Honeymoon
Venice
November 5-6, 1989
Nov. 7, 1989 -- Brindisi, Italy
Dear Laura Wilson & Shane,
Did Venice yesterday in Thunder & Lightining. We stood on the warped, sinking mosaic floor of St. Mark's Basilica, where the bones of the Apostle (Stolen! under a load of pork, beneath the noses of Moslem customs officers) are interned, and we realized -- more clearly than at any other time this trip -- that the History of Europe is the history of man's mental illness. Elaborate, gold-tiled shrines to bones while the peasants go hungry. A city built on water ... the council chamber in the Ducal Palace, where the serious matters of state are conducted, decorated with angels, cherubs, miracles & murders. A clear inability to distinguish fantasy from reality. Or the past from the present. It seems Spain is not the only nation over here celebrating a Proud History of Insanity & Decline!
We are drunk! Waiting since 9am this morn (5pm now) for our 10:30pm ferry ... We will stay drunk until our ship weighs anchor and sails across ancient trade routes to sounds our forefathers never heard, to the womb of Western Civilization: Greece!
