Verona is about the size of Poitiers, having a vast quay beside the Adisse, which flows through it and is crossed by three bridges. I went thither also with the baggage. Without the bulletins of health, which had been issued at Trante and confirmed at Rovere, our party would not have been admitted within the town; not that there was any talk of danger of the plague, but this is always done by custom or by way of tricking wayfarers out of a few coins. We went to the cathedral, where M. de Montaigne remarked on the strange behaviour of those present at High Mass on such a solemn day. They chattered in the very choir of the church, standing with their hats on, and turning their backs to the altar, and recking naught of the office except at the time of elevation. There were an organ and violins, which gave musical accompaniment to the mass. We visited other churches, but saw nothing noteworthy, either in the ornaments or in the beauty of the women present. Amongst others we went to the church of Saint George, where the Germans have left divers marks of their presence and several coats-of-arms, together with an inscription relating how certain German noblemen in the train of the Emperor Maximilian, what time he came to take Verona from the Venetians, placed a certain piece of work over one of the altars. M. de Montaigne remarked that the government here preserved the memory of its reverses, as it also preserved in their integrity the beautiful tombs of the ill-starred Scaligers. It is a fact that our host of the “Chevalet,” an excellent house, where we found a superfluity of good fare and a bill one-fourth more than we would have paid in France, enjoyed the privilege of burying his family in one of the tombs aforesaid. We also visited, under the guidance of the castellan’s lieutenant, the castle where the government keeps on foot sixty soldiers; more, as M. de Montaigne was informed, as a safeguard against the townsfolk than against foreign foes; and then went to a religious house occupied by Jesuates de Saint Jerosme. These are not priests, neither do they say mass or preach, being for the most part ignorant, but they are skilful distillers of citron and other sorts of water, both here and in other places. They wear white frocks, small white caps, and over this a cloak of dark russet, and are very fine young men. Their church is excellently appointed, as is also their refectory, in which supper was already laid.

We saw likewise some very ancient masonry of the Roman period which is said to be an amphitheatre,1 and the people make great boast of this, and also of certain other portions which have been uncovered below. On returning to the monastery we found that the cloisters were full of perfume, and afterwards they led us into a small room full of phials and earthen vessels, where we also were perfumed. The finest thing we saw, and what M. de Montaigne declared to be the grandest building he had ever seen, was what they call the Arena. This is an amphitheatre of oval shape which seems to be almost perfect; the seats, the vaulting, and the surrounding walls are sound, save the extreme outside portion. In fine, enough is there to give a vivid impression of the form and of the use for which such buildings were constructed. The government employs there the penal labour of criminals, and has thus repaired a portion of the damage, but much yet remains to be done before it will be in its ancient state,2 and it is doubtful whether the whole efforts of the city will be able to accomplish this rebuilding. The place is oval in shape, and contains forty-three rows of seats, each a foot or rather more in height, the measure of the circumference at the highest point being some six hundred paces.3 The gentlefolk of the country still use it for jousting and other public games.

M. de Montaigne also saw somewhat of the Jews, having visited their synagogue and held long converse concerning their ceremonies. The city has many fine squares and market-places, and from the castle, which stands on high ground, we could discern Mantua, which lay some twenty miles distant to the right of our road. Here there is no want of inscriptions, seeing that they never renew a gutter, either in the towns or along the highways, without inscribing thereupon the names of the Podestà and of the artificer. Like the Germans they nearly all use some armorial device, traders as well as others. In Germany indeed, not only the towns, but also the larger portion of the villages lay claim to exhibit their coats-of-arms.

We quitted Verona, and on our way out of the city we saw the church of Our Lady of Miracles,4 famous by reason of certain marvellous things which have there come to pass. On account of these manifestations, the church has been rebuilt after a beautiful circular design. Some of the bell-towers are covered with brickwork laid crosswise. We traversed a flat country of varied character, fertile here and barren there, the mountains on our left hand being far distant, with some on the right also, and rode thirty miles in one stretch to Vicenza where we supped.

This is a handsome town, somewhat smaller than Verona, and full of noblemen’s palaces.5 On the morrow we visited several churches and saw the fair, which was at that time being held in the great square, many shops having been built of wood especially for the occasion.6 We also visited the house of the Jesuates, which is a very handsome one, and saw their store of distilled water, for the public sale of which they keep a shop. We bought two bottles of scent for a crown. They make likewise medicinal draughts for all sorts of maladies. The founder of this order was P. Urb. S. Jan Colombin,7 a noble of Siena, who made the foundation in 1367, and it is at present under the protection of the Cardinal de Peluco. They have thirty monasteries, all of which are in Italy, and their house here is a very beautiful one. It is said they scourge themselves every day, and they keep little chains in their cells, where they pray without singing, and for a certain time during the day they meet together.

At this place we failed to get old wine, which troubled me greatly on account of M. de Montaigne’s colic; for he had to drink thick wine instead of the good wine we had got up to this time. We thought of the German wines with regret, though they are for the most part spiced and diverse in their odour, and though they have a liquorish flavour like sage; indeed, they call one of them vin de sauge, which is pleasant enough when the palate is wonted thereto, seeing that it is also good and generous. We set out from this place on the Thursday after dinner by a road very level, wide, straight, ditched on both sides and slightly raised above the plain. On either hand the country was very fertile, and the mountains, as before, were in the far distance. After a journey of eighteen miles we reached Padua in time for bed.

Here the hostelries can in no respect be compared with those of Germany. Certes they are less costly by one-third, and resemble those of France. The city is goodly, wide in extent, and in my opinion holds within its bounds an area at least as big as that of Bordeaux; but the streets are narrow and ugly, lacking both in people and in seemly dwellings. Its situation is very pleasant, in an open plain stretching wide on every side. We tarried here all the following day and saw the schools of fencing, dancing, and equitation,8 at which more than a hundred French gentlemen were at this time seeking instruction. M. de Montaigne deemed that it worked greatly to the detriment of these young countrymen of ours that they should thus live together and still practise the customs and language of their native land, letting go the chance of making acquaintance with strangers. He was vastly pleased with the church of St. Antony, the cupola of which is not constructed whole in itself, but of several sections made into the form of a dome; the church likewise contains much rare sculpture work in marble and bronze. M. de Montaigne saw with much pleasure the portrait bust of Cardinal Bembo,9 which bears all the marks of a refined character and an indefinable something testifying to the gracefulness of his intellect. The hall where justice is dispensed is the largest unsupported by pillars I ever saw, and at one end thereof is the head of Titus Livius, figuring him an emaciated man of a studious and melancholy temper.10 This is an ancient work of which naught is known save by tradition. His epitaph is there also, having been set, as was its due, in a place of honour after its discovery. Over one of the doors of this palace is a figure of Paul the jurisconsult,11 but this M. de Montaigne pronounced to be a modern work. A house standing on the site of the ancient arena in a garden is worth a visit.

Students can live here cheaply at seven crowns a month for the master and six for the servant in respectable boarding-houses. We left early on the Saturday morning, traversing a very fine road beside the river, and having on either hand fields very fertile with corn, and well shaded by rows of trees, upon which the vines were trained. All along the road fine pleasure houses had been built, and over the gate of one of these belonging to the Contarini is an inscription telling how the king12 lodged here on his way back from Poland. After travelling twenty miles we stopped for dinner at Chaffousine,13 which is naught but an inn, and here we took boat for Venice. Here they bring ashore all the boats with machinery and pulleys worked by two horses after the fashion of an oil mill. They move their boats by means of wheels placed underneath, which run along planks and thereby convey them over to the canal which runs into the sea on which Venice is situated. We took dinner at Chaffousine, and, having embarked in a gondola, arrived at Venice in time for supper after travelling five miles.

On the morning of the morrow, Sunday, M. de Montaigne saw M. de Ferrier,14 the king’s ambassador, who welcomed him heartily and took him to Mass and back to his house to dinner. On the Monday he and M. d’Estissac again dined there. One remark let fall by the ambassador amongst divers others seemed to him very strange, to wit, that he (the ambassador) held no conversation with the people of the city, who were of a humour so suspicious that should one of their number speak to him only twice, this one would be looked upon askance.15 M. de Ferrier also informed him that the city of Venice brought an annual income of fifteen hundred thousand crowns to the Signory.16 With regard to the curiosities of the place they are familiar enough, and M. de Montaigne said that he had found Venice different from what he had anticipated, and that, after he had made a diligent visitation of the city, he was somewhat disappointed. The government, the situation, the arsenal, the Place of St. Mark, and the vast crowds of foreigners, seemed to him most worthy of remark of anything he saw. On Monday November, 6, while he sat at supper, the Signora Veronica Franca,17 a noble Venetian lady, sent for his acceptance a little book of letters which she had put together, whereupon he gave two crowns to the bearer. On the Tuesday after dinner he had an attack of colic which lasted two or three hours; it was not, as far as could be seen, one of his worst, and before supper he passed two large stones, one after the other. He failed to perceive in the women of Venice that great beauty for which they are famed. He saw some of the highest class of those who make a market of their charms, and this institution appeared to him more marvellous than any other of the city, to see such a vast number of them, some hundred and fifty, spending money like princesses over furniture and attire, with no other source of income than the traffic aforesaid. Again, divers of the nobles of the city entertained courtesans at their own charges in the sight of every one. M. de Montaigne hired for his use a gondola for day and night as well at a charge of two livres, about seventeen sous, with no extra expenditure for the boatman. Provisions are as dear here as in Paris, but it is the cheapest town in the world for living, for a train of servants is here quite useless, and every one goes about unattended. The cost of apparel is in like degree moderate; moreover, no one has occasion for a horse. On Saturday the twelfth of November we left and returned to Chaffousine, a distance of five miles, and here we and our servants and baggage got on board a boat, for which we paid two crowns. M. de Montaigne was somewhat in fear of water transit, being advised that it deranged his stomach;18 and now, being minded to ascertain whether the motion on this river, which indeed is most steady and uniform provided that the boat be drawn by horses, would cause him inconvenience, he made trial of it and found that he suffered no ill effects therefrom. On this channel we had to pass one or two lock gates which open and shut to the passers-by. After a voyage of twenty miles by water we reached Padua in time for bed.

M. de Caselis here parted company with us and tarried in Padua on a pension of seven crowns a month for good food and lodging. He might have taken his valet for five crowns; the pensions here are of the highest class and frequented by the best of company, for instance the Sieur de Millan, son of M. de Salignac. As a rule the guests have no servants of their own, but are served by the valet of the house, or by women. Each guest has an excellent room, and finds his own fuel and light; the catering, as we had reason to know, being very good. Living in this manner is exceedingly cheap, and this in my opinion is the reason why so many strangers who are no longer students resort hither. It is not the custom to ride through the streets or to be attended by servants. In Germany we noted that all men down to the hand workers carried swords, a practice not adopted in this country. After dinner on Sunday, November 12, we went to see the baths to the right of the city, going to Abano19 direct. This is a small village at the very foot of the mountains. Three or four hundred paces beyond it is a rocky plateau, somewhat higher than the ground adjacent, and on this elevation, which is of considerable extent, several springs of hot water issue from the rocks, which water cannot be used at the source for the bath—and much less for drinking—on account of its great heat. Wherever it runs it leaves a grey trace like burnt cinder and a heavy deposit which resembles petrified sponge, its taste being salt and sulphurous. Indeed the whole region is perfumed thereby, for the brooks, which run in all directions over the level ground, convey to a great distance the heat and the smell aforesaid.

Two or three small houses, ill enough furnished, serve the needs of the patients, the water being brought to the baths in the houses by channels from the springs. Exhalations rise not only from the water itself, but also from every crack and crevice of the rocks, which give out heat everywhere, so that the people there have dug out certain places in which a man may lie down and get the heat of the exhalations and fall into a sweat. M. de Montaigne took a little of the water in his mouth, after it had lost its excessive heat by standing awhile, and found it tasted more of salt than of anything else.

Furthermore to the right of this place we perceived the abbey of Praie, noted for its wealth, its beauty, and its liberal and courteous reception of strangers. M. de Montaigne would not go there, having settled with himself that it behoved him to revisit all these parts, and especially Venice, at his leisure, and that this present visit was as nothing.20 He had simply gone to see Venice, attracted by the exceedingly great renown of the city, and affirmed that he would tarry neither at Rome nor elsewhere in Italy without having paid another visit to Venice. Reckoning on this event, he left at Padua, in charge of M. François Bourges, a Frenchman, the works of Cardinal Cusan21 which he had purchased in Venice. From Abano we went to a place called S. Pietro,22 lying low, and as we went we had the mountains close to us on our right hand. This is a land of meadows and pasturage, but the air is thick in certain spots with the vapour of the hot springs, some boiling hot and some lukewarm: some springs indeed are quite cold. The taste is somewhat flatter and more insipid than that of the other springs, and there is less of the odour of sulphur and the taste of salt. We came upon some traces of ancient buildings, and two or three mean hovels for the lodging of guests; but in truth the place is very barbarous, and I would be sorry to send thither any friend of mine. The report is that the Signiory sets little store by such places, and looks askance at the prospect of an influx thither of gentlefolk from foreign parts. M. de Montaigne said that these last-named baths reminded him of those of Preissac23 near to Aix. The water thereof leaves a reddish trace, and a deposit like mud on the tongue. He could detect no special taste, and fancied it was charged with iron.

On our departure from this place we passed a very fine house belonging to a Paduan gentleman, where M. le Cardinal d’Este24 was then sojourning. He was sick with gout and had been there more than two months for the sake of the baths, but more on account of the near vicinity of the ladies of Venice and all sorts of diversion. Thence we travelled eight miles to Bataille,25 where we arrived in time for bed. This is a small village on the canal of Fraichine26 which, having not more than two or three feet of water, is navigated by boats of a very strange fashion. There we were served on earthen dishes and on plates of wood and not of pewter, but otherwise we did not fare badly. On the Monday morning I myself27 went on ahead with the mule while the others visited the baths28 situated some five hundred paces distant along the bank of the canal. From M. de Montaigne’s description, they found there only one bath-house, with ten or twelve chambers. In May and August a number of visitors come, but these for the most part lodge in the village or in the castle of Seigneur Pic, where also lodged M. le Cardinal d’Este. The bathwater comes down from a small mountain ridge, and runs through channels into the houses below. The patients do not drink thereof but rather of the water of S. Pierre29 which is fetched for them. The water in its descent from the ridge runs beside other channels of good sweet water, and it is hotter or colder in ratio to the length of its course. M. de Montaigne was for investigating the source up above, but no one could point it out to him, and indeed it appeared that it had a subterraneous origin. He found that it left little taste in the mouth, like that of S. Pierre, and that it was scarcely sulphurous or salt at all; moreover, that its effect when drunk would resemble that of the water aforesaid. In the bath-house there are other chambers where the water only comes in by drops under which any affected member is placed, and they told M. de Montaigne that the forehead was the part most often treated for ailments of the head. At certain points on these channels small cabins of stone have been constructed, to which the patients may repair, and having opened the hole communicating with the channel, they quickly fall into a sweat through the exhalations and heat of the water. There are also rooms for dry heat, made in various fashions, but mud baths are what they chiefly use. This treatment is practised in a large bath below the bath-house and open to the sky, fitted with a machine by which the mud is pumped up to the house adjacent. Here are provided divers appliances of wood made to fit each limb—legs, arms, thighs and other parts—wherein the member to be treated is placed and the appliance filled with mud, which is renewed as often as is needed. This mud is as black as that of Barbotan, but less full of grains and more greasy, moderately hot and quite odourless. The nearness to Venice is the only advantage which any of these baths possesses, all the surroundings being gross and unrefined. Near this spot we30 came to the bridge over the canal which is known as the Canal of the Two Thoroughfares, which pass both below and above it. Here they have constructed causeways, which on the outside are on a level with the roads along which the traffic passes, and on the inside slope down to the level of the waterway. Here is built a stone bridge of two arches over which the canal is carried, and above this bridge is built another from one bank to the other, for the service of those who may want to cross the canal, and under it go the boats which traverse the waterway. Here also descends from the mountains a large stream, which, after flowing through the plain, crosses the course of the canal; and it was to compass this passage without any interruption to the navigation that the first-named two-arched bridge was constructed. The stream, which itself is of volume sufficient to float small boats, here passes under the canal, its sides being faced with wooden planks. So that, reckoning this stream, and the canal itself, and the bridge crossing the same, there are three routes in use one over the other.

From hence onwards, the canal being left on the right hand, the road passed by a small town called Montselise which, though it lies very low, was enclosed by a wall carried almost to the top of the mountain. Within this wall stood an ancient castle belonging to the former lords of the place and now a heap of ruins. At this point, leaving the mountains to the right, we kept to the left along a fine level raised road, which at certain seasons of the year must be well shaded. On either side lay a very fertile plain, the several cornfields thereof being thickly planted with rows of trees from which hung the vines, as is the usage in this country. Hereabout so many great grey oxen are seen that their presence did not cause in us the surprise we had felt at the sight of those belonging to the Archduke Fernand.

We found ourselves now upon a high bank made beside the river, with marshes on either side more than fifteen miles in extent, and as wide as the eye could compass. In other days there were extensive swamps which the Signiory attempted to drain and bring under cultivation. In some places success has been achieved, but in very few. At present the view is over a muddy sterile country, thick set with cane growth, the attempt to change its character having resulted in loss rather than gain. We crossed the Adisse31 on a floating bridge which was placed on two small boats, and was capable of carrying fifteen or twenty horses; passing over by a rope fastened to a point some five hundred paces distant in the water. To keep this rope aloft several small boats are stationed here and there and fitted with forked poles which hold up the long cord. After a journey of twenty-five miles we arrived in time for bed at Rovigo, a small town belonging to the Signiory aforesaid. Here they gave us salt in lumps, which the people take as if it were sugar. There is as great abundance of provision here as in France, in spite of what has been said to the contrary. They do not lard their roast meat, but the savour thereof is not much affected by this omission. The chambers in the matter of glass windows and shutters are inferior to our own, but the beds are better made and smoother, with an abundant supply of mattresses. They are fitted, however, almost always with small ill-fashioned canopies, and the supply of white sheets is meagre. Of these, indeed, a solitary traveller, or one with mean equipage, would most likely go lacking altogether. Charges were the same, or perhaps a trifle higher than in France. In this town was born the good Celius, surnamed Rodoginus.32 It is a very handsome place with a fine square, and the river Adisse flowing through it.

On the morning of Tuesday, November 15, we departed, and after going some long distance along a causeway like the one at Blois, we crossed, first the Adisse and then the Po on floating bridges like that of the day antecedent, save that on the bridges last-named are cabins where they take payment for the transit according to the printed and prescribed regulations, and, moreover, stop the raft in the middle of the stream to do their reckoning and exact payment from all passengers before suffering them to land. After disembarking on a low-lying plain, over which the road must be impassable in rainy weather, we journeyed in one spell to Ferrara, arriving there at eventide, after travelling twenty miles.

Here on account of the Manifest and bill of health we were kept a long time at the gate, a delay which had also happened to us at other places. The city is about the size of Tours and lies in a very level country. The palaces are numerous; the greater part of the streets are wide and straight and very scantily peopled. On the Wednesday morning M. de Montaigne and M. d’Estissac went to kiss the duke’s33 hands; their intention having been made known to him, he sent a gentleman of the court to receive them and conduct them into his cabinet, where he was with two or three others. We went through several private chambers, in which we saw divers well-dressed gentlemen, and then entered the duke’s presence. We found him standing by a table awaiting us. He raised his hand to his cap when we entered and remained uncovered during the whole of the conversation, which was somewhat lengthy. First of all he asked of M. de Montaigne whether he could speak the language of the country, and, being answered affirmatively, he said in most eloquent wise, speaking Italian, that it pleased him greatly to see gentlemen of our nation, he himself being the very obedient servant of his most Christian Majesty. They conversed together on several other matters, and then we retired, the duke having kept himself uncovered all through the interview.

In one of the churches we saw an effigy of Ariosto,34 the face being somewhat fuller than in the one given in his works. He died at the age of fifty-nine on June 6, 1533. Here they served us fruit on plates. The streets are all paved with bricks, but the arcades, which are everywhere to be found in Padua, and are vastly convenient for walking at all times under cover and free from mire, are wanting. In Venice the streets are paved in similar fashion and on the slope, so there is never any mud. I forgot to remark that the day we quitted Venice we met a number of boats filled with fresh water, the contents of a boat being worth a crown in Venice, where it is used for drinking or dyeing cloth. After we got to Fusina we saw how the water was raised from a stream and turned into a canal by means of a wheel kept going without ceasing by horses. The boats aforesaid lie beneath the mouth of the canal and are there loaded with water.

We spent all this day at Ferrara and visited there many fine churches, gardens, and private houses, and all that was by report worth seeing; amongst other things, a rose bush at the monastery of the Jesuates which flowers all the year round, and even now they found thereon a rose which they gave to M. de Montaigne. We saw likewise the Bucentaur, which the duke, in emulation of the one at Venice, had caused to be built for his new wife,35 who is fair and far too young for him, in order that she may sail in the same on the river Po. Next we visited the duke’s arsenal, where there is a piece of ordnance thirty-five spans in length and having a bore one foot in diameter. The thick new wine which we drank and the turbid water drawn from the river made M. de Montaigne fear an attack of colic. On the door of every room in the inn is an inscription, “Ricordati della boletta,” and immediately a stranger arrives he must needs send his name and the number of his attendants to the magistrate, who will then give orders for lodgment, but if this be not done no one will take them in. On the Thursday morning we set forth36 over a level, very fertile country, and one hard to be traversed by foot passengers should the ways be miry, because the soil of Lombardy is very sticky. Moreover, the roads being banked on either side, there is not space enough to allow foot travellers to escape the mud by walking on the unbroken ground, wherefore many of the country folk go shod with shoes half a foot high. We arrived at Boulougne37 in the evening, after travelling thirty miles without a halt.

This is a fine handsome town, larger and much more populous than Ferrara. At the same house in which we lodged the young Seigneur de Montluc had arrived an hour sooner than ourselves, having come from France to this city to learn riding and the use of arms. On the Friday we witnessed some sword play by a certain Venetian, who boasted of having discovered some new tricks in the art of fencing, all the others following his lead; in sooth his style differs vastly from the ordinary sword exercise. The best of his pupils was a young Bordelais named Binet. We saw there a square clock tower, very ancient, which leaned over so much that it threatened to fall in ruins; also the School of Sciences, which is the finest building devoted to such uses I ever beheld. On the Saturday after dinner we saw a play by the comedians, with which M. de Montaigne was highly pleased, but from this, or some other cause, he was troubled afterwards with headache, a distemper which had not molested him for several years, but it passed away during the night. Moreover at this time he professed to be freer of pain in the kidneys than for a long while, and rejoiced in digestive powers as sane as when he returned from Banieres.

This city is everywhere adorned with fine rich porticoes and a multitude of beautiful palaces. The cost of living here was very cheap, about the same as at Padua, but the city is turbulent in some of the older parts, which are divided between the ancient families of the city, some of whom favour the French38 and others the Spaniards, who abound. In the great square is a very beautiful fountain.39 On Sunday M. de Montaigne had made up his mind to take the left-hand road towards Imola, the March of Ancona and Loreto, on the way to Rome, but a certain German told him that he had been plundered by outlaws in the duchy of Spoleto,40 so he followed the highway to the right to Florence. We found ourselves at once on a rough road and in a mountainous country. After a sixteen-mile journey we rested for the night at Loyan,41 a small and disagreeable village. In this place are only two hostelries, and these are famous all through Italy for the ill-faith there kept with travellers; how the host regales them with fair promises of all sorts of good cheer before they alight, and afterwards, when the strangers are at his mercy, will laugh in their faces. Concerning this are some well-known proverbs. We left early next morning and travelled till evening over a road which, certes, was the only bad one we had yet met with. The mountains too gave more trouble than in any other part of our journeying. We lay that night, after riding four-and-twenty miles, at Scarperia, a small village of Tuscany. Here they sell cases of needles and scissors and other similar wares. M. de Montaigne was there greatly diverted over the dispute of the innkeepers. These people are wont to despatch lackeys distances of seven or eight leagues to meet strangers, and to urge them to alight at their employer’s inn. It is no rare thing to find the host himself on horseback, and often a troop of men finely clad will follow on your track. All along this road M. de Montaigne was fain to jest with them, being vastly amused at the various offers every one of them made to him, and there was nothing they would not promise. One went so far as to offer the gift of a hare if only he would patronise a particular inn. This wrangle and grabbing ceased whenever we reached the town gates, beyond which they dare not say a word on the subject.

A general practice with all innkeepers is to offer at their own charges a guide on horseback to show the way, and to carry some portion of the baggage to the lodging taken. I know not whether they are obliged by law to do this on account of the insecurity of the highways. At Lojano, and in travelling from Boulougne, we always made a bargain as to price paid and accommodation received, and now, on account of the urgency of the innkeepers and others, M. de Montaigne sent forward always some one or other of the company to inspect the rooms, the provisions, and the wines, and to gather knowledge as to how he would fare, before he should get off his horse. Then he would go to the house of which he got the best report. But the most careful specification will not guard entirely against the knavery of these people, for they will keep you short either of wood, or candles, or linen, or of horse provender, which you may have forgotten to mention. Many travellers pass along this route, as it is the high road to Rome. I was informed of a foolish omission on my part, to wit, that I had neglected to visit, ten miles on this side of Lojano and two miles off the road, the summit of a mountain from which, in times of rain and storm or in the night, lofty flames may be seen to issue.42 My informant told me that at certain times it sent forth with a mighty shock small pieces of metal of the shape of coins. This is a sight which ought not to have been missed.

On the morning of the morrow we left Scarperia with our host as guide, traversing a fine road through poplars and well-tilled slopes. At the second mile we turned off the road to the right to see the palace which the Duke of Florence has been building for the last two years, using all the five senses in its embellishment. It seems as if he had advisedly chosen an inconvenient, sterile, and monotonous site—for instance, there is no water—in order that he might have the honour of fetching the same five miles’ distance, and his sand and lime another five. The site is nowhere level, and gives a view of several of those small hills which are everywhere a feature in this region. The palace itself is called Pratellino.43 Seen from afar, the building has a mean aspect, but a close inspection shows it very fair, but not equal to the finest of our French mansions. They say it contains a hundred-and-twenty furnished chambers, and ten or twelve of the finest of these we saw, the furniture being pretty but not magnificent. There are several curiosities, a grotto constructed with divers niches and apartments which exceeds anything of the kind we have seen elsewhere. It is encrusted and modelled all through with a certain material brought from the mountains, the joints being fastened together with invisible nails. Not only is music and harmony made to sound by water power; statues move and doors open, animals dive and drink, and other similar results are caused by the same force. By a single movement the whole grotto can be filled with water, and all the seats will squirt water over your breech; then, as you flee from the grotto and run up the staircase into the mansion on the other side, a pleasant trick will make the water stream from two of the steps in a thousand jets which drench you till you reach the top. The beauty and splendour of this place cannot be set forth properly by details. Below the mansion is an alley, fifty feet wide and about five hundred paces in length, which at great cost has been made almost level.44 On either side are long and very beautiful benches of worked stone, every five or every ten paces. Along by these benches are built in the wall the mouths of artificial fountains, so that all down the alley are jets of water. At the end is a fair fountain discharging itself into a great basin through a marble statue, carved in the similitude of a woman starching linen. She is represented wringing a tablecloth, fashioned in marble, and it is in dripping from this cloth that the water finds its way out. Below is another vessel to contain the hot water for making the starch.

In a chamber of the mansion is a marble table with places for six, each of which is fitted with a cover to be raised by a ring. Beneath each of these covers is a basin with a supply of fresh water, wherewith each guest might cool his glass, and in the middle of the table a large space for the bottle. We saw also great holes in the ground where a large quantity of snow was kept all through the year. It is set upon litter of broom and then covered with straw in high pyramidal form like a small barn. There are a thousand reservoirs; and the duke was at this time busied in making a colossus, the eye-socket of which is three cubits in width and all the rest in proportion.45 The thousand reservoirs and pools are supplied from two springs through a vast number of earthen pipes. In a large and beautiful bird-cage we saw some little birds resembling goldfinches, with two long tail feathers like large capons; and there is also a curious hothouse. We tarried some two or three hours in this place, and then, having resumed our journey, we went for seventeen miles along the crest of divers small hills and arrived at Florence.

This is a smaller town than Ferrara, placed in a plain and surrounded by a vast number of well-cultivated hills. The Arno, which is crossed by divers bridges, runs through it and the walls of the town have no ditches. This day M. de Montaigne passed two stones and a large amount of gravel without perceiving anything more than a slight pain in the lower part of the stomach. On the same day we visited the stables46 of the Grand Duke, which are large and arched in the roofs, but no valuable horses were therein. The Grand Duke is not at present in residence. We saw there a strange kind of sheep, a camel, some lions and bears, and an animal as big as a large mastiff, the shape of a cat, and spotted black and white, which they called a tiger. We went to the church of Saint Lawrence where those banners of ours which Marshal Strozzi47 lost in his Tuscan defeat are still hanging. In this same church are several specimens of painting on the flat, and some beautiful statues of excellent workmanship, the work of Michael Angelo.48 We next saw the Dome, a very large church, and the bell tower, covered with black and white marble and one of the fairest and richest works in the world. M. de Montaigne affirmed that he never saw a nation so lacking in fair women as the Italian,49 and the lodgment he found far less well arranged than in France or Germany; the food, indeed, was not half so abundant or well served as in Germany. In neither country is the meat larded, but in Germany it is far better seasoned, and there is greater variety in sauces and soups. The rooms themselves in Italy are vastly inferior, no saloons, the windows large, and all uncovered save by a huge wooden shutter, which would exclude all daylight if it should be necessary to keep off the sun or the wind, an inconvenience which M. de Montaigne found still more intolerable than the lack of curtains in Germany. The chambers are wretched boxes, meanly curtained, and never more than one set in a room. Under the hangings is a bed on castors, and any one who is averse to lying hard will find himself in evil case. There is as great, or greater, want of linen; and the wines are for the most part inferior, and at this season undrinkable by all who dislike a mawkish sweetness. The price of everything is indeed somewhat lower; Florence, however, is reputed to be one of the dearest towns in Italy. Before my master arrived I made a bargain at the hostelry of the “Angel”50 for seven reals a day for man and horse, and four reals for the servants.

On this same day we inspected one of the duke’s palaces, where certain men were engaged in counterfeiting eastern jewels, and working in crystal; for this prince is somewhat given to alchemy and the mechanic arts, and is above all a great architect. On the morrow M. de Montaigne went first to the top of the Dome, where he saw the ball of gilded bronze, which from below seems about the bigness of a bullet, but which, when one is thereby, proves capable of holding forty men. He inspected the marble, variegated and carved throughout, with which this church is encrusted, and found that even the black sort was already showing signs of decay in many places through the action of the frost and snow, wherefore he began to doubt whether it was really genuine. He was minded likewise to visit the palaces of the Strozzi and the Gondi,51 which were still occupied by certain members of the said families, as well as the duke’s palace where Cosimo, the father of the reigning duke, had caused to be painted the capture of Siena and scenes in the battle we lost.52 In divers places in the city, and notably in the palace aforesaid and on the ancient walls, the fleur de lys holds the first place of honour. M. d’Estissac and M. de Montaigne went to dine with the Grand Duke. His wife53 was seated in the place of honour, and the duke below her, then the sister-in-law of the duchess, and then her brother the husband of the aforesaid. According to the Italian taste the duchess is handsome, with an agreeable and inspiring face, full bust, and a bosom displaying itself as it may. M. de Montaigne fully recognised in her the charm by which she has been able to cajole this prince and to insure his devotion for a long time. The duke is a big dark man of about my own height,54 large-limbed, with a face beaming with courtesy, and always wont to go uncovered through the crowd of servants, which thing is very seemly. His appearance is that of a healthy man of forty. On the other side of the table sat the cardinal55 and another young man of eighteen, brothers of the duke. The attendants brought to the duke and the duchess a basin in which were placed a glass full of wine, uncovered, and a glass bottle full of water. Having taken the glass of wine, they poured into the basin as much thereof as they willed, and refilled the glass with water. Then they replaced the glass in the basin which the attendant held before them. The duke put into his wine due quantity of water, the duchess scarcely any. The bad habit of the Germans in using glasses of an inordinate size is here reversed, seeing that in Italy the wine glasses are exceedingly small.

I cannot tell why this city should be termed “beautiful,” as it were by privilege. Beautiful it is, but no more so than Bologna, and little more than Ferrara, while it falls far short of Venice. You may indeed discern from the top of the bell tower innumerable houses, which cover the hills all around for the distance of two or three leagues; and in the plain, some two leagues in extent, on which the city stands, they seem to touch, so closely are they built one to another. The city is paved with flat stones without pattern or regularity. After the dinner the four gentlemen and a guide took the post to go to visit a place belonging to the duke which is called Castello.56 There is nothing of merit in the house, but around it are divers gardens, the entire place being set on the slope of a hill, so that the main walks are on the slope, and the cross alleys straight and level; also many arbours, thickly covered with interwoven twigs of sweet-smelling shrubs, such as cedar, cypress, orange, citron, and olive, the branches being enlaced so closely that the sun at his fiercest could not pierce thereinside. The undergrowth of these cypresses and other trees is so close that only three or four persons can pass together through it. Amongst the ponds there is a large one, in the midst of which stands a rock, imitated from nature, which, by the application of the same material used by the duke in covering his grottoes at Pratellino, looks as if it were glazed over; and above it is a large casting of copper worked into the likeness of a hoary old man seated on his breech with crossed arms. From his beard, his forehead, and his skin, there is a perpetual drip of water representing tears and sweat, and indeed this drip is the sole supply of the basin.

In another part of the garden they encountered a very humorous experience, for, as they were walking about therein and marking its curiosities, the gardener for a certain purpose withdrew, and while they stood gazing at some marble statues, there sprang up under their feet and between their legs an infinite number of tiny jets of water, so minute that they resembled exactly drops of rain, and with this they were sprinkled all over. It was produced by the working of subterranean machinery which the gardener, being two hundred paces distant, set in motion. So delicately was it constructed that he was able from where he was stationed to raise and depress the outflow as he willed. The same device is to be found in divers other places. They saw also the great fountain which finds a channel through two vast bronze figures, one of which, clasped by the other in a violent embrace, seems half-fainting, and, with head thrown back, belches forth the stream from his mouth. So great is the force that the column of water rises some thirty-seven fathoms above the top of these figures, which are themselves twenty feet high. Here is a little chamber made amongst the boughs of an evergreen tree of a much more luxuriant growth than any other they had yet seen. It is entirely clipped out of the green boughs of the tree aforesaid, so that there is no prospect to be got therefrom, save through certain apertures which it has been necessary to make here and there, by clearing away the branches. In the midst of the chamber, from pipes which are concealed, rises a fountain which is set in the middle of a marble table. By a certain device the water made music, but this they were not able to hear, for it would have been too late for people who had to return to the city. They saw likewise the coat-of-arms of the duke over a gateway, excellently formed from the branches of trees fostered and restrained in their natural growth by certain ligaments which could scarcely be discerned. Their visit was paid in the season when gardens have their worst aspect, wherefore the wonder was all the greater. Besides the things described above they saw a beautiful grotto, in which were fashioned all sorts of animals after nature, every one of which gave out the water of the fountains, either from the beak or the wing, or the talon, or the ear, or the nostril. I forgot to say that in the palace of this prince there is the figure of a quadruped in bronze after nature, of a very strange form, which is set up on a column.57 The foreparts are scaly, and upon the back are members of a fashion I cannot describe—somewhat like horns. The story is that it was discovered in a cave in the adjacent mountains and brought hither alive several years ago. We saw likewise the palace of the Queen Mother58; and M. de Montaigne, according to his wont, was minded to test the capabilities of the city by looking at rooms which were to let and boarding-houses, but he found none worth notice. From what was told him it appeared that lodgings were only to be had at the hostelries, and the private apartments which he saw were far more costly than those of Paris, or even of Venice. The table was mean, and cost more than twelve crowns per mensem for the gentlefolk. In this city no seemly diversion was to be had, neither in arms, nor horsemanship, nor letters.59 Pewter ware is very scarce in these parts, the service being made on vessels of painted earthenware none too clean.