281. _Shall I be alive._ According to Giotto's plan the tower was to
have had a spire fifty braccia or cubits (about 95 feet) high. This
spire has never been built.
"DE GUSTIBUS--"
The whole phrase is _De gustibus non disputandum_--"there is no
disputing about tastes." Browning is writing to a friend who prefers an
English landscape while the poet himself declares in favor of Italy.