Richard Lassels

“ Whiles the other parts of Italy are sweating out whole Forests of Olive-trees, whole Woods of Lemmons, and Oranges, whole Fields of Rice, Turky Wheat, and Muskmillions; and where those Bare Hills, which seem to be shaven by the Sun, and cursed by Nature for their Barrenness, are oftentimes great with child of pretious Marbles, the ornaments of Churches and Palaces, and the Revenues of Princes: witness the Prince of Massa, whose best Revenues are his Marble Quarries: Nature here thinking it a far more noble thing to feed Princes, than to feed sheep. ”

“ If any man being a foot in the street, meet a great man, either in coach, or a foot, he must not salute him in going on his way, as we do in England and France, without stopping; but he must stand still whiles the other passeth, and bend respectfully to him as he goes by, and then continue his march. In fine, of all the Nations I have seen, I know none that lives, clothes, eates, drinks, and speakes so much with reason, as the Italians do. ”

“ And passing through a melancholy Country by Altare and other little Towns for the space of three days, we came at last to Savona, Savona.Savona (anciently called Sabatia, or Sabatium) is the second Town, or eldest daughter of Genua; and like a good daughter indeed she stands alwayes in her mothers presence, yet keeps her distance: it being within sight of Genua, yet five and twenty miles off. It stands upon the Mediterranean Sea, or, as they call it here, upon the Riviera di Genoa. ”

“ Those of the Strada Nova are the best, and the best of those is that of the Prince d'Oria: its built upon white round Marble pillars, which support its Galleries, and those Galleries let you into noble Rooms adorned with all the Abellimenti of Italian Pallaces. The other Pallaces too in this Street deserve particular mention in this my description of Genoa, and may take it ill I say nothing of them; but they must excuse my brevity, and impute the fault partly to themselves; seeing admirable things are liable to this inconvenience, that they are also inexpressable. ”

“ Genua.Genua is one of the chief Towns that stand upon the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the best in Italy. The common Italian Proverb, calls it, Genua la Superba: and if ever I saw a Town with its Holy-day clothes alwayes on, it was Genua. It stands upon the side of a hill, and rising by degrees, appears to those that look upon it from the Sea, like an Amphitheater. ”

“ So that the Prince and People, that is, the Body Politick of this state, seemed to me like the Body natural in man, where the soul and the body being friends together, the Soul directs the body, and the Body defends the Soul. ”

“ But, for want of ground and earth, they make heaven pay for it; taking it out in the height of their houses, what they want in breadth or length. So that Genua looked in my eye like a proud young Lady in a straight-body'd flower'd Gown, which makes her look tall indeed and fine, but hinders her from being at her ease, and taking breath freely. ”

“ As for the people here, they are all Catholicks, sincere honest men, of stout courage, yet of innocent lives, much snow quenching their lust, and high mountains staving off from them all luxe and Vanity, the harbingers of Vice. ”

“ Travelling takes off, in some sort, that aboriginal curse, which was laid upon mankind even almost at the beginning of the World; I mean, the confusion of Tongues: which is such a curse indeed, that it makes men, who are of one kind, and made to be sociable, so strangely to fly one an other, that, as great S. Austin saith, A man had rather be with his dog, than with a man whose language he understands not. ”

“ They have taught them in their Books, they practise them in their actions, and they have spred them abroad over all Europe, which owes its Civility unto the Italians, as well as its Religion. They never affront strangers in what Habit soever they appear; and if the strangeness of the Habit draw the Italians eye to it, yet he will never draw in his mouth to laugh at it. As for theirs Apparel or Drefs, it's commonly Black and Modest. They value no bravery but that of Coach and Horses and Staffiers; and they sacrifice a world of little satisfactions to that main one of being able to keep a Coach. ”

“ In fine, both men and women here are great and massive, and not easily to be blown away: so that I may justly say of this people, as Cardinal Bentivoglio said of the Swissers, that they are good for the Alpes, and the Alpes for them. One thing I observed particularly in this windy Country, which is, that they have many natural fools here, which makes me think it no vulgar errour, which is commonly said, that the climats that are most agitated with winds produce more fools, then other Climats do. ”

“ Their Points de Venice, Ribbans and Gold Lace, are all turned into Horses and Liveries; and that Money which we spend in Treats and Taverns, they spend in Coach and Furniture. They never whisper privately with one another in company, nor speak to one another aloud in an unknown tongue when they are in conversation with others, thinking this to be no other then a lowd whispering. ”

“ Hence none of the meanest things to be seen in Italy, are the Fondaries or Stilling Houses of the Great Duke of Florence, the Speciary or Apothecaries Shops of the Dominicans of S. Marco, and of the Augustins of S. Spirito in Florence; of the Roman Colledge, and of the Minimes of Trinita di Monte in Rome: where even death it self would find a cure in nature, if it were not a curse from the author of nature. In fine, it excells in all kind of provisions, either for dyet or sport ”

“ The common course is, to go first into France, and then into Italy, and so home by Germany, Holland, and Flanders, as I did once: but my opinion is, that its better for a young man to go first into Italy, and returning by Germany, Holland and Flanders, come into France, to give himself there the last hand in breeding. ”

“ In fine, I would have my young traveller make the same prayer of God, as Apollonius Thyanæus made to the Sun, at his going out to travel, that is, that he would be so favorable to him as to shew him all the Bravest and Best Men in the World. ”

“ This Lake is absolutely the fairest I have seen: its fairer then either the Lake Major, the Lake of Como, the Lake of Zuric, the Lake of Walenstat, the Lake of Isee, the Lake of Murat, or the Lake of Garda, In some places this Lake of Geneva is eight miles broad, and well nigh fifty miles long. I have read of a stranger, who travelling that way alone in Winter, when the Lake was all frozen over and covered with Snow, took the Lake for a large plain, and rid upon it eight, or ten miles to the Town. ”

“ Nay, this diversity of Language, makes the wisest man passe for a Fool in a strange Country, and the best man, for an excommunicated person, whose conversation all men avoid. Now, traveling takes off this curse, and this moral excommunication; by making us learn many languages, and converse freely with people of other Countryes.
5. Travelling makes us acquainted with a world of our kindred we never saw before. For, seeing we are all, come from one man at first, and consequently all a kin to one another ”

“ Others I have known who having their mistresses in the Country, perswaded their young pupils, men of great birth, that it was fine living in a Country house, that is fine carrying a gun upon their necks and walking a foot. Others have been observed to sell their pupils to Masters of exercises, and to have made them believe, that the worst Academies were the best, because they were the best to the cunning Governour, who had ten pound a man for every one he could draw thither: Others I have known who would have married their Pupils in France, without their Parents knowledge ”

“ In the streets men and women of condition, seldome or never go together in the same Coach, except they be strangers, that is, of an other Town, or Country: nay husbands and wives are seldome seen together in the same Coach, because all men do not know them to be so. In the streets, when two persons of great quality meet, as two Embassadours, or two Cardinals, they both stop their coaches, and compliment one another civilly, and then retire; but still he that is inferiour must let the others coach move first. ”

“ But to return again to our Carps of Fountainbelleau, Its an ordinary divertisement here, to throw an halfpenny loaf into the moat among the Carps, and to see how they will mumble and jumble it to and fro; how others will puff and snuff, and take it ill not to have part of it, and how in fine, they will plainly fall to blows, and fight for it. You would wonder, how such hot passions should be found in cold water: but every thing that lives, will fight for that which makes it live ”

“ That which is visible in their magnificent Pallaces, Churches, Monasteries, Gardens, Fountaines, and rich furnished Roomes, speakes that to be great which is in their Coffers: and that which the King of Spain draws visibly from Naples every year, shews what the other parts of Italy could do for a need, if they were put to it by necessity, Nay, lam of opinion, that the very Sacristy of Loreto, the Gallery of the Duke of Florence, and the Treasury of Venice, would upon an emergent occasion of a Gothick, or Turkish invasion, be able to maintain an army for five years space ”

“ In fine, it makes a Nobleman fit for the noblest Employment, that is, to be Ambassador abroad for his King in forain Countryes, and carry about with him his Kings person, which he represents, and his Kings word, which he engageth.
7. Travelling brings a man a world of particular profits. It contents the minde with the rare discourses we hear from learned men, as the Queen of Saba was ravished at the wisdom of Salomon. It makes a wiseman much the wiser by making him see the good and the bad in others. ”

“ Traveling enables a man much for his Countryes service. It makes the merchant rich, by shewing him what abounds, and wantes, in other countryes; that so he may know what to import, what to export. It makes the mechanick come loaden home with a world of experimental knowledge for the improving of his trade. It makes the field officer, a knowing Leader of an Army, by teaching him where an Army in forrain Countryes, can march securely, pass Rivers easily, incamp safely, avoid Ambuscadoes and narrow passages discreetly, and retreat orderly. ”

“ Indeed the King of Spain Philip the II above a hundred years ago, borrowed of this Republick the sum of eleven Millions, and keeps them still in his hands, to keep this Republick in awe; yet paying the interest duly unto them. So that the Common purse here is nothing so rich as that of Venice, though the particular men here are farr richer then those of Venice. They have great Trading both with France and Spain, and are great Banquiers, making the Change in all the Bancks of Europe go as they please. ”

“ The Great Council here, which is the Foundation of the Government, consists of Four hundred men chosen indifferently out of all the Families of the Town. These deliberate with the Signoria of all things that belong to War or Peace. Antiently, as I hinted before, Genoa was under the French Domination, till Andrea d'Oria set it free. Histories write of it that Berengarius the Third, and the Sarazens so ruined Genua, that they left it swimming in its own blood: Which ruin was forewarned by a prodigie of a fountain of blood which ran in the very streets of Genua. ”