to their husbands the entire management of household affairs.
Thus freed from family cares, Venetian ladies had little to occupy their
time outside of the pleasures of society. Nothing was expected of them
on the intellectual side; they had no thought of education, found no
resource in study, and were not compelled to read in order to keep up
with society small-talk; so long as they found a means to charm their
masculine admirers, nothing more was demanded. Apparently, for them to
charm and fascinate was not difficult, for, according to Mrs. Piozzi, "a
woman in Italy is sure of applause, so she takes little pains to secure
it." Accordingly, the women of Venice seem to have been quite
unpretentious in their manners and dress. They wore little or no rouge,
though they were much addicted to the use of powder, and their dresses
were very plain and presented little variety. "The hair was dressed in a
simple way, flat on top, all of one length, hanging in long curls about
the neck or sides, as it happens." During the summer season it was the
custom literally to turn night into daytime, as social functions were
rarely begun before midnight, and it was dawn before the revellers were
brought home in their gondolas. At one place in Venice were literary
topics much discussed, and that was at Quirini's Casino, a semi-public
resort where ladies were much in evidence, and this was but the
exception which proved the rule.

Genoa has been thus described: "It possesses men without honesty, women
without modesty, a sea without fish, and a woods with no birds," and,
without going into the merits of each of these statements, it is safe to
say that the state of public morals in this city was about the same as
that to be found in any other Italian city. Apropos of the poor heating
arrangements in Genoese houses, Mrs. Piozzi makes the following remark,
which gives a sidelight upon some of the customs of the place and will
interest the curious: "To church, however, and to the theatre in winter,
they have carried a great green velvet bag, adorned with gold tassels
and lined with fur to keep their feet from freezing, as carpets are not
in use. Poor women run about the streets with a little earthen pipkin
hanging on their arm filled with fire, even if they are sent on an
errand."

In Florence, the art of making improviso verses--which has ever been
popular in southern countries--seems to have reached its highest state
of perfection during this