Andare, Partire, Tornare ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mary Shelly quote "There is something so different in Venice from any other place in the world, that you leave at once all accustomed habits and everyday sights to enter enchanted ground. We live in a palace; though an inn, such it is: and other palaces have been robbed of delicately-carved mouldings and elegant marbles, to decorate the staircase and doorways. You know the composition with which they floor the rooms here, resembling marble, and called everywhere in Italy Terrazi Veneziani; this polished uniform surface whose coloring is agreeable to the eye, gives an air of elegance to the rooms; then, when we go out, we descend a marble staircase to a circular hall of splendid dimensions; and at the steps, laved by the sea, the most luxurious carriage - a boat, invented by the goddess of ease and mystery, recieves us. Our gondolier, never mind his worn-out jaket and ragged locks, has the gentleness and courtesy of an attendant spirit, and his very dialect is a shred of romance; or, if you like it better, of classic history: bringing home to us the language and accents, they tell us, of old Rome. For Venice
Has floated down, amid a thousand wrecks Uninjured, from the Old World to the New." --Mary Shelly "Letters from Venice" 11:20 a.m. - 2001-08-21 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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