The Riva is then crowded, while gondolas put out in great numbers, and myriad overloaded crafts full of poorer sightseers enter the lagoon by all the small canals.

Having seen Venetian pyrotechny, one realizes that all fireworks should be ignited over water.

It is the only way.

A rocket can climb as fiercely and dazzlingly into any sky, no doubt, but over land the falling stars and sparks have but one existence; over water, like the swan "on St.Mary's lake," they have two.

The displays last for nearly an hour, and consist almost entirely of rockets.