The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1869-06-08

The Genoese are an eDterprising, inter-
esting people, and apparently prosperous.
Their port is the outlet Of many of the
manufactures Of Switzerland and the Ital- |
ian country that lies north of them and |
there are no better sailors than those of |
Genoa. The stranger is most agreeably
impressed in the streets by the peculiar |
head dress of the women-a white veil |
or scarf pinned to their hair st the mid.
die, and falling upon either side upon the
shoulders. 1t is always as white as snow,
and is exceedingly becoming to them. OF
course, we, as Americans, were bound to |
find some memorialsIof Columbus; but we
found none ofimportance except modern
monument, near the railway station
This is really quite fine affair-not un,
worthy of the name it commentaries. 1t
presents statue Of the great navigator,
with allegorical figures as accessories, and
events in his life represented in bass-rellef.
1t takes the sun to make Genoa pleasant
to the visitor, and that we did not see
much Of. The huge bulks which they
call hotels are dismal any way, and at any
time. But Genoa in the sun, upon her
amphitheatrical scat, looking out upon
her busy bay, must be pleasant vision.
We left the city as we came-at night,
feeling our way out into the bay to the
good steamer Calico, and running the
gauntlet of the same ghostly-looking ships,
and the same careless boatmen. 1t was
an affair that had a very foreign seeming,
and one which the pen finds it difficult to
picture. On reaching the deck of the
steamer, we could look back upon the
lights of the city behind the phantasmal
forms Of the shipping, and then we looked
and dreamed until, at a late hour, we
dropped down the stream and found our
selves blowing through the waves on the
way to Leghorn.
And now, why "Leghorn ?" Will some
persons tell us why it is that we Americans,
or English, or both, change the name of
foreign towns and foreign states so that
natives of those towns and states do not
know them when they are pronounced!
Livorno is the name OF the town we call
Leghorn 1t is beautiful name, easily
spelled and easily pronounced; then why
Leghorn Pronounce the word "Florence"
to an Italian, and he does not know what
you mean. He has been in Flrenze, and
he makes three syllables of the word but
Florence does not appear upon his map.
So with Venice, which he spells "Venez.
ia" so with Naples, which is "Napoli."
Again, why do we call that country Swift.
zerland which calls itself Suisse, and that
city Genoa which its people call Geneva
~ word of two syllables The French
are even worse than we are in this matter,
and 60 so far, in many instances, as to
translate foreign names in their own Ian
guage. A familiar instance is "Angleterre'
for England. Can anything bo more
absurd than this!
But this has nothing to do with our
journey. We passed pleasant night on
the Galileo--so pleasant that, when we
awoke at Leghorn the next morning, We
determined to stick to the steamer, and go
through to Naples, though we had previ-
ously determined to leave her at Leghorn
and go to Rome by rail, visiting Naples
after wards. In the meantime, the cap
tain informed us that we should have the
whole day at Leghorn, which would give
US all the time we wanted to visit Pisa.
Accordingly, after breakfast, we went
ashore We found carriages awaiting us
which took us through the city to the rail-
way station, where we entered the cars
tor Pisa. Of Leghorn we saw no more
than our ride through the city revealed to
US. 1t is brisk, modern>built city, with
wide streets and decidedly an American
look. The road to Pisa runs through a
low, perfectly fiat stretch of country Iwith
out the slightest interest to the traveller,
and he is glad to alight at the Pisa station,
although he knows that the only objects
, of particular intrest there are the cathedral
and the remarkable structures grouped and
associated with it. shall not attempt
} to describe these buildings, or to give their
history in any detail. They are about
eight hundred years old, and consist of an
; immense and very beautiful cathedral
; the Campanile-known everywhere a,
! 'the leaning tower of Pisa"-the Baptis
r terry, and the Campo Santo, an ancient
, cemetery already alluded to in this letter
: The cathedral was the work Of an archi
, tee I named Busketus, and was built by
, the Pisans as thank offering, after vic
. tory over the Sar lcens. IL we had known
] that we should see no more architectur,
n worth the name until we had traversec
n southern and central Italy, and reached
D the northern tier Of cities, have no doub
e we should have looked longer and NOR
3 carefully. As it is, Pisa is one of tn
!. places should like much to see again
7. The church is grand structure, the lean
# ing tower unique, the Baptistery hardl,
s more than a beautiful dome, and th
a Campo Santo is the strangest, quaintes
a and, in some Of its decorations, the mos
/. absurd burial place on the face of tn
9 earth. Here these strangely contraste
It buildings stand alone, at one side of yer,
= commonplace city, not 30 large as you
n own, away from the main lines OF travel
e yet all the travelling world goes TO Sc
y them. To wander through the cathedri
i and the Campo Santo, to listen to tn
g heavenly echoes that the guides have a
e learned TO call from their resting place
l in the dome Of the Baptistery, and I
j. shudder on the summit Of the loanin
l. Campanile, every traveller from every Ian
y turns aside and visits Pisa-and ever
/. traveller will do so for thousand years I
{, come. There is no other such gIoup {
l - l. Al