Speaker 3/4/21: Four Churches in Italy

Speaker: Alex Kugushev

Italy has thousands of churches – illustrious ones such as St. Peter’s in Rome, San Marco in Venice, and the Duomo in Milan, and dozens of others of great merit and beauty. Alex has chosen four of his favorites. Each represents a moment in Italian cultural development and artistic expression:

• San Miniato al Monte, an abbey in Florence, standing atop one of the
  highest points in the city, begun in 1013.
• Trani Cathedral, in Puglia, begun in 1099, a jewel of Apulian Norman
  Romanesque architecture.
• The Duomo di Monreale, in Palermo, a monument of Sicilian Norman
  architecture, begun in 1174.
• Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral of Florence, a highlight of the glory
  of the Rinascimento (Italian Renaissance), begun in 1296.

Alex was born in France of Russian parents and schooled successively in Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Argentina. He is a journalist by training and a publisher by trade. As an adolescent he lived through World War II, the defining experience of his life. He has been an immigrant in America for over half a century, a citizen for almost as long and describes himself as an American with conviction. His life in the US has spanned a broad sample of the immigrant experience – from longshoreman in Manhattan, to fruit-picker in Santa Clara Valley, a stint as a college instructor in Pennsylvania, forty years as a college textbook publisher and finally a few years as an entrepreneur, publishing on the internet. He has written four books and is finishing a fifth. He has traveled to some 80 countries and speaks seven languages. (PowerPoint presentation.)