Prospect of discomfort from crowded Inns.--Wildness of scenery
among the Apennines.--Apprehensions excited by a bandit-looking
Peasant.--Disappointed of accommodation by a knowing Courier.--An Inn
of truly Italian character.--In travelling, servants fare better than
their masters.--Approach to Florence.--The Cathedral square.
Caspar paid me a visit, after dinner, with an ominous face and a more
ominous report. He had ascertained that not less than twenty carriages
were to cross the mountains next day. This augured badly for our
comfort. In the first place, we might have a famine, or be brought
to chestnuts, the true diet of the Apennines; and moreover, there
was but a single house within a day’s work of Bologna where we could
possibly sleep. The ex-dragoon affirmed that nothing could pass him
while actually in motion; but they who travelled post had the advantage
of not stopping at all, and of course would win the plate. Nothing
remained to be done but to get the track at starting, and to throw
ourselves on our speed with at least the hope of distancing all the
_vetturini_.--We accordingly drove through the gates of Bologna, before
the day had fairly dawned. The inquiry of Caspar, whether any one had
preceded us, was satisfactorily answered, and, cracking his long whip,
the happy fellow trotted merrily to the foot of the first ascent. The
road carried us very soon into the mountains, and here we bade adieu to
the sea-like plain of Upper Italy.
For the first two or three hours we did little else but ascend; but
it was evident that the piles were not Alpine. The road, however, was
excellent, and though the country was scarcely grand enough to be
imposing, or sufficiently soft to be pleasing, it had a peculiarity in
its features that served to keep attention alive. We found the inn on
the edge of what may be called the first considerable plateau--if any
portion of mountains that are a succession of rounded caps can thus be
termed. We were the first arrived, and were rewarded for our diligence
by getting the first breakfast. If it was the best, our successors
were to be pitied, for it consisted of execrable coffee, bad bread,
tallowish butter, and greasy chops. One seldom sees a meaner repast
in a log-house on the American frontier. Inferior as it all was, the
laughing Caspar assured me those who came after us would fare worse,
for we had consumed all the milk;--“_et les voilà_,” he added, pointing
down the mountain to a train of carriages that were dragging their
weary way up the ascent. By this time we were ready to move, and away
the dragoon trotted, chuckling at his own management as much as at our
success.
The region we were now in had a wildness and a character that, to us,
were entirely novel. Most of the mountain-tops were bald; and, indeed,
as far as the eye could extend, west and south, it beheld nothing but a
species of elevated downs, that were however much broken into irregular
valleys and hills. There was a little forest, here and there; but, in
the main, nakedness was the prevailing characteristic of the view.
As I sat on the carriage-box, I could see the road leagues ahead of
us, winding its way among the ascents, and forming an object of high
civilization amidst the other rustic and quaint peculiarities of the
wilds. I can best compare the view to the backgrounds which the old
Italian masters sometimes put to their religious subjects, and of which
treeless hills, rocks, winding paths, and picturesque towers compose
the materials. Of the latter, however, there were no signs in this
portion of the Apennines.
Soon after quitting the inn, an expanse of water showed itself to the
north-east, quite in the horizon; for in that direction we could still
overlook a vast reach of hazy, and of nearly indistinct plain. Judging
by the map, the land was the Bolognese, with the country near Ravenna,
and the water the Adriatic! As this glimpse was quite unexpected, it
came upon us with the agreeable variety of a surprise.
Just after the water disappeared, a swarthy, picturesque-looking
peasant passed us, on a brisk trot, eyeing the carriage keenly as he
went by; he then leaped into a cross path, that led in nearly a direct
line towards the winding ascents of the road, that were plainly visible
at the distance of two or three miles, but to reach which we were
compelled to make a long _détour_. A valley and a wood were between us
and these ascents, and unpleasant thoughts began to suggest themselves
at this little incident. I had heard of families borne off into these
very Apennines by banditti, and held for ransom, failing of which they
had been murdered. Robbers would have full an hour to do their work in;
for the peasant, who had just left the tavern, must have understood the
order of our march, and be certain that our party would be unsustained
by any other for that time at least. Then there were a startling
sagacity and a suspicious observation in the dark rolling eye that had
so closely scanned us; and, all together, the fellow had about him an
air of premeditation and design.
We were four men, and, with a pistol apiece, might have made a good
defence; but I had not even a penknife or a cane, and Caspar had
nothing but his whip! At times, I was disposed to laugh at my own
apprehensions; but the heavy responsibility that I felt continued to
render the matter serious. Still I was unwilling to alarm the females,
and preserved silence, determining to halt in season if I detected any
symptoms of an ambuscade before us. With this purpose I kept a vigilant
look-out on the formation of the ground; and though I was not so much
alarmed as to fancy every bush an enemy, no bush was left unexamined.
At length we began to descend, and I cheered Caspar up to a pace that
would at least render aim a little uncertain. I now determined, as
the road was excellent, the instant a shot was fired, to cause the
postillions to set off on a run, and leave the issue to our speed.
The fall of a horse, it is true, would undo us; but we must trust to
fortune. As the postillion, unless an accessary, is generally the first
victim in such an affair, I got ready to jump on the pole, and to
spring into his seat should the ex-dragoon fall. The _furgon_ speaking
for itself, and being a visible temptation to robbers, I had hopes too
by abandoning the baggage, at least to save the females. All these
plans were duly arranged in my own mind, that no advantage might be
lost in the confusion of a surprise.
While busy fancy was at work in this manner, during which time we
passed over two or three of the most uncomfortable miles I ever
remember to have travelled, we came to the foot of the long descent.
Here, happily, was a house or two, and a group of men in the road, with
five or six yokes of oxen, ready to assist us up the winding and sharp
acclivities that lay in front. Foremost among these honest people was
my dark-eyed peasant who had run across the open waste merely to give
notice of our approach, and to notify to the neighbourhood the number
of oxen that would be required!
This was the first serious alarm I had felt about Italian banditti,
and, I may add, it was the last; though I believe we were subsequently
in situations where less indifference than this incident served so much
to create would have been more prudent. As fear, though particularly
contagious, excites no sympathy after the danger is passed, I kept my
own secret.
By the help of the oxen we toiled our way up as steep ascents as one
sees in Switzerland, though by no means as long; after which we had
a succession of hills and valleys, through the same naked region as
before. Towards the close of day we reached a village, or rather a
hamlet, near which is a remarkable burning field that we dared not
stop to examine on account of our pursuers. The inn was soon in sight,
and old Caspar pointed to it with his whip and grinned. Then he cast
a glance of triumph back at the long winding road that might be seen
for miles. Half a league in our rear three or four carriages had come
into view, for it would seem that their owners too had bethought them
of the night and its wants. The evening was lovely. A---- was on the
carriage-box with me, enjoying its blandness, and we were all full of
a sort of racing excitement, and laughing at our success. At this very
moment, when the inn could not have been half a mile from us _click
clack_, _click clack_, was heard close to the carriage-wheels. A
courier, in the usual livery, galloped past us, flourishing his whip
in bravado, and before we could get there he dashed up to the door
of the inn! In a few minutes, however, we were there too; and when I
went into the house, the fellow was leaning coolly in the door. My
inquiry for rooms was answered by showing me two or three mean closets,
without fire-places or comforts of any sort. As the house was tolerably
comfortable, I demanded better apartments. All the rest of the house
was taken by the courier at the door, who was in the service of Lord
Lansdowne. The plot was apparent at once. The rogue had entered into an
arrangement, pretended or real, with the innkeeper, and rooms were to
be sold at an advance. I had a slight acquaintance with Lord Lansdowne,
and had half a mind to wait his arrival and trust to his known courtesy
for accommodations; but preferring independence to being placed
in controversy with a courier, Caspar was ordered to proceed. The
innkeeper felt disposed to change his tactics when he saw the carriage
departing; but I was not inclined to humour roguery, and we went our
way.
There was an inn about two leagues farther, and the road was good. It
is true, Caspar shrugged his shoulders when he mentioned it; but I
thought the best accommodations of even an inferior inn, in our sole
possession, might be better than the worst of the place we had just
left in the midst of a crowd. Our departure caused long faces; but the
example probably did no good, the house possessing a monopoly.
The moon had risen, and the night had grown chilly, before we reached
the other inn. It was a single house, in a sort of heathy country,
the very type of solitude. Here, however, we were joyfully received.
Mounting by a narrow flight of steps, we were shown into the _sala_, a
room of some size, lighted from above, and surrounded by bedchambers.
In one corner there was a fire-place, and a fagot was soon in a bright
blaze. The beds were homely, but clean, and I took care to secure
one for each of us, with the proper number of apartments. This was
the first house we had entered that had a truly distinctive Italian
character, and we submitted to some wants, the more readily from the
circumstance. The woman of the house was all assiduity and attention,
and it was not long before our supper made its appearance. Our great
desire was to dispose of this, and to get quietly into our own rooms,
before any more of the rejected travellers should arrive from the
other place. None came, however, though we had one or two alarms, and
we ate our chickens fried in oil undisturbed. Secure of the supper,
we strutted about our _sala_, admiring the novelty of the situation,
gazing at the wild waste from the windows, and setting all couriers at
defiance.
I have since been told that this very inn was the scene of many
robberies and murders that were perpetrated with the connivance of
the parish priest, and which were subsequently discovered. The host
had however been changed, and we were now in honest hands. Certainly
no house could be better situated for deeds of violence; and there was
even something in its internal arrangements, so retired and gloomy, as
to aid such practices. Altogether, we enjoyed the excitement of the
incidents, preserved our place on the road, had an entire house to
ourselves, gained two leagues in distance, and considered ourselves the
gainers.
We kept the track in the next day’s racing. Much of the way was
descending, and the southern faces of the Apennines, like those of the
Alps, were more genial and fertile than the northern. I ought to have
said that we entered Tuscany near the place where the alarm had been
given by the peasant. I shall take this occasion to say that, with a
slight exception, on entering France and the Milanese, the custom-house
officers have given us no trouble between this and London, although we
have passed through eight different states, and entered the ninth. We
have uniformly met with civility; nor have the _douceurs_ been heavy;
and what is more, they have followed, and not preceded, the politeness.
To-day we passed a spot where high poles lined the road; a precaution
to enable travellers to keep it, in the deep snows. This was Alpine,
and yet the spot was on the brow of the southern margin. We strained
our eyes in the hope of getting a glimpse of the blue Mediterranean,
but in vain.
The grasping courier galloped past us again; but we now regarded him
and his _bidet_ with indifference. The olive soon appeared, a meager,
formal, insignificant tree in a landscape, with a pale and stinted
leaf, making altogether a miserable substitute for the apple, though
an evergreen. Still one looks at it with pleasure; as one does also
at the orange, the pomegranate, the fig, the date, and other trees of
Oriental associations, though none but the fig has much beauty. Even
the supper of the previous night, though saturated with oil, savoured
of Italy, and was so much the more agreeable than the lame imitations
of French cookery we had met with previously. Having asked one of my
servants how they fared in the mess of old Caspar, she laughed and told
me that ever since we had left Berne, the postillions and domestics,
out of the large towns, had fared better than the masters; this little
attention to the cast of _voituriers_ being a tribute to their power.
On this hint, I had the curiosity to visit their table, and I found the
statement literally true. Old Caspar laughed heartily at the exposure,
and altogether the whole party, which included the domestics of two
or three other travellers, appeared to think it a capital joke. What
renders the palpable conspiracy more absurd, is the fact that the
servants figure in the bills for the merest trifles,--at a franc or
thirty sous a meal, I believe. On my remarking that the people of the
house had made a mistake apparently, having served both us and them
with the wrong breakfast, the whole party, my own people included,
burst out in a fit of merriment, that showed how much they enjoyed the
blunder. “_Ce sont des grands coquins, ces aubergistes monsieur_,”
observed Caspar, by way of apology.
At length we reached a descent that communicated, by a gorge, with the
valley of the Arno. Soon after the city of Florence appeared, seated on
a plain, at the foot of hills, with the dome of its cathedral starting
out of the field of roofs, like a balloon about to ascend. We crossed
a part of the plain, between groves of olives and mulberries, went
beneath a sort of triumphal arch, erected, I believe, in commemoration
of the completion of the great road that we had just been travelling,
and entered the gate of the city. A few pauls were given to the
custom-house officers, and the carriage rolled freely along the broad
flat stones, with which all the towns of Tuscany are paved, the gutter
being in the centre of the street. We proceeded to the Hotel York, a
house which is so called from the cardinal of that name, took rooms and
unloaded the _fourgon_ for the first time since quitting Berne.
It was but a step to the cathedral square, and I was no sooner dressed
than I ran out to feast my eyes with its wonders. The buildings had a
mottled look that displeased me, being faced with differently coloured
marbles; but the magnitude of the church is imposing. The _campanile_
has the same fault; though, a finical thing in itself, it can better
bear finery. The baptistery is near by, and altogether the spot has the
charms of magnificence sustained by those of association. The servant
pointed out a particular stone, on which Dante, it is said, used to
seat himself in the cool of the evening, in order to breathe an air
less confined than that of the streets.
This night I first learned to respect a musquito. If Buffon had in view
the comparative merits of these insects when he broached his theory
of the inferiority of the animal nature of America to that of Europe,
there is more apology for the extravagance of the supposition than is
commonly thought among ourselves. Luckily we had musquito nets,--a
thing I never saw at home, by the way,--and though they were full of
holes, the creatures were too large to find their way through them.
One fellow did get in, however, and he made as much noise as the horn
of a mail-coach, at the distance of half a mile. The next morning poor
Lucie, who I fancy had no net, looked as if she had the small-pox.