mariacallas

Good point about the setting. It's so gorgeous that it's well worth the walk even if you cannot take a tour. We didn't know anything about it when we went. Certainly didn't realize that monks still live there. The lavendar was so beautiful against the somber gray of the building. That set into the green and golden hillside was quite a visual feast.

Carrybean

Isn't it a sign of the times that well-traveled & well-educated people would need such a warning?

That high horse I'm sitting on was raised in a barn. I wasn't.

handmaiden

Hey, carrybean, stop beating that dead horse already, will ya? Mariacallas has stated that her CHILDREN were wearing shorts. Do you have kids? If you do you realize how they dress today. It is not uncommon here in Philadelphia to see teenage girls and boys wearing shorts to Mass on Sunday. Nobody bats an eyelash.

Give the kids a break. The way you all go on here you would think the WHORE OF BABYLON was trying to get into the Abbey.

P.S. I have a picture of my boss (Thingorjus) wearing shorts at Montserrat in Spain. Isn't that a holy shrine? Yet he was allowed in. So it looks like different dress codes for different religious sites, which shows lack of continuity.

By the way, Underhill, you are an extremely rude person to address me in that tone.

Christine

annieladd

Good grief.

BTW, Underhill, I've never known you to make a rude comment, including this one. You've always been knowledgeable and helpful. I certainly didn't sense a "tone".

MC had a right to say what she said, and the rest of the folks have a right to offer their opinion.

Please just be kind.

annieladd (who would never wear shorts to a church)

madameX

This is piling on, but I agree with the others -- the dress code for major churches in Europe is pretty standard -- shoulders covered, knees covered, men wear long pants, etc. To offer a suggestion, given my recent experience on a stifling hot day in Rome on a visit to the Vatican: stuff a little shawl or shirt in your day bag, and a skirt is almost always cooled than shorts or pants for ladies. Other good news: SOME (not many) churches now realize that not everyone in clued in to proper dress. A church in Sienna provides drape-like covers for transgressors, and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul asks that women in "short" skirts wrap a covering it will provide around themselves.

You have to pardon me - when I saw a young usher at my church in New York with a topless bar T-shirt on, I wish that US churches would be more instructive in respectful dress.