previous next

[162] Borgieri, one of a few literary hopes of Italy, who, as well as Confalonieri, has often been with us in our excursions before; and a Russian general. . . . . The whole drive was about thirty-five miles; we reached Milan at eight o'clock, and we all dined very happily with the Marquis.

Placentia, October 9.—While waiting for our supper last night, —which we were obliged to wait for a long time, as the heir apparent of the throne of Sardinia lodged at the same inn,—I amused myself with looking out, in the two great Roman historians, all the notices I could find of this little city. They were not very interesting, but somewhat curious. It was founded by a Roman colony, about A. U. 534, and seems to have been so well built and fortified-probably because it was a frontier town—as to serve for shelter to the Romans, etc., etc.


In this manner Mr. Ticknor occupied himself in each city as he advanced, giving many curious facts. Few travellers in these days care for such details and this kind of knowledge, and those who do find enough of them in their guide-books. These proofs of faithful search for knowledge are, therefore, not given.

October 15.—Early this morning, and still with the finest weather, we continued our journey . . . . At length we arrived at Fusina, and saw the Queen of the Adriatic, with her attendant isles, rising like an exhalation from the unruffled bosom of the deep. It was a beautiful spectacle, perfectly singular in its kind, and indescribable, and was so much the more touching to my feelings, as I now first saw the ocean after an exile from it of above two years. . . . .

The approach to Venice is striking and beautiful. The city is built, as it were, on the surface of the waves, and seems, at the first glance, just sinking into the deep waters. But on entering it, feelings very different take possession of you. You have left behind you the traces of vegetation; the animal creation seems to have forsaken you; you are in the midst of a great city, without its accustomed bustle and animation . . . . . Everything is strange, and everything seems uncertain; the very passage-ways are dark and narrow, and the massy architecture of the houses, ending in the water, seems to have no foundation . . . .

October 16.—Over its [St. Mark's] pronaon stand the four famous bronze horses, which must always be numbered among the finest remains of antiquity. Their early history is uncertain, and has lately

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)
hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
Elisha Ticknor (1)
Frederigo Confalonieri (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
October 16th (1)
October 15th (1)
October 9th (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: