[115] The author may have meant "old Herodotus."—ED.
[116] Virgil, Georg., II, 146.—ED.
CHAPTER XV
APRIL-JULY, 1818
Journey from Florence to Pisa and from thence by the Appennines to
Genoa—Massa-Carrara—Genoa—Monuments and works of art—The
Genoese—Return to Florence—Journey from Florence through Bologna and
Ferrara to Venice—Monument to Ariosto in Ferrara—A description of
Venice—Padua—Vicenza—Verona—Cremona—Return to Milan—The Scala
theatre—Verona again—From Verona to Innspruck.
It is the custom for most travellers going to Genoa to embark on board of a felucca at Spezia, which lies on the sea coast, not far from Sarzana: but I preferred to go by land, and I cannot conceive why anyone should expose himself to the risks, inconveniences and delays of a sea passage, when it is so easy to go by land thro' the Appennines. I started accordingly the following morning, mounted on a mule, and attended by a muleteer with another mule to convey my portmanteau. I found this journey neither dangerous nor difficult, but on the contrary agreeable and romantic. The road is only a bridle road. I paid forty-eight franks for my two mules and driver, and started at seven in the morning from Sarzana. The wild appearance of the Appennines, the aweful solitudes and the highly picturesque points of view that present themselves at the various sinuosities of the mountains and valleys; the view of the sea from the heights that tower above the towns of Oneglia and Sestri Levante, rendered this journey one of the most interesting I have ever made. I stopped to dine at Borghetto and brought to the night at Sestri Levante, breakfasted the next morning at Rapallo, and arrived the same evening at four o'clock in Genoa. Borghetto is a little insignificant town situate in a narrow valley surrounded on all sides by the lofty crags of the Appennines. Sestri Levante is a long and very straggling town, part of it being situated on the sea shore, and the other part on the gorge of the mountain descending towards the sea beach; so that the former part of the town lies nearly at right angles with the latter, with a considerable space intervening. The road for the last four miles between Borghetto and Sestri Levante is a continual descent. The inn was very comfortable and good at Sestri Levante. The beginning of the road between Sestri and Rapallo is on the beach till near Rapallo, when it strikes again into the mountains and is of considerable ascent. Rapallo is a very neat pretty place, situate on an eminence commanding a fine view of the sea. The greater part of the road between Rapallo and Genoa is on the sea-coast, but cut along the mountains which here form a bluff with the sea. Villas, gardens and vineyards line the whole of this route and nothing can be more beautiful. The neatness of the villas and the abundance of the population form a striking contrast to the wild solitudes between Sarzana and Sesto, where (except at Borghetto) there is not a house to be seen and scarce a human creature to be met, and where the eagle seems to reign alone the uncontrolled lord of the creation.
GENOA, 23rd April.
The view of Genoa from the sea is indisputably the best; for on entering by land from the eastern side, the ramparts are so lofty as to intercept the fine view the city would otherwise afford. From the sea side it rises in the shape of an amphitheatre; a view therefore taken from the sea gives the best idea of its grandeur and of the magnificence of its buildings, for everybody on beholding this grand spectacle must allow that this city well deserves its epithet of Superba.
I observe in my daily walks on the Esplanade a number of beautiful women. The Genoese women are remarkable for their beauty and fine complexions. They dress generally in white, and their style of dress is Spanish; they wear the mezzara or veil, in the management of which they display much grace and not a little coquetry. Instead of the fan exercise recommended to women by the Spectator, the art of handling the mezzara might be reduced to a manual and taught to the ladies by word of command.
I put up at the house of a Spanish lady on the Piazza St Siro, and here for four livres a day I am sumptuously boarded and lodged. There are three principal streets in Genoa, viz., Strada Nuova, Balbi, and Nuovissima. Yet these three streets may be properly said to form but one, inasmuch as they lie very nearly in a right line. These streets are broad and aligned with the finest buildings in Genoa. This street or streets are the only ones that can be properly called so, according to the idea we usually attach to the word. The others deserve rather the names of lanes and alleys, tho' exceedingly well paved and aligned with excellent houses and shops. In fact the streets Nuova, Nuovissima and Balbi are the only ones thro' which carriages can pass. The others are far too narrow to admit of the passage of carriages. The houses on each side of them are of immense height, being of six or seven stories, which form such a shade as effectually to protect those who walk thro' these alleys from the rays of the sun. The houses diminish in height in proportion as they are built on the slant of the mountain from the bottom to the top, those at the bottom being the loftiest. Carriages are scarcely of any use in the city of Genoa, except to drive from one end of the town to another thro' the streets Nuova, Balbi and Nuovissima; and accordingly a carriage with four wheels, or even with two, is a rare conveyance in Genoa. The general mode of conveyance is on a sedan chair, carried by porters, or on the backs of mules or asses. Genoa is distinguished by the beauty of the Palaces of its patricians, which are more numerous and more magnificent than those of any other city, probably, in the world.