Page 5 of 5
Venice, Italy
If I hadn't seen such riches I could live with being poor
One of my favorite artifacts in all of history, this is one of four bronze horses that have seen some action. Initially commissioned by Alexander the Great, they were taken to Rome by Nero, then to Constantinople by Constantine (where they stood in the Circus Maximus just steps away from the Hagia Sofia), then they were captured by Venice during one of the bloodier and less righteous Crusades, then they were taken by Napoleon to Paris and finally returned back to the front facade of San Marco. Then, unfortunately, they were taken inside the church and replaced with these clever replicas, certainly evocative but, compared to the originals, clearly without presence.
Home to Saint Mark himself (or, more accurately, whatever is left of what is believed to have been Saint Mark himself), the pleasantly Byzantine San Marco (where all photography remains strictly prohibited) is pretty damn shiny.
This is all you really need to see of Piazza San Marco- multiple hints of the Campanile, the Doge Palace, the doors to San Marco, some pigeons (although not as many as remembered) and some woman who I have no idea who is.
Whatever is left of Venice slowly decays under a late October twilight sky, sinking and rotting with enough grace to make it seem more noble than it really is.
One last picture. Everything that is good about Italy, taken from atop the ruins at Pompeii- a hazy Vesuvius lurking beyond the vineyard, beyond the ruins, beyond the impossibly sculpted distant tree, making me doubt (yet again) the wisdom of returning home.
There was a part one to this slideshow
If you really want to relive the Millennium Year of 2000, then go back to the see the London - Athens - Istanbul part of this trip, including the unpopular Millennium Dome in Greenwich, among other places.
