Wednesday, August 20, 2008

from Travels During the Years 1787, 1788, & 1789: Undertaken More Particularly ... by Arthur Young, 1794


11th. Having agreed with a vetturino to take me to Turin, and he not  being able to procure another passenger, I went alone to Firenzola. It is  fine sunshine weather, decisively warmer than ever felt in England at  this season: a sharp frost, without affecting the extremities as with us,  where cold fingers and toes may be classed among the nuisances of our  climate. I walked most of the way. The face of the country is the same as  before, but vines decrease after Borgo St. Donnino. An inequality in the  surface of the country begins also to appear, and everywhere a scatter-  ing of oak-timber, which is a new feature.—20 miles. 
12th. Early in the morning to Piacenza, that I might have time to  view that city, which, however, contains little worthy of attention to any  but those who study painting as connoisseurs. The country changed a  good deal to-day. It is like the flat rich parts of Essex and Suffolk.  Houses are thinner, and the general face inferior. The inequalities which  began yesterday increase. —The two equestrian statues of Alexandre  and Rannutio Farnes e are finely expressive of life, the motion of the  horses, particularly that of Alexander’s, is admirable; and the whole  performance spirited and alive. They are by John of Bologna, or Moca  his eleve. Sleep at Castel St. Giovanne.—26 miles.
...
at Piacenza, I saw men, whose only business was to bring a small bag of apples, about a peck; one man brought a turkey, and not a fine one. What a waste of time and labour for a stout fellow to be thus employed.

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