Italian Hours

Italian Hours ends with the phrase, "e;the luxury of loving Italy,"e; and everything in the book indicates that James enjoyed this luxury to the fullest. But he was by no means a blind lover. His opening essay on Venice, for instance, doesn't gloss over the sad conditions of life for the city's people: "e;Their habitations are decayed; their taxes heavy; their pockets light; their opportunities few."e; (Wikipedia)