DEAR SIR, - Pisa is a fine old city that strikes you with the same
veneration you would feel at sight of an antient temple which
bears the marks of decay, without being absolutely dilapidated.
The houses are well built, the streets open, straight, and well
paved; the shops well furnished; and the markets well supplied:
there are some elegant palaces, designed by great masters. The
churches are built with taste, and tolerably ornamented. There is
a beautiful wharf of freestone on each side of the river Arno,
which runs through the city, and three bridges thrown over it, of
which that in the middle is of marble, a pretty piece of
architecture: but the number of inhabitants is very
inconsiderable; and this very circumstance gives it an air of
majestic solitude, which is far from being unpleasant to a man of
a contemplative turn of mind. For my part, I cannot bear the
tumult of a populous commercial city; and the solitude that
reigns in Pisa would with me be a strong motive to choose it as a
place of residence. Not that this would be the only inducement
for living at Pisa. Here is some good company, and even a few men
of taste and learning. The people in general are counted sociable
and polite; and there is great plenty of provisions, at a very
reasonable rate. At some distance from the more frequented parts
of the city, a man may hire a large house for thirty crowns a
year:
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