After A Rigorous Search Of My Portmanteau At The
Douane, And Exhibiting My Passport, I Was Allowed To Proceed On My
Journey To Milan.
At Rho, where I stopped to dine, stands a remarkably ancient tree said to
have been planted in the time of Augustus.
The country presents a perfect
plain, highly cultivated, all the way from Sesto to Milan. The chaussee
is broad and admirably well kept up and lined on both sides with poplars.
The roads in Lombardy are certainly the finest in Europe. I entered Milan
by the gate which leads direct to the esplanade between the citadel and the
city, and drove to the Pension Suisse, which is in a street close to the
Cathedral and Ducal palace.
MILAN, 12 October.
I am just returned from the Teatro della Scala, renowned for its immense
size: it certainly is the most stupendous theatre I ever beheld and even
surpassed the expectation I had formed of it, so much so that I remained
for some minutes lost in astonishment. I was much struck with the
magnificence of the scenery and decorations. An Opera and Ballo are
given every night, and the same are repeated for a month, when they are
replaced by new ones. The boxes are all hired by the year by the different
noble and opulent families, and in the Parterre the price is only thirty
soldi or sous, about fifteen pence English, for which you are fully as well
regaled as at the Grand Opera at Paris for three and a half francs and
far better than at the Italian theatre in London for half a guinea.
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