Chapter III: Part 3

On Friday to the shop of the Giunti, where I bought a collection of Comedies, eleven in number, and certain other books. I saw there Boccaccio’s will,[70] printed together with some lectures on the _Decameron_, which displays the amazing poverty into which this illustrious man must have fallen. He left some of his linen and bedding to his sisters and his other relatives, his books to a certain friar with the instructions that the legatee is to allow the use of them to any one who may demand the same. He made mention of everything down to earthenware and the meanest utensils, and arranged for his burial and masses. This is printed exactly from the original, which was written on parchment greatly injured and decayed.

The courtesans here stand at the doors of the houses to attract lovers, just as those of Rome and Venice sit by the windows. They take their station at suitable hours, and may be always seen, some with large and some with small company, talking and singing in the streets.

On Sunday the 2nd of July I quitted Florence after dinner, and, having crossed the Arno by the bridge, we left the river to the right hand, following its course nevertheless. We traversed a fine fertile plain, which produces the finest musk melons in Tuscany, but the best of these are not ripe before the 15th of July. Those grown at Legnara, three miles from Florence, are the best. Our road lay through a country for the most part level and fertile, everywhere studded with houses large and small, which made it seem one continuous string of villages. Amongst others we passed a charming place called Empoli,[71] the name of which seemed to me to smack of antiquity. Its site is most lovely, but I saw no sign of old times save a ruined bridge near the road which had an indescribable look of age.

Here I made special note of three things. First, to see the people of these parts harvesting grain, or threshing, or sewing, or spinning on a Sunday. Second, to see the peasants with lutes in their hands, and even the pastoral songs of Ariosto on their lips--which thing indeed may be observed all through Italy. Third, to see how these people will leave the grain lying in the fields for ten or fifteen days after it is cut--or even longer--without fear of being robbed by the neighbours. We travelled in the evening dusk for twenty miles as far as Scala.

Here we could only get lodging, which was very good. I took no supper, as I was troubled with toothache on the right side, an ailment which often comes with my headaches. I felt it especially when I was eating, as every bite caused me the sharpest pain. On the morning of Monday, July 3, we followed the level road beside the Arno, which led us to a fertile plain, covered with corn, and at midday, after riding twenty miles, came to Pisa.

XII

PISA

This city is under the Grand Duke of Florence, and stands on the plain of the Arno, which runs through the middle of it and enters the sea six miles farther on. By it ships of divers sorts can reach Pisa. The University was now closed, as it always is during the three hot months, but we found there a company of very good players, the Disiosi. The hotel was not to my liking, wherefore I hired a house with four rooms and one _salle_. The landlord did the cooking and provided furniture; an excellent house and all for eight crowns a month. But because the provision of table linen which he promised to make was very scanty (and in Italy they hardly ever change the napkins save when they change the tablecloth, which is done twice a week), we let our servants buy some more. At the inn we had paid four julli a day.[72]

This house was in a most pleasant situation, commanding a delightful prospect right over the channel through which the Arno flows. This channel is very wide and more than five hundred paces in length, slightly curved, and offering a charming object to the view, the bend aforesaid allowing the spectator to see easily both ends of the channel, full of merchant shipping and crossed by three bridges. The quays on either side are of fine masonry, with supports to the very top, like those on the Quai des Augustines at Paris, with wide streets, at the side of which are rows of houses, one of which is the one I hired.

On Wednesday, July 5th, I visited the cathedral, built on the site of the palace of the Emperor Hadrian. Here are columns of various marbles, infinite in number and differing in form and workmanship, and most beautiful doors of metal. It is enriched by various trophies brought from Greece and Egypt, and itself is constructed out of ancient ruins, so that here may be seen inscriptions upside down, and there divided in the middle.[73] In some places are to be seen indecipherable characters said to be written by the Etruscans.[74] I saw the Campanile, which is marvellous in appearance, being inclined seven cubits out of the perpendicular. At Bologna and other places there are leaning towers. Pillars and open colonnades are set round it from top to bottom. Also the church of Saint John near thereto, which is very richly adorned with painting and sculpture.[75] Amongst other rarities is a marble pulpit set very thickly with statues, which are so beautiful that Lorenzo, the same who slew Duke Alexander dei Medici, is said to have carried off the heads of certain of them,[76] and presented them to the queen. In shape this church resembles the Rotonda at Rome.[77]

The natural son of the duke aforesaid lives at Pisa.[78] He is an old man, and I chanced to see him. He lives at his ease on the bounty of the present duke, and takes no part in public affairs, being content to amuse himself with the excellent hunting and fishing to be enjoyed in the neighbourhood. In no other city of Italy is to be found such vast store of holy relics and exquisite works, and stone and marble work of such rarity, grandeur, and marvellous workmanship. I was immensely pleased with the cemetery, which they call the Campo Santo. It is of extraordinary size, and rectangular, three hundred paces long and one hundred wide, and surrounded by a corridor forty paces wide, covered with lead and paved with marble. The walls are covered with old paintings, and amongst them is a portrait of the Florentine Gondi, by whom the family of that name was founded.

The nobles of the city have their burial-places under this covered corridor. Here are to be seen the names and armorial devices of some four hundred families, of whom not more than four now dwell in Pisa, the survivors of the wars and destruction which have fallen upon this ancient city. The population is now very scanty, the place being chiefly taken up by strangers. Many persons of rank belonging to the noble families referred to are still living in other parts of Christendom whither they have betaken themselves. In the midst of this enclosure is an open space where the dead are still buried. I was told positively by every one that any corpse interred there swells so greatly some eight hours afterwards that the ground may be seen to rise; in the next eight it subsides, and in eight hours more the flesh is entirely consumed, so that four-and-twenty hours after burial nothing is left but bare bones.[79] This strange fact resembles another told of that cemetery at Rome which rejects immediately the body of any Roman buried therein. This enclosure is paved, like the corridor, with marble, upon which is laid earth one or two cubits deep, which earth, they declare, was brought from Jerusalem, the Pisans having sent a great expedition for the carrying out of this purpose. With the bishop’s consent a little of this earth may be taken and mixed with that of other graves, the belief being that the corpses within will thereby consume away rapidly; and this belief is a plausible one, because in this particular cemetery bones are very rarely seen, scarcely any indeed, neither is there any place where they are collected and reinterred, as in other cities.

From the neighbouring mountains they quarry the finest marble, which is here worked by divers distinguished craftsmen. At this time they were preparing for the King of Fez, in Barbary, materials for a theatre of the richest design, the plan being drawn to include fifty most sumptuous marble columns. The arms of France are to be seen in countless places all about this city,[80] besides a column which King Charles VIII. gave to the Duomo. On the wall of a certain house looking upon the street the king aforesaid is represented, life-size, kneeling before the Virgin, who seems to be giving him counsel. An inscription set thereupon declares that the king, after supping in this house, was seized with the determination to give the Pisans their ancient freedom, and that by this act he surpassed the greatness of Alexander. He is there described as King of Jerusalem, Sicily, &c.[81] The words which refer to the grant of liberty have been designedly defaced and are half-erased. Many private houses still exhibit these arms as badges of honour, the king having granted the same to the owners.

Here are a few remains of ancient buildings. One is the fine brick ruin, which stands near the site of Nero’s palace, the name of which it still retains,[82] and another the church of Saint Michael, formerly a temple of Mars.[83] Thursday was the Feast of Saint Peter, and report says it was formerly the custom for the bishop to go in procession on this day to the church of Saint Peter,[84] which stands four miles outside the city, and thence on to the sea, into which he would cast a ring as a token of espousal, this city being a great maritime power. Now they simply send one of the University teachers to perform this ceremony. The priests go in procession only as far as the church, where they hold a great sale of pardons. A papal bull, dating back some four hundred years (taking as its authority a book more than twelve hundred years old), declares that this church was built by Saint Peter himself, and that one day when Saint Clement was performing the office on a marble altar, three drops of blood from the Saint’s nose fell down upon this altar, where the stain made by them still remains as plain as if they had fallen three days ago. The Genoese mutilated this table and carried away one of the drops aforesaid, wherefore the Pisans removed what remained from the church into the city. But every year, on Saint Peter’s Day, it is carried back in procession to its original place, and all night long people are passing hither and thither in boats.

On Friday, June 7th, I went early to see the dairy farm of Don Piero de’ Medici,[85] about two miles distant. This prince has vast estates, which he cultivates on his own account, engaging every five years a fresh set of labourers, who receive as wages half the produce of the soil, which is here very fertile in grain. In the pastures animals of all sorts are kept. I dismounted in order to inspect more minutely the farmstead, where a vast number of people were at work making curd and butter and cheese, and using divers implements made for the purpose.

Onward from thence over the plain I went as far as the beach of the Tyrrhenian Sea, getting a sight of Lerici on the right, and on the left of Leghorn, a town with a castle close to the sea and nearer than Lerici. From here I could also see the island of Gorgona, beyond this Capraia,[86] and Corsica beyond all. I turned to the left and followed the shore as far as the mouth of the Arno, which is of ill-fame amongst sailors because the many small streams which fall into it bring down great quantities of earth and mud and form a bar at the mouth. Here I bought some fish, which I despatched as a present to the ladies of the theatre. Along the river are many thickets of tamarisk. On Saturday I bought, for six giulios, a small barrel made of this wood, which I caused to be hooped with silver, paying the silversmith three crowns for the work. Besides this, I spent six giulios on a walking-stick of Indian cane, and eight more on a small vessel and a cup made of Indian nut, which is quite as efficacious against spleen and the gravel as tamarisk.

The man who made these wares, an artist of great talent and famous as a maker of fine mathematical instruments, informed me, that all trees, when cut through, show as many rings as they have years, and he gave me demonstration of this from all the different sorts of wood he had in his shop, he being a carpenter. The part of the tree which faces the north is always of closer grain and with circles nearer together than the other parts. Wherefore, he boasts that, whatever specimen of wood may be brought to him, he can always determine how old was the tree from which it was cut, and the aspect towards which it faced.[87]

Only a short time ago this city bore an evil name for its unhealthy air, but this is vastly improved since Duke Cosimo has drained the marshes by which it is surrounded. Formerly the place was so unhealthy that when the government wanted to banish any one, and at the same time get rid of him, they always banished him to Pisa, where in a few months the job was done. There are no partridges here, though the Duke has taken great pains to foster them.

I received several visits at my lodging from Girolamo Borro,[88] a physician and doctor of philosophy, and when I went to see him on July 14, he made me a present of his book on the flux and reflux of the sea, written in Italian. At the same time he showed me another book he had written in Latin on the diseases of the body.

On this same day, twenty-one Turkish slaves escaped from the arsenal near my house and fled the place, having taken possession of a bark, with full equipment, which the Signor Alessandro di Piombini had left there while he went fishing. Except the Arno itself, and the navigable channel so admirably contrived, and the churches and ancient buildings and others of particular merit, there is little in Pisa that is distinguished or worth seeing. The place is like a desert, and in this respect, and in the fashion of the buildings, and in its size, and in the wideness of the streets, it strongly resembles Pistoia. Its chief disadvantage is its bad water, which has everywhere a marshy smell.

These people are very poor, but at the same time very arrogant and unfriendly, and discourteous towards strangers, and towards the French especially since the death of their late bishop, Pietro Paulo Borbonio, who claimed kinship with our royal house.[89] Certain of his relations still reside here. This prelate was so liberal and so well disposed to our nation that he made it a rule to entertain in his palace at once any Frenchman who might arrive in Pisa. To the Pisans he has left an honoured memory of his righteous life and bounty. He died only five or six years ago.

On July 17th, I joined with twenty-five others, at a crown each, in a raffle for some things belonging to Fargnocola, one of the aforenamed players. We began by drawing lots as to who should play first, second, and so on; and then made the rule that, as there were several lots of things to play for, they should be divided into two equal parts. One of these was to fall to the player who threw highest, the other to the lowest throw. It chanced that I threw second highest.

On the 18th, at the church of S. Francesco, a grave tumult arose between the priests of the cathedral and the friars. On the previous day a Pisan gentleman was brought to be buried in the cathedral, whereupon the priests got ready all their paraphernalia for the funeral office, asserting their ancient right and privilege. But the friars on their part declared that they and no others had the right to say mass in their church. One of the priests attempted to get possession of the table, having gone up to the high altar, but a friar forced him away, whereupon the vicar, the head of the priests of this church, gave the friar a buffet. Then arose a hand-to-hand fight, fists, bludgeons, candlesticks, and tapers being used freely, and the upshot was that no mass was said by either party. This outbreak of rage and riot caused a great scandal. As soon as I heard the report thereof, I went to the cathedral, where I received true report of what had happened.

At daybreak on the 22nd three Turkish pirate ships made a raid on the adjoining sea coast and carried off fifteen or twenty poor fishermen and shepherds as captives. On the 25th I paid a visit to Cornacchino,[90] a famous Pisan physician and teacher. He lived according to a rule of his own, which differed vastly from the rules of his art. Immediately after dinner he would go to sleep and would drink a hundred times a day. He read to me some rhymes of his own written in the Pisan dialect which were not unpleasing. According to him the baths near the city are of no great account, but he had a high opinion of those of _Bagno Acqua_,[91] about sixteen miles distant, which he declared to be marvellously good for liver complaints, detailing to me some wonderful cures, and for the stone and colic as well. He recommended me, however, before taking these waters, to drink some of the Della Villa spring. He is of opinion that, after blood-letting, medicine has no curative agent to compare with baths, if only they be used with understanding. He also told me that at Bagno Acqua the lodgings are good, and that I might make myself very comfortable there.

On Thursday, July 27th, I left Pisa early in the morning, being highly gratified by the courteous and friendly treatment I had received from Signor Vintavinti, Signor Lorenzo Conti, Signor Miniato in whose house lived the Cavaliere Camillo Gatani--who offered to let his brother return with me to France--Signor del Borro, and divers other craftsmen and merchants with whom I had dealings. I am certain that I could have raised money from them, had I needed it, albeit the Pisans have the name for churlishness and arrogance. But in every case a courteous man wins a return for his courtesy.

This country abounds in pigeons, nuts, and mushrooms. We went for a certain distance over the plain and arrived at the baths of Pisa, of which there are several. One of these bears an inscription cut in marble which I could not rightly decipher. It is in rhymed Latin verses and seems to celebrate the virtues of these springs. As far as I could gather it was written in 1300.

The largest and the most seemly of these baths is square-built with one side open, very well fitted, and having marble staircases. It measures thirty paces square, and in one corner the spring flows in through a spout. I took a draught of it to test it, and found it lacking in taste and in smell also. I only detected a slight roughness on the tongue. It is scarcely warm at all and very pleasant to drink. I looked at the water as it flowed from the spout, and perceived therein the same minute particles, white atoms, which had offended me at Baden, and which I judged to be some dirt come in from without. Now, I believe these atoms to be connected with the mineral properties of the water. Round about the outflow these atoms are thicker, where forsooth the waters ought to be the clearest, as I found them to be at Baden. This place is a desert and the lodging very bad; indeed these baths are almost forsaken, the few people who use them preferring to come out in the morning from Pisa, which is only four miles distant, and return in the evening. The chief bath is uncovered, and is the only one which shows any trace of antiquity. It is called the bath of Nero, and the story goes that this Emperor caused water therefrom to be led by an aqueduct to his palace at Pisa.[92]

There is another covered bath, filled with the purest water, which is used by the people of the district. It is said to be good for the liver and for the eruptions caused by liver disorders. The same draught is prescribed here as at other baths, and exercise after drinking is commonly taken: or you may take a sweating bath, or use it in other forms. By ascending this hill I got a very fine view, looking over the great plain, the sea, the islands, Leghorn, and Pisa. After coming down we again traversed the plain in which Lucca is situated, and arrived there after a journey of ten miles.

XIII

RETURN TO LUCCA

This morning I passed another stone somewhat larger and looking as if it must have been detached from one much larger. God knows whether it is so. Let it be as He wills. We made the same terms at the inn as at Pisa, four giuli a day for ourselves and three for the servants. But on the 28th, being in a way compelled by the most courteous proposals of Signor Ludovico Pinitesi, I went to occupy a ground-floor apartment in his house. It was very cool, excellently arranged, and contained five chambers, a dining-room and a kitchen, the furniture of all sorts, of the finest and handsomest style, being supplied to me according to Italian custom, which in many ways equals our own and in some surpasses it. These fine large lofty arched ceilings are in truth great ornaments in Italian houses. They give a pleasant and dignified aspect to the entrances, because all the lower storeys are built in this fashion with wide and lofty doorways. In the summer all the gentle-folk of Lucca take their meals in public in these entries in full sight of the passers-by.

I may declare with truth that wherever I have stopped in Italy I have been lodged, not to say well, but excellently, except in Florence--and there I did not leave the inn in spite of the discomforts I had to endure, especially in the summer heat--and in Venice, where we lodged in a noisy ill-kept house, as our sojourn was to be a very brief one. My chamber here was apart, supplied with everything I could need, convenient and perfectly quiet. I rejoiced that the people of the place did not call upon me--or only one or two--for even civility sometimes becomes irksome. I slept and read as I was inclined, and when I went abroad I always found conversation in plenty with the people in the streets, who would be ready for a chat at any hour of the day; and then there were the shops, and the churches, and the market-place. Going about like this, from one country to another, I was never at a loss for material for the satisfying of my curiosity. And all this time I felt my mind at ease, as much as ill-health and old age would allow, and little prone to seize opportunities for disturbing itself from the outside world. The only loss I felt was that of a sympathetic companion, for, being alone, I had to enjoy all these pleasures by myself, and could not share them with another.

The people of Lucca are greatly given to, a game called _Pallone_, and they often meet for matches. Men seldom ride on horseback through the streets, and it is the rarest sight to see one in a coach, but ladies go on mule-back with a foot-servant. Strangers coming here have great difficulty in finding houses to let, the city itself being very thickly populated and the travellers visiting it very few. For an ordinary house with four furnished chambers, a dining-room, and a kitchen I was asked a rent of seventy crowns a month. It is hard to find any society in Lucca, for the reason that all the people, even the very children, are taken up with business incessantly, and with winning riches by means of traffic. On this account Lucca is somewhat unpleasant as a residence for foreigners.

On August the 10th we rode out into the country with certain gentlemen of the city who had lent us horses. All round about I saw a vast number of delightful villas for the distance of three or four miles, built with porticoes and loggias, which add greatly to their beauty. One had a very large loggia, arched all along inside, and clad without by the branches and tendrils of vines which were planted and trained over certain supports, the effect being one of coolness, verdure, and natural beauty.

The pain in the head would sometimes leave me for five or six days or even longer, but I could never feel myself safe from it. I was taken with a fancy to study the Florentine tongue, and I gave much time and trouble thereto, in return for which I reaped very little profit. The heat this summer was much greater than usual. On the 12th I went outside the city to visit the villa of Signor Benedetto Buonvisi, a fairly pleasant house. Amongst other things there I marked certain fair little thickets planted in sloping ground. They plant some fifty paces apart clumps of trees of that sort which holds green all the year round, and they surround these with shallow ditches, and construct certain covered ways within, and in the middle of each is a station for the fowler who, by means of a silver whistle and a quantity of captive thrushes trained for the purpose, and by setting limed twigs at every corner, will catch in a single morning two hundred thrushes at a certain season of the year, to wit, in the month of November. Such sport is only to be found in one district near a certain quarter of the city.

On Sunday the 13th I left Lucca, having settled to hand over to Signor Ludovico Pinitesi fifteen crowns for the hire of his house, making one crown per diem, a sum with which he was fully satisfied. We saw on our way a vast number of villas belonging to the gentle-folk of Lucca, handsome, neat, and graceful houses with abundance of water, but the supply is intermittent and does not come from natural springs. It is indeed wonderful to see so little running water in a land mountainous as this. Their habit is to tap the rivulets by small channels, and lead the water through fountains, vases, and grottoes and other devices of the sort for the ornamentation of the gardens. That same evening we arrived in time for supper at the villa of the Signor Ludovico aforesaid, his son Signor Oragio having been of our party on the journey. He gave us excellent entertainment, regaling us with a most sumptuous supper at night, set out under a wide portico exquisitely cool and open on every side, and giving us fine bed-chambers with clean delicate linen like that we had rejoiced over in his father’s house at Lucca.

We left early on Monday morning and rode without dismounting for fifteen miles to Bagni della Villa, where we arrived at dinner-time. On our way we halted a short time to see the villa of the bishop who was there in residence. We met with the kindest reception from the whole household, and were pressed to take our dinner with them. On our arrival we were heartily welcomed by all the residents; indeed, it seemed as if I had returned to my own home. I had lodging in the same apartment as before, at twenty crowns a month and the same other conditions.

On Tuesday, August 15, I spent a short hour in the bath. I seemed to get chilled sooner than before, and I did not perspire at all. On returning to these baths I felt myself not merely well, but full of health and spirits, and on the 16th I went to the ladies’ bath, which I had never before used, in order to be by myself. It was too hot for my taste, and, whether from the actual heat thereof, or from the relaxing of the pores in yesterday’s bath, I soon became very warm. I used the same bath on the two following days, and on the 19th I went again and remained there two hours, rather later in the day in order to allow a lady of Lucca the first turn, a just and proper rule being here observed to give the ladies the use of their bath at their convenience. The people here do not keep the feasts of religion so closely as we do, especially the Sunday; but the women get through the greater part of their work before dinner.

In the morning I wrote out my journal, and immediately after dinner I was seized with colic, and in order to keep me still more on the alert, a violent toothache began in my left jaw, a pain I had never felt before. Finding the discomfort intolerable I went to bed after three or four hours’ agony, and in a short time the pain left me. The next morning I felt myself much better, the flatulence and colic being abated; but I was very weak though free from pain. I took some food without any relish, and I drank without tasting what I swallowed, though I was very thirsty; and almost immediately the toothache returned and troubled me greatly up to supper-time. I had a good night’s rest, but I awoke in the morning somewhat indisposed, weary, the mouth parched with roughness and bad taste, and breath like one in a state of fever.

It would be too great cowardice and _ischifiltà_[93] on my part if, knowing that I am every day in danger of death from these ailments, and drawing nearer thereto every hour in the course of nature, I did not do my best to bring myself into a fitting mood to meet my end whenever it may come. And in this respect it is wise to take joyfully all the good fortune God may send. Moreover there is no remedy, nor rule, nor knowledge whereby to keep clear of these evils which from every side and at every minute gather round mans footsteps, save in the resolve to endure them with dignity, or boldly and promptly make an end of them.[94]

On August the 25th my kidney troubles abated, and I found myself about as well as before, save that I had frequent pain both by day and night in my left cheek, but it did not last long. I remember to have been troubled with the same pain when at home.

On the 27th I was so sharply troubled with toothache after dinner that I sent for the doctor, who, when he had taken account of all the symptoms, and had marked especially that the pain subsided while he was there, decided that this was no material fluxion, but one extremely subtle, and little else than wind which ascended from the stomach to the head, and, having mixed itself with the humours there, caused this disorder. This opinion seemed to me reasonable, seeing that I had often suffered from similar seizures in other regions of my body.

On Monday the 28th of August I went at dawn to the Bernabo spring and drank over seven pounds thereof. I am sure this draught gave me the vapours and made my head ache, and on Tuesday I drank nine pounds from the common spring and felt my head affected immediately after. In sooth my head was in very bad case, having never recovered from the effects of the first bath I took. It has pained me less often of late, and in a different way, as it has not weakened me or dazzled my eyes as it did a month ago. I suffered chiefly in the back, and pain never attacked my head, but it flew to my left cheek, affecting all parts thereof, the teeth down to the very roots, the ear, and a portion of the nose. The pang would be brief, but as a rule sharp and burning, and wont to attack me frequently both night and day. This is how my head fared at this juncture.

I am firmly convinced that the fumes of this water both in drinking and in bathing--though I hold drinking to be the worse--are very bad for the head, and even worse for the stomach. And on this account the patients here are forced to take medicines to correct the action of the water. On the Thursday I gave up drinking and rode in the morning to see Costrone, a large village in the mountains. I found many fine and fertile level spaces and pasturage to the very tops of the mountains. To this village are attached several hamlets with comfortable houses roofed with stone. On my way back I made a long circuit through the hills.

My head meantime continued in its usual condition--to wit, a bad one; I began to get weary of these baths, and if I had received from France news for which I had been waiting--indeed for four months I had heard nothing at all--I should have set forth at once and finished my autumn cure in some other bath. In travelling towards Rome the baths of Bagno Acqua, Siena, and Viterbo would lie but little off the main road; and towards Venice I should pass near those of Bologna and Padua.

In Pisa I had had my arms drawn in fine colours and gilded for the cost of a French crown and a half, and I now pasted the drawing on wood--it was done on canvas--and this wooden tablet I caused to be carefully nailed to the wall of the chamber I had occupied, with the understanding that the device should be held to be given to the room itself, and not to Captain Paulino the proprietor, and that it should not be taken down whatever might befall the house in the future. This the captain promised, and confirmed his promise with an oath.

On Sunday, September the 3rd, I spent more than an hour in the bath, and was much troubled by wind, but without pain. In the night and on Monday morning I had toothache so badly that I feared it must arise from a decayed tooth. I chewed mastic all the morning without relief.

During the night I sent for an apothecary, who gave me some _aqua vitæ_, and bade me hold it to the spot where the pain was sharpest. The relief I got was marvellous; for, as soon as I took it into my mouth, the pain ceased; but as soon as I spat out the spirit the pain returned, wherefore I was forced to keep the glass always at my lips. I could not keep the spirit in my mouth continually, for, as soon as the pain was reduced, I would through weariness fall into a heavy sleep, and then some drops of the spirit would run down my throat and choke me so that I was forced to get rid of it. Just at daybreak the pain seemed to leave me.

On the Tuesday morning all the gentlemen staying at the bath came to see me as I lay in bed. I afterwards caused a plaster of mastic to be put on my left temple, where the throbbing pain had been worst, and had less pain during the day. At night they applied lint to the cheek and the left side of the head, and my sleep was painless though disturbed.

On the Wednesday I had constant toothache and pain in the left eye, and on Thursday I spent an hour in the large bath. This same morning there came to hand, by way of Rome, a letter from M. de Tausin, written from Bordeaux on August 2nd, in which he informed me that, on the preceding day, I had been chosen to be Mayor of that city by public choice, and begged me that, out of my goodwill for the city, I would take up this burden.[95]

On Sunday, September 10th, I spent an hour in the ladies’ bath, which, being rather hot, caused me to perspire, and after dinner I went on horseback to visit some places in the neighbourhood, and a little town called Gragnaiola, situated on the top of one of the highest mountains of this group. As I rode along these heights the slopes around appeared to me the fairest and most fertile that the world could show. In course of conversation with some of the peasantry I inquired of a very old man whether the baths were much used by the inhabitants; whereupon he answered that the people about Lucca were like those living near the Madonna of Loreto, who very rarely go on pilgrimages to the shrine there; in like fashion the baths of Lucca enjoyed little favour, except from foreigners and people coming from afar. Moreover, there was one matter which gave him disquiet, to wit, that for some years past there had appeared manifest signs that the baths had done more harm than good to those who used them. He declared the cause of this to be that, whereas in former days there was no apothecary in the whole district and physicians were rarely seen, these gentry, now swarmed; and, having an eye to their own gain, established the doctrine that the baths would prove of no service unless the patient take medicine, not only before and after but at divers times during the operation of the waters, which would not easily assimilate if taken by themselves. He declared that the clearest proof of this appeared in the fact that, of the people who used these baths, more died than were cured; and that in a short time the place would fall into disrepute and neglect.

On September 12th, 1581, we set forth early from Bagni della Villa and arrived at Lucca in time for dinner, after riding fourteen miles. They were just beginning to gather the grapes. The feast of Santa Croce is the great one of this city, and during eight days all who may be proscribed on account of debt are suffered to return without hurt to their homes, so as to attend to their devotions. In all Italy I have never found a barber who could shave me or cut my hair properly.

On Wednesday evening we went to hear vespers and see the processions in the cathedral, where a vast multitude of the citizens were assembled. There was an exhibition of the Volto Santo, which is here held in the highest reverence because of the antiquity of the _cultus_, and of the many miracles due thereto; indeed the cathedral was built especially for the sake of this relic, and the little chapel where it is preserved still stands in the centre of the great church in an incongruous position, and in violation of all the canons of architecture.[96] As soon as the vespers were ended the whole of the congregation went to another church, which was formerly the cathedral.[97]

On Thursday I heard mass in the choir of the cathedral, when all the government officials were present. The people of Lucca take great pleasure in music and sing in unison, but it is rare to hear a fine voice. There was a full choir for this mass, but it was not a great performance; a high altar, very lofty in construction, had been specially built of wood and cardboard, and covered with images, and large silver candlesticks and vessels, the last being arranged with a basin in the centre and four plates around it. The altar was decorated in this fashion from top to bottom, and made a fine and imposing spectacle.

Whenever the bishop says mass (as he did on this occasion), at the _Gloria in excelsis_ he sets light to a bunch of tow suspended in a grating in the middle of the church, especially contrived for this purpose.

In this district the weather was already very wet and cold. On Sunday the 18th of September took place the ceremony of the change of the gonfaloniers of the city, and I was a spectator of the same at the palace. Here they work on Sundays as much as on week days, and many shops are open.

XIV

SECOND VISIT TO ROME

On Wednesday the 20th of September I left Lucca after dinner, having first packed two boxes of things for despatch to France. We traversed a level convenient highway, the country round being barren as the Landes of Gascony. We crossed a wide river by a bridge built by Duke Cosimo at a place where there are iron mills belonging to the Grand Duke, and good lodging, also three fish ponds, places divided off like enclosed pools and paved with bricks. In these they keep a vast number of eels, which we could easily discern, as there was very little water. We crossed the Arno at Fucecchio, and after a journey of twenty miles arrived at dusk at Scala.

We left Scala at sunrise and travelled over a good level road through a country of low fertile hills, not unlike France, taking our way through Castel Fiorentino, a small walled town, and then passed by the foot of the hill on which is situated Certaldo, the birthplace of Boccaccio, and a handsome little town. After going eighteen miles we halted for dinner at Poggibousi, a small town, and arrived in time for supper at Siena, twelve miles farther on. I remarked that the cold at this season was sharper in Italy than in France. The piazza of Siena is the finest of any city in the world. Mass is said therein at an altar in the open space, over which look all the houses and shops, wherefore the craftsmen and all the people can participate without quitting their work. At the elevation a trumpet is sounded to let every one know.

On Sunday the 23rd of September we left Siena after dinner, and travelled over a convenient road, which was a little unlevel in places, as the country is broken up in low fertile hills. At the end of twenty miles we came to S. Chirico, a pretty little town, where we found lodging outside the walls. Our baggage-horse fell down as he was crossing a brook we had to ford, and thus damaged greatly all my things, my books especially, and we were forced to stop and dry them. Montepulciano, Montecello, and Castiglioncello, were towns standing on neighbouring hills to the left hand.

Early on Monday I went to see a bath about two miles distant, called Vignone, after a little town near thereto. The bath is situated in a somewhat elevated position, beneath which runs the river Urcia, and round about it are grouped about a dozen cottages, ill-found and distasteful, a lousy-looking den. There is a large pool, surrounded with a wall and steps, in the midst of which may be seen boiling up several springs of the hot water which, as it has no smell of sulphur, little exhalation, and a red sediment, seemed to me more ferruginous than anything else. It is never drunk. The size of this pool is sixty paces by thirty-five, and near it are four or five covered enclosures for the use of bathers. The bath has considerable reputation, and for drinking the patients here give the preference to the water of S. Carriano near S. Chirico, and eighteen miles towards Rome, to the left of the main road.

In looking at the earthenware of these parts, which resembles porcelain, and is white, and clean, and very cheap, I thought it would be far more appetising for table use than the pewter used in France, which in the inns is especially disagreeable. About this time I felt in my head a slight return of the pain from which I deemed I was now fully delivered. It troubled me as before, round the eyes and brow, and the forepart of the head generally, in the form of heaviness and a weary, disquiet feeling, causing, me much anxiety. On Tuesday we dined at La Paglia, after a ride of thirteen miles, and slept at a bad inn at S. Lorenzo, sixteen miles farther on.

On Wednesday morning a dispute arose between our people, and the _vetturini_ of Siena, who, thinking that we were over-long in the road, made a demur about paying the outlay for the horses for this evening. The matter became so serious that I brought it before the governor, who, having heard it, decided in my favour, and sent one of the _vetturini_ to prison. I argued that the accident to the baggage-horse in the river, by which the greater part of my goods were spoilt, was the real cause of any delay.

About six miles from Montefiascone, a few paces to the right of the main road, is a bath called Naviso, in the middle of a wide plain. It is three or four miles distant from the nearest hill, and the outflow has formed a little lake, at one end of which is to be seen a strong spring of hot water boiling up briskly. It smells of sulphur, having a scum on the surface and a white sediment. On one side of this spring is a pipe which conveys the water to two baths in a house near by. This, the only bath-house in the place, has numerous chambers, but they are very bad. I fancy, however, that few people come here. The water may be drunk for seven days, ten pounds per diem, but before it is taken it must be left some time to get cool, as at the baths of Preissac.[98] The patients bathe in addition.

This house and the bath belong to a church, and is let for fifty crowns per annum. The bath is likewise of great use to the sick people who come here in the spring of the year, and the man who hires it sells a quantity of the mud taken from the bath, which mud, when dissolved in hot oil, is good for the itch in human beings, and for scabby dogs and cattle, when diluted with water. The price of this mud when sold on the spot is two giulios a load, but they sell it also in dried balls for seven quattrini apiece. We saw here a lot of dogs belonging to Cardinal Farnese, which had been sent here for the bath.

Three miles farther on we came to Viterbo, and our arrival here was so ill-timed that we were forced to take dinner and supper together. I was hoarse and had a bad cold through having slept in my clothes last night on a table at S. Lorenzo, by reason of the vermin, a misadventure which only befell me at Florence and this place. At Viterbo the people eat a sort of acorn which they call _gensole_;[99] it is found in various other parts of Italy and is pleasant to taste. Starlings are so plentiful that they are to be had for one baiocco each.

On Thursday, September 28th, I went in the morning to see some other baths near this place, situated in a plain in a remote spot some distance from the hills.[100] Formerly there were two separate buildings used as baths, not very long ago, but these have perished through neglect. There is a rank smell throughout the place. All that now remains is a cabin containing a small spring of hot water which forms a pool for bathers. This water is odourless, with an insipid taste, and not over-warm. It seemed to me to contain iron, and it is occasionally drunk. Farther on is what they call the Palace of the Pope, the story being that Pope Nicolas either built or restored it.[101] Below this palace, in a deep hollow, three separate springs of hot water rise from the earth, one of which serves for drinking, having a moderate warmth, no smell, but somewhat sharp on the palate. I believe it contains much nitre. I came here with the view of taking the waters for three days, the quantity taken being just the same as in other places. Exercise is used after drinking, and they set great store on sweating.

This water is held in high esteem, and quantities of it are carried all over Italy; and the physician, who has written a treatise on the potable water of the baths of Italy, gives it the first place, commending it especially for diseases of the kidneys. It is usually drunk in May. I gathered faint hope of making a cure when I read an inscription on the wall, written by a certain man who cursed his physician for having sent him to such a place, and affirmed that he had suffered much ill from his stay there. Moreover, the proprietor hinted to me that I had come too late in the season, and certainly did not urge me to take the waters.

There is only one lodging-house, but it is large and well arranged, and situated only about a mile and a half from Viterbo, so I went thither on foot. There are three or four baths of various properties, and in addition provision for the douche. This water throws up a white scum, which hardens readily and becomes solid like ice, making a crust on the surface of the water. If a linen cloth be dipped therein, it will quickly become loaded with this scum and quite stiff. This substance is sold into other parts for use in cleansing the teeth, and when chewed it has no more taste than earth or sand; indeed, the composition thereof is reputed to be the same as that of marble, in which case it might well harden in the kidneys. It is said, however, that the water which is exported in bottles has no sediment and remains quite clear. I imagine it may be drunk in any quantity, and that the sharpness before-named may give it a certain savour and make it easier to swallow.

On my way back, I went over the same plain, which stretches out to great length and is eight miles wide, to see the place where the people of Viterbo (who are all either workers or traffickers with no gentlemen amongst them) collect the flax and hemp, the working of which is their chief industry, and found none but men employed, the women taking no part in the work. There was a vast quantity of material, and many craftsmen busy around a lake of water, which is boiling hot all the year round, and is said to be fathomless. From this lake they have formed other pools of warm water in which they put their hemp and flax to steep.[102]

On Saturday, Saint Michael’s Day, I went after dinner to visit the Madonna del Cerquio,[103] a church about a mile outside the city. The road thither is a very fine one, level and straight and planted with trees from one end to the other, the work of the Farnese Pope.[104] The church itself is very fine, full of evidences of devotion and innumerable _ex votos_. On the wall is the Latin inscription, some hundred years old, telling how a certain man, having been attacked by robbers and half-killed, sought refuge in an oak tree, upon which was set the image of the Madonna now preserved here, and offered his prayers thereto. By a miracle the Madonna made him invisible, and thus he escaped a most pressing danger; and from this miracle arose this particular worship of the Madonna. The present magnificent church was built near where the oak stood, and the trunk of the oak tree, cut off low down, may yet be seen; and the part to which the image was fixed, together with the branches, is hung up on the wall.