Chapter I: Preface

The chapters of which this volume is composed have with few exceptions already been collected, and were then associated with others commemorative of other impressions of (no very extensive) excursions and wanderings. The notes on various visits to Italy are here for the first time exclusively placed together, and as they largely refer to quite other days than these--the date affixed to each paper sufficiently indicating this--I have introduced a few passages that speak for a later and in some cases a frequently repeated vision of the places and scenes in question. I have not hesitated to amend my text, expressively, wherever it seemed urgently to ask for this, though I have not pretended to add the element of information or the weight of curious and critical insistence to a brief record of light inquiries and conclusions. The fond appeal of the observer concerned is all to aspects and appearances--above all to the interesting face of things as it mainly _used_ to be.

H. J.

CONTENTS

VENICE
THE GRAND CANAL
VENICE: AN EARLY IMPRESSION
TWO OLD HOUSES AND THREE YOUNG WOMEN
CASA AL VISI
FROM CHAMBÉRY TO MILAN
THE OLD SAINT-GOTHARD
ITALY REVISITED
A ROMAN HOLIDAY
ROMAN RIDES
ROMAN NEIGHBOURHOODS
THE AFTER-SEASON IN ROME
FROM A ROMAN NOTE-BOOK
A FEW OTHER ROMAN NEIGHBOURHOODS
A CHAIN OF CITIES
SIENA EARLY AND LATE
THE AUTUMN IN FLORENCE
FLORENTINE NOTES
TUSCAN CITIES
OTHER TUSCAN CITIES
RAVENNA
THE SAINT’S AFTERNOON AND OTHERS

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE HARBOUR, GENOA (Frontispiece)
FLAGS AT ST. MARK’S, VENICE
A NARROW CANAL, VENICE
PALAZZO MOCENIGO, VENICE
THE AMPHITHEATRE, VERONA
CASA ALVISI, VENICE
THE SIMPLON GATE, MILAN
THE CLOCK TOWER, BERNE
UNDER THE ARCADES, TURIN
ROMAN GATEWAY, RIMINI
SANTA MARIA NOVELLA, FLORENCE
THE FAÇADE OF ST. JOHN LATERAN, ROME
THE COLONNADE OF ST. PETER’S, ROME
CASTEL GANDOLFO
ENTRANCE TO THE VATICAN, ROME
VILLA D’ ESTE, TIVOLI
SUBIACO
ASSISI
PERUGIA
ETRUSCAN GATEWAY, PERUGIA
A STREET, CORTONA
THE RED PALACE, SIENA
SAN DOMENICO, SIENA
ON THE ARNO, FLORENCE
THE GREAT EAVES, FLORENCE
BOBOLI GARDENS, FLORENCE
THE HOSPITAL, PISTOIA
THE LOGGIA, LUCCA
TOWERS OF SAN GIMIGNANO
SAN APOLLINARE NUOVO, RAVENNA
RAVENNA PINETA
TERRACINA

VENICE

It is a great pleasure to write the word; but I am not sure there is not a certain impudence in pretending to add anything to it. Venice has been painted and described many thousands of times, and of all the cities of the world is the easiest to visit without going there. Open the first book and you will find a rhapsody about it; step into the first picture-dealer’s and you will find three or four high-coloured “views” of it. There is notoriously nothing more to be said on the subject. Every one has been there, and every one has brought back a collection of photographs. There is as little mystery about the Grand Canal as about our local thoroughfare, and the name of St. Mark is as familiar as the postman’s ring. It is not forbidden, however, to speak of familiar things, and I hold that for the true Venice-lover Venice is always in order. There is nothing new to be said about her certainly, but the old is better than any novelty. It would be a sad day indeed when there should be something new to say. I write these lines with the full consciousness of having no information whatever to offer. I do not pretend to enlighten the reader; I pretend only to give a fillip to his memory; and I hold any writer sufficiently justified who is himself in love with his theme.