other wine brought from Pescia or Lucca. I was the first to arrive at the baths except two gentlemen of Bologna, who came with no large following; so I had free choice of quarters; and, from what these gentlemen said, I judged I made a much better bargain than would have been possible in the full season when the crowd was wont to be great. Here the season does not begin till June and ends in September.[44] In October every one goes away. People often meet for conversation as the sole amusement. This indeed was the case in the early part of the season, according to our experience. It is a most unusual thing for visitors who have already passed a month at the baths to return thereto, or to visit them at all in October. One of the lodging-houses, called the “Palace,” is vastly more luxurious than the others; it is certainly very fine, and belongs to the Signori Buonvisi. There is a beautiful fountain playing in the hall and divers other conveniences. They offered to give me in it an apartment of four rooms or the whole house if I wanted it. The price for the four furnished rooms for fifteen days was twenty crowns of the country, but I was not inclined to give more than a crown per diem considering the season of the year. My landlord is not bound by his bargain beyond the month of May, and if I stay longer I must make a fresh one. The water here is used for drinking and for bathing also. There is a covered bath, which is vaulted, somewhat dark, and half the width of my hall at Montaigne. They use a certain appliance called a _Doccia_,[45] which is composed of a number of tubes, through which hot water is turned on to various parts of the body and notably the head. These streams, by striking continually on one particular part, stimulate warmth in it, and then the water runs away by a wooden trough like that used by washerwomen. There is another bath, vaulted and just as dark, used by women, all the water being brought from the fountain where the patients drink, which is somewhat awkwardly situated in a corner, as to reach it, it is necessary to descend several steps.