ight and about twenty feet in
breath and length. It leans so much as to form an angle of seventy-five
degrees with the ground on which it stands. The other tower, the strait
one, is called _Asinelli_ and is a parallelipipedon of 310 feet in height
and about twenty-five feet in length and breadth. I ascended the leaning
tower, but I found the fatigue so great that I was scarcely repaid by the
fine view of the surrounding country, which presents on one side an immense
plain covered with towns, villages and villas, and on the other the
Appennines towering one above another. When on the top of _Garisendi_,
_Asinelli_ appears to be four times higher than its neighbour, and the bare
aspect of its enormous height deterred me from even making the attempt of
ascending it. When viewed or rather looked down upon from _Garisendi_,
Bologna, from its being of an elliptical form and surrounded by a wall and
from having these two enormous towers in the centre, resembles a boat with
masts.

From the great celebrity of its University and the eminent men it has
produced, Bologna is considered as the most litterary city of Italy.
Galvani was born in Bologna and studied at this University, and among the
modern prodigies is a young lady who is professor of Greek and who is by
all accounts the most amiable _Bas bleu_ that ever existed.[82] The
Bolognese are a remarkably fine, intelligent and robust race of people, and
are renowned for their republican spirit, and the energy with which they at
all times resisted the encroachments of the Holy See. Bologna was at one
time a Republic, and on their coins is the word Libertas. The Bolognese
never liked the Papal government and were much exasperated at returning
under the domination of the Holy Father. In the time of Napoleon, Bologna
formed part of the _Regno d'ltalia_ and partook of all its advantages.
Napoleon is much regretted by them; and so impatiently did the inhabitants
bear the change, on the dismemberment of the kingdom of Italy, and their
transfer to the pontifical sceptre, that on Murat's entry in their city in
1815 the students and other young men of the town flew to arms and in a few
hours organised three battalions. Had the other cities shown equal energy
and republican spirit, the revolution would have been completed and Italy
free; but the fact is that the Italians in general, tho' discontented, had
no very high opinion of Murat's talents as a political character, and he
besides _com