And then the traveller dares the church itself and the spell begins to work; and after a little more familiarity, a few more visits to the Piazza, even if only for coffee, the fane has another devotee.
At night the facade behaves very oddly, for it becomes then as flat as a drop scene.

Seen from the Piazza when the band plays and the lamps are lit, S.Mark's has no depth whatever.

It is just a lovely piece of decoration stretched across the end.
The history of S.Mark's is this.

The first patron saint of Venice was S.Theodore, who stands in stone with his crocodile in the Piazzetta, and to whose history we shall come later.

In 828, however, it occurred to the astute Doge Giustiniano Partecipazio that both ecclesiastically and commercially Venice would be greatly benefited if a really first-class holy body could be preserved in her midst.