THE GARDENS OF VENICE 
“I see,” he adds, “that this pilgrimage will be 
pleasant to him, if only it enables him to discover new 
plants and other rare things, and as he says himself, I 
am sure that he will return laden with them. 
The letters which Navagero wrote to his son-in-law 
during his absence, abound in descriptions of the 
wonderful gardens which he saw in Spain, and which 
he confesses are even more beautiful than those in 
Italy. The Moorish Alcazar at Seville seemed to him 
the most perfect of summer palaces, and its lovely 
patio, planted with shady orange and lemon trees, and 
watered with running streams from marble fountains, 
was the most delicious place which he had ever seen. 
In company with his noble friend, Count Baldassare, 
he visited the gardens of the Certosa on the banks of 
the Guadalquivir; and as they lingered in the pillared 
loggia among myrtle groves fragrant with the scent of 
roses, he envied the fortunate Carthusian friars who 
need only leave these enchanted regions to go to 
Paradise. From Granada he wrote glowing descrip¬ 
tions of the Alhambra halls and the Court of Lions, 
with its marvellous tiles and myrtle trellis, a place, 
he remarked, “ where it is always cool and fresh on the 
hottest day.” Leaving the Alhambra by a little door, 
he and Castiglione climbed the heights of the 
Generalife, and sat in a balcony cut out of the myrtle 
1 Cicogna, Iscrizioni, vi. 305. 
ll 9 
