Monselice

The Duke stops over in Monselice once his way home from Rome:

“‘Madam,’ says he, all smiles now, ‘I have travelled straight from Rome to

bring you the sooner this proof of my esteem. I lay last night at Monselice and have been on the road since daybreak. Will you not invite me to supper?’"[1]

Monselice is small town in Italy, in the province of Padua. Ralph Waldo Emerson describes it beautifully:

"Monselice is the most picturesque town I have seen in Italy. It has an old ruin of a castle upon the hill and thence commands a beautiful and extraordinary view. It lies in the wide plain – a dead level – whereon Ferrara, Bologna, Rovigo, Este, Padua stand and even Venice we could dimly see in the horizon rising with her tiara of proud towers. What a walk and what a wide delightful picture. To Venice 38 miles."[2]

[1] Wharton 1901, p. 16

[2] Emerson 1969, p. 182