The church of Sant’Alvise can be found in the north of the Cannaregio quarter, which is a fairly quiet part of Venice. “Alvise” is the Venetian version of “Luigi” or “Ludovico”, and in this case Sant’Alvise is the Franciscan saint Louis of Toulouse (1274-1297). He was said to have appeared…
My first attempt to visit the church of the Holy Apostles in Rome was hardly a raging success. I had not forgotten that the Romans celebrate Epiphany on 6 January, but I had not expected that that meant that the Santi Apostoli would be used for religious services all day…
The San Giovanni in Laterano is the most important Roman Catholic church in the world. It is the seat of the Pope as bishop of the diocese of Rome and is therefore the city’s cathedral. It ranks first among Rome’s four major basilicas[1] and five papal basilicas[2]. But more importantly…
The Piccolominis were a prominent and influential family from Siena. Their influence was not confined to the city itself: two of the family’s most famous members became popes. Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464) was elected Pope Pius II in 1458 and held that position until his death in 1464. His nephew…
It took us at least an hour and a half to get inside the Duomo. Security measures were pretty tight and there was an awfully long queue outside the cathedral. Soldiers in combat fatigues with machine guns were patrolling the streets and guarding the Duomo, one of Milan’s most famous…
An old legend claims that Florence’s beautiful Baptistery of San Giovanni was originally a temple of Mars, the Roman god of war. The Roman emperor Augustus supposedly had it built to celebrate the subjugation of nearby Fiesole (Faesulae in those days) and the early Christians later converted it into a…
This post is about the Brancacci Chapel, a famous chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. Normally, I would write a post about the church and then add a few lines about the chapels. For the Brancacci Chapel, I am going to turn that around. This post…