88 THROUGH THE DOLOMITES of the old castle. It has, like most of the Cadore villages, a substantial, well-to-do look. Its houses are large square stone dwellings, with broad overhanging eaves. They are called palazzi (palaces), which term is applied in Italy to any large self-contained building. Roughly speaking, the village is triangular in form, and the space enclosed, which serves as a village market square, is called the Piazza Tiziano, so named after the great painter who was born here
in 1477. As every thing and everybody in the place seems to have a connec tion with Titian, it is well to begin with him in our exami nation of the little town. Looking round the Piazza one sees the name Vecellio everywhere. The chief grocer is a Vecellio, so is the baker, the butcher, and the cobbler. The papers nailed to the Town-Hall door are signed 'Vecellio, Sindaco.' Here is a Tipografia 1'iziano, there an Albergo Tiziano, and yonder a caffè and reading-room, also called Tiziano. The striking
resemblance of the late handsome 'landlord of the albergo to his illustrious forebear struck all who saw him. In the centre of the Piazza is Titian's monument, a large bronze statue, set on a lofty stone pedestal, representing him with brush and palette in hand in the act of painting. Affixed to the pedestal are bronze medallions with the names of his chief works, and the arms of Venice and Cadore. The monument was only erected in 1880, and is the work of his fellow-countryman, Antonio dal Zotto, who
modelled it ; the brothers De Poli, the famous bell-makers of Ceneda, who cast it ; and of Giuseppe Ghedina of Cortina, who designed the pedestal. From the foot of the monu ment can be seen a granite tablet, let into the wall of an old house that abuts on the Piazza del Arsenale (where an Arsenal, supplementary to the Venice one, used to be) at the top of the Sottocastello road, on which are the words, ' Cadore segna agli ospiti questa casa dove naque e crebbe Tiziano ' (Cadore points out to its guests
