6th December. Left Lodi soon after four in the dark of the morning : arriving about ten at the lordly Po, we found that its bridge of boats, leading to Placentia, had been swept away by the recent floods ; and were detained in a muddy field for three hours, before we could obtain passage by a boat ; which, though not large in dimensions, carried over in the one trip, our great vettura, several drays, a number of cattle, and the company composing the suite of all these.
The Po in most majestic breadth, and a dense and very bold sheet of water ; its bank, as deep as the river allows it to be viewed, is an earth as fine as powder, and fat almost as that of a church-yard. Nearly at the point at which we landed, half a mile above Placentia the Trebia, vast in its supplies of torrent, unites with the Po. We passed through Placentia without making any stop : its look is forlorn ; and it exhibits no traces of having been at any time magnificent.
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