#venice

Since I am now trying to learn #Italian, my compulsive habit of picking up any travel books I find on public bookshelves might actually pay off - since a fair amount of these are about #Italy .

Still not sure where in Italy I should go for future vacations - apart from #Venice, of course, which I want to research for a future book I plan to write. I'll probably start with the northern parts of the country, since I'll need to travel by train from northern Germany...

Maybe this book wasn't the best way of beginning my investigation of the history of #Venice, but its focus on the art history of the city was extremely enlightening all the same. It made clear how much the cult of Saint Mark was central to the city, its society, and all layers of its government - and how the city maintained its independence from Rome all those centuries despite being nominally Catholic.