Military life in Italy : sketches - Societa italiana di storia militare

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102 MILITARY LIFE.
"
A new armistice has been concluded ;
we can leave the
"
camp who is ; coming to see Venice ?
" " I ! we all replied in one voice.
" Shall we "
go immediately
?
"Yes, immediately."
And all moved.
"
Carluccio, come with us ;
we are going to see Venice."
From our camp, situated in the neighborhood of Mestre,
Venice could not be seen ;
but in much less than an hour we
reached a point from which it was clearly visible ;
that point,
at which you turn from the highway leading
from Padua to
Mestre, toward Venice, into a little road which, on a high
embankment, goes as far as Fusina on the banks of the lagoon.
At that point there is a group of country houses, and an
inn well known and dear for the sake of two of the prettiest
little faces that I have ever seen since I possessed this pair of
eyes. We took the road to Padua, and started in the direction
of those houses. We had scarcely passed the inn, which
was the last of the houses, when Venice suddenly presented
itself
to view. The majority of us had never seen it ; and, therefore,
when we approached the hamlet, our hearts began to
beat furiously. We shall see it at last, we thought, this
blessed city, about which we have so often dreamed, which
we have often sighed for and invoked ! We counted our steps,
and the minutes and seconds, looking at one another and
smiling. Finally some one shouted :
" "
There it is All !
stopped a shiver ran from head to
;
foot,
and my blood was in a tumult. No one opened his mouth.
Before us was stretched an immense tract of barren, uncultivated
land, scattered here and there with fords and large