Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . silently pauses before themarble steps; we enter the colossaldoorway and a porter shows us the way,and greets us in the most undeniableFrench. This is the palace of theDuchess de Berri,—now the property ofthe Count de Chambord. No other ofthe splendid buildings of Venice whichI visited produces so deep an impres-sion of decay,—of the mixture of a glorious past with a squalid present. We walkedonward through corridors and saloons, past noble statues and muffled pictures. Herea splendid mirror showed a long crack ; there the yellow damask was all moth-eaten ;a
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . silently pauses before themarble steps; we enter the colossaldoorway and a porter shows us the way,and greets us in the most undeniableFrench. This is the palace of theDuchess de Berri,—now the property ofthe Count de Chambord. No other ofthe splendid buildings of Venice whichI visited produces so deep an impres-sion of decay,—of the mixture of a glorious past with a squalid present. We walkedonward through corridors and saloons, past noble statues and muffled pictures. Herea splendid mirror showed a long crack ; there the yellow damask was all moth-eaten ;and even our guide looked as grumpy and regretful as though all the fine thingsdecaying before our eyes had been his own. The lilies show proudly on the goldencradle that we pass by in our progress, but the ancient race of its owners is desolate ; allsorts of utensils and articles for the performance of religious ceremonies lie about in thelittle chapel, but no bell sounds there, and no taper is lighted. Impotence and stagnation. MONUMENT OF GENERAL FARNESE IN THE JESUITSCHURCH. VENICE. 7i declare themselves painfully in the midst of this splendour. It would be foolish to calcu-late the worth of such a building- by the price that it fetches ; but to show the deep fallfrom its glories of former days which Venice has experienced, I know no more strikingcomparison than that furnishedby the figures concerning thePalazzo Vendramin. This pa-lace, which was sold three hun-dred years ago for sixty thou-sand ducats, came into the pos-session of the Duchess de Berriin recent times, for six thousandducats! And so we hasten onwardbetween the long rows of palaces,to the end of the Grand Canal,to the island of Santa Chiara,where the Lagoon opens outand the sea begins. Great redbuoys, which serve to mark theway for navigators, balance them-selves on the waves, and thearches of the huge railwaybridsfe reach across to whereTerra firma shows dimly in thedistance. It is the longest bridgein th
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcavagnasangiulianidig, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870
