We Could Not Have Too Much Of Pisa, As
Apparently The Genoese Could Not; But Before Our Journey Ended I Decided
That They Would Have Thought Twice Before Plundering Pisa If They Had
Been Forced To Make Their Forays By Means Of The Present Railroad
Connection Between The Two Cities.
At least there would have been but
one of the many wars of murder and rapine between the republics, and
that would have been the first.
After a single experience of the eighty
tunnels on that line, with the perpetually recurring necessity of
putting down and putting up the car-window, no army would have repeated
the invasion; and, though we might now be without that satirical old
saying, mankind would, on the whole, have been the gainer. As it was,
the enemies could luxuriously go and come in their galleys and enjoy the
fresh sea-breezes both ways, instead of stifling in the dark and gasping
for breath as they came into the light, while their train ran in and out
under the serried peaks that form the Mediterranean shore. I myself
wished to take a galley from Leghorn, or even a small steamer, but I was
overruled by less hardy but more obdurate spirits, and so we took the
Florentine express at Pisa, where we changed cars.
The Italian government had providently arranged that the car we changed
into should be standing beyond the station in the dash of an unexpected
shower, and that it should be provided with steps so high and steep,
with Italian ladies standing all over them and sticking their umbrellas
into the faces of American citizens trying to get in after them, that it
was a feat of something like mountain-climbing to reach the corridor,
and then of daring-do to secure a compartment.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 318 of 353
Words from 87344 to 87645
of 97259
