Walking Tour of Riva San Vitale

On Saturday afternoon, after we had unpacked and had orientation, Daniella (head of CESA house) offered a tour to get more acquainted with the town we will be living in for the next few months. The beginning of the tour we saw one of the oldest churches in Switzerland called the Baptistry.

Front of the Baptistry

Example of layered walls

A few things I found interesting about this church is you could see the history of how the building has changed with each new improvement. For example, the walls had different layers of paintings and plastering. Daniella said the people would plaster over older paintings to paint something new. I found this extremely cool because if you could peel back the layers on the wall, you could see the history. (obviously if the paintings were preserved)

After the Baptistry, we walked past Lake Lugano to get to our next destination. The lake is absolutley breath taking with its views of the mountains and little cities around the lake. When I had researched the Riva program online, I had seen many pictures of this Lake, but honestly no picture does justice to how serene the area is.

Outside of San Croce Church

Our last stop on the walking tour was Santa Croce Church. This was just spectacular, and I could not believe it was apart of this little town in Switzerland. When you get up close to this church you seen a face on top of the door with his mouth open. Daniella said the style of this church was grotesque. To me that meant that the style just strayed away from traditional. 

Grotesque Man

Detail on Ceiling 

Main Alter

 Once inside the church, there were 3 sections. Each had an alter with paintings, obviously the main alter being the most extravagant. Inside the main alter there is also a famous priest preserved. The people believed he performed miracles such as healing the sick and making bread out of stones. The side alters had smaller paintings and if you looked closely, the bottom panel of them were missing. Two years ago an art collector stole those frescos because of who made them(name to come later) I really enjoyed this church because of all the little details in the moldings of the ceiling as well as in the frescos

Narrow Streets

After the walking tour, Daniella took us down the narrow streets of Riva back to the Villa. I still haven't learned my way around the town, so every street looks the same to me. I can't believe cars drive around here with how close the buildings are together. This tour was great and made me appreciate the town I was living in much more. I cannot wait to see what other things I can discover while in Riva.






XOXO RIVA DIVA