This church literally pulls you inside When you walk past it and distractedly look inside the door, you are immediately stuck by its golden rays on top of the altar 🤩 🔸This church was built to celebrate the fact that the city was finally free from the plague in 1656, thanks to the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary, which is inside this very church. 🔸The icon that today is behind the altar, framed in the golden frame, has a story that begins in the 500s 🔸In fact, not too far from here, there was a woman whose name was Galla. She's a saint, Santa Galla, who was taking care of the plague victims inside a portico, the Portico of Octavia (which is right around the corner, in the Jewish district) 🔸At some point, while she was taking care of those plague victims, the portico was fil