Venice and its Story Part 18

The local museum possesses a unique collection of Venetian gla.s.s of the finest period by the Berovieri family and the Dalmatian Zorzi il Ballerin, some of the ancient luminous red gla.s.s contrasted with a modern imitation, and a Libro d'Oro with genealogies of members of this, the closest of the guilds of Venice (p. 213). Descendants of the Berovieri still work for Salviati.

SECTION XVIII

_Torcello--S. Francesco del Deserto_

The poor and almost desolate island of Torcello lies N.E. of Murano and may be reached by steamer, or by gondola with two rowers.

The ride by gondola is a delightful experience. As we are urged along the channels by the stalwart gondoliers with rhythmic strokes, lagoons, islands and mainland villages unfold themselves to our sight. A little group of cottages amid some poplars to the N.W. is all that remains of the once great and rich Roman city of Altinum. To the N.E., among the islands and groups of trees that seem to float mysteriously poised in the soft grey vaporous atmosphere, is S. Francesco del Deserto, with its cypress groves and solitary stone pine, where St Francis bade his little sisters the birds keep silence while he prayed (p. 73).

The tall, square campanile of Torcello has long been in view. We pa.s.s St James of the Marshes (S. Giacomo della Palude), now a powder magazine, then Burano, and at length enter a ca.n.a.l, pa.s.s under a decayed bridge,[119] and are landed at the edge of a sloping plot of gra.s.s, once the busy market-place of an important city. The cathedral of S. Maria has been twice restored or rebuilt (864 and 1088), but much of the material and probably the apse of the original basilica still survive in the actual fabric. Less than fifteen years since could be seen the old episcopal throne and semi-circular tiers of seats worn by generations of Christian pastors[120] as they sat amid their clergy facing the people.

But the seats have been rebuilt and the throne partly restored with ill-fitting slabs of cheap Carrara marble. We remember visiting the cathedral shortly after the renewal with a young Italian architect, who, to our expression of pained surprise, replied, _Ma signore, era in disordine_ (but, sir, it was so untidy). There is no _disordine_ now in the sc.r.a.ped and restored interior. Many of the original marbles, with beautiful and virile designs, however, still remain in the chancel; and in the facings of the pulpit stairs, hewn into blocks and placed in position by the old builders with small regard for continuity of design, we may perhaps gaze on the very stones brought from the mainland at the time of the great migration under Bishop Paul. The restored thirteenth-century mosaic of the Last Judgment on the W. wall, with its ingenuous realism and grim humour, is unrelated in style to anything in St Mark's, and is the a.n.a.logue of many a sculptured Gothic west front in northern Europe. The mosaic in the apse, the Virgin and the Twelve Apostles, with an Annunciation on the spandrils, is Byzantine in style, and believed by Saccardo to be late seventh-century work.

We note the old stone shutters of the windows as we pa.s.s to the campanile, which lost one-third of its height by a lightning stroke in 1640. A magnificent view of the lagoons and the mainland is obtained from the summit. The remarkable little church of S. Fosca, with its picturesque portico round the apse, is Byzantine in plan, and was in existence before 1011. It was restored in 1247 and again later. The cupola has disappeared and is replaced by a low tiled roof, but the four arches which carried the old dome still remain. A rudely-carved font of alabaster is worth notice. On our way back we may touch at the island of S. Francesco del Deserto. The friars give a gracious welcome, but true followers of the _poverello_ that they are, will accept no gifts in return save reverence and courtesy. A little church and monastery were built around the spot where St Francis prayed, and a small brotherhood have for seven centuries kept unbroken the traditions of their gentle father.

SECTION XIX

_S. Nicolo del Lido_

From the Riva degli Schiavoni, and from any pier on the Grand Ca.n.a.l, steamers at frequent intervals will carry the traveller to the _Lido di Malamocco_, popularly known as _the_ lido, one of the narrow sandbanks which, aided by the wit and industry of man, have preserved Venice from destruction by the patiently eroding, and at times, fiercely aggressive waves of the Adriatic. In earliest times it was covered with pine forest, and many an ancient Doge went hawking there. The Adriatic side, a line of bare, desolate sand dunes, visited only by a few lone fishermen when Byron used to take his daily rides on horseback to and fro between the fort and Malamocco, is now the most frequented bathing-station in North Italy. Along the sh.o.r.e "more barren than the billows of the ocean," Byron and Sh.e.l.ley rode one evening, and as the sun was sinking held that pregnant talk

"Concerning G.o.d, Freewill and Destiny,"

which is immortalised in _Julian and Maddalo_.

As the vessel steams along St Mark's Channel, will be seen on the left the once fair island of S. Elena, where the ashes of the mother of Constantine, the discoverer of the True Cross, are reputed to rest, and where many famous scions of the Giustiniani and Loredano families lie buried. But Vulcan has now laid his sooty hand upon it. The old monastery walls with their romantic investure of the _erba della Madonna_ and other mural plants, the cloister with its gardens and tangle of rose-bushes, are now demolished to give place to an iron-foundry; the church, once so magnificent within that it seemed a miracle of sumptuous decoration,[121] is now a machine-room (_magazzino da macchine_) and tall smoke-stacks smirch the sky.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VENICE FROM THE LIDO.]

The wanderer who cares for the more silent and intimate charm of Venice will, on the arrival of the steamer, turn aside from the thronged and dusty road to the bathing pavilion, follow to the N.E. the Via S.

Nicolo, and walk[122] along the sh.o.r.e by meadows bright in spring-time with blue salvia and the star of Bethlehem to the restored eleventh-century church of S. Nicolo inside the fort. The tomb of the founder (Doge Dom. Contarini) stands over the portal, and in a small chamber in the L. transept, now used as a lumber room, a short inscription of a dozen words tells that there lie the ashes of the stout old Imperial Vicar, "Famous Taurello Salinguerra, sole i' the world,"[123] who for seven months held Ferrara (p. 77) for his master, the great Frederick, against the allied forces of the Venetians and of the Lombard League. Here in olden times the galleys and argosies of the Republic called to take in sweet water for the voyage and to pray for protection to the mariners' patron saint, and here stood a fair and costly lighthouse. We retrace our steps to the Jewish cemetery and turn L. down a country lane which we follow as far as the Villa la Favorita; we turn again L. and reach the sh.o.r.e of the open Adriatic, saturated with indescribable tones of blue, from palest turquoise to deepest ultramarine, and dotted with the rich yellow and orange sails of fishing craft.

The walk may be pursued along the gra.s.s-grown ramparts of the old Austrian fort to the left, or we may turn to the more material seductions of the Stabilimento dei Bagni to the right.

SECTION XX

_Chioggia_

[Ill.u.s.tration: VENICE FROM THE SOUTH]

A still finer view of the Lidi is obtained by a voyage to Chioggia and back on the steamers which start from the Riva some half-dozen times daily, and if the voyager happen on a sunny, vaporous day he will enjoy a feast of gorgeous colour almost cloying in its richness.

On loosing from the Riva we steam along the ca.n.a.l Orfano, the legendary scene of the slaughter of the Franks and pa.s.s the islands of S. Servolo (now the lunatic asylum), S. Lazzaro with the Armenian convent and printing-press, S. Spirito and Poveglia. Beyond the porto of Malamocco on the lido of Pellestrina, a few hundred yards to the south of S.

Pietro in Volta, stands the little village of Porto Secco on the filled-up porto of Albiola, where the first stand was made against Pepin and his host (p. 16). The beautiful lines of the low-lying Euganean hills have long been in sight, and the richly coloured sails of the Chioggian fishing craft. We pa.s.s the porto of Chioggia and enter the harbour. It is said that the old Venetians were wont to distinguish each of the porti by the colour of the water that flowed through: Tre Porti on the N., which gives on the Torcello and Burano group of islands, being yellow; S. Erasmo (now filled up), blue; Lido, red; Malamocco, green; Chioggia, purple. Chioggia, to the jaded sightseer, has the inestimable advantage of offering nothing of interest save the descendants of a fine and stalwart race of islanders still retaining some of their old characteristic traits of costume and language. The admirable view of Venice as we return in the evening, gradually rising with her domes and towers from the sea, is not the least delightful part of a restful and charming excursion.

L'ENVOI

"The word _Venetia_," says Francesco Sansovino, "is interpreted by some to mean VENI ETIAM, which is to say, 'Come again and again'; for how many times soever thou shalt come, new things and new beauties thou shalt see."

APPENDIX I

LIST OF DOGES

Paolo Anafesta, A.D. 697-717.

Marcello Tegaliano, 717-726.

Orso Ipato, 726-737.

Six Mastro Miles, 737-742.

Orso Diodato, 742-755.

Galla Gaulo, 755-756.

Domenico Monegaro, 756-765.

Maurizio Galbaio, 764-787.

Giovanni Galbaio, 787-804.

Obelerio de' Antenori, 804-809.

Angelo Partic.i.p.azio, 809-827.

Giustiniano Partic.i.p.azio, 827-829.

Giovanni Partic.i.p.azio I., 829-836.

Pietro Tradenico, 836-864.

Orso Partic.i.p.azio I., 864-881.

Giovanni Partic.i.p.azio II., 881-887.

Pietro Candiano I., 887-888.

Pietro Tribuno, 888-912.

Orso Partic.i.p.azio II., 912-932.

Pietro Candiano II., 932-939.

Pietro Partic.i.p.azio, 939-942.

Pietro Candiano III., 942-959.

Pietro Candiano IV., 959-976.

Pietro Orseolo I., 976-977.

Vitali Candiano, 977-978.

Pietro Memo, 978-991.

Pietro Orseolo II., 991-1008.

Otho Orseolo, 1008-1025.

Domenico Centranico, 1026-1032.