The Road
From Genoa To Sarzana Might With Very Little Expense Be Made Fit For
Carriages By Widening It.
At present it is only a bridle road, and on some
parts of it, on the sides of ravines, it is I think a little ticklish to
trust entirely to the discretion of one's monture; at least I thought so
and dismounted twice to pass such places on foot.
A winding stream is to be
forded in two or three places, but it is not deep except after rains; and
then I think it must be sometimes dangerous to pass, till the waters run
off. Those, who are fond of mountain scenery will, like myself, be highly
gratified in making this journey; for it is thro' the loftiest, wildest and
most romantic part of the Appennines. From Sarzana I hired a cabriolet to
return to Pisa and from thence I took the diligence to Florence.
FERRARA.
On the 9th of May I set out from Florence on my journey hither. Two days'
journey brought me to Bologna where I stopped one day; and the following
day I reached this place (Ferrara), six miles distant from Bologna. The
country between these two cities is a perfect plain and very fertile. At
Malalbergo (half-way) We crossed the Reno in a boat. I put up at the Tre
Mori in Ferrara. Having remained two and half days here I have had time to
inspect and examine almost everything of consequence that the city affords.
The city itself has an imposing, venerable appearance and can boast of some
fine buildings; yet with all this there is an air of melancholy about it.
It is not peopled in proportion to its size and grass is seen growing in
several of the streets. I believe the unhealthiness of the environing
country is the cause of the decrease of population, for Ferrara lies on a
marshy plain, very liable to inundation In the centre of the city stands
the ancient Palace of the Dukes of Ferrara, a vast Gothic edifice, square,
and flanked with round towers, and a large court-yard in the centre. It was
in this court-yard that Hugo and Parisina were decapitated. From the top of
this palace a noble view of the plain of the Po represents itself, and you
see the meanderings of that King of Rivers, as the Italian poets term it.
As the Po runs thro' a perfectly flat country, and is encreased and swollen
by the torrents from the Alps and Appennines that fall into the smaller
rivers, which unite their tributary streams with the Po and accompany him
as his seguaci to the Adriatic, this country is liable to the most
dreadful inundations: flocks and herds, farm-houses and sometimes whole
villages are swept away. Dykes, dams and canals innumerable are in
consequence constructed throughout this part of the country, to preserve it
as much as possible from such calamities. Ariosto's description of an
over-flowing of this river is very striking, and I here transcribe it:
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