It is a handsome, though not a large city, surrounded with earthen ramparts, and defended by a castle, but is far from being a strong place. The population was estimated in 1823, at 28,000. The Piacenzan nobility are comparatively wealthy as well as numerous. Unenlivened, however, by the residence of any court, being now but the secondary town of a secondary State, the city has a very dull appearence. 'To judge by its silent, empty streets,' says Lady Morgan, 'and its dismantled edifices, it seemed to have been lately swept by pestilence, or depopulated by famine. This desolate appearance is partly owing to the economy of the palaces. The lower windows, without glass, are filled with massive iron bars, and look like prisons. The shutters of the windows of the second floors are ususally closed; and the third story is too high to catch attention. This is the general aspect of the great houses, as the South is approached, particularly in the smaller cities'.
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