[Illustration: PANORAMAS FROM THE BALCONIES OF THE PALAZZO DANDOLO
(NOW HOTEL ROYAL DANIELI)]


[Illustration: PANORAMAS FROM THE BALCONIES OF THE PALAZZO DANDOLO
(NOW HOTEL ROYAL DANIELI)]


It will surely be agreeable to the travellers who come to lodge in
this remarkable building to know its origin and its history. We propose
to give them a rapid sketch of both; and we believe it will not be
uninteresting to them to know that in the halls and chambers they
inhabit, some of the most important acts of the great Venetian Republic
have been discussed and decided upon; and that in this Palace besides
Doges and Senators, Kings and Ambassadors, Alfred de Musset (then a fair
and charming young man in delicate health) took up his abode, in 1833,
and Balzac, mme George Sand (who here wrote her novel _Leone
Leoni_), and Victor Feuillet, who, for his magnificent romance
«L'Honnêteté», drew his inspiration from Venetian subjects.

But to return to the ancient history of the Palace (now Hotel Royal
Danieli) it was built in 1400, by one of the Dandolo families, but
whether by that of the great Doge, Enrico Dandolo, is not quite certain.
In the _Chronicles of Malipiero_ which date from 1457 to 1500 we
find the following passage «Today, the 28th August 1498, have arrived
the Ambassadors of Florence, Rucellai and Vespucci; who are lodged in
the Palazzo Dandolo, in the Calle delle Razze». We should here remark
that the beautiful Gothic door, in the Calle delle Razze was originally