One for you Venice buffs - from today's Sydney Sun-Herald - author Michelle Lovric, who lives in Venice and London, on one of the books that changed her -
"If you want real Venice, you must keep company with the Venetian's Venetian Giuseppe Tassini. His <i>Curiosita Veneziane</i> is an anecdotal gazetteer of every street in the city. Published in 1869, it's never been bettered, nor translated into English, though I'm working on it. Thanks to Tassini, I discovered the column of infamy of Bajamonte Tiepolo, the 14th-century Venetian who is the villain of [her] <i>The Undrowned Child</i>. I'm now campaigning to get it re-erected."

Lovric's website -
http://www.michellelovric.com/index.htm
and for <i>The Undrowned Child</i> - http://www.undrownedchild.com/#2
(including her gallery of cats)

I understand that the column is in the Correr Museum. There is a stone set in the pavement at the entrance to Campo Sant' Agostin inscribed: "Loc. Col. Bai. The. 1310." (The place of the Column of Baiamonti Tiepolo, 1310.)
Good luck to Ms Lovric.

I'm reading Peter Ackroyds' "Venice Pure City". According to him (he doesn't cite his source), there were 22,075 sheets of gold leaf fixed upon the surface of the Ca' d'Oro. I bet that is what the chap who did the fixing said he used. Also, this information is not really of much use unless you know the size of a sheet of gold leaf.