DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0203
Ch. IV.
THROUGH ITALY.
175
spected the above-mentioned monument of a
gallant man, and not disfigured it by forcing a
paltry gold pencil from the hand of a figure of
Fame: they might have spared a gaudy state
pageant, whose antique magnificence had for
ages delighted the eyes, and soothed the pride
of the Venetian commonalty. Yet such is the
peculiar cast of this people, whose armies at Ve-
nice, in every town in Italy, and indeed in al-
most every country they have over-run, have
uniformly added insult to rapacity, and have
wounded the feelings, while they plundered th^
property, of the miserable inhabitants.
But no public edifice does so much credit to
the State, as the noble rampart erected on the
Lido di Palestrina, to protect the city and port
against the swell and the storms of the Adriatic.
This vast pile, formed of blocks of Istrian stone
resembling marble, runs along the shore for the
space of nineteen miles, connects various little
islands and towns with each other, and if com-
pleted, would excel in utility, in solidity, in ex-
tent, and perhaps in beauty, the Piraeus, the mole
of Antium and of Ancona, and all other similar
works of either Greeks or Romans.
Of the churches in Venice, it may be observed
in general, that, as some of them have been built
THROUGH ITALY.
175
spected the above-mentioned monument of a
gallant man, and not disfigured it by forcing a
paltry gold pencil from the hand of a figure of
Fame: they might have spared a gaudy state
pageant, whose antique magnificence had for
ages delighted the eyes, and soothed the pride
of the Venetian commonalty. Yet such is the
peculiar cast of this people, whose armies at Ve-
nice, in every town in Italy, and indeed in al-
most every country they have over-run, have
uniformly added insult to rapacity, and have
wounded the feelings, while they plundered th^
property, of the miserable inhabitants.
But no public edifice does so much credit to
the State, as the noble rampart erected on the
Lido di Palestrina, to protect the city and port
against the swell and the storms of the Adriatic.
This vast pile, formed of blocks of Istrian stone
resembling marble, runs along the shore for the
space of nineteen miles, connects various little
islands and towns with each other, and if com-
pleted, would excel in utility, in solidity, in ex-
tent, and perhaps in beauty, the Piraeus, the mole
of Antium and of Ancona, and all other similar
works of either Greeks or Romans.
Of the churches in Venice, it may be observed
in general, that, as some of them have been built