f
barbaric splendor.

Just opposite the entrance to the Church of San Marco stands the lofty
Campanile, reaching to a height of three hundred feet, and which was
over two hundred years in building. A view from its summit is one of the
sights not to be missed in this city, as it affords not only a splendid
picture of Venice itself, but the city and lagoons lie mapped out before
the eye in perfection of detail, while in the distance are seen the
Adriatic, the Alpine ranges, and the Istrian Mountains. The Campanile is
ascended by a winding way in place of steps, and there is a legend that
Napoleon rode his horse to the top, a feat which is certainly possible.
In this lofty tower Galileo prosecuted his scientific experiments.

Petrarch wrote that Venice was the home of justice and equity, refuge
of the good; rich in gold, but richer in renown; built on marble, but
founded on the surer foundation of a city worthy of veneration and
glory. But this is no longer the Venice he described; no longer the city
of grasping and successful ambition, of proud and boastful princes. It
has become what pride, ostentation, and luxury in time must always lead
to. It presents to-day a fallen aspect--one of grandeur in rags. No
argosies are bound to foreign ports, no princely merchants meet on the
Rialto; that famous bridge is now occupied on either side by Jews' shops
of a very humble character; and yet do not let us seem to detract from
the great interest that overlies all drawbacks as regards the Venice
even of the present hour.

The Academy of Fine Arts is reached by crossing the Grand Canal, over
the modern iron bridge, which, with that of the Rialto, a noble span of
a single arch, built of white marble, forms the only means of crossing
the great water-way, except by gondola. This remarkable gallery contains
almost exclusively works by Venetian artists. Here we find a remarkable
representation of the "Supper of Cana," which is nearly as large as the
"Paradise." It is considered by competent critics, to be one of the
finest pieces of coloring in existence. Here we have some of Titian's
best productions, and those of many Italian artists whose pictures are
not to be found elsewhere. The gallery, like all of the famous ones of
Europe, is free to every one, either for simple study, or for copying.
This is the collection which Napoleon I. said he would give a nation's
ransom to possess. On the way to the Academy the guide points out the
Bar