Pillar Talk

There is a frisson underlying life in Venice, especially in relation to the two famous pillars on Saint Mark's Square.

With images representing Saint Mark and Saint Teodor of Amasea atop these imposing poles, they are a reminder that the square was, up to the 18th Century, a place of execution.

The religious art of Venice, after several days, began to make me wonder (and not for the first time), how such a terrifying fantasy life could have been transported so readily to Celtic and Nordic countries where nature, not artifice, is so much more in harmony with the tastes of the people.

The glorious Church of Saint Anastasia in Verona gave me my breath back after the Baroque splendors of Venice. The soaring pillars are decorated with intricate tendrils and flowers.

I was in Heaven there.