Chapter II: Part 2

I have just read concerning these waters, in a book written by one Donati,[47] a physician, his advice being to take a light dinner and a good supper; and, from my experience after drinking the water for another day, I decided that his view was the correct one. Franciotti, another doctor, controverts him in this and in divers other particulars. That same day I had a feeling of heaviness about the back, which I feared might be caused by the stagnation in that region of the water I had drunk, but the outcome of the day’s treatment did not justify this suspicion. On the Friday I took no water at all, but bathed in the morning and washed my head, acting thus counter to the approved usage of the place. Another local custom is to aid the action of the water by mixing therewith some such drug as sugar candy or manna, or some medicine still stronger; others mix with the first glass they drink a certain quantity of the water of Tettucio, which I tasted and found it salt. I suspect that the apothecaries here, instead of fetching this water from Pistoia, where it is said to rise, make an imitation thereof out of ordinary water, for I found it had, in addition to its saltness, a very strange flavour. It is warmed and one, two, or three glasses of it taken to begin with, but I never knew that it had any effect. There are those who put salt in the first, or the second, or even the third glass of water they take; moreover, they hold that to sweat or to go to sleep after drinking, points almost surely to a fatal crisis. In my case I found the water strongly sudorific. [48] Let me now try to discourse a little in another language, especially as I am now in that district where meseems I may listen to the most refined Tuscan accent, particularly amongst the country-folk, who have not corrupted or changed their idiom through intercourse with neighbouring peoples. Early on Saturday morning I went to take some of the spring of Bernabo[49] which lies on the other side of these mountains and gives a marvellous abundance of water, both hot and cold. The hill is of no great height, and may be about three miles in circumference. The only water that is drunk is that of the principal spring and of this one, which came into use a few years ago. A certain leper named Bernabo, after having drunk and bathed at all the other springs, betook himself to this abandoned bath and was straightway cured, whereupon it came into vogue. There are no houses, only one little shed and stone benches around the spout of the spring, which is made of iron. This spout, though it was fixed not long ago, is almost entirely eaten away from below, its destruction being caused, as the people there declare, by the action of some property of the water, which I can easily believe. These springs are somewhat hotter than the others and are commonly supposed to be at the same time less digestible and more violent in action, the water being slightly more sulphurous; where it drips, the ground is whitened as if ashes had been strewn there. The water of our own springs has this same property, but only slightly. This spring is a little less than a mile from my lodgings by going round the foot of the hill, its site being much lower than that of any other hot spring, and distant one or two pikes’ length from the river.

The day previous I had taken a long walk of three miles or so after dinner in the hot sun, and again after supper. The effect of this water upon me was an increase of strength, and I began to digest it half-an-hour after taking it; moreover, I made a good round of two miles on the way back to my lodgings. Perhaps this abnormal exercise may have made me feel young again. Every other morning I had gone straight back to my room to avoid the chill of the morning air, my house not being more than thirty paces from the spring. In my walks over the slopes of these hills, I came upon many sources of hot water, and the country-folk declare furthermore that in the winter certain places give out steam, a proof of the existence of still more hot springs. The samples of these which I tasted seemed, in comparison with my particular spring, about equally hot and without either smell or taste or vapour. I observed at another place in Corsena, some way below the baths, a great number of douches much better arranged than the others I have named, the pipes thereof being supplied by a number of springs, eight or ten, so the people say. Over each pipe is written the name of its peculiar spring: La Saporita, La Dolce, La Innamorata, La Coronale, La Disperata, &c., and a description of the effects thereof. I can say for certain that some pipes give out hotter water than others.

The surrounding hills are almost all productive of corn and grapes, whereas fifty years ago they were covered with thicket and chestnut woods. A few bare mountains with snow on the summits may be seen, but they are a long way off. The common people eat what they call _pane di legna_, which is the expression they use in speaking of chestnut-bread, this fruit being the great crop of the country, and the cake they make therewith is something like French gingerbread. I never saw elsewhere so many snakes and toads; indeed, through fear of the snakes, the children do not dare to gather the strawberries, which grow most abundantly on the hills and amongst the hedges.

Some of the people here take three or four grains of coriander in every glass of water they drink, as a remedy for wind. On the Easter[50] of May 14th I took more than five pounds’ weight of the water of Bernabo, my glass holding somewhat more than a pound. Here the four chief feasts of the year are all called Easter. The Italian pound contains only twelve ounces. Living is very cheap in this place. The best and most delicate veal can be bought for three French sous a pound, and the trout are abundant, though small. Here are made excellent sunshades, which everybody uses. The country round is hilly, and level roads are scarce; nevertheless, many of them are very pleasant, and they are for the most part paved until they become mountain paths. After dinner the country people danced together, and I joined in the sport so as not to seem over ceremonious. In certain parts of Italy, and everywhere in Tuscany and Urbino, the women make salutation in French fashion by bending the knees.

Close to the outflow of the Della Villa spring is a marble tablet, which was put up a hundred and ten years ago, dating from the first day of May last, inscribed with an account of the healing powers of the water. I omit this, as it may be found in divers printed books dealing with the baths of Lucca[51]. At all the baths they provide plenty of hour-glasses for public use. I had always on my table two, which were lent to me. This evening I ate nothing but three slices of toasted bread with a little butter and sugar, and did not drink at all.

On the Monday, deeming that I had been enough purged by the water from the Bernabo spring, I returned to the Della Villa and took five pounds thereof. This spring seemed to me cold in comparison with that of Bernabo, which indeed is only moderately hot, and much cooler than the water at Plombieres or the average of the springs at the Bagneres de Bigorre. Both of the springs did me much good, wherefore I feel that I have been a gainer in refusing credence to those physicians who recommend their patients to give up drinking at once, supposing that a cure be not effected the first day. On Tuesday, May 16th, according to the local custom, which seems to me an excellent one, I gave over drinking the water and remained in the bath an hour or more, having settled myself right under the conduit-pipe, because in the other parts of the bath the water seemed somewhat chilly. Being troubled continually with wind in the _epigastrium_ and the intestines, and in less degree in the stomach--albeit without pain--I suspected that this discomfort was caused by the water, wherefore I gave up drinking it. This morning I found the bath particularly agreeable, and could easily have taken a nap there. It did not produce perspiration, but I had myself well rubbed, and then went to bed for a while.

In each district it is the custom to hold a military assembly every month. The colonel commanding this district, from whom I have received a world of courtesy, held his assembly here, having a gathering of some two hundred pikemen and arquebusiers. He let them engage in a sham fight, and it seemed to me they were, for peasants, very expert; but his principal duty is to instruct them in military formation and discipline. The people here are divided into the French and Spanish factions, and weighty questions with regard to this matter were constantly arising; moreover they make public profession of their party. In these parts the men and women of our party wear bunches of flowers, and their caps and their locks of hair down over the right ear, while those who favour the Spaniards wear them on the left. The peasants and their wives all go clad like gentle-folk. You never see a woman who does not wear white shoes, fine-thread stockings, and a coloured sarcenet apron. They dance and cut capers and twirl about marvellously well.

In this country when they talk of the prince they mean the Council of one hundred and twenty[52]. The colonel aforesaid could not get married without leave of this “prince,” and he only gained permission with great difficulty, because the authorities were loth that he should make friends or connections in the country; moreover, he cannot buy any property. No soldier can leave the country without leave. In the mountainous parts are many people who beg for money, and out of what they gather thus they buy their arms.

On the Wednesday I went to the bath and remained there more than an hour. I sweated a little, bathing my head at the same time, and I saw how handy the German fashion was in winter time for warming clothes and other things at the stoves they use, for there the bathman, having put a little coal into a chafing dish, the lid of which was raised by a brick inserted so as to admit air to ventilate the fire, managed to dry the bath clothes expeditiously and well, much more conveniently than at a fire like ours here, which is made in one of our basins. Here they call the girls and boys children till they are ripe for marriage. The boys are always lads till their beards are grown.

On Thursday I was a little more on the alert and bathed somewhat earlier. In the bath I sweated fairly well and gave my head a douche under the spout. The bath left me rather weak, with a feeling of heaviness about the reins, and I voided gravel continually and some phlegm likewise as if I had drunk of the spring, indeed it struck me that this water used in the bath produced the same effect as when drunk. I bathed again on the Friday. Vast quantities of the water of this spring and of the other one, the Corsena, are despatched every day for sale in various regions of Italy. These people are not the great meat-eaters that we are, and they use nothing but the common sorts of flesh, upon which they set but little store, that is to say, while I was there I bought a choice leveret for six of our sous without any bargaining. They do not hunt or bring game hither, because no one would buy it. On the Saturday, because the weather was bad, and the wind so high that I felt the want of casements, either of linen or glass, I neither bathed nor took the waters. Here I observed a marked result of the use of this bath, forasmuch as my brother,[53] who had never passed any gravel either in common way or while drinking the water at any other bath in my company, now passed a large quantity.

On the Sunday morning I took another bath, without bathing my head, and after dinner I gave a ball, with presents for the guests, according to the custom of these baths. I was anxious to give the first ball of the season. Five or six days before this date I had caused notice of my entertainment to be given in all the neighbouring villages, and on the day previous I sent special invitations to all the gentle-folk then sojourning at either of the baths. I bade them come to the ball, and to the supper afterwards, and sent to Lucca for the presents, which are usually pretty numerous, so as to avoid the appearance of favouring one lady above all the rest, and to steer clear of jealousy and suspicion. They always give eight or ten to the ladies, and two or three to the gentlemen. Many ventured to jog my memory, one begging me not to forget herself, another her niece, another her daughter.

On the day previous Messer Giovanni da Vincenzo Saminiati, a good friend of mine, brought me from Lucca, according to my written instructions, a leathern belt and a black cloth cap as presents for the men. For the ladies I provided two aprons of taffetas, one green and the other purple (for it must be known that it is always meet to have certain presents better than the bulk, so as to show special favour where favour seems to be due), two aprons of bombazine, four papers of pins, four pairs of shoes--one pair of which I gave to a pretty girl who did not come to the ball, a pair of slippers, which I put with one of the pairs of shoes to form one prize, three head-dresses clear woven, and three netted, which together stood for three prizes, and four small pearl necklaces. Thus I had altogether nineteen gifts for the ladies, the cost of which was six crowns; little enough. I engaged five pipers, giving them their food for the day, and a crown amongst the lot, a good bargain for me, seeing that they will rarely play here at such a rate. The prizes aforesaid were hung up on a hoop, richly ornamented, and visible to all the company.

We began the dance on the piazza with the people of the place, and at first feared we should lack company, but after a little we were joined by a great number of people of all parties, and notably of the gentle-folk of the land, whom I received and entertained to the best of my powers; and I succeeded so far that they all seemed well content. As the day waxed somewhat warm we withdrew to the hall of the Palazzo Buonvisi, which was excellently suited for the purpose. At the decline of day, about the twenty-second hour, I addressed the ladies of the greatest consequence who were present, and said that I had neither wit nor confidence enough to give judgment between these young ladies so richly endowed with beauty and grace and politeness, wherefore I begged them to undertake the duty of deciding, and to award the prizes according to the deserts of the company. We had long discussion over this formal matter, as at first the ladies refused to accept this office, deeming that I had offered it to them merely out of courtesy. At last we agreed to add this proviso, to wit, that they might, if they were so minded, call me into their council to give my opinion. The end was that I went about, glancing now at this damsel and now at that, never failing to allow due credit for beauty and charm, but at the same time determining that graceful dancing meant something else than the mere movement of the feet; that it necessitated also appropriate gestures, a fine carriage of the whole body, a pleasant expression, and a comely charm. The presents, great and small, were distributed on this principle according to desert, one of the ladies aforementioned presenting them to the dancers on my behalf, while I disclaimed all merit thereanent, and referred them to her as the Lady Bountiful. My entertainment passed off in the usual fashion, except that one of the girls would not take her present, but sent to beg me that I would give it with her love to another girl; but this I would not permit to be done, as the damsel in question was not over well favoured. The girls were called one by one from their places to come before the lady and myself, sitting side by side, whereupon I gave to the signora the gift which seemed appropriate, having first kissed the same. Then the signora, taking it in her hand, gave it to the young girl, and said in friendly fashion, “This is the gentleman who is giving you this charming present, thank him for it.” I added, “Nay, rather your thanks are due to the gracious signora who has designated you out of so many others as worthy of reward. I much regret that the offering made to you is not more worthy of such merit as yours.” I spoke somewhat in these terms to each according to her qualifications. The same order was followed in the case of the men.

The ladies and gentlemen had no part in this distribution though they all joined in the dance. In sooth it was a rare and charming sight to us Frenchmen to look upon these comely peasants dancing so well in the garb of gentle-folk. They did their best to rival the finest of our lady dancers, albeit in a different style. I invited all to supper, as the meals in Italy are like the lightest of our repasts in France, and on this occasion I only provided a few joints of veal and a pair or two of fowls. I had as guests also the colonel of the Lieutenancy, Signor Francesco Gambarini, a gentleman of Bologna, who had become to me as a brother. I also found a place at table for Divizia, a poor peasant woman who lives about two miles from the baths, unmarried, and with no other support than her handiwork. She is ugly, about thirty-seven years of age, with a swollen throat, and unable either to read or write; but it chanced that in her childhood there came to live in her father’s house an uncle who was ever reading aloud in her hearing Ariosto and others of the poets, wherefore she seemed to find a natural delight in poetry, and was soon able, not only to make verses with marvellous readiness, but likewise to weave thereinto the ancient stories, the names of the gods of various countries, of sciences and of illustrious men, as if she had received a liberal education. She recited divers lines in my honour, which, to speak the truth, were little else than verses and rhymes, but the diction was elegant and spontaneous.

I entertained at my ball more than a hundred strangers, albeit the time was inconvenient for them, seeing that they were then in the midst of the silk harvest, their principal crop of the year. At this season they labour, heedless of all feast days, at plucking, morning and evening, the leaves of the mulberry for their silkworms, and all my peasant guests were engaged in this work.

On Monday morning I went somewhat late to my bath, as I was shaved and had my hair cut, and I bathed my head for more than a quarter of an hour by holding it under the principal spout.

Amongst others at my ball was the deputy-judge, who holds legal office here. The work of the district is done by a judge appointed for six months--such as the government appoints in all other places--who adjudicates in the first instance in civil cases which involve small amounts only. Another official attends to criminal business. I made to the deputy-judge a suggestion, which I deemed only reasonable, that the government should make certain regulations--of which I gave him an example, easy to carry out, and admirably fitted for the end in view--to be enforced with regard to the vast crowd of traders who resort hither to carry away the water of these springs into all parts of Italy. These regulations would oblige them to show a voucher for the genuine character of the water they retail, and thus put an end to knavery, an instance of which I gave him from my own experience. One of these hawkers came to my landlord, a private citizen, and begged him to write a certificate to the effect that he (the hawker) was taking away twenty-four mule loads of this water, the fact being that he had only four. At first my landlord refused to do anything of the kind, on account of this discrepancy, but the fellow went on to declare that in four or six days’ time he would return to fetch the other twenty loads. I informed the judge that this muleteer had never come back. He took my suggestion, and he tried his best to learn from me what my authority was, who was the muleteer, and what he and his beasts were like, but I told him nothing. I also informed him that I was minded to begin here a custom prevalent in all the famous baths of Europe, to wit, that all persons of a certain position should leave behind a copy of their coat-of-arms as a testimony of the efficacy of the waters. In the name of the government he thanked me for this suggestion.

In certain places they now began to cut the hay. On the Tuesday I remained two hours in the bath, and held my head under the douche for a good quarter of an hour.

At this time a Cremonese merchant living at Rome came to the bath. He was afflicted with divers strange infirmities, nevertheless he could talk and walk about and seemingly enjoyed his life. His chief infirmity lay in the head, his memory having perished, so he said, through some weakness thereof; for instance, after a meal he would not be able to say what dishes had been put before him. If he happened to leave the house on any business he must needs always come back ten times to inquire where was the place to which he was bound. He could hardly ever get through the paternoster. When he did get to the end of it he would begin it again a hundred times, never perceiving at the end thereof that he had begun, or at the beginning that he had finished. He had suffered from blindness, deafness, and toothache, and had, moreover, such an access of heat in the reins that he always wore a piece of lead over that region. For many years he had observed most strictly the rules laid down by his physicians in his case.

It diverted me to consider the various prescriptions given by physicians in different parts of Italy, so great was their antagonism, and this was especially marked in the matter of these baths and douches; indeed, out of twenty opinions no two were found to agree,[54] but, on the other hand, the authors accused each other of murders of all sorts. The aforesaid patient suffered great trouble through the strange action of wind, which was wont to issue from his ears with such force that he could not sleep, and when he yawned great volumes of wind would burst out from the same place. He declared that he could best ease his stomach by using as a clyster four large coriander comfits after moistening and softening them in his mouth, the relief being sure and speedy. He was the first person I ever saw wearing one of those big hats of peacock’s feathers and covered with light taffetas; the crown, a good palm’s height, was thick, and had within-side a coif of sarcenet made to fit the head so that the sun might not strike upon it. It was surrounded by a curtain a foot and a half wide, to serve the purpose of our parasols, which indeed are very inconvenient to use on horseback.

Seeing that I have often repented that I did not more particularly note down details of other baths I have used, I am now minded to enlarge somewhat on this subject and to gather together certain rules for the benefit of my successors. On Wednesday, when I finished bathing, I was hot and sweated more than usual. I felt weak, with a dry, harsh sensation in my mouth and a certain giddiness akin to what befell me through the heat of the water at Plomieres, Banieres, and Preissac. I never felt it at Barbotan nor at these baths until this occasion, and it might have arisen because I went earlier than was my wont, or because the water was hotter than usual. I remained in the bath an hour and a half, and used the douche to my head for a quarter of an hour. I broke the rules by thus using the douche in the bath, for the prescription particularly declares that first one and then the other is to be used; and again by having a douche of this water at all, for almost all take the douche at the other bath. There they have it from this or that spout, some from the first, others from the second, and others from the third, according to the physician’s order. I used to drink and bathe on alternate days, while others would drink several days together and then take a spell of the bath. I paid no heed to periods of time, while others would drink for ten days at the most, and bathe twenty-five, though not perhaps in succession. I bathed but once a day, while all the rest bathed twice. I used the douche a very short time, while the others used it an hour at least in the morning and the same in the evening. And as to shaving the head, the custom here with all was to be shaven, and then put a piece of satin on the head, held only by a sort of net, but my smooth pate had no need of this.

This same morning I received a visit from the deputy-judge and the other chief personages of the State, an attention equivalent to that which had been paid to me in other baths where I had sojourned. Amongst other matters he told me a singular story about himself, how, through pricking the ball of the thumb with an artichoke some years ago, he had like to have died from inanition, how on this account he fell into such a wretched state that he lay in bed five months without moving. As he lay all this time on the reins, they became so inordinately heated that a discharge of gravel was produced from which he had suffered for more than a year and from colic as well. At last his father, the governor of Velitri, sent him a certain green stone, which he had got from a friar who had been in India, and while he had this stone about him he suffered neither from gravel nor pain. He had been in this state for two years. As to the prick aforementioned the thumb and the greater part of the hand were useless, and besides this the arm was so much weakened that he came every year to the baths of Corsena to treat the arm and thumb with the douche, as he was now doing.

The common people here are very poor. At this season they eat green mulberries, which they collect while gathering the leaves for the silkworms. I had left in doubt the hire of my lodging for the month of June, wherefore I now deemed it meet to come to an agreement with my landlord, who, when he perceived that I was sought after by all the neighbours and especially by the owner of the Palazzo Bonvisi, who had offered me lodging for a gold crown a day, decided to let me have my rooms as long as I liked for twenty-five gold crowns a month, the term to begin on the first of June, up to which day the old agreement was to be in force.

The people here are consumed with envy and secret deadly spite one against the other, though they are all akin. A lady repeated to me the following proverb:--

“Chi vuol, che la sua donna impregni
Mandila al bagno, e non ci regni.”

One convenience of my lodging pleased me greatly, to wit, that I could pass from my bed to the bath by a short and level path of thirty paces. I resented the stripping of the leaves from the mulberry trees, which looked as other trees look in winter.

Every day people from all parts may be seen bringing hither samples of wine in small bottles, so that any of the strangers here may send, if they will, for some in bulk, but of good wine there is very little. The white wines are thin, sour, and crude, or very heavy, harsh, and rough. By sending to Lucca or Pescia the white Trevisano may be procured, which is strong and well-matured, but none too delicate on the palate.

On Thursday--Corpus Domini--I remained an hour and a half in a lukewarm bath, sweating very little and not conscious of any effect therefrom. I held my head under the douche, for twelve minutes or so, and on going back to bed got a short sleep. I found this use of bath and douche more pleasant than anything else. I felt a certain itching in my hands and elsewhere, and I learned moreover that many of the peasants are given to the itch and the children to scabby ailments. It is the case here as elsewhere that the peasants make light of that which we come to seek with such great trouble. I saw many who had never tasted these waters, of which indeed they had a very poor opinion. With this disposition they are short-lived.

On Saturday I remained two hours in the bath and took the douche for a good quarter. On Sunday I took a rest, and on this day a Bolognese gentleman gave another ball. The scarcity of clocks here[55] and in most places in Italy is most inconvenient. At the bath-house there is a statue of the Madonna with the following verses:--

“Auspicio fac, Diva tuo, quicumque lavacrum
Ingreditur, sospes ac bonus hinc abeat.”

Both on the score of beauty and usefulness it is impossible to overpraise the practice here used of cultivating the mountains from base to summit, fashioning them into stairs of one level circle above the other, and strengthening the top of each platform with stone or some other material if it be not solid enough in itself. They sow corn on the level portion of each degree, be it wide or narrow, and on the edges of each, nearest the low ground, they train vines. Towards the summit, where there is no level space, they plant it all with vines.

At the ball lately referred to a lady danced with a vessel of water on her head. She kept it steady all through her dancing, though she skipped about in lively fashion. The physicians are wonderstruck to see how the majority of French guests here take the waters in the morning and bathe the same day.

I may say with confidence that up to this time, in the scanty intercourse I have had with the people of this place, I have failed to notice any of those wonders of talent and eloquence which report ascribes to them. I see no evidences of uncommon capacity in them; on the other hand, they are too prone to overrate my own slender faculties. Thus to-day it chanced that certain physicians had to hold an important consultation in the case of Signor Paulo de Cesis (nephew of Cardinal de Cesis[56]), who was visiting these baths. They waited on me on his behalf to beg me to listen to their opinions and arguments, adding that he had determined to be guided entirely by my decision, whereupon I could not help laughing in my sleeve. The same request was made to me with regard to other matters both here and at Rome.

At times I felt my eyes dazzled when I exerted them in reading or in gazing on any glittering object. I was greatly troubled thereanent, remembering that I had suffered from this weakness ever since I was seized with headache at Florence, that is to say, heaviness about the forehead without any pain; a haziness before the eyes which, though it did not limit my vision, disturbed it in a way I cannot describe. Since this time this headache had recurred twice or thrice, and now became more persistent, but left me free otherwise. But after I used the douche to my head it came back every day, and my eyes watered freely, but without pain or inflammation. Moreover, until I had this attack I had not suffered from headache for more than ten years; and, fearing lest the douche may have induced this weakness of the head, I did not use it to-day--Thursday--and remained only an hour in the bath.

The cost of living here in a private room comes to a little more than seventy-two gold crowns a month, to call for what you will; and as much again for a servant. Any one without a servant will find ready and convenient service done by the landlord in the way of catering.

If Calvin had known that the preaching friars in these parts call themselves “ministers” he would doubtless have found some other style for those of his own sect.[57]

At this season many people come to the bath and from the cases I have seen, and from the opinions of the physicians--especially of Donato, who has written concerning these waters--I am sure I have not made any great mistake in using the douche for my head, seeing that patients still use it when in the bath for soothing the stomach. This Donato permitted bathing and drinking at the same time, wherefore I regret I did, not venture always to take a draught during my morning bath as I wished to do. He was loud in praise of the water of Bernabo; but, for all this professional argument, this water seemed to have no effect upon certain others untroubled with gravel, which infirmity never left me. I cannot persuade myself that the water produced the gravel in my case.

On Friday I took a rest. The Minister Franciscan brother (for so they call the Provincials here), a worthy man of great learning and courtesy, who chanced to be at the baths with divers other friars, sent me a fine present of excellent wine and marchpanes and other eatables. On Saturday also I did no cure, but went to dine at Menalsio,[58] a fine large village on the top of one of these mountains. I took some fish with me, and found accommodation at the house of a well-to-do soldier, who had travelled much in France and in other countries and had made money and married a wife in Flanders. His name was Santo. In these parts are fine churches, and great numbers of the peasants have been soldiers and have travelled abroad, the division between the partisans of France and Spain being very sharply marked. Without thinking what I did, I set a flower over my left ear, and thereby offended greatly the French faction. After dinner I went up to the fort, which is built with high walls right up to the top of the hill. The place is very steep, but highly cultivated throughout. Indeed, all through this region, amongst yawning chasms and precipitous ridges and cliffs and splintered crags, there are vines and grain planted, and even patches of pasture, which is not to be seen on the level plain below. I descended by a direct path on the other side of the mountain.

On the Sunday I bathed in company with certain other gentlemen, and remained in the bath half-an-hour. I received from Signor Ludovico Pinitesi a fine present of a horse laden with the finest fruit, amongst which were some early figs, the first which had been seen this season at the bath, and twelve flasks of the most mellow wine. Just at the same time the friar aforenamed sent me a great quantity of other sorts of fruit, wherefore I was able to make presents of the same to the villagers. After dinner there was a ball where I saw several ladies finely dressed, but not over comely, though they were some of the handsomest Lucca could show.

In the evening Signor Ludovico di Ferrari of Cremona, a gentleman well known to me, sent me a box of quince marmalade, musk flavoured, and some lemons, besides some oranges of extraordinary size. A little before daybreak I was seized with cramp in the calf of the right leg. The pain was sharp, intermittent and not continuous, and lasted about half-an-hour. I had a similar attack not long ago, but then it passed in a twinkling. Just at this season we began to be conscious of the heat and of the noise of the grasshoppers, but neither trouble was worse than in France. The air up to the present has seemed fresher than in Gascony.

In free nations you do not find, as otherwhere, the sharp division of classes, and here even the lowest bear themselves with a certain dignity. Even in asking alms they will always ask as if they had a right. “Give me something, will you?” “Give me something, do you understand?” Whereas in Rome they cry, “Do me a kindness for your own sake.”[59]

On Wednesday, June 21, I left Della Villa early in the morning, having received from the ladies and gentlemen there sojourning every mark of friendship that I could desire as I said good-bye. I travelled through a hilly country, fair and well wooded, for twelve miles as far as Pescia, a small town under Florence on the river Pescia, with fine houses and wide streets. Here the famous wine of Trebbiano is grown in a vineyard surrounded by thick olive woods. The people show great friendship to France, which accounts for their adoption of a dolphin as a crest.[60] After dinner we traversed a fair plain, thickly set with villages and houses. I had resolved to visit Monte Catino, where is the hot salt spring of Tettuccio,[61] a place a mile to the right of the direct road, about seven miles from Pescia, but through my heedlessness I forgot all about it till I got to Pistoia, a distance of eleven miles.

I found lodging outside the town, where I was visited by a son of M. de Ruspigliosi. Any one who travels in Italy otherwise than by hiring horses is a bad manager, for to me it seems far less irksome to change horses here and there, than to be in the hands of a single _vetturino_ for a long journey. The twenty miles between Pistoia and Florence cost for horse hire only four julli. From Pistoia we passed Prato and came to Castello in time for dinner. We alighted at an inn opposite to the Grand Duke’s palace, and after dinner we went to view more particularly the garden belonging thereto, which I found to be less fair in reality than I had figured it, an experience I had often met before. The last time I saw it was in winter,[62] when it was bare and desolate, and then I imaged its loveliness in the sweet of the year, but my fancy ran away with me. We had come seventeen miles to Castello, and after dinner we rode the remaining three and arrived at Florence.

_Reproduced from Civitates Orbis Terrarum_

_To face p. 94_, vol. iii.
]

XI

FLORENCE

On the Friday, I saw the public procession when the Grand Duke rode in his coach.[63] Amongst the other sights was a gilded car made in form of a theatre, in which were four little children, and one in the garb of a friar, who represented Saint Francis, holding his hands as the Saint is depicted, and bearing a crown over his cowl. This last was either a friar or some one in friar’s dress with a false beard. Some children were dressed as warriors, amongst whom was Saint George, and when they entered the piazza they came upon a huge dragon which was clumsily borne along by some men concealed. The dragon rushed forward, belching fire from his mouth and roaring, whereupon the young Saint George made at him with sword and lance and cut his throat.

I was most kindly received by one of the Gondi, a family living at Lyons: this gentleman sent me some of the Trebisiano, the finest wine of the country. Meantime it was so hot that even the people of the country marvelled at the heat, and this morning at dawn I had an attack of colic on the right side which lasted some three hours. I now tasted the first musk melon of the season: in Florence they have plenty of cucumbers and almonds from the beginning of June.

On the 23rd, the chariot races took place in a fine large piazza, surrounded on all sides by fair houses, the length thereof being greater than the width.[64] At either end was erected a squared obelisk of wood, and between these was stretched a long rope to prevent any one from crossing the square. In addition, several men were stationed all along the piazza to keep the people off the rope aforesaid. All the balconies were filled with ladies, and the Grand Duke, with the duchess and the court, occupied one of the palaces. The people stood all along the piazza and upon some platforms which had been put up, where also I found a place. Five chariots, empty, entered for the race, the station by the side of one of the obelisks being assigned by lot, some people affirming that the coach on the outside had the best place from being able to make the round more easily. A trumpet gave the signal to start, and the coach which reached the starting-point beside the pyramid, at the end of the third round, was to be declared the winner. The Grand Duke’s coach held the lead up to the last round, but then the driver of the Strozzi coach, who had always hung close on the leader, urged his horses to make extraordinary efforts with loosened reins; and, having collected all his forces, brought his coach in line with the Duke’s at the end. I marked how the people began to clamour, as soon as they saw Strozzi gaining on the leader, and how they applauded him to the utmost though their ruler was there present. And afterwards, when the dispute was referred to the arbitration of certain gentlemen, the Strozzi partisans appealed to the verdict of the people assembled, who shouted with one voice in favour of Strozzi. The prize was finally awarded to him, unjustly as I thought, its value being a hundred crowns. No sight I had seen in Italy pleased me so much as this, on account of its resemblance to the ancient races.

This day being the vigil of Saint John the Baptist, they set certain small lamps on the top of the Duomo, making three rows thereof in circles, which gave light all round. They told me it was not the custom in Italy, as it is in France, to make bonfires on Saint John the Baptist’s Day.

Saturday was Saint John’s Day, the chief festival in Florence, and the one of the greatest fame, seeing that all, even the young maidens, take public part therein. I did not mark much beauty abroad. In the morning the Grand Duke appeared on a platform, raised against the wall of the Palazzo and overlooking the piazza. He was shaded by an awning adorned with the richest needlework, and on his left hand stood the nuncio of the Pope, and at some little distance apart, the Ferrarese ambassador. Then representatives of all his territories and cities passed before him, being summoned by a herald. Thus, Siena was represented by a youth, clad in black and white velvet, and bearing in his hand a large silver vase and an effigy of the Sienese wolf. This representative pays tribute to the Grand Duke every year, and makes a short speech. After he had passed, a succession of young men, shabbily dressed and riding wretched mules or horses, came by as they were called, this carrying a silver cup and that a tattered flag. A great number of these went by without speech, or obeisance, or the least order, and seeming to treat the whole affair as a jest. They were supposed to represent the various villages and places dependent on Siena, and they go through this form every year.

Next came by a car carrying a square pyramid of wood, fashioned in steps, upon which sat a group of children clad in various fashions, and angels and saints. On the apex, which was as high as the highest of the houses, stood a man dressed to imitate Saint John, and tied on to an iron bar. Following this car came a number of officials, those of the Mint being most prominent. At the end of the show came another car, on which were youths who carried three prizes for the various races, and alongside went the Barbary horses which were going to compete; also the riders thereof with the devices of their masters, who were some of the highest of the nobility. The horses, though small, were very shapely.

I did not feel the heat more severe than in France, nevertheless, to moderate it as much as possible in the inn bed-chamber, I had my bed made up every night on the table in the large room. I could not find here a single lodging which suited me, for this city is not a good one for strangers to inhabit, and the vermin with which the beds are infested must always be reckoned with. There is a scarcity of fish, and trout and the like are never eaten except when salted and brought from a distance. I remarked that the Grand Duke sent to a certain Milanese, Giovanni Mariano, who was lodging in my inn, a present of wine, fruit, bread, and fish, the last-named being small and kept alive in cool earthen jars.

All day long my mouth was parched and dry, with a feeling not of thirst but of internal heat, such as I have felt before during our hot seasons. I ate nothing but fruit, and some salad and sugar. I was indeed far from well.

The outdoor diversions, which we in France take after supper, these people take before that meal, which in the longest days is not eaten till night, and in the morning they begin the day between seven and eight o’clock.

After dinner the race of the Barbary horses took place, the prize being carried off by the horse belonging to the Cardinal de’ Medicis.[65] Its value was two hundred crowns. The spectacle is not one to give pleasure, as those on the road could see nothing but the rush of the horses.

On Sunday I saw the Pitti Palace, where, amongst other things, I remarked the marble statue of a mule, modelled from one still alive, which was executed on account of the long service done by this beast in carrying material for the building of this palace. At least that is what the Latin verses say.[66] In the palace I saw the image of the Chimera, the head of which, with horns and ears; springs from between the shoulders, while the body is like that of a small lion.[67] On the Saturday the Grand Duke’s palace was open in every part to the country-folk, the great hall being filled with parties of dancers, some here and some there. I have a notion that this licence, which they enjoyed on the great feast day of the city, seemed to them a sort of shadow of their lost liberty.

On Monday I dined with Signor Silvio Piccolomini, a man of well-known worth and especially skilled in the art of fence. Many subjects came up for discussion, as there was a large gathering of other gentlemen. He has a poor opinion of the art of fencing as practised by the Italian masters, such as Veniziana di Bologna, Patinostraro, and others. Indeed, the only one he favoured was a certain pupil of his own, who now lives at Brescia, where he teaches the art to the gentle-folk of the city. He declared that the ordinary teachers of fencing follow neither art nor rule, and he condemned especially the far-reaching lunge which leaves your sword at the mercy of your adversary, and the practice of making one assault after another and then coming to a pause. This, he declared, was entirely against all experience of sword-play. He was on the eve of printing a treatise on this subject. In speaking of warfare he made light of artillery, greatly to my satisfaction, and he praised Machiavelli’s work, _Della Guerra_, and was quite in agreement with the writer’s opinions. He declared that the most skilful military engineer living was one in the service of the Grand Duke in Florence.

They have a fashion here of putting ice in the wine-cups, but of this I took very little, being uneasy in my body and troubled with pain in the side, besides passing an incredible quantity of gravel. My head still troubled me, and I could not get rid of the sensation of dulness and a certain indefinable heaviness over the brow, the cheeks, the teeth, the nose, and all parts. I imagined this discomfort arose from drinking the sweet, heady wines of the country, because my headache returned after I had drunk heartily of the Trebisiano. I must have been inflamed through travelling in the summer heat, and it needed a great quantity of the wine to quench my thirst on account of its sweetness.

I have come to the conclusion that Florence has a good right to the title “La bella.”[68] I went out to-day alone to amuse myself by inspecting those ladies who may be seen by any one who may be so inclined. I saw those of the greatest note, but they were not of much account. Their lodgings are all in one part of the city, and are wretched even for what they are, being in no way equal to those of the Roman or Venetian courtesans, any more than their occupants can compare with the aforesaid ladies in beauty, or grace, or carriage. If any one of them is minded to dwell outside these bounds she must not make herself conspicuous, and must hide her real calling under some fictitious one.

I went to see the workshops of the silk-spinners, where a woman by one turn of a wheel can set to work five hundred threads. On the Tuesday morning I passed a small red stone.

On Thursday I went to visit the Casino[69] of the Grand Duke. What struck me most there was a rock of pyramidal shape made of all sorts of mineral stones, the mass being composed of one fragment of each. From this rock a spring of water gushed forth and set in motion a great number of devices, water-mills, windmills, bells, soldiers, animals, hunting scenes, and many others of the same sort, all placed in a chamber inside. On Thursday I did not care to stay in the city to witness another horse race, so I went after dinner to Pratolino, which I inspected minutely for the second time, and, being requested by the steward of the palace to give my opinion as to the relative beauties of this place and of Tivoli, I said what I had to say without making any general comparison, but setting detail against detail, with the different things to be considered in each case, and letting now this place and now Tivoli have the advantage.