“After having stayed nearly four days in Genoa, and after having made arrangements with our honest vetturino, Dominique, to take us to Rome, stopping at various places on the way long enough to see them, we retired late to bed to prepare for our journey in the morning.

“On Wednesday morning, February 10, we rose at five o’clock, and, after breakfast of coffee, etc., we set out at six on our journey towards Rome.”

I shall not follow them every step of the way, but shall select only the more personal entries in the diary.

“A little after eleven o’clock we stopped at a single house upon a high hill overlooking the sea, to breakfast.  It has the imposing title of ‘Locanda della Gran Bretagna.’  We expected little and got less, and had a specimen of the bad faith of these people.  We enquired the price of our dejeuner before we ordered it, which is always necessary.  We were told one franc each, but after our breakfast, we were told one and a half each, and no talking with the landlord would alter his determination to demand his price.  There is no remedy for travellers; they must pay or be delayed.

“At one o’clock we left this hole of a place, where we were more beset with beggars and spongers than at any place since we had been in Italy.”

Stopping overnight at Sestri, they set out again on the 11th at five o’clock in the morning:—­

“It was as dark as the moon, obscured by thick clouds, would allow it to be, and, as we left the courtyard of the inn, it began to rain violently.  Our road lay over precipitous mountains away from the shore, and the scenery became wild and grand.  As the day dawned we found ourselves in the midst of stupendous mountains rising in cones from the valleys below.  Deep basins were formed at the bottom by the meeting of the long slopes; clouds were seen far below us, some wasting away as they sailed over the steeps, and some gathering denseness as they were detained by the cold, snowy peaks which shot up beyond.  Now and then a winding stream glittered at the bottom of some deep ravine amidst the darkness around it, and occasionally a light from the cottage of some peasant glimmered like a star through the clouds.

“As we labored up the steep ascent little brawling cascades without number, from the heights far above us, in milky streams, gathering power from innumerable rills, dashed at our feet, and, passing down through the artificial passages beneath the road, swept down into the valleys in torrents, and swelling the rivers, whose broad beds were seen through the openings, rushed with irresistible power to the sea.

“We found, from the violence of the storm, that the road was heavy and much injured in some parts by the washing down of rocks from the heights.  Some of great size lay at the sides recently thrown down, and now and then one of some hundred pounds’ weight was found in the middle of the road.