St. Mark's Basilica; Venice, Italy.

Now, I don't know if they just don't care or if I'm simply an amazing ninja photographer, but there were signs EVERYWHERE saying "no photos". But I am stealthy, and apparently so is every other tourist that came in. And there were billions. Sheer ridiculousness. Anyways, moving on.

The building is absolutely span-tankin' BEAUTIFUL. I almost felt like I was in a video game(Assassin's Creed, takes place in Italy :D). Just, absolutely amazing. Waiting in a long line of tourists to go in, it's always a sort of ominous feeling walking through the front door, looking up and seeing the arches full of saints looking down on you, almost saying "Yeah,  you're ******." I can definitely see why people would want to confess after walking by all those eyes and pointing fingers and holy people.

It was very cold inside, though I've noticed most cathedrals and big stone buildings here are, no matter how warm it is outside. In one cathedral I could even see my breath. Anyways. The walls inside were covered in gold laquer or paint, there was just so much pure wealth on the walls, it was ridiculous. Further in the cathedral, there was a lot of Byzantine art all over the walls of saints, angels, Jesus, Mary, any person from the bible you can think of. On the upper floors(Which you had to pay to go to, you pay for every section in the Basilica, though I hardly think it's in need of money), there is a mini museum, with some small scale replicas of the Basilica, as well as samples of the original tiles, some of the original paintings, etc. The four original horse copper horse statues that used to decorate the roof above the entrance arch were also moved inside where you can see them(They were replaced with replicas, who were made genderless I guess due to vandalism of the horses' private parts? That's usually how it goes.)

The museum goes on and around the second floor, into areas with smaller statues, mosaics, and there's a big room with a bunch of tapestries. Some of the tapestries had gold thread in them, but not much was left of the original work, they were all retouched and restored so much to try and keep the original image in tact.

The whole time tourists are running through the basilica, there was also a service going on as well. Turns out, the basilica is still a functioning church. We had to be quiet as we came in and walked around, though for me it wasn't too hard, I was too in awe to say much.