The Environs Of
This Interesting City Are Very Beautiful And Present An Exceeding Rich
Soil, Highly Cultivated In Corn, Mulberry Trees And Vines Hanging From Them
In Festoons.
VERONA, 12th June.
I started yesterday morning from Vicenza and arrived here in about three
hours, the distance being nearly the same as between Vicenza and Padua. We
crossed the Adige which divides the city into two unequal parts and drove
to the Due Torri, a large and comfortable inn with excellent rooms and
accommodations. Verona is a very handsome city, for here also Palladio was
the designer or builder of many edifices. It has a very cheerful and gay
appearance, tho' not quite so much so as Vicenza. The reason of this
difference is that in Verona the greater part of the buildings are in the
Gothic style, which always appears heavy and melancholy, whereas in Vicenza
all is Grecian. The Amphitheatre of course claimed my first notice. It
yields only to the Coliseum in size and grandeur and is in much better
preservation, the whole of the ellipse and its walls being entire, whereas
in the Coliseum part of the walls have been pulled down. Indeed the
Amphitheatre of Verona may be said to be almost perfectly entire. Tempus
edax rerum has been its only enemy; whereas avarice and religious
fanaticism have contributed, much more than time, to the dilapidation of
the Coliseum. The Amphitheatre of Verona can contain 24,000 persons. In it
is constructed a temporary theatre of wood, where they perform plays and
farces in the open air. Verona is much embellished by several Palazzi
built by Palladio, which form a curious contrast with the other buildings
and churches which are in the Gothic style. Verona can boast among its
antiquities of three triumphal arches, the first, Porta de' Bursari,
erected in the year 252 in the reign of the Emperor Gallienus; the second,
called Porta del Foro; and the third, built by Vitruvius himself, in
honour of the family Gavia.
The churches here are richly ornamented and the Palazzo del Consiglio has
many fine marble and bronze statues. In this city also are the tombs and
monuments of the Scala family, who were at one time Sovereigns of Verona.
They are in the Gothic style and of curious execution. The Cathedral has an
immense campanile (steeple), from which is a fine view of the surrounding
country, and the progressive risings of the Alps, the lower parts of which
lie close upon Verona. Beautiful villas and farmhouses abound in the
neighbourhood of this city. The favourite promenades are the Corso and
the Bra. On the Bra I saw a very brilliant display of carriages, and
some very pretty women in them. The theatre is by Palladio, is exquisitely
beautiful, and very tastefully fitted up. I assisted at the representation
of La Gazza Ladra, one of Rossini's best operas.
I should think Verona would be a very delightful sejour; everything is very
cheap; a fine country highly cultivated; a remarkably healthy climate; a
society which unites much urbanity and a love of amusement with a taste for
the fine arts and for the graver sciences, and a general appearance of
opulence and comfort. The shops in Verona appear very splendid, and the
Bra, when lighted up in the evening, is a very lively and animating
scene.
MANTUA, 15 June.
I could not go to Milan without stepping a little out of my road to visit
this ancient and redoubtable fortress, so celebrated in the early campaigns
of Buonaparte, besides the other claims it has on the traveller's attention
as the birth place of Virgil. This place is of immense strength, as a
military post; being situated on a small isthmus of land, separating two
lakes, and communicating with the rest of the country by an exceeding
narrow causeway. This position, added to the strength of the
fortifications, render the fortress impregnable, if well garrisoned and
provisioned. The city is, however, unhealthy from the lake and marshy land
about it, and there is but a scanty population. Grass grows in the streets
and it is the dullest and indeed the only dull town in all Italy.
Everything in this city announces decay and melancholy, and I met with
several men looking full as halfstarved and deplorable as Shakespeare's
Apothecary in Romeo and Juliet. Yet the city is by no means an ugly one.
The buildings are imposing, the streets broad and well paved, and there is
a fine circular promenade in the centre of which is a Monument erected in
honor of Virgil by the French general Miollis, who had a great veneration
for all poets. The Palazzo pubblico and the Cathedral are the most
striking buildings. The latter contains the tombs and monuments of the
Gonzaga family, the whilom Sovereigns of Mantua. There are also several
monuments in honor of some French officers, who were killed in the
campaigns of Italy under Buonaparte and erected to their memory by his
direction.
Outside the town, at a short distance from the causeway and tete de pont,
is the celebrated palace called the T, from its being in the form of that
letter, which was the usual residence of the Dukes of Mantua. It is a noble
edifice and its gardens are well laid out. These gardens have this
peculiarity, that at the entrance of each of the grand avenues is a figure
of a man on horseback caparizoned in armour, like the Knights of old. This
is all I have to say about Mantua. The Mincio beset with "osiers dank"
flows into the lake.
CREMONA, 16th June.
From Mantua I directed my course to this city, which is large and
fortified, situated on the Po which forms many little islands in the
environs. This city is of great antiquity, and has a number of Gothic
buildings. You do not find here the specimens and imitations of Grecian
architecture as at Vicenza and Verona. The campanile of the Cathedral is
of immense height, but one is repaid for the fatigue of ascending by the
extensive view from its summit.
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