Thursday, April 25, 2024

Northeastern Italy

The famed city of Venice began as a Byzantine settlement. We saw in the compound posting on this blog, "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began" in the section "Imitations Of The Hagia Sophia", how St. Mark's Basilica in Venice is modeled on the Hagia Sophia. The original city of Venice was built on a number of islands in a lagoon that is sheltered from the Adriatic Sea. Venice is at the far northwest end of the sea.

Venice lasted 1300 years as a major maritime power and finance center, until Napoleon's conquest of 1797. It was legendary for it's devotion to it's patron saint, St. Mark. The bones of St. Mark, the Apostle of Jesus, were actually brought from Egypt to Venice. Ironically, the bones of St. Peter are so important to the Vatican in Rome. The first of the four gospels was written by St. Mark, but it was believed to have been dictated by St. Peter, who couldn't read or write. The bones of St. Mark were misplaced but later rediscovered in St. Mark's Basilica.

Venice led the Fourth Crusade, which was diverted to Constantinople instead of it's original objective of the Holy Land. Artifacts brought back to Venice from that Crusade include the four horses that adorn St. Mark's Basilica. The original horses have actually been moved inside and those outside the basilica are a replica. The original four horses were taken by Napoleon, upon his 1797 conquest of Venice, but were returned to Venice and those atop Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris are replicas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe_du_Carrousel#/media/File:Paris_-_Jardin_des_Tuileries_-_Arc_de_Triomphe_du_Carrousel_-_PA00085992_-_003.jpg

Remember that we saw this in the compound posting on this blog, "The Aztec Prophecy", section 7) FOUR HORSES ALL OVER THE WORLD.

Venice was the hometown of Marco Polo, who traveled by land to the orient.

Venice ruled Crete, which was eventually lost to the Ottomans who had conquered Constantinople. It also ruled the Peloponnesus, the southern third of Greece, and Cyprus. Venice engaged in numerous naval battles with the Ottomans. The Parthenon, in Athens, was damaged when the Ottomans were using it to store gunpowder and a Venetian shell ignited it.

Like fellow maritime power Genoa, the fortunes of Venice began to decline when the Age of Discovery began and the new frontier was the Atlantic, rather than the Mediterranean. Napoleon had, along with France, a parallel personal union state in northern Italy. The French Revolution was so far-reaching because the conquests of Napoleon swept away the old order of society, including Venice and the Holy Roman Empire. Today the flag of Italy is in the same revolutionary tricolor form as that of France.

The first of the following scenes is in Piazza San Marco, which is about a thousand years old, looking toward St. Mark's Basilica at the opposite end of the square. The Doge's Palace, built in the Fourteenth Century, was for the ruler of Venice, which was chosen by the nobility. The Campanile, the brick bell tower, in Piazza San Marco adjacent to the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Basilica, collapsed in 1902 but was rebuilt.

The first four scenes, from Google Earth and Street View, are of Piazza San Marco, including the Doge's Palace, St. Mark's Basilica and the Campanile, or bell tower.





Most places are trying to attract tourists. Some places, like Amsterdam, are trying to restrict tourism numbers because they allowed the city to be marketed as a "party town", and now they regret it because it attracts the wrong kind of people. Venice is trying to restrict tourism simply because everyone wants to visit. Image from Google Street View.


This image from Google Street View is the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, where prisoners walked between the prison, on the right, and the Doge's Palace, on the left.


The central part of Venice is known as Rialto. The following two images, from Google Earth and Street View, are of the Rialto Bridge.



There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >,  After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.






Here is more of Venice.

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4455537,12.3282372,3a,75y,92.52h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1soZOTUeGa_1Z5Jh0AwYyHAA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DoZOTUeGa_1Z5Jh0AwYyHAA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D93.584946%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Padua is a city that originated in ancient times and has since been controlled by Rome, Venice, Napoleon and the Habsburgs. It is known for it's university, that was founded in 1222 and where Galileo taught, and is today an industrial city.

In the multiple domes of the basilica in this first image from Google Earth, you can see the Byzantine influence of the Hagia Sophia that we saw in the compound posting "The House Of Holy Wisdom Where The Modern World Began".



https://www.google.com/maps/@45.6658021,12.2453888,3a,75y,275.75h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sWCt2wnWQr8OIa_yd0BN6_w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DWCt2wnWQr8OIa_yd0BN6_w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D278.2007%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Like Venice, the city of Trieste has a Grand Canal. Also like Venice, the city started as a Byzantine settlement. It voluntarily came under Habsburg rule as a defense against Venice, and became the Habsburgs' main seaport. Trieste is where Italy meets the Slavic and German-speaking domains. After annexation by Italy, following the end of the First World War, the Italian Government amended the surnames of non-Italian residents so that their names sounded more Italian.

The first two images of Trieste, from Google Earth, are of Castle San Giusto. Trieste has a lot of eastern European influence, such as a city being built around this castle on a hilltop.



https://www.google.com/maps/@45.6496372,13.7685568,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sG-0SN5wAipVPR5QEg0Jcsg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DG-0SN5wAipVPR5QEg0Jcsg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D145.73216%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Verona is where Shakespeare's story of Romeo and Juliet took place, two lovers from unfortunately opposing families. In Shakespeare's time Italy was considered as faraway and exotic. The city is of Roman origin and has an arena that resembles the Colosseum. These first two images, from Google Earth, are of the area of Verona where part of the story took place.



The first of the following scenes is at Juliet's Balcony. Another story by Shakespeare was "The Merchant Of Venice".

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4420224,10.9985543,3a,75y,57.9h,101.75t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPnqIjzwt5nsfp2w81QUWAaxuLCf6b2JrnNIqmh!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPnqIjzwt5nsfp2w81QUWAaxuLCf6b2JrnNIqmh%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya58.561237-ro-0-fo100!7i5660!8i2830

Ferrara is an ancient city that later became part of the Papal States, the kingdom actually ruled by the pope, and has palaces from the late medieval era. The Este Palace is from the Fourteenth Century. These first three images of the Este Palace are from Google Earth.




https://www.google.com/maps/@44.8354896,11.6196167,3a,75y,101.89h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipP24ha_P3hHdsqmpCQtSPGBSiWtBoEbNDOkwkml!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP24ha_P3hHdsqmpCQtSPGBSiWtBoEbNDOkwkml%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya205.53345-ro0-fo100!7i8192!8i4096

Ravenna is an ancient city that later became important to the Romans. In fact, it was the final capital of the Western Roman Empire. It was later reconquered by the Byzantines, heirs of the Eastern Roman Empire. Ravenna was later ruled by Venice, and then was part of the Papal States. These two images, from Google Earth, are of the Basilica of San Vitale.



Bologna was an Etruscan city that has what is possibly the oldest still-operating university in the world, from the Eleventh Century. The Two Towers are from a competition, in the Twelfth Century, between two families to see which could build the highest. The first two images, from Google Earth, are of the two medieval towers in Bologna. The Asinelli Family clearly won, not only is their tower twice as high but the Garisendi Tower is leaning more. Does this remind you of "The Waldorf Astoria" that we saw in the posting by that name, September 2021?




https://www.google.com/maps/@44.6459669,10.9256313,3a,75y,302.1h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sd1IdjK0HhjgyQ-eKAzBypw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dd1IdjK0HhjgyQ-eKAzBypw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D311.4035%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The Vatican is not the only independent city-state that is surrounded by Italy. Here is a trivia question: Where is a person from if defined by the demonym "Sammarinese"? The answer is that they would be from San Marino. It has existed since ancient times and is today a banking center.

Notice the irregular pattern of the hills on the landscape, in this first image from Google Earth.



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