I've been enjoying the latest thriller from Dan Brown (Mr. Da Vinci Code) even though I know I should not as it is the equivalent of bubble gum literature. That aside it has some interesting twists and turns and is set in Italy so while it may have the traditional Brown plot designs and that horrid machine gun-like sentence structure it also features lovely descriptions of some of my favourite places. :-)
The famous allegory poem by Danto features strongly in the plot. At one point Brown refers to Dante's exile from Florence (just rescinded in 2008 some 750 years later). He finally was buried in the city of Ravenna but the Florentines are still trying to get back his bones . . .
The part of the book I just read features the basilica of San Marco in Venice. Brown describes the glittering gold interior of the church.
and the Pala d'Oro made up of close to 2000 jewels on a gold background.
The famous horses standing on the balcony overlooking the square also feature in the plot. The statues were installed on the basilica in about 1736. The horses were displayed at the Hippodrome of Constantinople, and in 1204 Doge Enrico Dandolo sent them to Venice as part of the loot in the Fourth Crusade. After a long restoration, since the 1990s they have been kept in St Mark’s Museum (inside the basilica). The horses now on the facade of the cathedral are bronze replicas.
These are the fakes:
What I didn't realize was that in order to stabilize the tiny ships used to transport the horses from Constantinople to Venice in 1204 the heads were hacked off and later reattached. That is why the horses have the distinctive collar which covers up the marks left during the severing and reattachment of the heads.
Be sure to pop on over to Sandi's
blog to see what else is happening on Travel Tuesdays. Since she is
currently in Florence I wonder if she is visiting the spots Brown writes about while she is there?
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