The journal of Montaigne's travels in Italy by way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581, Volume 3 (of 3)Montaigne, Michel de
General
The journal of Montaigne's travels in Italy by way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581, Volume 3 (of 3)
Montaigne, Michel de
Germany -- Description and travel; Italy -- Description and travel; Switzerland -- Description and travel
All the country round this place is hilly. In front of the bath and
along the river the ground is level for some three or four hundred
feet, and above this the bath-house is built upon the side of a hill
of moderate height, at somewhat the same elevation as the spring at
Banieres, where the patients drink the water close to the town. The
bath itself stands on a level site and includes thirty or forty houses,
excellently appointed for the purpose, with beautiful rooms, which are
all private and entirely at the disposition of the hirer, and with an
inner cabinet. Each apartment has two doors, one for communication with
other chambers, and the other for separate use. I inspected almost
every house before I made my bargain, and fixed ultimately on the one
which commanded the fairest view, that is, with regard to the chamber I
selected. From this I could look over the whole of the little valley,
the course of the Lima,[43] and the mountains, which enclose the valley
aforesaid, all beautifully cultivated and green to the summit, thick
set with chestnuts and olives, and in some places with vines, which
they plant all round the mountains, letting the circles rise one above
the other in terraces. The outside edge of each terrace is varied
somewhat and is planted with vines, while the lower portion of the
same is under corn. In my chamber I could hear all night long the soft
ripple of the river below.
Near to the houses a space is set apart for promenade, open on one
side, and built terrace fashion, with a trellis constructed at the
public cost. From here may be discerned, lying two hundred feet below
on the bank of the stream, a pretty little village, where also
baths may be had when the crowd of visitors is great. Most of the
houses therein are new, a fine road leads to it, and it possesses
a handsome public place. Nearly all the inhabitants congregate in
this village during the winter, and keep shop there, notably the
apothecaries, to which calling they almost all belong. My host was a
Captain Paulini, who was also an apothecary, and he agreed to let me
have a sitting-room, three bed-chambers, a kitchen, and a penthouse
for the servants; and in addition to provide eight beds, two of them
with hangings, salt, clean napkins every day, and a clean tablecloth
every third day, all cooking utensils and candlesticks, for eleven
crowns--which sum is a few soldi more than ten demipistoles--for
fifteen days. All earthen pots, dishes, and plates, as well as glasses
and knives, we had to buy. We were able to get as much meat as we
wanted, but were usually obliged to content ourselves with veal or
goats flesh. At all the lodging-houses they offer to provide you with
what you may require; and I imagine that by this method it would cost
about twenty soldi a head per diem. Any one wishing to adopt this
system would find in every house some man or woman capable of acting as
cook. The wine is mostly bad, but visitors who may be so minded may get
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