This town belongs to the archduke aforenamed. Here in our lodging we found once more the usages with which we were familiar: we found, indeed, not merely German neatness in rooms and furniture and glass windows, but German stoves as well, which commended themselves to M. de Montaigne much more than open chimneys.[116] As to food, we had here no crayfish, which thing M. de Montaigne found very strange, seeing that, ever since we left Plommieres, a distance of two hundred leagues, this dish had been put before us at every meal. Here and in all this mountainous country they commonly eat snails larger and fatter than those of France, but not so well flavoured; also truffles which they peel and serve sliced with oil and vinegar, a passably good dish. The truffles we ate at Trante had been kept for a year. Here at Rovere, greatly to the gratification of M. de Montaigne, we were plentifully supplied with oranges and citrons and olives. The bed curtains are cut short and made either of cloth or serge. M. de Montaigne also regretted the lack of those beds which they use as coverings in Germany; made not like our beds, but of the finest down enclosed in an envelope of well-bleached fustian. The beds used for lying upon in Germany are not of this character, and could not be used as coverlets with comfort. I verily believe that, if he had been alone with his own following, M. de Montaigne would rather have gone to Cracow or to Greece by land than have turned towards Italy. He took great pleasure in his visits to strange countries, finding therein forgetfulness of his age and of his ill-health, but he could never win over the rest of the company to this view, each one of them being anxious to have done with travel and to return. He was ever wont to say that, after an uneasy night, he would rise eager and lively when he remembered he was about to sally forth to see some fresh town or district. Never did I see him less subject to fatigue or less querulous of his ailments; so full of spirit both on the road and at his lodgings; so appreciative of everything he saw, and eager for conversation with strangers; indeed I believe that this habit drew off his thoughts from his infirmities. When the others complained to him of his practice of leading the party over indirect and winding roads, often returning to the spot whence they had set out (which he would often do when he heard report of something worth seeing, or when he saw reason for varying his plan of travel), he would reply that, for his own part, he never set forth for any place other than that in which he might at present find himself; and that it was impossible he should miss or go aside from his route, because this route always lay where places unfamiliar to him were to be seen; and that, provided he did not fare the same road twice over, or see one place a second time, he never considered that he had failed one jot in his original purpose. As to Rome, which other people might easily see, he was less