path dropped between steep
banks, the soil being occupied by vines and olives, with a little shrine
perched on one of the banks. In the middle distance Isola lay like a
jewel upon the sea, opalescent with delicate blue shadows and the
indescribable tints of grey stone buildings at a distance in sunlight;
with the campanile crowning the slight elevation of the clustered
houses. Beyond were the horns of the Bay of Capodistria and the
highlands of the Julian Alps, blue in the shadow of the declining sun. A
few lighter houses scattered along the peninsula served to soften the
transition from the grey town to the green country.

The town is at least as old as the beginning of the eleventh century,
for in 1041 it was ceded to the monastery of Aquileia; at this time it
was probably unwalled, for in 1165 the Abbess Valperta allowed the
inhabitants to remove to Monte Albuciano and build fresh houses there,
as they did not feel secure. After the dedition to Venice in 1280 it was
strengthened; but that did not prevent a body of the patriarch's troops
scaling the walls and taking it on August 25, 1379, to be driven out a
few days after by the podestas of Capodistria, Pirano, and Umago. Since
1411 it has been joined to the Capodistria road by a bridge, and no one
would now suppose that it was originally--as its name denotes--an
island. Nine square towers defended the walls, and the principal gate
was protected by a barbican. The ditch was so useful to the people in
peaceful times that the commune threatened with severe penalties those
who went by night to deposit in it the refuse of their houses and
stables. No trace of these works now remains.

The _Colleggiata_ is a late Renaissance building, but contains some
interesting things, including a picture by Girolamo Santa Croce of the
Madonna enthroned, with SS. Nicholas and Joseph, and a child angel with
a violin on the plinth, signed and dated 1537, but restored. The
treasury contains a fine monstrance of silver, Gothic in design, with
bands of pierced work and tabernacles at the sides on twisted columns.
It has a spire-like top with windows and pinnacles between round its
base, a feature which is repeated on the knop. In the seventeenth
century several figures were added or replaced and the stem repaired.
The Scuola dei Battuti, built in 1451, has a door with a frescoed
tympanum beneath a pointed arch on brackets, a good deal
weather-worn--Madonna sheltering the penitents beneath h