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The same mixture of ornamental motifs may be noticed in the richly carved moulding which terminates the wall beneath the parapet. The well in the centre is of 1623, but takes its place among the trees, flowers, and warm-toned stone quite pleasantly. Above towers the campanile containing two old bells, one cast by Battista of Arbe in 1516, and one by Bartolommeo of Cremona, in 1363.
Budua, which is fifteen miles from Cattaro, is something like Arbe in situation, crowning a projecting peninsula, and with grey mountains towering above it. It was a Roman fortress, known as Buta, and one of the keys to the interior. It was sacked by Saracen pirates in the ninth century, and in 1571 the Turks fell on it and burnt it.
As a rule, the surrounding hills are rugged, bleached yellow or pale russet, and destitute of verdure, but their monotony is relieved by the half-ruined castles and monasteries which, perched on the rocky heights, perpetually reminded me of Howard Pyle's paintings, and by the medieval charm of Zara, Sebenico, Spalato, Ragusa, Arbe, and Curzola, whose architecture, though predominantly Venetian, bears characteristic traces of the many races which have ruled them.
A number of friends lingered on the shore to see them off; but there was no such singing as we heard next day at Loparo beyond Arbe, the birthplace of the founder of the Republic of S. Marino, where some twenty or more were waiting for us on a barge in the pretty bay, singing a farewell song which wailed over the water as we approached.
There is a good deal of ruin within them, which makes the foregrounds uninteresting and squalid. To the west is a public garden planted with fir-trees, and with seats here and there. Aloes grow plentifully on the rocks to the south-west. In the early Middle Ages Arbe was prosperous owing to its trade and its position on the high-road between Venice and the East.
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