152
RAGUSA
extraordinarily rich, quite subtropical in character. From the crest the road descends between the superb gardens of the suburb of Pile, to the open space shaded by plane trees, which lies before the Porta Pile, the magnificent main entrance to the town. The gate itself is reached by a balustraded bridge crossing the fosse and is crowned by the statue of S. Biagio, St. Blaise, the Patron of Ragusa. Passing through the Porta Pile in the outer line of walls, for the city is almost entirely encircled by a double line of walls, the road makes a sharp curve, passing the side of S. Salvadore,—a votive church erected in gratitude for salvation from the earthquake in 1520, a charming specimen of Venetian Renaissance, recalling the exquisite Miracoli church at Venice,—and brings us to the head of the great main street, the Stradone of Ragusa, which runs from one end of the city to the other. The Stradone was probably once a canal separating the older and upper western portion of the town, on the rocky ridge commanding the harbour, from the newer and more regularly built quarter on the slopes of Monte Sergio. Immediately on our right is a handsome octagonal fountain or well, connected with the great aqueduct works of the sixteenth century; it has columns at its