The Rialto, the resort of the money changers and Jews, is a very singular and picturesque construction, being of one arch, a very bold one.  On each side of this bridge is a range of jewellers’ shops.  A narrow Quai runs along the banks of the Canale grande.

I have visited several of the Palazzi, particularly those of the families Morosini, Cornaro, Pisani, Grimani, which are very rich in marbles of vert and jaune antique; but they are now nearly stripped of all their furniture, uninhabited by their owners, or let to individuals, mostly shopkeepers; for since the extinction of the Venetian Republic almost all the nobility have retired to their estates on the terra firma, or to their villas on the banks of the Brenta; so that Venice is now inhabited chiefly by merchants, shopkeepers, chiefly jewellers and silk mercers, seafaring people, the constituted authorities, and the garrison of the place.

Tho’ Venice has fallen very much into decay, since the subversion of the Republic, as might naturally be expected, and still more so since it has been under the Austrian domination, yet it is still a place of great wealth, particularly in jewellery, silks and all articles of dress and luxury.  In the Merceria you may see as much wealth displayed as in Cheapside or in the Rue St Honore.

I have had the pleasure of witnessing a superb regatta or water fete, given in honour of the visit of the Archduke Rainier to this city, in his quality of Viceroy of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom.  There were about one hundred and fifty barges, each fitted up by some department of trade and commerce, with allegorical devices and statues richly ornamented, emblematical of the trade or professions to which the barge belonged.  Each barge bore an appropriate ensign, and the dresses of the crew were all tasteful, and thoroughly analogous to the profession they represented.  These barges are richly gilded, and from the variety of the costumes and streamers, I thought it one of the most beautiful sights I ever beheld.  Here were the bankers’ barge, the jewellers’, the mercers’, the tailors’, the shoe-makers’, and, to crown all, the printers’ barge, which showered down from the masthead sonnets in honor of the fete, printed on board of the barge itself.  Every trade or profession, in short, had a barge and appropriate flag and costumes.  A quantity of private barges and gondolas followed this procession.  The Archduke and his staff occupied the Government barge, which is very magnificent and made in imitation of the Bucentaur.  Musicians were on board of many of the barges, and the houses on both banks of the Canale Grande were filled with beautiful women and other spectators waving their handkerchiefs.  Guns were fired on the embarkation of the Viceroy from the Piazzetta di San Marco, and on his return.  The Piazza itself was splendidly illuminated, and the cafes which abound there, and which constitute one half of the whole quadrangle, were superbly and tastefully decorated.