d so
much a week _inclusive_.

Such is the system of extortion in Italy, that if you purchase anything
at a shop--mosaics, jewellery, or what not--you are held in contempt if
you at once pay the price that is demanded, the shopkeepers naming a sum
perhaps three times as much as what they finally take and consider as a
good bargain.

* * * * *

The 29th of March, the morning of our departure from Florence, was as
bright and bracing as a real old-fashioned English May morn, and we felt
it to be truly enjoyable as we sped over the well-cultivated and sunny
plains of the Florentine Basin, the outlines of the distant scenery
charmingly developing in the clear Italian atmosphere. Indeed, it is
this atmosphere which renders Italy so beautiful, every feature
displayed to the best advantage, and the eye allowed to roam from one
object to another; whilst in our London, for instance, during one half
the year, the view too frequently presents a blurred mass, little really
to be seen with distinctness, the buildings and great edifices looming
darkly through a half fog--no dimpling lights and shadows, giving life,
warmth, and animation, quickening one with admiration and rapture. It is
like an otherwise beautiful woman spoiled by a bad complexion.

We passed through fine open plains, then a series of tunnels, rocky
defiles, over mountain streams and fertile valleys, until we reached
Pracchia. We had been steadily ascending to higher ground, and were now
nearly at the top of a mountain range, a wild defile and stream on the
one side, a mountain road on the other. Then craggy cliffs, waterfalls,
and snow-capped mountains follow in grand succession; sometimes a deep
valley, with a mountain torrent plunging far, far into the depths below,
the water hanging from the rocks in long petrified icicles. Men and
women, like specks in the distance, toiling up the steep hills and
winding paths, laden with faggots. We seemed to have been circling round
two great mountains whilst having these enchanting glimpses of
ever-varying scenery, with no end of intervening tunnels. At last we
appear to have passed through a final one, and, emerging quite into
daylight, find we have attained the topmost part of the mountains at a
station called Pittachia, where we found a good buffet. We here
encountered a great many little country maidens, offering bunches of
beautiful primroses and violets--veritably a sweet refreshment!