 Feeling unsettled , Etty left Rome for Venice , intending to remain there for 10 days and then return to England . Evans preferred to remain in Rome , so Etty travelled alone , pausing briefly in Florence and in Ferrara ( where he stopped to kiss the armchair of Ludovico Ariosto ) . The painter Charles Lock Eastlake , then resident in Rome , had provided Etty with a letter of introduction to Harry D 'Orville , British Vice consul in Venice ; D 'Orville was so impressed with Etty that he arranged for him to stay in his own house , rather than in lodgings . Etty had long considered Venice his spiritual home and " the hope and idol of my professional life " , and had often wondered why , given its artistic importance , so few English travellers visited the city . He was not disappointed . Throughout the remainder of his life , he would look back on his visit to Venice with great fondness , writing shortly before his death that " Venezia , cara Venezia ! thy pictured glories haunt my fancy now ! " 
