parallel with the harbour, and
contains, on one side at least, some very handsome houses. This is
a favourite place for a walk, for we can here see all the bustle and
activity of the port. Several of the palaces also are pretty; that
appropriated to the senate is the only one which can be called fine,
the staircase being constructed entirely of white marble, in a
splendid style of architecture: the halls and apartments are lofty,
and generally arched. The regal palace is also a handsome pile.

In the midst of the town I found an agreeable public garden. The
Italians appear, however, to choose the streets as places of
rendezvous, in preference to enclosures of this kind; for every
where I noticed that the garden-walks were empty, and the streets
full. But on the whole there is not nearly so much life here as at
Catanea. In order to obtain a view of the whole of Messina and its
environs I ascended a hill near the town, surmounted by a Capuchin
convent; here I enjoyed a prospect which I have seldom seen
equalled. As I gazed upon it I could easily imagine that an
inhabitant of Messina can find no place in the world so beautiful as
his native town.

The promontory against which the town leans is clothed with a carpet
of the brightest green, planted with fruit-trees of all kinds, and
enlivened with scattered towns, villages, and country seats.
Beautiful roads, appearing like white bands, intersect the mountains
on every side in the direction of the town. The background is
closed by high mountains, sometimes wooded, sometimes bare, now
rising in the form of alps, now in the shape of rocky masses. At
the foot of the hills we see the long-drawn town, the harbour with
its numerous ships, and beyond it groups of alps and rocks. The
boundless sea flows on the spectator's right and left towards
Palermo and Naples, while in the direction of Catanea the eye is
caught by mountains, with Etna towering among them.

The same evening I embarked on board the Duke of Calabria, for the
short trip of twelve or fourteen hours to Palermo. This steamer has
only engines of 80 horse-power, and every thing connected with it is
small and confined. The first-class accommodation is indeed pretty
good, but the second-class places are only calculated to contain
very few passengers. Though completely exhausted by my long and
fatiguing walk through Messina, I remained on deck, for I could not
be happy without seeing Stromboli. Unfortuna