| Nowhere could this wealth be seen more than in St. Mark�s Basilica. The Byzantine Eastern-style architecture of this basilica was beautiful, and when we saw it for the first time we felt that we had arrived at the edge of the Western-Eastern worlds. The interior of the church was covered with 43,000 square feet of lavish gold Byzantine mosaics along its entire ceilings and upper sides with beautiful colored marble along its lower sides. It was a dazzling sight to behold. While in St. Mark�s Square we also took the elevator to the top of the Campanile bell tower for spectacular views of Venice and its lagoon, and we visited the Doge�s Palace which had been the seat of the Venetian government and home to its elected ruler, the Doge. Adjoining the palace via a bridge was a dungeon where prisoners had been jailed and tortured, some secretly. |
