{ Chapter Nine }

All the monasteries that stood near the Cassaro had their loggias that overlooked what was then the most important and worldly street in the city. The nuns reached these loggias through walkways above the roofs of the adjoining buildings or, as in the case of the Monastery of the Martorana, by means of a subterranean gallery. RLD, 387.

crowded together on their terraces

Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782), Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera libretti.

that later would entice Metastasio

Traditional Venetian folk song, sung by Gondoliers.

a type of barcarole

Extinct Caspian tiger.

Hyrcanian tigers