OK, so first a story.  Growing up my parents would watch a lot of French and Italian movies.  The French movies were always dark and contemplative and really boring for a ten year old.  Although I always thought their apartments were really cool and I wanted to live like that.

But the Italian movies were really different.  The characters were lively and interesting and places in Italy always looked amazing.  Sometimes they were comedies, sometimes tragic comedies (like Divorce Italian Style) and other times just dramas.  But at some point during the movie, no matter what, a character visits a church.  It has to happen.  It is standard.

When I took these photos in a North End Catholic church I thought of those types of scenes: