ld have,
I left already in the afternoon at 3:35 o'clock, and reached Bologna that
evening. It required between 6 and 7 minutes to cross the bridge, over two
miles long, which connects Venice with the land. The water is not deep,
and most of this bridge is a mere bank of earth running into the sea. It
was on account of my being disgusted at the general unpretending
appearance of Venice, that I left her so soon. Among the objects of
interest that I saw between Venice and Bologna, was a herd of a hundred
deer on a hill-side, and the merry bells of stage-teams jingling like our
sleigh-bells, but which may be heard in Italy and Switzerland all the year
round. When I observed in my Satchel Guide that Bologna has two _leaning
towers_, one of them nearly 300 feet high leaning 4 feet, and the other
about half that height and leaning 8 feet, I determined to go and see
them. They are massive but plain brick structures, and it is difficult to
decide which way the higher one leans. The inclination of the lower one,
however, is decided, but presents nothing striking or threatening in its
appearance. I felt afraid that the Leaning Tower of Pisa might possibly
also fail to present anything that was remarkable or imposing to the
beholder when I would come to see it once, just as a thousand and one
other objects do which antiquity and poetry have rendered sacred and
famous; and I walked away with down-cast countenance and took passage for
Firenze (Florence).

Florence.

The Cathedral, (Il Duomo), begun in 1298, is 554 feet long; and 334 feet
through the transepts. The nave is 152 feet high; the cupola is 138 feet
in diameter or about the same as that of St. Peter's in Rome, for which it
also served Michael Angelo as a model.

Close by the cathedral is Giotto's Campanile, 300 feet high, the most
beautiful of all the towers that I have seen in Europe. The square blocks
of many colored marble with which its four sides are coated, produce a
richness of effect that is indescribable. Decorated from top to bottom
with all manner of statues and architectural ornamentations, "it is like a
toy of ivory, which some ingenious and pious monk might have spent his
life-time in adorning with sculptural designs and figures of saints; and
when it was finished, seeing it so beautiful, he prayed that it might be
miraculously magnified from the size of one foot to that of three
hundred." The view of this superb structure in connection with the grand