Venice: Gold mosaics
Blurry picture, but it shows how amazing the Greek-styled gold mosaics are. The whole place is FILLED with them. I have no idea about the history, but im pretty sure this place as a gateway to the East and being so close to Ravenna played a significant role in the Greek influence in the West. (Proof that i am learning something in Theo class: Using gold in mosaics was an idea brought from the East around the 6th century when there was a great flux of Easterner's coming to Rome)
Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI establis... ... read more 
