Ma chi t’ha troppo veduto te dispreggia.’
Englished and rhymed thus (though I know you need no translation, you understand so much of Italian):
‘Venice, Venice, none thee unseen can prize,
Who hath seen too much will thee despise.’
I will conclude with that famous hexastic which Sannazaro made of this rare city, which pleaseth me much better:
‘Viderat Hadriacis Venetam Neptunus in undis
Stare urbem, et toti ponere jura Mari;
Nunc mihi Tarpeias quantum vis, Jupiter, Arces
Objice, et illa tui mænia Martis ait,
Sic Pelago Tibrim præfers, urbem aspice utramque,