The church is quite small and the docents are very disciplined about taking groups of eight at a time in for ten minutes. As a result there’s a bit of a wait. I was in line with a young couple from Rome and we spent some time talking about Italian, German, and American politics. They have a Czech friend who is married and lives in Southern California but is seriously thinking about moving back to the Czech Republic, finding the US not a healthy place to live or raise children. They talked about the Five Star Movement but also about their faith in the Italian government establishment which they feel has a long strong tradition of loyalty to the nation. This resonated with me in my impression of German politicans (other than the FDP) and a dedication to German democracy. I told the Italians there is nothing like this in the US. Neither Democrats nor Republicans that I know have anything like a strong commitment to American democracy which takes precedence over their party. It is difficult for me to imagine many Americans being able to consider this idea.
After finally getting our turn to see the frescoes we three agreed that to be honest the experience had not been worth the wait. I recommended Mystras and Athens, they recommended Rome and Sicily. I do like the Orthodox art.