Day 18 & 19 in Italy
I have recently returned from Venice, which unlike Rome and Florence, did not really live up to the movies. I found it to be dirtier and smellier (yes, despite what the guidebooks say, you can smell the water) than any of the other cities I have visited in Europe.
St. Marks Basilica did exceed expectations, however. What a beautiful church!! Built with monies from Venice's almost exclusive trade with the Orient (remember Marco Polo?) to house the body of St. Mark the Gospel writer (stolen from Alexandria), I have seen larger churches around, but this one, intending to be the most beautiful ever, certainly is within the top three. Interestingly, it is built in the shape of a Greek Cross, and has many Byzantine characteristics.
Also interesting, of course, was the Doge's Palace. The Doge, from the Latin dux ("leader" . . . remember "Il Duce"?), was the elected Head of State for the Venician Republic, ruled also by a Senate, a Council of Ten, and numerous other aristocratic bodies. Medieval Venetians took Roman republicanism to bizzare extremes. They also had a fine army and Navy, as wittnessed by the world's largest canvas paintings in the Palace. It had a very educational and interesting audio tour (narrated by two who spoke English natively, a plus).
Both the Basilica and the Palace are on St. Marks square, with various other landmarks from medieval/renaissance/Napoleonic Venice. Speaking of which, Napoleon seems to have raided at least half of the art everywhere he went . . . carting it off to some museum in Paris . . .
One of the defining characteristics of St. Marks square, aside from the palaces, tower, and Basilica, is the flocks of pigeons. They are fed twice a day by the city, constantly by visitors buying corn from vendors, have some sort of historical significance, and are horribly disgusting. Horrible they were. The square wreaked with both their "blessings" and entrails. The occasional flooding is a much needed deliverance to the square. I find the pigeons awful, and it seems the Romans and Florins (sp?) do also, but tourists in Venice queued up for corn and a chance to have the nast creatures perch all over their soon-to-be-soiled clothing.
Sidenote: I have been travelling a lot on trains in the past week, a new experience for me (the pressure changes in tunnels, and I have to clear my ears), and thus have been taking the opportunity to read the British press, sold in the trains stations. Among the notable differences between angloscript journalism across the Atlantic: profanity (s---, f---, b----, b------, *sshole, et al), partial nudity (men and women, I did not even get to the "tabloids"), spelling (programme, localisation, maths, etc), and the use of queue whenever an American would use the word "line". Of course, there are differences in perscpective also, but admit it, the trivial would stand out to you also.
Brits seem to favor Dean for US president, at least in The Guardian. Oh yeah, they do not follow the same proceedures for capitalization (capitalisation?), italics, or quotations. Newsweek Europe also seems to push Dean, noting that Gephardt's book sold only 37 copies in 2003. (You did not know he had a book? Neither did 37 other people, ha!) Time Europe seemed a little more balanced on candidates, even so for Bush, although was critical in tone for the USA in general, and specifically US foreign policy. Its feature story this week is how the US steals Europe's most competant scientists because of our "meritocray". Indeed. The Times (UK), like the others, seems especially critical of the BBC, whose decision to can Robert Kilroy-Silk for anti-Arab state comments in a non-BBC newspaper article despite continual anti-Isreali and even anti-semitic comments by other BBC journalists, criticism of the government chartered company (a la Amtrack, USPS, utility-monopolies) that the Ockhamist finds well deserved. My entire sortie into the European press has been both fun and enlightening.
But back to Venice . . .
Did I mention that Napoleon deposed the last Doge and ended the Venician Republic?
In the treasury of St. Marks, I saw both a stone from the pillar of Christ's flagellation brought from the 4th crusade and the urn of Artaxerxes of Persia (see Ezra 4:7). Call me faithless, but I have to admit I was more impressed by the urn than by the rock.
I also saw some great artwork, including Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna Litta.
Another great church, Frarai, is worth mentioning. I went there. It was huge. More relics. It has a distinction as one of the few Gothic churches in Italy, and, strangely, a medieval takeover by the Franciscans. Amazingly, most of the Roman churches are . . . Romanesque. Or at least Barouqe.
Venice, I should note, is really two towns. One is on land and Italians live and work there. The other is in a swamp (ok, lagoon), where tourists go and waning numbers of Venicians put up with the horrible inconvenience of daily boat travel. And pigeons. "Streets" in Venice are mostly narrow alleys, some only six feet wide. Food was expensive, and I unwittingly paid €4 for a glass of water. Yikes! Did not order anything else at that place. It did have a nice view, to be fair.
I took some great photos of the Bridge of Sighs, both inside and out, where heretics and traitors would "sigh" on their way to prison, trial, or execution. I should have the remainder of my photos on the site Tuesday or Wednesday.
I will be in Louisville again Monday night.