Treviso (18 miles. Hotels-Stella D'Oro and Cerva ; At Treviso we changed carriages, leaving the main line for the Belluno branch, and by missing a train we saw the chief objects of interest in this town, whose position, between two streams, Dante, who lived a short time here, describes in Paradiso, Canto IX. :— "E dove Sile e Cagnan s'accompagna." Treviso claims to be a very ancient place, and many memorials, still in existence, of ages long gone by, support the claim. It was the old Latin Tarvisium, and from some inscriptions on stones that have been dug up, it appears to have been a Roman Municipium, and its people to have been enrolled in the tribe or township of Claudia. Passing over the intervening centuries, when it was ruled by Goths, Longobards, and Germans, and by the Eccelini, the Counts of Carnino, and the Scalieri, we come down to the year 1339, when it fell into the hands of Venice. Venice, like Rome, had a marvellous power of attaching conquered people to itself, for in 1344, five years after Treviso was subdued, we find its Council, by a unanimous and spontaneous vote, making over to Venice "their city, castles, properties, tribunals, and all their rights," and from that time till the fall of the Republic in 1796, the people never swerved from their loyalty. Treviso has been sorely modernised, although it has still some fine old buildings, and is in part surrounded, if not protected, by its old walls and moats, with massive gateways and shady boulevards. On a rising ground in the centre of the town, about a mile from the railway station, are the Piazza dei Signori, and the Piazza dell' Independenza, and around them are the chief public buildings. These are the Provincial Palace, the Pinacoteca, and the Palace of the Grand Council of Three Hundred. The Provincial Palace is a large, handsome, modern building, with the Tower of the Commune rising "stately and air-braving" from its midst. The Pinacoteca, or Picture Gallery, contains about three hundred pictures, none of which, however, are of any great value. Many years ago the fine old twelfth-century Palace of the Council of Three Hundred, which divides the two piazzas, was "restored,” by having its great outside staircase taken away, and its large Byzantine windows reduced to modern small square ones. An ugly scar witnessed to where the staircase once was, and, as is the case in dozens of palaces in Venice, the forms of the original windows showed themselves, protesting against their ungraceful supplanters. The witness and the protest have not been in vain, for the other day the Minister of Public Instruction visited Treviso, and ordered that the Hall should be restored to its original grandeur, the expense to be borne by the Government and the Province. In the centre of the Piazza dell' Independenza is a monument with the words, "Ai Morti per la Patria," raised to those who fell fighting the battle of independence against Austria, which, begun in 1848, only ended in 1866. On the wall of the old Palace are inscribed their names, with the words, “ Morti sul campo di battaglia, o per ferite riportate, o fucilate per l'Independenza d'Italia." Thus the Italians show their gratitude to their patriot martyrs, and keep alive in their own hearts their love of liberty. As throwing light on the condition of the people, politically and intellectually, before and after the memorable year 1866, I may mention the following fact. During the sixtyeight years of Austrian rule, that is, from 1798 to 1866, no newspaper was ever published in Treviso. On October 21, 1866, the plebiscite was taken which united it to the Kingdom of Italy, and before the year was out La Gazzetta had appeared, to be followed soon after by La Provincia di Treviso, and then, a few years after, by the Progresso, the Carriere and others, until to-day Treviso is as well supplied with newspapers as any other provincial town. In a street running off the Via dell' Independenza is the Loggia dei Cavalieri, built in 1195, which served, like the Loggia at the foot of the Campanile of St. Mark's, Venice, as the meeting-place of the nobles. It is a square building with five arched entrances on either side; its roof projects, resting on carved beams, under it are coats of arms, and its walls were frescoed inside and outside. It was allowed to fall into such decay that latterly it has served as a builder's yard. Its day of restoration, however, is at hand, for the Minister of Public Instruction has given orders that it should be preserved as a national monument. The Duomo is a great empty building, and, with the exception of an altar-piece, which is a noble Annunciation, and a head of the Virgin by Titian, a small picture by Paris Bordone, and the Adoration of the Magi, by Pordenone, it contains little to reward examination. In the Biblioteca there is a fourteenth-century manuscript Bible, with beautiful letters in colour and gold, and a Dante, said to have been presented by the poet's son. The bridge "Where the Sile and Cagnano flow together" is called the Ponte Dante, and on it there is erected a large marble monument to the poet. By far the most interesting church in Treviso is that of San Nicolò. It is a noble Gothic structure erected about 1300. The first thing that strikes the eye on entering it are frescoes that circle round its massive stone pillars. They are of the same age as the church, and are thought to be the work of Tomaso of Modena. The subjects are disconnected scenes from the lives of the apostles and saints. On the southern wall is a gigantic fresco of St. Christopher, reaching almost from the floor of the church to its ceiling. The swollen waters of the river are shown rushing around him full of fish, whilst he, with the infant Christ on his shoulder, and a tree-like staff in his hand, boldly fords it. The size of the fresco is explained by the tradition that on the day one saw St. Christopher no evil would befall him, and so his figure was often painted outside a church, as well as inside, during a time of plague. This one was painted in 1410 by Antonio of Treviso. The church contains pictures by Giovanni Bellini, Palma Giovane, Bassano, Sebastiano dal Piombo, Marco Vecellio, |