I was told that the journey from Loreto to Naples, one I was fain to take, might be made along the sea-coast in eight easy days’ travel. I should have to go by Pescara to Chieti, whence a carrier set out for Naples every Sunday. I offered money to several of the priests, but nearly all refused to accept it, and those who took it made all sorts of demur and difficulty. In Loreto they keep their grain in vaults under the streets. On the 25th of April I presented my _ex voto_. Our journey of four days and a half from Rome to Loreto cost six crowns of fifty soldi each, for the horses, for the men who let them to us and fed them, and for ourselves. This is a bad sort of bargain to make, seeing that they always hurry you along for the sake of saving their own outlay, and treat you in very niggardly fashion. On the 26th I went to see the Port, three miles distant, which I found to be a very fine one, and a fort overlooking it which belongs to the town of Recanati. Don Luca Giovanni, the _Beneficiale_, and Giovanni Gregorio da Cailli, _Custode della Sagrestia_, gave me their names when I was leaving, so that, in case I should need their services for myself or for others, I might write to them; moreover, I received many other courteous attentions from the aforenamed. The former is in chief authority over the small shrine, and refused all the gifts I offered him. I shall always feel under obligation to them for their courtesies of word and deed. END OF VOL. II. Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. Edinburgh & London FOOTNOTES: [1] Montaigne evidently refers to the Roman theatre situated between the Castello San Pietro and the river. Its destruction began early, as it is described as ruined in a decree of King Berengarius dated 895. Much of it remained up to the sixteenth century. [2] Coryat, who saw it in 1608, describes it as greatly ruined and put to base uses. Much of the marble had been taken away to other buildings; but the damage was being repaired by the Veronese noblemen, who had already spent sixty-six thousand crowns over the restoration. To build it in England, he estimates, would cost two million pounds. [3] Modern measurements are 502 feet by 401, and 98 feet high. [4] Madonna di Campagna, one of the finest works of Sammicheli. [5] Palladio had died a short time before Montaigne’s visit, i.e. August 19, 1580. Vicenza was at this time at the height of its beauty, all the noteworthy buildings, except the Teatro Olimpico, having been completed. [6] The fairs of Vicenza were amongst the largest in Italy, and were instituted in the thirteenth century. During their continuance all the shops in the city had to be closed. Fairs were held up to the middle of the present century.