Let us hope
that increased prices will bring with them besoms, scrubbing-
brushes, and other much-needed articles of cleanliness.
The inns of the north of Italy are very good; and, indeed, the
Italian inns throughout, as far as I know them, are much better than
the name they bear. The Italians are a civil, kindly people, and do
for you, at any rate, the best they can. Perhaps the unwary
traveler may be cheated. Ignorant of the language, he may be called
on to pay more than the man who speaks it and who can bargain in the
Italian fashion as to price. It has often been my lot, I doubt not,
to be so cheated; but then I have been cheated with a grace that has
been worth all the money. The ordinary prices of Italian inns are
by no means high.
I have seldom thoroughly liked the inns of Germany which I have
known. They are not clean, and water is very scarce. Smiles, too,
are generally wanting, and I have usually fancied myself to be
regarded as a piece of goods out of which so much profit was to be
made.
The dearest hotels I know are the French - and certainly not the
best. In the provinces they are by no means so cleanly as those of
Italy. Their wines are generally abominable, and their cookery
often disgusting.
