At this place we failed to get old wine, which troubled me greatly on account of M. de Montaigne’s colic; for he had to drink thick wine instead of the good wine we had got up to this time. We thought of the German wines with regret, though they are for the most part spiced and diverse in their odour, and though they have a liquorish flavour like sage; indeed, they call one of them vin de sauge, which is pleasant enough when the palate is wonted thereto, seeing that it is also good and generous. We set out from this place on the Thursday after dinner by a road very level, wide, straight, ditched on both sides and slightly raised above the plain. On either hand the country was very fertile, and the mountains, as before, were in the far distance. After a journey of eighteen miles we reached Padua in time for bed.
Here the hostelries can in no respect be compared with those of Germany. Certes they are less costly by one-third, and resemble those of France. The city is goodly, wide in extent, and in my opinion holds within its bounds an area at least as big as that of Bordeaux; but the streets are narrow and ugly, lacking both in people and in seemly dwellings. Its situation is very pleasant, in an open plain stretching wide on every side. We tarried here all the following day and saw the schools of fencing, dancing, and equitation,[8] at which more than a hundred French gentlemen were at this time seeking instruction. M. de Montaigne deemed that it worked greatly to the detriment of these young countrymen of ours that they should thus live together and still practise the customs and language of their native land, letting go the chance of making acquaintance with strangers. He was vastly pleased with the church of St. Antony, the cupola of which is not constructed whole in itself, but of several sections made into the form of a dome; the church likewise contains much rare sculpture work in marble and bronze. M. de Montaigne saw with much pleasure the portrait bust of Cardinal Bembo,[9] which bears all the marks of a refined character and an indefinable something testifying to the gracefulness of his intellect. The hall where justice is dispensed is the largest unsupported by pillars I ever saw, and at one end thereof is the head of Titus Livius, figuring him an emaciated man of a studious and melancholy temper.[10] This is an ancient work of which naught is known save by tradition. His epitaph is there also, having been set, as was its due, in a place of honour after its discovery. Over one of the doors of this palace is a figure of Paul the jurisconsult,[11] but this M. de Montaigne pronounced to be a modern work. A house standing on the site of the ancient arena in a garden is worth a visit.
Students can live here cheaply at seven crowns a month for the master and six for the servant in respectable boarding-houses. We left early on the Saturday morning, traversing a very fine road beside the river, and having on either hand fields very fertile with corn, and well shaded by rows of trees, upon which the vines were trained. All along the road fine pleasure houses had been built, and over the gate of one of these belonging to the Contarini is an inscription telling how the king[12] lodged here on his way back from Poland. After travelling twenty miles we stopped for dinner at Chaffousine,[13] which is naught but an inn, and here we took boat for Venice. Here they bring ashore all the boats with machinery and pulleys worked by two horses after the fashion of an oil mill. They move their boats by means of wheels placed underneath, which run along planks and thereby convey them over to the canal which runs into the sea on which Venice is situated. We took dinner at Chaffousine, and, having embarked in a gondola, arrived at Venice in time for supper after travelling five miles.
VENICE
To face p. 14, vol. ii.
On the morning of the morrow, Sunday, M. de Montaigne saw M. de Ferrier,[14] the king’s ambassador, who welcomed him heartily and took him to Mass and back to his house to dinner. On the Monday he and M. d’Estissac again dined there. One remark let fall by the ambassador amongst divers others seemed to him very strange, to wit, that he (the ambassador) held no conversation with the people of the city, who were of a humour so suspicious that should one of their number speak to him only twice, this one would be looked upon askance.[15] M. de Ferrier also informed him that the city of Venice brought an annual income of fifteen hundred thousand crowns to the Signory.[16] With regard to the curiosities of the place they are familiar enough, and M. de Montaigne said that he had found Venice different from what he had anticipated, and that, after he had made a diligent visitation of the city, he was somewhat disappointed. The government, the situation, the arsenal, the Place of St. Mark, and the vast crowds of foreigners, seemed to him most worthy of remark of anything he saw. On Monday November, 6, while he sat at supper, the Signora Veronica Franca,[17] a noble Venetian lady, sent for his acceptance a little book of letters which she had put together, whereupon he gave two crowns to the bearer. On the Tuesday after dinner he had an attack of colic which lasted two or three hours; it was not, as far as could be seen, one of his worst, and before supper he passed two large stones, one after the other. He failed to perceive in the women of Venice that great beauty for which they are famed. He saw some of the highest class of those who make a market of their charms, and this institution appeared to him more marvellous than any other of the city, to see such a vast number of them, some hundred and fifty, spending money like princesses over furniture and attire, with no other source of income than the traffic aforesaid. Again, divers of the nobles of the city entertained courtesans at their own charges in the sight of every one. M. de Montaigne hired for his use a gondola for day and night as well at a charge of two livres, about seventeen sous, with no extra expenditure for the boatman. Provisions are as dear here as in Paris, but it is the cheapest town in the world for living, for a train of servants is here quite useless, and every one goes about unattended. The cost of apparel is in like degree moderate; moreover, no one has occasion for a horse. On Saturday the twelfth of November we left and returned to Chaffousine, a distance of five miles, and here we and our servants and baggage got on board a boat, for which we paid two crowns. M. de Montaigne was somewhat in fear of water transit, being advised that it deranged his stomach;[18] and now, being minded to ascertain whether the motion on this river, which indeed is most steady and uniform provided that the boat be drawn by horses, would cause him inconvenience, he made trial of it and found that he suffered no ill effects therefrom. On this channel we had to pass one or two lock gates which open and shut to the passers-by. After a voyage of twenty miles by water we reached Padua in time for bed.
VENICE
To face p. 18, vol. ii.