Church sights in Italy
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Grottaferrata Abbey
Another trip that requires you to have your own transport is Grottaferrata, where there’s a 15th-century abbey, founded in 1004. The church interior resembles an incense-perfumed jewellery box, and Mass is particularly atmospheric. The congregation of Greek monks wear distinctive flat-topped black caps.
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Basilica di Sant’Antonino
Named after the patron saint of Sorrento, the oldest church in town dates from the 11th century. A few Roman artefacts have ended up here, as well as some dark medieval paintings and the oddity of two whale ribs. Apparently, the much-loved saint performed numerous miracles, including one in which he rescued a child from a whale’s stomach. The saint’s bones lie beneath the baroque interior in an 18th-century crypt.
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Chiesa di San Domenico Maggiore
Completed in 1324 on the orders of Charles I of Anjou, this was the royal church of the Angevins. Of the few 14th-century remnants surviving this church's countless makeovers, the frescoes by Pietro Cavallini in the Cappella Brancaccio take the cake. The sacristy is equally noteworthy, featuring a beautiful ceiling fresco by Francesco Solimena and 45 coffins of Aragon princes and other nobles.
In the Cappellone del Crocifisso, the 13th-century Crocifisso tra La Vergine e San Giovanni is said to have spoken to St Thomas Aquinas, asking him: 'Bene scripsisti di me, Thoma; quam recipies a me pro tu labore mercedem?' (You've written good things about me, Thomas, what will you…
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Chiesa San Leonardo
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Complesso Museale di Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco
Consecrated in 1638, the engrossing chiesa delle cape di morte (the church of the skulls) sits on two levels. While the upper church boasts fine paintings – nominally Luca Giordano's The Death of St Alessio and Massimo Stanzione's Madonna with the Souls of Purgatory – the lower church is most famous as a hotspot for the worship of the anime pezzentelle (poor souls).
Between the 17th and early 19th centuries, the large, nameless grave at the centre of the floor received the remains of countless locals who could not afford to be buried in the church. Heaving with anonymous bones, the hypogeum became an epicentre for the cult of the anime pezzentelle, in which followers…
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Santa Margherita Vecchia
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Santa Maria della Pietà
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Chiesa di Santa Trìnita
Heading towards the Ponte Santa Trìnita, built over the Arno in 1567 and painstakingly restored after being blown up by the Nazis in 1944, you pass this 14th-century church. Built in Gothic style and later given a Mannerist facade of indifferent taste, it shelters some of the best frescoes in the city. The church interior has little natural light, so you'll need to spring for a few coins to illuminate the chapels.
Don't miss Lorenzo Monaco's Annunciation (1422) in the Cappella Salimbenes/Bartholini, badly damaged by the 1966 flood but subsequently restored. During the restoration process, another fresco was found underneath, and this was removed and placed in the chapel…
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Cappella Bacci
Gracing the apse of the 14th-century Chiesa di San Francesco is one of the greatest works of Italian art, Piero della Francesca's fresco cycle of the Legend of the True Cross. Painted between 1452 and 1466, it relates in 10 episodes the story of the cross on which Christ was crucified. It was named in honour of the wealthy family that commissioned it.
The illustration of this medieval legend, as entertaining as it is inconceivable, begins in the top right-hand corner and follows the story of the tree that Seth plants on the grave of his father, Adam, and from which, eventually, the True Cross is made. A scene on the opposite wall shows the long-lost cross being…
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Piazza del Duomo & Around
Pictures don't do justice to the exterior of Florence's Gothic Duomo. While they reproduce the startling colours of the tiered red, green and white marble facade and the beautiful symmetry of the dome, they fail to give any sense of its monumental size. Officially known as the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, its construction begun in 1294 by Sienese architect Arnolfo di Cambio, but it wasn't consecrated until 1436. Its most famous feature, the enormous octagonal Cupola (dome) was built by Brunelleschi after his design won a public competition in 1420. The interior is decorated with frescos by Vasari and Zuccari, and the stained-glass windows are by Donatello, Paolo…
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Cattedrale di San Martino
Lucca's predominantly Romanesque cathedral dates to the start of the 11th century. Its stunning facade was constructed in the prevailing Lucca-Pisan style and designed to accommodate the pre-existing campanile. The reliefs over the left doorway of the portico are believed to be by Nicola Pisano.
The cathedral interior was rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries with a Gothic flourish. The Volto Santo (literally, Holy Countenance) is not to be missed. Legend has it that this simply fashioned image of a dark-skinned, life-sized Christ on a wooden crucifix was carved by Nicodemus, who witnessed the crucifixion. In fact, the Volto Santo has recently been dated to the 13th…
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Chiesa di San Domenico
St Catherine was welcomed into the Dominican fold within this imposing church, and its Cappella di Santa Caterina is adorned with frescoes by Il Sodoma depicting events in her life. Catherine died in Rome, where most of her body is preserved, but her head was returned to Siena (it's in a 15th-century tabernacle above the altar in the cappella), as was her desiccated thumb (in a small window box to the right of the chapel). Next to the thumb is a nasty-looking chain that the saint flagellated herself with.
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Chiesa di San Giovenale
North of Corso Cavour, the 12th-century Romanesque-Gothic Palazzo del Popolo presides over the piazza of the same name. At the western end of town is this stout little church, constructed in the year 1000. Its Romanesque-Gothic art and frescoes from the later medieval Orvieto school are an astounding contrast. Just to the north, you can enjoy towering views of the countryside from the town walls.
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Chiesa di Sant'Agostino
This late-13th-century church at the northern end of town is best known for Benozzo Gozzoli's charming fresco cycle illustrating the life of St Augustine. Gozzoli also painted the highly unusual fresco of San Sebastian on the north wall, which shows the fully clothed saint protecting the citizens of San Gimignano, helped by a bare-breasted Virgin Mary and semi-robed Jesus (it alluded to the saint's supposed intervention to protect citizens during the 1464 plague). On Sundays at 11am, an English-language mass is celebrated in the cloister.
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Chiesa di San Francesco d’Assisi a Ripa
The 17th-century church of St Francis contains the impressive 18th-century Rospigliosi and Pallavici sculptural monuments, but the overriding reason to visit is to gasp at one of Bernini’s most daring works, in the Paluzzi-Albertoni chapel. The Beata Ludovica Albertoni (Blessed Ludovica Albertoni; 1674) is a work of highly charged sexual ambiguity showing Ludovica, a Franciscan nun, in a state of rapture as she reclines, eyes shut, mouth open, one hand touching her breast.
St Francis of Assisi is said to have stayed on this spot for a period in the 13th century and you can still see the rock that he used as a pillow and his crucifix, in his cell – the church was later…
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Chiesa di San Domenico
A short detour from the duomo, this church has an unusual, asymmetrical facade and an austere interior dominated by a haunting Crucifixion over the main altar, one of Cimabue's earliest works. Note, too, the well-preserved fresco of Saint Philip and Saint Jacob and the Story of their Lives by Spinello Aretino (1350–1410) on the inside of the facade. You'll need a €1 coin to illuminate the Cimabue.
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Chiesa di Madre di Buon Consiglio
Chiesa di Madre di Buon Consiglio is a snack-sized replica of St Peter’s in Rome completed in 1960.
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Chiesa di Sant'Andrea
This 12th-century church, with its curious decagonal bell tower, presides over the Piazza della Repubblica, once Orvieto's Roman Forum and now lined with cafes. It lies at the heart of what remains of the medieval city.
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Chiesa di San Pietro
Check out this church’s 18th-century baroque extravaganza, with its fetching convex facade, semicircular chapels and elevated terrace popular with flirty teens and gossipy signore (women). Grab an ice cream from the nearest gelateria and absorb the dolce vita atmosphere.
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Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli
This hulking basilica occupies what was once the central hall of Diocletian's baths complex. It was originally designed by Michelangelo, but only the great vaulted ceiling remains from his plans.
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Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
One of Rome's four patriarchal basilicas (the others being St Peter's, San Giovanni in Laterano and San Paolo Fuori-le-Mura), this one was built on the summit of the Esquiline Hill in the 5th century. Outside, the 18.78m-high column in the Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore came from the Basilica di Massenzio in the Roman Forum, and the church exterior is decorated with glimmering 13th-century mosaics, protected by a porch with five openings, designed by Ferdinando Fuga.
The great interior retains its original 5th-century structure, despite the basilica having been much altered over the centuries. The nave floor is a fine example of 12th-century Cosmati paving. The 75m belfry,…
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Chiesa di Santa Maria Nuova
This 11th-century Romanesque church, the oldest in Viterbo, was restored to its original form after bomb damage in WWII. The cloisters are particularly lovely, and are believed to date from an earlier period.
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Chiesa di Sant'Alvise
Built in 1388, this church plays host to a noteworthy Tiepolo, the Salita al Calvario (Climb to Calvary), a distressingly human depiction of one of Christ's falls under the weight of the cross. The ceiling frescoes are a riot of colour.
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Chiesa di Sant'Angelo a Nilo
This modest 14th-century church contains one of the first great art works to grace the Neapolitan Renaissance – the majestic tomb of Cardinal Brancaccio, the church's founder. Although considered a part of Naples' artistic heritage, the sarcophagus was actually sculpted in Pisa by Donatello, Michelozzo and Pagno di Lapo Partigiani. Taking a year to complete, the sculptured marvel was shipped to Naples in 1427.
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Chiesa di Sant'Anna dei Lombardi
Dubbed a veritable museum of Renaissance art, this magnificent church is testament to the close links that once existed between the Neapolitan Aragonese and the Florentine Medici dynasty. One particular highlight is Guido Mazzoni's spectacular Pietà. Dating to 1492, the terracotta ensemble is made up of eight life-size terracotta figures surrounding the lifeless body of Christ.
Originally the figures were painted, but even without colour they still make quite an impression. The sacristy is a work of art in itself. The walls are lined with gloriously inlaid wood panels by Giovanni da Verona, while the ceiling is covered by Giorgio Vasari's 16th-century frescoes that…
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