Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-04-30
Flormes to Bologna.

Of Florence and the Arno."
Ariosto says of these suburban villas and
palaces alone, that, if they could be brought
together within one wall and called by one
name, ia city, two Romes could not equal it.
As we rise up the mountains, if it were not
for an occasional convent, palace, or other
building-like nothing in our country--we
should see nothing to remind us Of our alb
sence from our own green forest-land. We
pass Fontebuona and Caffaggiolo and through
the famous Val di Murgillo, so celebrated for
its beauty, and climb to the top of one of the
spurs of the Apprentices, and move along its
summit to Monte Careli, and then by a steep
but easily managed ascent, we are soon on
the summit of the pass of La Futa, about
5000 feet above the sea, the highest point in
our passage over the mountains. 1t is cold,
even in summer, and warm clothing is neces-
sary for comfort; but in winter it is said to
be bitter-cold, exposed to the soverest storms
and often impossible from snow, all along
from Cavigliajo to Petra mAla-some fifteen
or twenty miles. What bitter experiences
of suffering travellers some times encounter
here, who, intending to spend the winter in
Italy, delay passing the mountains till the
late MISUNDERSTANDING Of the
severity of the cold till they are in the midst
Of it. In the summer time, however, the
tops of the Apprentices are not clad in snow,
like the Alps.
We were quite amused with the extra team
they gave us to help haul us up some of the
heaviest steops-for all through the Continent
you arc required to hire, OF at least to pay
for,additional horses in ascending heavy hills.
Here they gave us oxen, which arc the regu-
lar extra horses for the Diligence. They arc
trained however to move like horses land over
the little spots of level or down hil..which oft
en- occur in the mountain road, they trot of
as nimbly and cheerily as span Of fresh
bays-but it looks odd with such pair of
leaders
The scenery and the make Of the land and
the mountains, the sharp and ragged sum-
mita and the deep and woody rayines and
the farm houses and barns and Aocks and
herds on the hillsides, and the hay stacks in
the meadows, and the stone walls and the
fences, are for all the world like the waysdo
views of the mountain routes in our north
ern and middle states
When on the summit we do not get any
very fine view Of large map of country, but
after descent Of few miles, as we come
to Lojano, the look off is exceedingly fine, as
the eye, taking in wide horizon, falls upon
the cultivated plains of northern Italy-the
Cisalpian Gaul, Gala togata, of the an
cients-the Roman Gaul-the chain of the
Alps with their snowy peaks in the dim dis
tant and shadowing horizon on the ono hand
and the CLASSY waters of the Adriatic on the
other, and the intermediate Immense valley
of the Pc, with its tributaries, shining like
silver in the Italian sun, and the great and
famous cities Modena, Mantua, Padua, YER
ona, Bologna and Finara-within visible dis
lance, but not at all visible-fll the eye with
forms Of beauty and the mind with the great
memories of their history from the best days
of Ancient Rome to the modern times of
Austrian occupation. This great scene
spread out before us, and growing vlsibly
nearer and nearer for hours, as in our wind
ing and zigzag descent we hurried down the
mountains and through the fertile and beau
tiful valley Of the Lavena, and found our
selves in the nearer approaches to the walled
city of Bologna.
We had observed as VIC desccndod to the
plains and entered the dominions of the Pope
in the northern states Of the church, that We
left behind us something of the thrifty, COM
Portable and well-to-do appearance of the
Tuscan people and their agriculture, and
mendicant monks and priests sometimes APP
pearcd again on the scene, and tattcrdemal-
lion beggars occasionally bcset us as in Rome
and its envIrons, though incomparably fewer
here than there. We found also that tho
same beautiful breed of mouse colored oxen,
which we so much admired in Rome and its
cnvirons, made their appearance again here
in the northern dominions of his holiness,
but we saw hero what we never saw there, an
occasional departure from tho beautiful rcgu-
larity and proportion and size of their maes-
tic horns. There is here, in rare instances,
u sort of provincial twist or tendency to
crumple, sometimes in one horn and some
times in both, The donkey, the beggar and
the priest too, have an air more provincial,
rustic and oampagaard. We recognized here
too, an old acquaintance, the uniform and rig
of the Roman postillion with variations which
increased its grotesqueness. don't remen-
Der that attempted description Of it while
in the south; ! will write it down here. A
common round hat with very unsmoothed
long nap of the coarscst fur, Il yellow band,
a brass front plate and a side cockade, en-
hossed with the keys, short coat, with about
six OF eight inches of skirt OF pretended
pocket flaps, the whole coming down his
back only to touch his saddle, red collar and
cuffs, gray vest, broad striped pantaloons, all
hound with rad cord brass buttons Maid /