r-like
cypress, the gray olive, the festooned vine, with a multitude of
embowered villas. On the north-east, right in the fork of the Apennines,
lie the bosky and wooded dells of Valombrosa. On the north, seated on a
pyramidal hill, is the ancient Fiesole, which the genius of Milton has
touched and immortalized. On the west are the spacious lawns and parks
of the Grand Duke; while the noble valley runs off to the south-west,
carpeted with vines, or covered with chestnut woods, with the Arno
stealing silently through it in long reaches to the sea. During my stay,
the girdling Apennines were tipped with the snows of winter; and when
the sun shone out, they formed a gleaming circlet around the green
valley, like a ring of silver enclosing an enormous emerald. I saw the
sun but seldom, however. The bad weather which had overtaken me amid the
Apennines descended with me into the valley of the Arno; and murky
clouds, with torrents of rain, but too often obscured the sky. But I
could fancy the delicious beauty of a summer eve in Florence, with the
still balmy air enwrapping the purple hills, the tall cypresses, the
domes, and the gently stealing waters. In spring the region must be a
very paradise. Indeed, spring is seldom absent from the banks of the
Arno; for though at times savage Winter is heard growling amid the
Apennines, he dare seldom venture farther than midway down their slopes.

I cannot recall the past glories of Florence, or even touch on Cosmo's
"immortal century;" I cannot speak of its galleries, so rich in
painting, so unrivalled in statuary; nor can I enter its Pitti palace,
with its hanging gardens; or the city churches, with their store of
frescoes and paintings; or its Santa Croce, with its six mighty
tombs,--those even of Dante, Galileo, Machiavelli, Michael Angelo,
Alfieri, Leonardo Aretino. The size of Florence brings all these objects
within a manageable distance; and, during my stay of well-nigh a week, I
visited them, as any one may do, almost every day. But every traveller
has entered largely into their description, and I pass them over, to
touch on other things more rarely brought into view.

Florence is the focus of Italian art; and here, if anywhere, one can see
the effect of educating a population solely on the aesthetic principle.
The Florentines have no books, no reading-rooms, no public lectures, no
preaching in their churches even, bating the occasional harangue of a
monk. They are left to b