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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



would not look so queer if they both 

 leaned at the same angle ; but Torre Asi- 

 nelli, 320 feet high, leans four feet out 

 of plumb, while its unfinished companion, 

 only half so high, swings out 8. At one 

 time there were more than 200 towers 

 of this freakish, fortified-home class in 

 Bologna (see page 347). 



In contrast with these highly imagina- 

 tive products, the tall, graceful, ex- 

 quisitely proportioned campanile of San 

 Francesco, one of the finest and most 

 beautiful in Italy, covered with a delicate 

 network of decoration in terra-cotta, 

 seems all the more lovely. 



ferrara's palaces 



Peaceful Ferrara may justly claim to 

 be the first modern city in Europe. It 

 was the court and home of the great Este 

 family during the Renaissance, and Her- 

 cules I, with a foresight and spirit re- 

 markable in even that period of awaken- 

 ing and enlightenment, transformed his 

 cramped and crowded capital by plowing 

 it through with broad, straight streets 

 that let the air and sunshine in, and gave 

 the people — they probably grumbled bit- 

 terly at the change — room and health. 

 The most striking feature of the city 

 architecturally is the great, square, moat- 

 ed, heavily battlemented brick castle of 

 the Este, defended by a massive tower at 

 each corner, on top of which some genius 

 in 1554 clapped absurd little square, two- 

 storied cupolas like bird-cages. 



Not far away is the hospital where the 

 poet Tasso was confined seven years 

 while out of his mind — and also out of 

 favor. Another famous character in 

 Ferrara's story is Savonarola, born here 

 in 1452. 



THE RIVER PO 



Three miles north of Ferrara the coun- 

 try is ridged with the levees or embank- 

 ments that control the Po, which here 

 marks the boundary between JEmilia and 

 Venetia. The river is 417 miles long, 

 navigable for 337 miles for light-draft 

 w-^sels, and practically all of northern 

 Italy is included in its tremendous basin. 

 The great dikes hem it in on both sides 

 from Cremona to the delta, more than 

 300 miles. A Paleolithic race who dwelt 

 in the swampy lowlands beside the stream, 



in houses reared on stilts, were the first 

 dike-builders. This construction contin- 

 ued, until at the present time in several 

 places along its lower reaches the river- 

 bed, through silting up, is actually above 

 the level of the surrounding country. 

 The Po is also the main artery of an 

 interesting and complicated system of 

 canals which connect it with some of its 

 own tributaries, which are connected in 

 turn with one another by other canals, all 

 of which carry off water for irrigation 

 purposes. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF VENICE 



We have already seen something of the 

 splendor of Pisa as mistress of the seas, 

 but her power could not last forever. 

 Genoa, growing fast, sprang at her throat 

 in the battle of Meloria in 1284, and the 

 Pisan rule was over, so far as the seas 

 were concerned. La Superba, Genoa 

 called herself. Her flag swept its way 

 into port after port, until the whole 

 Levant knew its ominous beacon. Genoa's 

 progress, however, was far from smooth 

 sailing. Across the Italian peninsula an 

 active and increasingly powerful rival 

 was scouring the Adriatic ; and if Genoa 

 could call herself The Superb, Venice 

 was growing into a city-kingdom which 

 merited the title of The Magnificent. 

 Within a century after the maritime su- 

 premacy had been wrested from Pisa by 

 Genoa it was unwillingly passed on' to 

 Venice. 



From her very beginnings Venice pros- 

 pered beyond all proportion to her size ; 

 and before the end of the fifteenth cen- 

 tury was more than shadowed she owned 

 city after city to the west, vast colonial 

 empire by sea, held undisputed control 

 of the waters, and Avas the focus of the 

 whole world's trade, with a population 

 of nearly a quarter million.* 



EUGENIC SILKWORMS 



Not another province of Italy can show 

 so many and such diversified and profit- 

 able features as Lombardy. It is at once 

 an agricultural and a manufacturing re- 

 gion, the focal point of the peninsular 

 railway system into other countries, the 



*See "Venice," by Karl Stieler, with 45 illus- 

 trations, in the June, 1915, National Geo- 

 graphic Magazine. 



