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Slight Reminiscences of the Rhine, Switzerland, and a Corner of Italy
Slight Reminiscences of the Rhine Switzerland and a Corner of Italy Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: APPROACH TO GENOA. CHAPTER III. APPROACH TO GENOA—GENOA—COUP-D'CEIL— DETAILS. A Hum and bustle (indications of the vicinity of a great city rather ... more »unusual in this lovely country) tell us that we approach Genoa. It is not indeed a bustle of equipages, nor even of stage coaches, but a coming and going of carts laden with merchandise, of muleteers with loose jackets into which the arms seldom enter, and hats thrown on one side of the head over the gay colored night-cap, trudging slowly after their fine animals, or riding sideways on the least heavily laden of the file ; of peasant girls (very fine creatures sometimes), with natural flowers placed carelessly in the hair, and a dash of powder occasionally thrown in with them ; and nearer to the town, plying carriages with three windows at each side, full of gay girls fanning- themselves violently in their charming white veils, which make even the plain look pretty, and swarthy men less smartly dressed than their brisk companions ; boys playing at mora, soldiers looking on, and sandalled friars with nothing symptomatic of contrition about them but the hempen girdle,—jolly full-blown souls, whose very looks carry absolution with them, and testify to the fidelity of some at least of Boccacio's sketches. At last comes Genoa, bursting at once upon the sight, and most magnificently,—with a gay dazzle about its white palaces and glittering basin, original and splendid. I do not know why it should be compared to Naples ; it appears to me to have quite another character ; it has not Capri, nor Ischia, nor Frocida,—the purple islands of that beautiful bay,—nor the great Vesuvius, nor the classical recollections that hang upon Baia and Puz/uoli, 40 GENOA. t Missena and Sorrentum, but it has a strong and striking character o...« less