After Having Descended The Po For A Considerable
Distance, We Entered A Canal Which Unites The Po With The Adige.
We then
descended the Adige for a short distance, and entered another canal which
unites the Adige with the Brenta.
Here we stopped to change barges, and it
required an hour and half to unload and reload the baggage. We then entered
the Brenta and from thence into the Lagoons, and passing by the islands of
Malamocco and Chiozzo entered Venice by the Canale grande at three
o'clock in the morning. The whole night was so dark as totally to deprive
us of the view of the approach of Venice. The barge anchored near the Post
office and I hired a gondola to convey me to the inn called Le Regina
d'Ungheria.
VENICE, 26th May.
I was much struck, as everyone must be who sees it for the first time, at
the singular appearance of Venice. An immense city in the midst of the
Ocean, five miles distant from any land; canals instead of streets;
gondolas in lieu of carriages and horses! Yet it must not be inferred from
this that you are necessarily obliged to use a gondola in order to visit
the various parts of the city; for its structure is as follows. It is built
in compartments on piles on various mud banks, always covered indeed by
water, but very shallow and separated from each other (the mud banks I
mean) by deep water. On each of these compartments are built rows of
houses, each row giving front to a canal. The space between the backs of
the rows of houses forms a narrow street or alley paved with flag stones,
very like Cranborn Alley for instance; and these compartments are united to
each other (at the crossings as we should say) by means of stone bridges;
so that there is a series of alleys connected by a series of bridges which
form the tout ensemble of this city; and you may thus go on foot thro'
every part of it. To go on horseback would be dangerous and almost
impracticable, for each bridge has a flight of steps for ascent and
descent. All this forms such a perfect labyrinth from the multiplicity and
similarity of the alleys and bridges, that it is impossible for any
stranger to find his way without a guide. I lost my way regularly every
time that I went from my inn to the Piazza di San Marco, which forms the
general rendezvous of the promenaders and is the fashionable lounge of
Venice; and every time I was obliged to hire a boy to reconduct me to my
inn. On this account, in order to avoid this perplexity and the expence of
hiring a gondola every time I wished to go to the Piazza di San Marco I
removed to another inn, close to it, called L'Osteria della Luna, which
stands on the banks of the Canale grande and is not twenty yards from the
Piazza.
I then hired a gondola for four days successively and visited every canal
and every part of the city. Almost every family of respectability keeps a
gondola, which is anchored at the steps of the front door of the house.
After the Piazza di San Marco, of which I shall speak presently, the
finest buildings and Palaces of the nobility are on the banks of the
Canale grande, which, from its winding in the shape of an S, has all the
appearance of a river. The Rialto is the only bridge which connects the
opposite banks of the Canale grande; but there are four hundred smaller
bridges in Venice to connect the other canals.
The Rialto, the resort of the money changers and Jews, is a very singular
and picturesque construction, being of one arch, a very bold one. On each
side of this bridge is a range of jewellers' shops. A narrow Quai runs
along the banks of the Canale grande.
I have visited several of the Palazzi, particularly those of the families
Morosini, Cornaro, Pisani, Grimani, which are very rich in marbles of
vert and jaune antique; but they are now nearly stripped of all their
furniture, uninhabited by their owners, or let to individuals, mostly
shopkeepers; for since the extinction of the Venetian Republic almost all
the nobility have retired to their estates on the terra firma, or to
their villas on the banks of the Brenta; so that Venice is now inhabited
chiefly by merchants, shopkeepers, chiefly jewellers and silk mercers,
seafaring people, the constituted authorities, and the garrison of the
place.
Tho' Venice has fallen very much into decay, since the subversion of the
Republic, as might naturally be expected, and still more so since it has
been under the Austrian domination, yet it is still a place of great
wealth, particularly in jewellery, silks and all articles of dress and
luxury. In the Merceria you may see as much wealth displayed as in
Cheapside or in the Rue St Honore.
I have had the pleasure of witnessing a superb regatta or water fete,
given in honour of the visit of the Archduke Rainier to this city, in his
quality of Viceroy of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. There were about one
hundred and fifty barges, each fitted up by some department of trade and
commerce, with allegorical devices and statues richly ornamented,
emblematical of the trade or professions to which the barge belonged. Each
barge bore an appropriate ensign, and the dresses of the crew were all
tasteful, and thoroughly analogous to the profession they represented.
These barges are richly gilded, and from the variety of the costumes and
streamers, I thought it one of the most beautiful sights I ever beheld.
Here were the bankers' barge, the jewellers', the mercers', the tailors',
the shoe-makers', and, to crown all, the printers' barge, which showered
down from the masthead sonnets in honor of the fete, printed on board of
the barge itself.
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