The Venice Collection

When we remember the dirty roads of Rome and Naples, when we think about the bare and narrow streets of Florence or Siena, when we later admire these marble palaces, these marble bridges, theses marble churches, the superb lacework of these columns, balconies, windows, of these gothic, moorish and byzantine cornices and we gaze at the universal presence of the shiny floating water, we wonder why we did not come here straight before, instead of losing two months of visiting other places, we wonder why we did not spend all the time in Venice.

Hippolyte Taine (“A Journey to Venice”, Danièle Ohnheiser, Palombi Editori)