THE GARDENS OF VENICE 
portico commanded a superb view of the Alps, and 
looked down on a piazza surrounded by colonnades, 
which rivalled those of St. Mark’s. The memory of 
the fetes given by the Contarini in honour of the French 
monarch is still preserved in the noble frescoes with 
which Tiepolo adorned the ceilings of the villa of 
Lions at Mira, and which have now found a home 
in the Musee Andre in Paris. There we may see 
the long procession of richly decorated barges which 
used once to float down the stream, and the delicious 
gardens with terraces and flights of steps that led to 
the pleasure-houses along its banks. The Mocenigo 
family owned a fine villa at Dolo, which boasted a 
facade painted by Varotari, while the palace of the 
Pisani at Stra was even more imposing, with its vaulted 
halls decorated by Tiepolo and its vast park and 
gardens. 
To-day all these splendours have vanished like a 
dream. As you float in a gondola down to Brenta, 
between banks of vivid green, under a sky of still 
more radiant blue, ruinous houses crumbling to decay 
and a few squalid peasant huts are the only buildings 
that meet the eye. The glorious loggia of Malcontenta 
is a mere shell. A few desolate ilex groves and 
cypress avenues are all that remain of the once 
famous gardens at Stra. Here and there you see a 
pair of ragged black-eyed children peering out 
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