This
I Will Only Venture To Affirm, That The Success And Advantage Of
Great Alliances Are Often Sacrificed To Low, Partial, Selfish,
And Sordid Considerations.
The town of Monaco is commanded by
every heighth in its neighbourhood; and might be laid in ashes by
a bomb-ketch in four hours by sea.
I was fortunate enough to be recommended to a lady in Genoa, who
treated us with great politeness and hospitality. She introduced
me to an abbate, a man of letters, whose conversation was
extremely agreeable. He already knew me by reputation, and
offered to make me known to some of the first persons in the
republic, with whom he lived in intimacy. The lady is one of the
most intelligent and best-bred persons I have known in any
country. We assisted at her conversazione, which was numerous.
She pressed us to pass the winter at Genoa; and indeed I was
almost persuaded: but I had attachments at Nice, from which I
could not easily disengage myself.
The few days we staved at Genoa were employed in visiting the
most remarkable churches and palaces. In some of the churches,
particularly that of the Annunciata, I found a profusion of
ornaments, which had more magnificence than taste. There is a
great number of pictures; but very few of them are capital
pieces. I had heard much of the ponte Carignano, which did not at
all answer my expectation. It is a bridge that unites two
eminences which form the
higher part of the city, and the houses in the bottom below do
not rise so high as the springing of its arches. There is nothing
at all curious in its construction, nor any way remarkable,
except the heighth of the piers from which the arches are sprung.
Hard by the bridge there is an elegant church, from the top of
which you have a very rich and extensive prospect of the city,
the sea and the adjacent country, which looks like a continent of
groves and villas. The only remarkable circumstance about the
cathedral, which is Gothic and gloomy, is the chapel where the
pretended bones of John the Baptist are deposited, and in which
thirty silver lamps are continually burning. I had a curiosity to
see the palaces of Durazzo and Doria, but it required more
trouble to procure admission than I was willing to give myself:
as for the arsenal, and the rostrum of an ancient galley which
was found by accident in dragging the harbour, I postponed seeing
them till my return.
Having here provided myself with letters of credit for Florence
and Rome, I hired the same boat which had brought us hither, to
carry us forward to Lerici, which is a small town about half way
between Genoa and Leghorn, where travellers, who are tired of the
sea, take post-chaises to continue their route by land to Pisa
and Florence. I payed three loui'dores for this voyage of about
fifty miles; though I might have had a feluca for less money.
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