arble. The spire is
over 350 feet high. The marble slabs constituting the roof are about three
inches thick; how enormous the weight of that roof must be! Each of the
135 pinnacles or smaller spires is crowned with a statue, and throngs of
others (some 4,500) ornament the outside of this magnificent building. The
interior of this edifice is one of the most imposing in the world. As I
looked at the rich decorations and delicate traceries of its high ceiling,
150 feet above me, I felt as if no human being could be worthy of enjoying
such a magnificent view. But, "unless a language be invented full of
lance-headed characters, and Gothic vagaries of arch and finial, flower
and fruit, bird and beast," the beauties and glories of the temples of
Italy, and her unparalleled galleries of art, can never be described. From
Milan I went to Vicenza, where I spent a sleepless night in skirmishes
with the mosquitoes! The number and variety of obnoxious insects
multiplies fearfully as one approaches the topical regions. Thence I went
to

Venice.

As I was very much disappointed with Venice, I shall not occupy much time
in describing this _daughter of the sea_. The railway bridge which leads
to this city is about two miles long. I expected that a city whose streets
are canals and whose carriages are all boats, would present a very unique
appearance, but when I once saw them, they were so exactly what I had
anticipated, that I felt disgusted and left the city without doing justice
even to the vast collection of paintings in the Ducal Palace, which alone
is worth going a great distance to see.

San Marco.

The church of _San Marco_ is one of the grandest and most wonderful
structures in Italy, and I can only refrain from copying Ruskin's very
fine description of it, because his account, though true in every
particular, would, to one who has never seen any of the architectural
glories of Italy, seem more like the attempt of a poet to depict in
glowing language the vagaries of a dream, than like the description of an
edifice really in existance.

On the Piazza above the portal of San Marco, stand the celebrated bronze
horses "which Constantine carried from Rome to Constantinople, whence
Marino Zeno brought them hither in 1205; they were taken to Paris by
Napoleon in 1797, but restored by the Allies in 1815."

Chapter XVII.

Venice to Bologna.

In place of spending several days at Venice, as I now think I shou