to have studied the famous tree in The Death of Peter Martyr. Here he
entertained the great and noble of his day, and here he feasted and made
merry with the gentle sculptor Sansovino, and with their common friend,
the rascal-poet Aretino. The painter's and the sculptor's wives knew each
other, and Sansovino's Paola was often in the house of Cecilia Vecellio;
[Footnote: The wife of Titian's youth was, according to Ticozzi, named
Lucia. It is in Mutinelli that I find allusion to Cecilia. The author of
the _Annali Urbani_, speaking of the friendship and frequent meetings
of Titian and Sansovino, says,--"Vivevano ... allora ambedue di un amore
fatto sacro dalle leggi divine, essendo moglie di Tiziano una Cecilia." I
would not advise the reader to place too fond a trust in any thing
concerning the house of Titian. Mutinelli refers to but one house of the
painter, while Ticozzi makes him proprietor of two.] and any one who is
wise enough not to visit the place, can easily think of those ladies
there, talking at an open window that gives upon the pleasant garden,
where their husbands walk up and down together in the purple evening
light.

In the palace where Goldoni was born a servant showed me an entirely new
room near the roof, in which he said the great dramatist had composed his
immortal comedies. As I knew, however, that Goldoni had left the house
when a child, I could scarcely believe what the cicerone said, though I
was glad he said it, and that he knew any thing at all of Goldoni. It is a
fine old Gothic palace on a small canal near the Frari, and on the Calle
del Nomboli, just across from a shop of indigestible pastry. It is known
by an inscription, and by the medallion of the dramatist above the land-
door; and there is no harm in looking in at the court on the ground-floor,
where you may be pleased with the picturesque old stairway, wandering
upward I hardly know how high, and adorned with many little heads of
lions.