A gay scene presents itself these bright moonlight nights, with the hundreds of boats, containing families, beautifully dressed ladies, and a fair share of strangers, floating gracefully along, while the balconies of the antique marble palaces of Gothic, Byzantine, and other styles of architecture are filled with their residents. The grateful and refreshing breeze disperses the smoke of the lovers of good cigars, and new objects of attraction are continually presented to the eye.
We will here step out for the present and wind our way through the narrow streets lined with tiny stores and shops filled with all that art and taste can conceive of, following the multitude like a swarm of bees through the intricate lanes and alleys from four to twelve feet in width, in order not to lose our way; we will suppose it is eight or nine o’clock in the evening, and they are proceeding to the public square San Marco, which has been lighted with gas since my last visit here. Venice has some four hundred cafés, and here under the porticos of the palaces forming the large piazza, or square, are twenty-five of them, with thousands of chairs and benches for the accommodation of the immense throng, where fashion and beauty partake of ices, and other refreshments, listening to the music of the Austrian band, the interim being filled with the songs and recitations of strolling minstrels. Baskets of confectionery are moving about in the crowd, and groups of promenaders saunter along the well-paved and commodious piazza, which has scarcely a particle of dust to soil their beautiful dresses. There in front stands the Cathedral San Marco, now nearly eight hundred years old, with its symmetrical cupolas and façade of porphyry and other antique marbles, its scriptural figures in golden mosaic, and its four bronze horses brought from Corinth, taken to Paris by Napoleon, but afterwards restored.
There stands the Campanilla, three hundred and thirty-four feet in height, from which a fair view may be obtained by daylight, and near by is the Doge’s Palace, in all its grandeur, communicating by the Bridge of Sighs with the prisons. The columns of the Lion of San Marco and Saint Theodore stand towering in bold relief as you approach the water’s edge, where hundreds of gondolas are waiting to receive their precious freight.
This is the bright side of the picture. My letter is now too extended to give in detail the private communications of those who suffer in spirit and in purse from the arbitrary exactions of the power which now gores them.
CXVI.
Como, Lake of Como, July 29, 1856.
Recovering from temporary indisposition at Venice, I made up for lost time in revisiting several cities already seen, such as Padua, Verona, Milan, Bergamo, Vicenza, and made several detours to visit points that I was not familiar with, such as the Lago di Garda, whose beautiful waters will compare favorably with Lago Maggiore and Lago Como.
The whole distance from the fortification of Peschiera to Riva, at the head of the Lake, is made by a small Austrian steamer in six hours, touching at the different villages upon its well cultivated banks, abounding with millions of orange and lemon trees—a source of a great profit for exportation. This region is protected by mountains, some as high as six thousand feet, with deep blue waters, romantic waterfalls, amphitheatred walls, olive groves and climbing vineyards all around. Although in the north of Italy, approaching Switzerland, the climate in winter is mild, and fogs are quite unknown; the Lake never freezes.
Proceeding to Milan, the Lombardian capital, by rail and land conveyance, I was induced to strike off south-east to visit Pavia, noted for its University containing nine hundred students, and its collection of anatomy and natural history. Twenty miles distant is Lodi, rendered memorable by Napoleon in the famous battle crossing the bridge over the rapid river Adda. I found great preparations making for the festival of the patron saint of the city, whose remains, dating from the fourth century, were being transmitted from the old vault in the basement or crypt of the cathedral to a new sculptured marble tomb. The sarcophagus was of solid silver, with double crystal plates inserted in the sides and cover, exposing to view the skeleton; the bones were joined together with silver wire, and reposed upon a couch of silk and velvet. The rush of the multitude was so great, I could scarcely gain access to the altar; men and women were there with rosaries and handkerchiefs in their hands; and a priest in attendance was busily engaged in passing these articles over the relics of the consecrated saint; after which, when communicated to an afflicted part, they were thought to give relief.
The beautiful plains through which I passed are irrigated at will with abundance of water; the aqueducts were lined with willows, and other trees, affording shade the entire length of the road between the two cities. The rice plantations are beautiful indeed, surpassing in verdure anything I have seen of the kind in the Carolinas or East Indies; but the miasma is productive of fevers, and the peasantry live in villages remote from the inundated fields.