Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-01
UPON THE RIVIERA.
PLEASANT PLACES ON THE SHORE
 OF THE GULF OF GENOA.

PLEASANT PLACES ON THE SHORE
 OF THE GULF OF GENOA
 Italian Resorts Where All Travellers Go.
 Differences of Opilion on the Old
 Towns-Of Interest to Readers and
 writers-Three Winter Capitals.
 The eastern shore of the Gulf of Genoa the Riviera di Levante-differs from the Riviera di Ponente, which was described in my last letter, in being very much damper The chief wind is from therwest, which, coming over the sea, nearly always brings rain. But, as the climate is fully as warm as at San Reno or Nice, the dampness adds to the beauty of the vegetation; there is plenty of grass even in summer, and the number of deciduous trees is much greater When the leaves are fallen these trees are hardly noticed in winter; but in summer their fresh green lends great charm to the semi-tropical aspect of the palms, the lemons and the olives The nearness of the high mountains to the coast, the abrupt changes of strata, the frequent precipitious rocks, and the pine groves which often come down to the edge of the sea, give different char acter to the scenery.
 The only two places in this region which ni<o oS JcV tuOIOuSuAy ueSlTdOlo are SC8. Margherita and Rapallo, iii the latter of which there is an excellent good hotel and an English churci But aa they are only about mile apart the conveniences of one can be enjoyed at the other. There arc an unusual number of beautiful walks and very good carriage roads leading to various points in the interior. The bay is so protected by the promontory of Porto Fino that boating is nearly always possible and pleasant. There are villas to be had at both places and on the road between; hut the resident foreign colony is not yet large.
 Spezia Is still frequented in summer by Italians for bathing, but its attractiveness to foreigners has diminished since it has be- come great Italian naval station, and its lovely hills have been covered with huge Notifications.
 THE BRoWNINGS OPINION OF PISA.
 Pisa is the remaining warm town of North ern Italy Its climate is SO much milder than that of Florenea that in the last cen tury lnFalIds often passed the winter there and 1t was great place of resort. The court of Tuscany, as Horace Mann tells us, used to come for month or two, and Smol- lett spent there the year before his death, finishing his best and most amiable novel, Humphrey Clinkern In ths early part of the century, too, it had a large English colony, in addition to Shelley, Landor, Byron and Lady Blessington, but at present the English colony has s9 fallen off that the church, which Is transferred for the summer to the Baths of Lucca, has but Q scanty con gregation. The hotels are of the very best; Leghorn and Viareggio are a short distance of in one direction; Lucca, with it's old walls, now used as promenades, its churches and it's pictures, close by, and Florence, but two hours distant by express train, so that it Is perfectly easy to pass a day there when desirable.
 When the Brownings spent the winter there in 1S47 they found it dull, but they had brought no English books with them; apparently received no newspapers; the church library was soon exhausted, and com municattons were not sufficiently rapid to allow subscription to Vieussieux's circulat- ing library at Florence. Since then every one elss has voted Pisa dull, although per- sanally was not impressed by this in the month that l spent there. Even the hotel was entertaining; for, except ourselves, no one ever remained more than two days and rarely moro than one; and, as in kaleido. scope, the changes were amusing and often agreeable.
 There are really only three winter capitals in ltaly-Florence, Rome and Naples. Turin, Milan and Bologna are too cold and too snoWbound to attract sojourners. Yet Turin has charming society and brilliant court life, and it is the only place, outside of Rome, where, in deference to family traditions, the old court is maintained For those who can stand the cold it would be good place for an enterprising mother to introduce her daughters into high society and perhaps make brilliant marriages for them. In Milan and Bologna one has the best operas, the best pallets and the best concerts in Italy, At Venice, although it rarely freezes, 1t is very damp, and this dampness is sometimes so cold that one wonders why the canals are not solid block of ice. Add to that that the houses and hotels have very large rooms and small facilities for heating them.
 FLORENCE, THE WINTER CITY"
 Florence is the literary and artistic center, and, according to Ouida, Is pre- eminently the | "winter city," Its galleries are thronged by | those Wno delight in the infancy of art, which ! is often so near akin to the art of infancy | When one looks at the number of tall, angu- lar English old maids, in various positions of rapture, one sometimes thinks that their ad- | miration for Botticelli and Masaccio comes | from a vague idea that these artists have en. deavored to idolize their own charms. There, | too, one finds the latest productions of mod. | ern art, whether they be the water colors of Newman-some of Tuscan country and ot Lucca architecture, others such vivid ren- derings of the heat and glare along the Nile 1 that one wishes never to go to Egypt again or whether they be the last statues of Italian | or American sculptors-one so perfect in It's | naturalism, in it's details of stuffs and clothes that the artistic feeling is smothered; the | other such clever production by skilled | Italian hands of coarse ideal that one woa- | ders that the so called sculptor ever dared to | put his hand to the clay model, for he rarely | does more. |
 For person of literary tastes Florence has | many attractions and advantages. Besides the archives, which are easily accessible, there are several large public libraries, the best in Italy; and the service of the national libraries has been so regulated and improved that on simple request a rare book or man. uscrtpt will be brought from the library of @ distant city and placed at the disposal of the reader. In this way at Florence one has the command of the national libraries of the kingdom with their treasures. Then there is