The elegant Franciscan church of Santa Croce has tended to overwhelm the visitor and is held responsible for the little known disease, Stendhal’s Condition. When the French writer, Stendhal, visited the church, he suffered a fainting fit brought on by its beauty and apparently this continues to afflict up to 12 visitors a year. Its broad piazza, once the site of jousts, wild animal fights and the burning of heretics, is today home to miniature Davids and plaster cast Virgins, as souvenir stalls ply their trade to visitors weakened by stendhalismo. The big draw inside the Gothic interior is death. Some of Italy’s most gifted men are buried here, including Michelangelo (whose body was smuggled out of Rome in a packing case), Machiavelli, Galileo, Rossini and Ghiberti.

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