The Brenta River had once been a surging torrent, but with the operation of hydraulic locks in the fifteenth century, it became tranquil. Noble villas dotted this fertile land.
Like the houses along the Grand Canal, they turned their finest sides toward the river.
Although Italy had not been bombed during World War II, the Fascists had still damaged these ancient relics. Palladio's designs had almost all been listed as World Cultural Heritage sites. The Villa Foscari they had just visited was one of them. That villa had only been built after Francesco Foscari's death, so logically, it should have had nothing to do with him.
But he had been a member of the Foscari family. Not every ghost wandering Hogwarts necessarily had blood ties to the school's founders, as Helena did.
In 1945, the retreating German army completely blew up an old wooden bridge in Bassano. Like the bridge connecting the castle to Hogsmeade, it had been made entirely of wood. Fortunately, Palladio's blueprints remained, and in 1948, a covered bridge reappeared over the river in Bassano, looking little different from the one nearly four hundred years earlier.
A haunted house had its reasons for being haunted. Unlike the Shrieking Shack, which had merely been made haunted through rumors, a genuinely haunted house did not necessarily look dilapidated. It might instead be in excellent condition. The Republic of Venice had annexed Padua around 1410, by which time the first wave of witch hunts had already begun.
The countryside was not necessarily simple or safe. That vampire countess had committed evil deeds right on her own lands.
Both the Salem witch trials and the Bell Witch case had taken place in rural areas. Compared to cities, the countryside had far fewer police, and there was little they could do in