The Exemplary Novels of CervantesCervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
General
The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
Spanish fiction -- Translations into English
The host having passed in review all these and other wines, of many
various qualities, offered besides to place before his guests, without
having any recourse to magic, and not as one marks down places on a
map, but in all their vivid reality, Madriga, Coca, Alacjos, and the
imperial, rather than royal city--that favourite abode of the god of
smiles--Ciudad Real. He furthermore offered Esquibias, Alanis, Cazalla,
Guadalcanal, and Membrilla, without forgetting the wines of Ribadavia or
of Descargamaria. At a word, the host offered and even gave them more
wines than Bacchus himself could have stored in all his cellars.
Nor was the good Thomas unmindful of the admiration due to the radiant
locks of the Genoese maidens, renowned for those fair tresses, while he
likewise appreciated the obliging and cheerful disposition of the male
inhabitants, and was never weary of expatiating on the beauty of the
city itself, which, as you look at it from the sea, appears to hold the
houses enchased amidst the rocks, as diamonds are set in gold.
The day after their arrival, such of the companies as were destined for
Piedmont were disembarked; Rodaja, however, had no wish to proceed
thither, but determined to go from Genoa by land to Rome and Naples, and
return by the way of Our Lady of Loretto to the great and magnificent
Venice, and thence to Milan and Piedmont, where it was agreed that he
should rejoin Don Diego, if the latter had not previously been compelled
to set off for Flanders, as was expected.
Two days after these arrangements were made, Rodaja took leave of the
captain, and in five days from that time he reached Florence, having
first seen Lucca, a city which is small but very well built, and one
where Spaniards are more kindly received and better treated than in any
other part of Italy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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