and prayer, accept the body and blood of Christ and give each other a sign of peace. None of this happens in the theater. This is a special thing when you can do all of these things even when you are listening to a mass in a different language but you can still follow along with everything that is happening, and doing this in a church like Santa Maria del Fiore makes it all the more special.
Overall, I think that the history of Venice, Florence, and especially Rome, has bolstered my faith. Seeing all of the colossal churches, and what they have inside, has made me wonder more and more about what all of the other churches have to offer in terms of the relics. With things like a piece of the Last Supper table, the graves of all of the Popes, a relic of Saint Peter's communion table, and much much more, it is hard to not have your faith improved, in my opinion. The sheer size of some of the churches is enough to bring you to your knees. In the book The Italians, Barzini says this about San Pietro in Vaticano; "One begins to understand, at a certain point, that it is not only a great basilica, a place of worship, the seat of the Holy Roman Church, but also a dramatic representation of all this." (Barzini, pg. 88).