You should definitely read Camille Paglia. She is probably my favourite writer, and although she is an atheist, she says that one of her major influences is her Italian Catholic background. She says that one of her earliest faculties was her 'responsiveness to beauty', which she believes is 'something innate in Italians'. She even says (and makes a good case) that 'Italian Catholicism is the emotionally most complete cosmology in religious history'.