Vampire in Venice

This article fascinated me monumentally, due to my morbid interest in forensic science and archeology.
It returns to the concept of vampire as disgusting monster, with its references to bloated decaying corpses. The bloating, due to gas buildup from decaying soft tissue, was taken for the blood-swollen state of a replete vampire, and the livor mortis presumably reinforced that belief, along with the foul liquid emissions from facial and lower orifices. I had never before heard of the custom of rendering the suspected vampire unable to eat by shoving a stone in its mouth, so that was enlightening. I suppose it makes sense, though technically, a vampire, being also supposedly immortal, could not die from starvation. Though since the blood gave them energy, perhaps it was logical to assume that a vampire which was unable to eat was doomed.
The idea of disgusting vampires is a much more intriguing one than romanticized vampires. It would be much more distressing, I think, to wake up and find a bloated, dripping, filmy-eyed corpse hunched over your body with gaping jaws than it would be to find a pretty, effeminate man doing the same.