Piazza San Marco

This guide to Piazza San Marco in Venice turns on the morning of July 14, 1902, when the bell tower that had watched over the square for eight centuries began giving out, a crack that had been widening for days finally breaking loose. Venetians called it the master of the house, and the guide follows that ordinary Monday as the strain came to a head in front of a gathering crowd. Best listened to while facing the tower, picturing the square a decade before the one you are standing in now.