[Illustration: READING ROOM]


On the right hand of the main door is a large _Public Drawing
Room,_ style of 1700, with handsome stucco-work, and gilt furniture
covered with rich stuffs, with the hangings and wall-coverings all _en
suite_. This room alone would repay a visit to the hotel. Some idea
can be formed of it from the following engravings, though, of course,
the full effect of its richness and color is lost. In the two palaces
there are a number of other such drawing-rooms, besides a concert hall,
ballroom, music room and billiard room, &c. There are also bath rooms
and douche baths on every floor. On the ground floor are the
_kitchens_, the _wine cellars_, the _ice cellars_, the apparatus
for _heating_ the whole buildings by steam, thus spreading a
uniform temperature throughout the two Palaces. Here is also the
machinery for the _lifts_, the centre for the distribution of the
_electric light_ and the boilers and _syphons_ for giving _hot water_
direct into all the apartments. All this deserves being examined from
the novelty of the systems employed and from the exquisite order and
tidiness which everywhere reigns.

We will not describe the _bedrooms_ and _sitting rooms_,
except to say that they have all been recently done up and richly
furnished with the utmost artistic taste and are all lit with
electricity. Many of the apartments have been preserved in the original
style, especially the _Saloon of the Doges_, No. 9, which with the
adjoining rooms, Nos. 10, 11 and 12, all of which overlook the Riva
degli Schiavoni and the magnificent panorama already described.