North of Milan, there had once been a small village. It had now been demolished so thoroughly that no trace of it remained. It was the countess's original hometown.
There had once been a castle belonging to the Visconti family there. It was destroyed by German mercenaries in 1620 and was never rebuilt. The countess's family had been the castle's stewards.
After Spain acquired Milan through inheritance, a massive Witch Hunt began there as well. Before the fifteenth century, Milan's witch hunts had lagged behind those elsewhere. Yet between 1480 and 1520, the number suddenly surged past two thousand, second only to the Spanish Netherlands and Lorraine. Some of the trials had been held in that castle that was later razed to the ground.
Paul Veronese had several sons and a brother. After his death, they continued creating works under the name Veronese. Their styles were similar enough, anyway, but "Veronese" never became a noble title.
The first Count Veronese was born in 1707 and had no connection whatsoever to Veronese. He was born in Verona and, after moving to Venice, studied under Giovanni Battista.
At twenty, he went to Rome; at twenty-two, he went to Naples. He achieved nothing in either place. Later, he returned to Verona and taught painting for roughly twenty years before going to Northern Europe, where he began to make a name for himself.
After becoming the Tsar's court painter, he also received the title of count. Yet he never returned to Venice before his death and was buried in Saint Petersburg. His son, however, returned to Venice and became a tutor for the Grimani family.
The Grimani family had also produced several Doges of Venice. Pomona had seen an introduction to the Grimani family museum in a twentieth-century travel magazine. Their palace had been