Danie's Italy: Little Easter

Ciao
We spent "little Easter" exploring Rome with Pier. He took us to San Luigi dei Francesi and Santa Maria in Trastevere, two churches that are each famous for different reasons ( ha ha right about now you are thinking what are those 2 reasons.?!?!?!??!?. ) San Luigi is most famous for it's paintings in the Contarelli Chapel. These paintings were done by the artist Caravaggio in 1599-1600 ( long time ago right?!?!?!?!? ) They are all of Saint Matthew: "The calling of St. Matthew", "The Inspiration of St. Matthew" and "The Martyrdom of St. Matthew". These paintings are pretty cool but the interesting thing about them isn't the topic, which is St. Matthew, who the church is dedicated to, but Caravaggio. He was a womanizer and known murderer but the powers that be looked the other way because he was a great artist. ( interesting right?????? ) Needless to say he got away with alot! The second church we went to was Santa Maria in Trastevere, which I just found out almost ceased to be a church. In around 230AD Emperor Septimus Severus decided to give the church back to those that honored God over some tavern owners. Can you Imagine what would have happened to the church if it turned into a bar? Anyway, it is one of the oldest churches in Rome, probably built around 220AD. It was built to honor the Mother of God by Pope St. Calllixtus 1. The reason it is so famous is because most of the artwork isn't painted but is actually Mosaic Tile, how cool is that? I guess anybody could paint a ceiling but to actually create an image using colored tile? Amazing! Anyway, that was your history lesson for today, now for the fun part. When we went to the first church ( San Luigi dei Francesi ) it was amazing,the church had gold leaf every where you looked. This next fact is going to blow your mind......... (this place was humongous!) It was built by a family to show how rich they were! ( " were " as in they probably spent all their money on the church. =] ) The next church, Santa Maria, was cool!!!!!! When you first looked at "the paintings " they sparkled and then when you looked closer, you could see HUNDREDS of little tiles instead of paint. Santa maria church also had domes, most churches in Rome do, and if looked realllllllly closely you saw that the domes had a holes in them. When I asked about it, Pier said that they probably hung candles in the domes at one point but now we have lights so....no more candles
anyway I got to go! =[
Caio