ov. 27th_, 1838.--I had dreams, like other people, before I
came here, of what the Lombard Lakes must be; and the week I spent among
them has left me an image, not only more distinct, but far more warm,
shining and various, and more deeply attractive in innumerable respects,
than all I had before conceived of them. And so also it has been with
Florence; where I spent three weeks: enough for the first hazy radiant
dawn of sympathy to pass away; yet constantly adding an increase of
knowledge and of love, while I examined, and tried to understand, the
wonderful minds that have left behind them there such abundant traces of
their presence.... On Sunday, the day before I left Florence, I went to
the highest part of the Grand Duke's Garden of Boboli, which commands a
view of most of the City, and of the vale of the Arno to the westward;
where, as we had been visited by several rainy days, and now at last had
a very fine one, the whole prospect was in its highest beauty. The mass
of buildings, chiefly on the other side of the River, is sufficient
to fill the eye, without perplexing the mind by vastness like that of
London; and its name and history, its outline and large and picturesque
buildings, give it grandeur of a higher order than that of mere
multitudinous extent. The Hills that border the Valley of the Arno are
also very pleasing and striking to look upon; and the view of the rich
Plain, glimmering away into blue distance, covered with an endless web
of villages and country-houses, is one of the most delightful images of
human well-being I have ever seen....

"Very shortly before leaving Florence, I went through the house of
Michael Angelo; which is still possessed by persons of the same family,
descendants, I believe, of his Nephew. There is in it his 'first work in
marble,' as it is called; and a few drawings,--all with the stamp of
his enginery upon them, which was more powerful than all the steam in
London.... On the whole, though I have done no work in Florence that can
be of any use or pleasure to others, except my Letters to my Wife,--I
leave it with the certainty of much valuable knowledge gained there, and
with a most pleasant remembrance of the busy and thoughtful days I owe
to it.

"We left Florence before seven yesterday morning [26th November] for
this place; travelling on the northern side of the Arno, by Prato,
Pistoia, Pescia. We tried to see some old frescos in a Church at Prato;
but found the Priest