344 
THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
VENETIAN GARDENS AND VILLAS.-INTRODUCTORY. 
T he traveller proceeding from Tuscanv through Padua leaves the mainland at Fusina bv the 
Venetian boat. In the evening light the long lines of the City State stretch across 
the lagoon, extended by the outlying coast-line of the Lido and the Malamocco barrier. 
The mirage effect of Venice so approached is strengthened if, on landing on the 
Riva Schiavone, the traveller passes to the far end of the Piazza before turning to glance at 
St. Mark’s. This view, framed by the arcades of the Piazza, realises the dream palace of 
.Aladdin, and the insubstantiality of the fabric is established by the contrast of the sober 
seriousness of the great 
Byzantine brick - built 
Campanilli. It is well 
for the traveller and 
artist to realise that 
beneath the fantastic 
surface decoration of 
St. Mark’s the same 
structural and sober 
architecture of the early 
founders of Venice still 
exists. It is thus a 
mirror of Venetian life, 
which has always had 
the background of a 
solid and serious 
labouring population, 
whose existence may 
too easily escape the 
attention of the passing 
visitor and lead him 
to suppose that Venice 
is a colossal Earl’s 
Court and that the 
native is an idler of the 
worst description. 
To the end of time 
Italian Renaissance 
architecture is likely to 
be grouped in the three 
main schools — the 
Florentine, Roman and 
Venetian, of w'hich the 
last is likely to remain 
the most popular. 
OF STUCCOWORK BY VTTTORi.v AT MASER. When Michelangelo 
.indrea Palladio, .irchtlecl. paid his famOUS visit tO 
356.- 
