Venice - Giardinetto

The Giardinetto, extending west of the Piazzetta on the Molo, is one of those small parks which have grown up in Venice since the early 19th century and which bring to the city a touch of green which many visitors find lacking.

Madam de Staël, for example, complained "An indefinable sadness creeps into the heart when one arrives in Venice. One is not in the country, for there is no green tree to be seen and yet not in the town, for every sound is drowned out by the water".

It was to another French visitor (and the one most unwelcome to the city) that Venice owed her parks. Beside the Giardini Pubblici Napoleon I was also responsible for the Giardinetto behind the Procuratie Nuove because he disliked having his view of the sea from the window of the Procuratie Nuove blocked by a grain store which stood there.