SANTA MARIA DELLA SALUTE.
ALONG THE SHORE.
Around it, on two sides, are long arcades of marble columns, the lower ones adorned with sculptures in relief, the upper ones ending in graceful circles pierced with quatrefoils. Above them is the crowning glory of the building,—a beautiful expanse of variegated marble, with intricate designs running diagonally over its surface. At every corner the twisted column of Byzantine architecture is observed, and on the border of the roof a fringe of pinnacles and pointed arches cuts its keen silhouette against the sky. The lower columns seem perhaps a trifle short, but this is because the building has gradually settled toward the sea, as if unable to support the burden of its years and memories.
By day this palace is superbly beautiful; but, in the evening, when illumined by the moon, or flooded with electric light, it is, perhaps, the most imposing structure in the whole of Europe. At such a time it looks like an immense sarcophagus of precious stone, in which the glories of old Venice lie entombed. The colonnades around the Ducal Palace give perfect shelter from the sun or rain, and hundreds stroll here through the day, having the somber palace on the one side, and, on the other, all the gaiety of the Grand Canal. But in the evening, when the adjoining St. Mark's Square is thronged with promenaders, and music floats upon the air, the arcade is to the Piazza what a conservatory is to a ball-room. Lovers invariably find such places, for not even the moonbeams can penetrate these shadows. At such a time the promenades seem shadowy lanes of love conducting from the gay Piazza to the waiting gondola.
