This time there was no misplaced sentiment about it: Otto Stierlitz was back and had to be lost again. Having learned from their previous mistakes, George, Tobias and Isaac now went about the task with military precision. The very next evening they dined out at a splendid establishment on the Contrada. They ate several delicious courses à la Russe, during which Isaac made sure to pour out every glass of wine himself. This was important, as the young valet was able to use an old butler's trick he'd learned during his years in domestic service. The resulting wine he poured out for George, Tobias and himself was significantly watered-down, while herr Stierlitz drank glass after glass of the stuff unmixed.
In under two hours they'd achieved the desired outcome – Otto was so drunk he couldn't stand. Propping him up between them, George and Tobias marched him out to a waiting cab which they paid and gave directions for Otto's hotel. They'd made sure to get that information out of him before dinner, such was their meticulous preparation.
With the cab speeding away and Otto mumbling incoherently inside, the trio made straight back for their own hotel and packed to depart at dawn. A further deception, which Tobias had thought of, was that they'd made sure to talk at some length about their next stop at Conegliano, a few hours' drive to the west. With that notion planted firmly in the Austrian's mind (they hoped), they now made for the more distant city of Treviso instead.
"Do you think it was enough?" said Tobias. They were clattering over the country road, already several miles out of Pordenone. Despite the growing distance, none of the three young men could shake a lingering sense of paranoia. If the enigmatic, irritating Otto found them once, could he find them again?
At about noon they did indeed pass Conegliano, but stopped only on the outskirts for a brief meal. With exemplary speed then they reached Treviso in a few more hours. With every mile they put between themselves and that blasted Austrian, as Tobias now called him, they felt a little more at ease.
They spent only one full day in Treviso, but made it count. Starting with the local cathedral they admired its neoclassical architecture and the distinguished artworks inside, which again included Titian and Il Pordenone. An older attraction was the Church of San Francesco, a 13th century Romanesque monument that under the 1797 French occupation had sadly been reduced to a stable. Even now the building was nowhere close to being repaired.
Less depressing in the city's old quarter was the Loggia dei Cavalieri, a well-preserved pavilion in the Romano-Byzantine style. Also from the 13th century, it had served as a meeting place exclusively reserved for the city's knights and nobles. The group also appreciated the Palazzo dei Trecento (Palace of the 1300s), but the crowning sight that day – in George's opinion at least – was a weathered little fountain piece and its effect on the normally calm and composed Tobias.
Sculpted in the mid-cinquecento (1500s) the unusual sculpture depicted a woman cradling her own breasts, and was known as the Fontana delle Tette (Fountain of the Teats). At first the Evangelical Tobias was so overcome with embarrassment that he refused to continue reading his guidebook aloud. George and Isaac were far too intrigued to allow this, so George snatched the book and continued the lecture himself over his friend's protests.
"The Fountain of the Teats played a special role in local celebrations until the Venetian Republic's fall in 1797," George read aloud. "Under normal circumstances only water flowed from the figure's bosom. During the annual celebration of the election of new authorities of the Podesta, however, for three days wine flowed instead: red from one breast and white from the other, for every citizen to enjoy."
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1816: the Grandest Tour
Historical FictionThe Regency era, just after Napoleon's fall: four cheerful but clueless young men set out from England on the Grand Tour of Europe. Join George, Robert, Hugh, and Tobias along with a host of memorable characters as they travel through dozens of coun...