As the first of the gondoliers came up to the ship… I recollected an old plaything, of which, perhaps, I had not thought for twenty years. My father had a beautiful model of a gondola which he had brought with him [from Italy] ; he set a great value upon it, and it was considered a great treat, when I was allowed to play with it. The first prows of tinned iron-plate, the black gondola-cages, all greeted me like old acquaintances, and I experienced again dear emotions of my childhood which had been long unknown.

I am well lodged… not far from the Piazza San Marco… My windows look upon a narrow canal between lofty houses, a bridge of one arch is immediately below me, and directly opposite is a narrow, bustling alley.

New dwellings arose close against dwellings… houses sought the sky, being forced like trees inclosed in a narrow space, to seek in height what was denied them in breadth. …Moreover, water supplied the place of street, square, and promenade. The Venetian was forced to become a new creature; and thus Venice can only be compared with itself. The Canal Grande, winding like a serpent, yields to no street in the world, and nothing can compare with the space in front of Piazza San Marco… that great mirror of water, which is encompassed by Venice Proper, in the form of a crescent. Across the watery surface… to the left the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, to the right a little further off the Guidecca and its canal, and still more distant the Dogana and the entrance into the Canal Grande, where right before us two immense marble temples are glittering in the sunshine.
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After dinner I hastened to fix my first impression of the whole, and without a guide, and merely observing the cardinal points, threw myself into the labyrinth of the city, which though everywhere intersected by larger or smaller canals, is again connected by bridges.
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I easily found the Canal Grande, and the principal bridge—the Ponte Rialto, which consists of a single arch of white marble. Looking down from this, one has a fine prospect,—the canal full of ships, which bring every necessary from the continent, and put in chiefly at this place to unload, while between them is a swarm of gondolas. To-day, especially, being the Feast of St. Michael, the view was wonderfully animated…

To-day a very pretty effect was produced, by the number of well-dressed ladies, who, their features concealed beneath large black veils, were being ferried over in large parties at a time, in order to go to the Church of the Archangel, whose festival was being solemnised.

After I had become tired… I seated myself in a gondola, and, quitting the narrow streets with the intention of witnessing a spectacle from the opposite side, went along the northern part of the Canal Grande, into the lagunes, and then entered the canal della Guidecca, going as far as the Piazza San Marco. Now was I also one of the birds of the Adriatic sea, as every Venetian feels himself to be, whilst reclining in his gondola. I then thought with due honour of my good father, who knew of nothing better than to talk about the things I now witnessed. And will it not be so with me likewise?