Pencillings by the Way: Written During Some Years of Residence and Travel in EuropeWillis, Nathaniel Parker
General
Pencillings by the Way: Written During Some Years of Residence and Travel in Europe
Willis, Nathaniel Parker
Europe -- Description and travel
At a corner of the harbor, some three quarters of a mile from San
Marc, lies an island once occupied by a convent. Napoleon rased the
buildings, and connecting it with the town by a new, handsome street
and a bridge, laid out the ground as a public garden. We debarked at
the stairs, and passed an hour in strolling through shaded walks,
filled with the gay Venetians, who come to enjoy here what they find
nowhere else, the smell of grass and green leaves. There is a pavilion
upon an artificial hill in the centre, where the best lemonades and
ices of Venice are to be found; and it was surrounded to-night by
merry groups, amusing themselves with all the heart-cheering gayety of
this delightful people. The very sight of them is an antidote to
sadness.
In returning to San Marc a large gondola crossed us, filled with
ladies and gentlemen, and followed by another with a band of music.
This is a common mode of making a party on the canals, and a more
agreeable one never was imagined. We ordered the gondolier to follow
at a certain distance, and spent an hour or two just keeping within
the softened sound of the instruments. How romantic are the veriest,
every-day occurrences of this enchanting city.
We have strolled to-day through most of the narrow streets between the
Rialto and the San Marc. They are, more properly, alleys. You wind
through them at sharp angles, turning constantly, from the
interruption of the canals, and crossing the small bridges at every
twenty yards. They are dark and cool; and no hoof of any description
ever passing through them, the marble flags are always smooth and
clean; and with the singular silence, only broken by the shuffling of
feet, they are pleasant places to loiter in at noon-day, when the
canals are sunny.
We spent a half hour on the _Rialto_. This is the only bridge across
the grand canal, and connects the two main parts of the city. It is,
as you see by engravings, a noble span of a single arch, built of pure
white marble. You pass it, ascending the arch by a long flight of
steps to the apex, and descending again to the opposite side. It is
very broad, the centre forming a street, with shops on each side,
with alleys outside these, next the parapet, usually occupied by
idlers or merchants, probably very much as in the time of Shylock.
Here are exposed the cases of shell-work and jewelry for which Venice
is famous. The variety and cheapness of these articles are surprising.
The Rialto has always been to me, as it is probably to most others,
quite the core of romantic locality. I stopped on the upper stair of
the arch, and passed my hand across my eyes to recall my idea of it,
and realize that I was there. One is disappointed, spite of all the
common sense in the world, not to meet Shylock and Antonio and Pierre.
"Shylock and the Moor
And Pierre cannot be swept or worn away,"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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