CHAPTER XIX.
THE CANALE DI S.MARCO AND S.GIORGIO MAGGIORE Busy water--The lantern concerts--Venice and modern inventions--Fireworks in perfection--S.

Giorgio Maggiore--Palladian architecture--Two Tintorettos--The Life of S.Benedict--Realistic wood-carving--A Giudecca garden--The Redentore--A bridge of boats--A regatta--The view from the Giudecca--House-hunting in Venice.
Strictly speaking, the Grand Canal and the Canal of the Guidecca unite in the lagoon; but the stretch of water between the Molo and S.Giorgio is called the Canale di San Marco.

It is the busiest water of all.

Every little steamer crosses it; motor-boats here are always at full speed; most of the gondolas which are hired start from here; the great mercantile boats cross it on their way in and out of harbours; and the daily invaders from Trieste disembark and embark again in the very middle.

Hence it is always a scene of gay and sparkling movement and always more like a Guardi than any other spot in Venice.
It is just off the Custom House point, at night, that in the summer the concert barges are moored, each with its little party of musicians, its cluster of Venetian lanterns, arranged rather like paper travesties of the golden balls over S.Mark's domes, and its crowded circle of gondolas, each like a dark private box for two.