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
I have spent my last day in Venice in visiting churches. Their
splendor makes the eye ache and the imagination weary. You would think
the surplus wealth of half the empires of the world would scarce
suffice to fill them as they are. I can give you no descriptions. The
gorgeous tombs of the Doges are interesting, and the plain black
monument over Marino Faliero made me linger. Canova's tomb is
splendid; and the simple slab under your feet in the church of the
Frari, where Titian lies with his brief epitaph, is affecting--but,
though I shall remember all these, the simplest as well as the
grandest, a description would be wearisome to all who had not seen
them. This evening at sunset I start in the post-boat for the
mainland, on my way to the place of Juliet's tomb--Verona. My friends,
the painters, are so attracted with the galleries here that they
remain to copy, and I go back alone. Take a short letter from me this
time, and expect to hear from me by the next earliest opportunity, and
more at length. Adieu.
LETTER XXXIV.
DEPARTURE FROM VENICE--A SUNSET SCENE--PADUA--SPLENDID
HOTEL--MANNERS OF THE COUNTRY--VICENZA--MIDNIGHT--LADY
RETURNING FROM A PARTY--VERONA--JULIET'S TOMB--THE TOMB OF THE
CAPULETS--THE TOMBS OF THE SCALIGERS--TWO GENTLEMEN OF
VERONA--A WALKING CHRONICLE--PALACE OF THE CAPULETS--ONLY COOL
PLACE IN AN ITALIAN CITY--BANQUETING HALL OF THE
CAPULETS--FACTS AND FICTION, ETC.
We pushed from the post-office stairs in a gondola with six oars at
sunset. It was melancholy to leave Venice. A hasty farewell look, as
we sped down the grand canal, at the gorgeous palaces, even less
famous than beautiful--a glance at the disappearing Rialto, and we
shot out into the Giudecca in a blaze of sunset glory. Oh how
magnificently looked Venice in that light--rising behind us from the
sea--all her superb towers and palaces, turrets and spires, fused into
gold; and the waters about her, like a mirror of stained glass,
without a ripple!
An hour and a half of hard rowing brought us to the nearest land. You
should go to Venice to know how like a dream a reality may be. You
will find it difficult to realize, when you smell once more the fresh
earth and grass and flowers, and walk about and see fields and
mountains, that this city upon the sea exists out of the imagination.
You float to it and about it and from it, in their light craft, so
aerially, that it seems a vision.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account