ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



cornices open on to the blue lagoon. Through these 

 arched portals we look out across the shining waters to 

 the white towers and dark cypresses of San Michele, 

 and the distant furnaces of Murano. In one corner 

 of the gardens stands the Casa degli Spiriti, a pavilion 

 where festive gatherings were held in days of old, 

 and the midnight echoes of the revellers' voices, borne 

 across the waters, gave rise to the legend that the 

 house was haunted. As we look from the steps of 

 Villa Contarini at the dense cloud of smoke rising from 

 the chimneys of Murano on the opposite shore, it is 

 difficult to realise that this island was once famous 

 for its sumptuous pleasure-houses and gardens. Yet 

 so it was in the days of Gaspare Contarini and Pietro 

 Bembo, of Titian and Aretino. Then poets and 

 travellers alike extolled Murano as the most delightful 

 place in the world, dear above all to scholars and 

 thinkers, and meet to be the home of nymphs and 

 goddesses. They praised its balmy breezes and 

 sparkling fountains, its fields of musk and damask 

 roses, of violets and narcissus, its groves of citron and 

 orange, and beds of sweet-smelling mint, of rosemary 

 and lavender. 



" Much more/' exclaims Casola, " might be said 

 of Murano, and of its thousand delights, and how the 

 island is surrounded by waters and has the most 



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