On being asked by his gondolier where he would like to be rowed, he always said, "Towards the Lido," and after his failure to acquire the Palazzo Manzoni he thought seriously for a while of buying an unfinished Lido villa which had been begun for Victor Emmanuel.

Browning's desire was to see sunsets from it.
Mrs.Bronson tells us that the poet delighted in the seagulls, which in stormy weather come into the city waters.

He used to wonder that no books referred to them.

"They are more interesting," he said, "than the doves of St.Mark." Venice did not inspire the poet to much verse.

There is of course that poignant little drama entitled "In a Gondola," but not much else, and for some reason the collected works omit the sonnet in honour of Goldoni which was written for the ceremonies attaching to the erection of the dramatist's statue near the Rialto.