Churches Again...

Yesterday, after Mass we happened to come across Antonio and Francesco. Mummy had wanted to see the crypt, the bishop's rooms, and another side church. Now, Antonio restores frescos, so he knows a lot about the frescos and artwork in the church. He went to talk to Don Andrea about taking us to see everything. Tours aren't usually open for the bishop's rooms, and the church Mummy wanted to see has been opened only once while we have been here. The first stop was the crypt. The crypt is hard to describe, but there are a bunch of fragments of the old Roman temple (like most churches here, the duomo was built on top of an old Roman temple). And we saw a room where bodies were buried during the plagues (there were fifteen boxes' worth of jumbled bones in that room). Then we went up to the extravagantly frescoed rooms for the bishop. They were just gorgeous, frescoed from top to bottom with bright colors. In one of the rooms, there was a concealed door that led to the (now generally unused) bishop's loft. We traipsed outside and to the other church. We had already been inside this church, except for Mummy, Granddad and Grandma. This church (for the seminarians) is frescoed within an inch of its life. There were frescos to look like paintings, carvings, statues, marble structures and there was an incredibly realistic door, but there was a tiny bit of water damage near the floor. Then, thinking that we had made Antonio and Francesco late enough for lunch, we headed to Massimo's for our own lunch.
Ciao,
Florence