As if he had only been absent
on a tour, finding scarcely any change in the laws and customs and habits
of the country; for tho' Tuscany was first erected into a Kingdom by the
title of Etruria, and afterwards annexed to the French Empire, the
institutions and laws laid down by Leopold and followed strictly by his
successor were preserved; very little innovation took place, and the few
innovations that were effected were decided ameliorations; for the Emperor
Napoleon had too much tact not to preserve and protect the good he found,
tho' he abolished all old abuses. The improvements introduced by the French
have been preserved and confirmed by the Grand Duke on his return, for he
is a man of too much good sense, and has too much love of justice, to think
of abolishing the good that has been done, merely because it was done by
the French. Tuscany has now a respectable military force of 8,000 men well
armed, clothed and equipped in the French manner.
Tuscany is the only part of Italy where the downfall of Napoleon was not
regretted; the inhabitants of Leghorn indeed rejoiced at it, for the
commerce of Tuscany being chiefly maritime, Leghorn suffered a good deal
from the continental system. Leghorn in fact decayed in the same proportion
that Milan and other inland cities rose into opulence.
The character of the Tuscan people is so amiable and pacific that crime is
very rare indeed. Murder is almost unknown and the punishment of death is
banished from the penal code. Where the government is good, the people are
or soon become good. I know of no country in the world more agreeable for a
foreigner to settle in than Tuscany.
I omitted to remark that in the street called Borgo d'Ognissanti is a
large house or palazzo which belonged to Americo Vespucci. His bust is to
be seen in the Florentine Gallery. It is curious to remark the different
appellations given to the word street in the different cities of Italy.
In Milan a street is called vico and in Turin, contrada; in Florence
strada and in Rome, I understand, via.
FLORENCE, 1st Sept.
I shall start in a day or two for Rome, being very impatient to behold the
Eternal City, a plan which I have had in view from my earliest days and
which I have not been able hitherto to effect; for like the Abbe Delille I
had sworn to visit the sacred spot where so many illustrious men had spoke
and acted, and to do hommage in person to their Manes. I was always a great
admirer of the "Popolo Re."
In Florence there are a great many literary societies such as the
Infuocati, Immobili, and the far renowned La Crusca.
Frequent Academies, for so a sitting of a litterary society in Italy is
termed, are held in Florence. There are likewise two Casinos, one for the
nobility and the other for the merchants and burghers; the wives and
daughters of the members attend occasionally; and cards, music and dancing
are the amusements. Florence abounds in artists in alabaster whose
workmanship is beautiful. They make models in alabaster of the most
celebrated pieces of sculpture and architecture, on any scale you chuse:
they fabricate busts too and vases in alabaster. The vases made in
imitation of the ancient Greek vases are magnificent, and some of them are
of immense size. Foreigners generally chuse to have their busts taken; for
almost all foreigners who arrive here are or pretend to be smitten with an
ardent love for the fine arts, and every one wishes to take with him models
of the fine things he has seen in Italy, on his return to his native
country. Here are English travellers who at home would scarcely be able to
distinguish the finest piece of ancient sculpture - the Mercury, for
instance, in the Florentine Gallery, from a Mercury in a citizen's garden
at Highgate - who here affect to be in extacies at the sight of the Venus,
Apollino, &c., and they are fond of retailing on all occasions the terms of
art and connoisseurship they have learned by rote, in the use of which they
make sometimes ridiculous mistakes. For instance I heard an Englishman one
day holding forth on the merits of the Vierge quisouse, as he called it.
I could not for some time divine what he meant by the word quisouse, but
after some explanation I found that he meant the celebrated painting of the
Vierge qui coud, or Vierge couseuse, as it is sometimes called, which
latter word he had transformed into quisouse. This affectation, however,
of passion for the belle arti, tho' sometimes open to ridicule, is very
useful. It generates taste, encourages artists, and is surely a more
innocent as well as more rational mode of spending money and passing time
than in encouraging pugilism or in racing, coach driving and cock fighting.
[83] Pope, Essay on Man, ep. III, 303-4. - ED.
CHAPTER X
Journey from Florence to Rome - Sienna - Radicofani - Bolsena - Montefiascone
wine - Viterbo - Baccano - The Roman Campagna - The papal douane - Monuments
and Museums in Rome - Intolerance of the Catholic Christians - The Tiber and
the bridges - Character of the Romans - The Palassi and Ville - Canova's
atelier - Theatricals - An execution in Rome.
September - - , 1816.
I made an agreement with a vetturino to take me to Rome for three louis
d'or and to be spesato. In the carriage were two other passengers, viz.,
a Neapolitan lady, the wife of a Colonel in the Neapolitan service, and a
young Roman, the son of the Barigello or Capo degli Sbirri at Rome. We
issued from the Porta Romana at 6 o'clock a.m. the 3d September.
