The city of God that was built on pizza
July 21, 2007

In the town of Ave Maria, parents need not worry about which school their children will attend. The town has been built for Roman Catholics and all the schools guarantee a traditional Catholic upbringing.

The daily school run through this newly established enclave, funded by a Catholic billionaire and built on a slice of rural Florida that used to be a tomato farm, takes mums and dads along roads with names such as Anthem Parkway and Annunciation Street.

In Ave Maria, which opens its gates to the public today, there are morals to be upheld and souls to be saved, and the biggest secular temptation will probably prove to be the local ice-cream parlour.

Students at the town’s schools and its Catholic university, the first to be built in the US for more than 40 years, will be housed in single-sex halls of residence and encouraged to partake in more wholesome extracurricular activities than the usual late-night binge drinking and dormitory trysts – such as visiting the chapels attached to every block. the rest photo