If you spend a little time walking without rushing through a town – or in the countryside! – in Italy, sooner or later your eye may catch something peculiar on the walls, or along the road. It might be a painted Madonna behind a pane of glass, a tiny statue in a niche, a framed image with a candle flickering beneath it, or a small frescoed pillar with a tiny roof and flowers underneath.
They tend to appear in places where people naturally slow down, like at the corner of a street, above a doorway, near a fountain, or along a rural road where two paths cross and, if you are a local, chances are you barely notice them anymore.
