Title:  Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal, No. 425 Volume 17, New Series, February 21, 1852

Author:  Various

Editor:  Robert Chambers & William Chambers

Release Date:  October 23, 2005 [EBook #16924]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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Chambers’Edinburgh journal

Conducted by William and Robert chambers, editors of ’Chambers’s
information for the people,’ ‘Chambers’s educational course,’ &c.

No. 425.  New series.  Saturday, February 21, 1852.  Price 1½_d_.

VENICE.

At six, on a bright morning, the 1st of September 1851, we left the quay of Trieste in the steamer for Venice.  We were in no particular mood upon the subject.  If anything, we rather feared that the famous City of the Sea might turn out to have been overpraised.  However, we resolved to be candid.

The morning passed pleasantly enough.  We admired the snowy tops of the Styrian Alps on the right, and the deep green of the Adriatic was beautiful.  We had calculated upon an eight hours’ voyage; but it was scarcely eleven o’clock when the pinnacles and towers of the city began to appear above the water’s edge to the west, taking us a little by surprise.  It was thenceforward an interesting occupation for an hour or so to watch these objects gradually rising out of the waves.  By and by, a large dome took its place amongst them; then some little domes and more pinnacles:  at length a connected range of city objects lay along the horizon, and this we knew was Venice.  The steamer by and by began to wind through some straits or channels of the sea, with fortifications covering the low banks on both sides.  It went on; and about one o’clock, under a bright sun, we found ourselves in an open space of sea, opposite the famous series of buildings composed of the Doge’s Palace, the Cathedral of San Marco, the Piazza, &c.—­objects perhaps of their kind the most generally known in Europe.

The first few minutes was a confused mixture of romantic association and solicitude about a right hotel.  Our thoughts slid with prosaic facility from the lion on the top of the obelisk, so well remembered from Canaletti’s pictures, to the sign of the Leone Bianca—­a place of entertainment not far off, much recommended by Murray.  I recalled the Byronian heroines sailing about in those gondolas, which we saw skimming away here and there, and wondered whether it would be best to go to Dameli’s or