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On his annual visits to Italy, which began during his teens, John Ruskin was influenced by the Romantic vision of Venice. Despite this, he soon looked for critical objectivity and eventually dismissed his Venetian studies as “bye-work” He turned instead to nearby Verona, which had already featured in The Stones of Venice (1851-53). The city's Romanesque and Gothic churches, its funeral monuments and its fortifications combine southern and northern elements, which blend well with the drama of its setting. This essay argues that Ruskin was attracted to the masculine stability of Veronese fortifications in contrast to the feminine and seductive charms of Venice, and that these qualities appealed to the Gothic Revival with its dream of chivalry and idealised imperialism. The interweaving of these matters with the geology and history of the region is the subject of Ruskin's marvelous lecture, “Verona and its Rivers.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]