TALBOT1085

Genova,
il 4 Giugno ¹ 1823

Eccomi giunto heri in questa antica e nobile città. ² I spent two or three days at Lucca Baths very pleasantly with Fazakerley ³ & his wife, who had been there only a week, & at present had the place almost entirely to themselves. The weather was cool, & the environs were very pleasant, much more so than I thought them in October. We made an almost Alpine expedition to Prato Fiorito, a lofty meadow 7 or 8 miles off which we found as yet in early spring, covered with narcissus – At Lojano, a village near the Baths, there is a very good house which a M^r & M^rs Ellis had taken, but I could not make out what Ellis’s they were. The situation is airy, being on the top of a hill so high that when once they are got to the top I fancy they will stay there till their final departure. It took us an hour I daresay steep climbing in chesnut woods to get there – so that if M^rs Ellis should give a rout or assembly, it would be thinly attended. Massa is a pretty place; La Spezia did not come up to my expectation; the weather was partly in fault, that hid the fine shapes of the Carrara Apennines. From Spezia to Borghetto is a stage inland of 3 hours & a half, the latter half of it you have the choice of the public road or the bed of a torrent, and you prefer the latter. Quitting Borghetto the road rises high among wild mountains, in which you wander a long time, & then come down upon the sea & the pretty town of Sestri. The change is delightful – You are in the neighbourhood of Genoa as every villa and gaily painted steeple proclaims that succeed each other with hardly any interruption for the remaining 30 miles; at first on leaving Sestri you pass by the water’s edge to Chiavari a gay & cheerful town where I arrived in time to see una bellissima funzione ⁴ – Then begins the road of the Corniche which is excellent, among olives vines & figs innumerable, & steeples above below and all about – You descend to the sea again at Rapallo & then over a considerable hill, to cut off the promontory of Porto Fino. As we drew near the summit I observed that the road went through a tunnel or gallery, & was in great expectation of what I was to see, & I was not disappointed for on reaching it Genoa burst on my view with its thousands of white houses & villas – Three or four promontories formed the foreground & in the distance the mountains of Savona & Oneglia, mixed with clouds.

I am curious to learn your misadventures on Vesuvius – Your letter was unluckily too late for me at Florence, but I shall send for it.

Your Aff^te Son
W.H.F. Talbot

How comes digiunare to mean the opposite of déjeuner? ⁵

à Miladi
Miladi Feilding
Poste Restante
Roma
with Mess^rs Freeborne Smiths Comp^{ts 6}