FRONTIER CITIES OF ITALY 



569 



water supply. The statue surmounting 

 it. Madonna Verona, is of ancient Rome, 

 but the head is a very poor medieval res- 

 toration and the tin crown is pathetic or 

 monstrous, dependent upon your own 

 mood (see page 558). 



the; lion of ST. mark (page 568) 



The beautiful marble column, sur- 

 mounted by the Hon of St. Mark, at the 

 northern end of the piazza, was erected 

 in 1523 by the Venetians, to whom Ve- 

 rona had then belonged, but for brief in- 

 tervals, for more than a hundred years. 

 The last of the Scala had been expelled 

 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1387, and 

 thereafter the town was a pawn hotly 

 contested by its neighbors and the Ger- 

 man emperors until Venice took and held 

 her until the time of Napoleon. From 

 1814 until 1866 she belonged to Austria. 



The lion was displaced in 1797, but 

 reerected — no longer a sign of sover- 

 eignty, but of gratitude — -in 1888; one 

 cannot fancy the market-place without 

 him. Round about it rise the palaces of 

 the Scaligeri, and, as already noted, upon 

 some can yet be traced the frescoes that 

 were the usual embellishment of Italian 

 houses in their day. Some of Verona's 

 most noted painters adorned these pal- 

 aces — Girolama dai Libri, Liberale da 

 Verona, Alberto Cavalli — scarcely to be 

 mentioned, however, with the other two. 

 What pity it is that so much skill and 

 color and beauty must perish thus ! 



where; DANTE DWElvT 



Through the little Via Costa we reach 

 the Piazza dei Signori, a small, beauti- 

 fully paved square walled by palaces, as 

 quiet and grave as the Piazza delle Erbe 

 is colorful and noisv. Here lived the 

 richest of the Scala ; here in the days of 

 their affluence they entertained distin- 

 guished visitors not precisely as "angels 

 unawares," but eagerly gathered in when 

 banished from Florence or ]\Iilan. Giotto 

 was here, but has left no traces behind 

 him ; and Dante, who sang of Can Grande, 

 his host, in more than one line. 



There has ever been much strife over 

 just which lines these are : those who find 

 Can Grande in the "veltro," the grey- 

 hound, of the first canto of the Inferno, 

 are contradicted sharply ; those who 



maintain that the scenes of the Inferno 

 are laid in that waste of gray rock north 

 of Lake Garda are quickly informed that 

 Dante sang of upper Lombardy. What 

 matters it? Dante was here a visitor in 

 Verona, and in the Piazza dei Signori 

 stands his statue to attest it. The love- 

 liest building on the piazza, perhaps the 

 finest of its kind in northern Italy, is the 

 Palazzo del Consiglio, usually called La 

 Loggia (see page 562). 



GRAVEYARD OF THE SCAEIGERI 



In the adjacent Via Santa Maria Antica 

 and adjoining the church of that name is 

 the private graveyard of the Scaligeri. 

 The space is tiny and the monuments 

 large ; they tower above one's head until 

 the winged helmets of the statues cut the 

 sky like swallows ; they are conceived in 

 sternest Gothic style, suiting the grim 

 men whom they immortalize ; they are 

 railed with beautiful grilles in which 

 their tiny ladder climbs up and down and 

 repeats itself unendingly (see page 565). 



Presumably they had wives, but none 

 are here ; this is no place for ladies. 

 Three bear equestrian statues, and on 

 two of these the visor is lifted, and one 

 at least smiles down upon the visitor ; 

 but the third, Mastino II, wears the visor 

 close shut, and for that Verona tells this 

 tale. A very successful ruler indeed, as 

 medieval rulers go, was this della Scala, 

 but most unscrupulous. So long as he 

 had aught to gain, he smothered con- 

 science ; but when his life was nearly 

 run — no della Scala lived to very great 

 age — he began to bethink him of his sins 

 and could not face the sun. Not even 

 his well-beloved and faithful wife might 

 look upon his features, so marked they 

 were with shame ; and thus he rides to- 

 day with closed helmet, and 550 years 

 after him the swallows shriek his name. 



MOST PERFECT GOTHIC MONUMENT 



Over a gateway near the church of 

 Sant' Anastasia. to the left, between it 

 and the little old church of San Pietro 

 Alartire, is another tomb, which Ruskin 

 called "the most perfect Gothic monu- 

 ment in the world." It belonged to Count 

 Guglielmo da Castelbarco, Dante's friend 

 and host at Rovereto. in the mountains 

 bevond Lake Garda. There is something 



