Italian Reflections (Cont.): The Platypus Travels Part XX

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What do you say about a bunch of guys who thought that one of their great achievements was stealing a dead body?  Ok, so the Greeks did it all the time with dinosaur bones...  Above, you can see a mosaic depicting the body of Saint Mark being unveiled in Venice after venetian merchants stole it from Egypt.  The mosaic stands over one of the doors of the Church of Saint Mark, the Doge's "little chapel."  Celebrating this kind of thing in glass and gold is yet another factor contributing to the sense of "inwardness" that seems to dominate the city.  One understands why Shakespeare set his "Othello" here.  The sense of exclusion is palpable. 

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