ed to dinner at the
venerable and celebrated city of Trent. The country we passed thro' is much
the same as that between Verona and Roveredo, the Adige being on our left.
Trent lies also in the valley of the Adige, shut up between the Alps. The
whole valley appears in high cultivation. The streets of Trent are broad;
the Cathedral is a remarkably fine Gothic building. In the church of Sta
Maria Maggiore was held the famous council of Trent. There are a great many
silk mills in Trent. German as well as Italian is spoken; indeed the two
languages are equally familiar to most of the inhabitants. In the evening
we arrived at Sabern after passing thro' Lavis. One description will serve
for these towns and indeed for most of the towns in the Tyrol, viz., that
of being neat, clean and solidly built. The inns are excellent and the
inhabitants very civil. The Adige runs close to the road and parallel to
it, nearly the whole way to Bolsano or Botzen, where Italian ceases to be
spoken and German is the national tongue. Botzen is a large and flourishing
place.

One general description will serve for the Tyrol, regarding the towns,
adjacent country, customs, inns, inhabitants, dress and manners.

First the towns are fully as neat, clean and well built as those in
Switzerland; the country too is very similar, tho' not quite on so grand a
scale of sublimity; but you have fully as much variety in mountain and
valley, glacier and cascade. The climate is exactly the same as that of
Switzerland, being very hot in the valleys in summer. The inns are clean
and good, the provisions excellent and well cooked, the wines much better
than those of Switzerland; there is good attendance by females and all at a
far cheaper rate than in Switzerland. The Tyroleans are much more courteous
in their manners than the Swiss; they have not that boorishness and are of
more elegant figure than their Helvetic neighbours. The women of the Tyrol
are in general remarkably beautiful, exceedingly well shaped and of fine
complexions.

In the towns the bourgeoises dress well, something in the French style, and
it is their custom to salute travellers who pass by kissing their hands to
them. The dress of the female peasantry, however, is unpleasing to the eye
and so uncouth, that it would make the most beautiful women appear homely.
In the first place I will speak of their head dress, of which there are
three different kinds, two of which are as _bizarre_ as can be i