Lifestyle icon Martha Stewart has set tongues wagging once again. Last week, Netflix released Martha, a buzzy new documentary by filmmaker R.J. Cutler that charts the 83-year-old maven’s staggering rise, fall, and unlikely second act. Without a doubt, Stewart, who many hail as the original influencer, has lived boldly and the documentary delves headlong into her most controversial moments. But for us, her passion for art—and we mean passion—is what’s left us reeling.

Poster for Martha. Photo courtesy of Netflix.

In one unforgettable scene, Stewart recounts an amorous visit to Florence’s famed Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, better known as the “Duomo.”

In 1961, Stewart, then just 19, wed Andrew Stewart, a Yale Law graduate. The stylish young couple set off on an epic five-month honeymoon across Europe. Stewart, who was then enrolled at Barnard College, was a student of art and history (she ultimately earned her degree in architectural history), and immersed herself in the beauty of the cultures around her. When the couple arrived in Florence the night before Easter, Stewart felt compelled to attend evening mass at the Duomo. Designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, the cathedral, with its gargantuan open dome, is one of the master feats of Renaissance architecture. Her new husband, however, stayed back at the hotel; Stewart recalled, “he didn’t have any interest in going to the Duomo with me.”

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore; Florence, Italy. Photo: Richard Desmarais/Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.

The awesome majesty of the church moved her beyond words.

“Listening to that amazing music in the cathedral… It was a very romantic place, crowded with tourists, and I met this very handsome guy,” she remembered. “I was this waif of a girl hanging out in the cathedral on Easter Eve. He was emotional. I was emotional. It’s just because it was an emotional place. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced. An expansive dome. So beautiful and paintings all around you.”

Indeed, the resplendent church is home to an abundance of artworks. Giorgio Vasari painted a rapturous Last Judgement on the Duomo’s ceiling, while a stunning mosaic of the “Coronation of Mary” by Gaddo Gaddi fills the cathedral’s baptistery’s ceiling, frescos of musical angels by Santi di Tito fill the walls, as do sculptures by the celebrated Luca Della Robbia. Even the doors to the cathedral are masterpieces; on the east facade of the cathedral, one finds sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti’s iconic Gates of Paradise, bronze doors bearing 10 relief panels depicting scenes from the Old Testament.

“It was like nothing I had ever done before,” Stewart said of the cathedral, “And so why not kiss a stranger?” Stewart and her mysterious stranger locked lips for a few moments in that church. Prodded about the decency of the kiss, Stewart replied, “It was neither naughty nor unfaithful. It was just the emotion of the moment. That’s how I looked at it. And it was exciting because, I mean, it was a very emotional place. I wish we could all experience such an evening.”

Frescoes inside the Dome of Brunelleschi, by Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccaro. Photo: Getty Images.

The intense, almost swirling emotion of Stewart’s description of the night and her impassioned, instinctual response, are oddly reminiscent of Stendhal Syndrome also known as Florence Syndrome, a psychosomatic condition where a person may experience a racing heartbeat and confusion (at times even fainting) in response to viewing artworks of great beauty.

Whether her moment of Renaissance romance was diagnosable we’ll never know, and while Stewart didn’t dish on any other art-historical smooches, the documentary still held a few more art tidbits. For one, Stewart credits the majesty of Dutch still life paintings with their “great displays of food and fruits” as having “tremendously” inspired her sensational presentation of foods in the 1980s.

Clara Peeters, Still Life with Flowers, Gilt Goblet, Dried Fruits, Sweets, Biscuits, Wine and a Pewter Flagon (1611). Image courtesy of Museo del Prado.

And there was one other odd cameo. During the 1990s, at the height of her fame,  magazines and tabloids alike ran salacious stories on Stewart’s personal life. During the documentary, the camera pans over one such magazine spread; the article’s lead image is a collage of Stewart’s face onto the body of Titian’s Venus of Urbino.

While all that is in the past, even these days, Stewart keeps abreast of the art world’s goings on. In a recent interview with Architectural Digest, Stewart noted her admiration of multifaceted artist Laila Gohar, saying “One person who really captures my imagination is [Laila Gohar, of the Instagram account] LailaCooks. Her stuff is beautiful. She just did a party at Sotheby’s with three great towers made out of big balls of langoustine, which were amazing and served on big blocks of ice.”

Meanwhile, Stewart is planning to release an autobiography, and we can only hope there will be a few more art gems in the mix.