[A Rotogravure Etching of Venice Appears in This Issue Opposite Page
269]
When the Austro-German armies swept down through the Venetian plain last
October and November, leaving ruin in their wake, they were stopped at
the Piave River, whose waters flow into the lagoon a few miles east of
Venice. Though the Italian Army and Navy made a ring of steel around
the City of the Doges, and have held the enemy at bay from that time to
the present, the sounds of battle have been constantly in the ears of
the inhabitants, and frequent air raids have left jagged scars on many
buildings and even in the pavement of the Piazza San Marco.
[Illustration: ST. MARK'S CATHEDRAL IN WAR GARB: THE BRONZE HORSES HAVE
BEEN REMOVED FROM OVER THE MAIN ENTRANCE, AND PARTS OF THE FACADE ARE
PROTECTED]
Throughout the Winter of 1917-18 Venice remained a city without
tourists, its population dwindling from 150,000 to about 40,000, its
canals silent and almost empty of life, yet full of a new and wistful
beauty. The first days of peril had brought the enemy within twelve or
thirteen miles of Venice. From the Fondamento Nuovo, at the northern end
of the city, the people could see the flash of guns and the bursting of
shells. The roar of guns disturbed their work by day and their sleep by
night.