We're going to be in Italy in late August and have been reading about the heat waves in Europe. Shorts sound reasonable in this hot weather but also it seems like pants are required for visiting churches. What have people been doing to be able to visit them? Just suck it up and wear pants all day? Or is there something acceptable to put on if you're wearing shorts in order to enter churches?
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11946 posts
I used pants with zip off/on legs
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
7225 posts
Posted by
New Mexico
52 posts
You don't need to wear pants. You can wear a lightweight skirt. The only thing requested in those churches is it your knees and shoulders feet covered. No sleeveless tops
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16133 posts
All they require is that you cover bare legs up to the knees and bare shoulders. They don’t like to see human skin in those body parts.
For the shoulders it is easy. Just don’t wear tan tops.
If you wear shorts, make sure they are long enough to cover your knees. If your shorts are not long enough, don’t despair. Buy two knee support sleeves with Velcro straps. You can find them for less than $10 each on Amazon. Put them on before entering the church and you are done. You will be amazed at how many tourists have injured knees inside Italian churches.
You wife/girlfriend just needs a pareo or scarf wrapped around her waist.
Posted by
Italy
3812 posts
You can cover your knees without wearing long pants.
Ar the worst buy a € 5, light pashmina in Italy and keep it in your backpack with water, passport, hat etc.
You can enter any Church pretending you are Scottish, then Throw it away when It's time to fly home.
Or it may by recycled as a last second present for some Random woman in your life that does not deserve a better present from Italy.
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
8123 posts
What do you wear when going to your own Church?
Posted by
Washington DC
28247 posts
In either Latvia or Lithuania I encountered a church with a sign explicitly forbidding leggings. I'm nearly certain it was a Catholic Church rather than Russian Orthodox.
Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches expect women to have something on their heads. I asked at one Orthodox church whether my sun hat was OK, because the believers normally wear scarves. I was told my attire was fine. The hat comes off in Catholic churches.