week three GL350

This week in Roma has probably been my most memorable and favorite. I got to spend the weekend with my parents, who came to visit Roma for the first time ever. I took them around Roma on Friday and showed them a few of the beautiful wonders that I have encountered on my trip so far. On Saturday we drove down the Amafi coast and saw Positano, Sorrento, and Pompeii; Positano was my favorite by far.

 It was a long but enjoyable drive and our driver was very interesting and told us many stories about Italy and the History. When we were headed back to Roma, He told us that Roma backwards was Amor. In Italian Amor means love, I really thought that was cool and it made me think about Barzini’s The Italians and how he says everyone falls in love with Italy. 

I would like to comment on San Giovanni in Laterno, an amazing Basilica that we took a tour of early this week. I was in aww the whole time in the church; it was magnificent and so big. Even when I took my parents to the church I was still amazed and so were they. In Smiles, Visser presents the church as a relative of the theatre. I can agree that many of the churches in Roma seem like a theatre and are very extravagant. 

The extravagant nature of the churches does not go with The First Letter of St. Peter, in Smiles though. St. Peter granted is talking about the dress of people, but he talks about how you should not dress up in fancy clothes with gold bracelets. He says that “The ornament of a sweet and gentle disposition-this is what is precious in the sight of God”. So in a way I find the huge extravagance of the churches a little over whelming. Sometimes I find the decorations in the churches too distracting, and I contemplate if it distracts others away from focusing on their prayers.