I left this place on the morning of Monday, the 23rd, and began the ascent of the Apennines from the moment I left the inn. Though the mountains are high, the road is safe and easy. We were going up and down hill all day, the country being alpine in character and barren, and, after riding thirty miles, we slept that evening at Fornovo, in the dominions of the Conte di S. Secondo. I was glad, indeed, to get out of the hands of the thieves who dwell in the mountains, who use the most barbarous extortion imaginable towards travellers in the charges they make for food and stabling.[117] At table here they put before us various kinds of excellent mustard sauces, one of them being made of quince apples. In this region the price of horse hire is exorbitant, the business being in the hands of men who have no fixed charge and cheat all strangers who may fall into their hands. Travellers, as a rule, pay two giuli a horse for each post, but here they asked me to pay three or four or five, wherefore every horse I hired cost me more than a crown per diem; and again, they would often reckon one post as two. This place, Fornovo, was two posts distant from Parma; and, in going from Parma to Piacenza, I had to traverse the same road as if I went from Fornovo to Piacenza, save that by going to Parma I should lengthen my journey by two posts. I determined not to go to Parma, being anxious not to interrupt my plans.[118] Fornovo is a small village of six or seven cottages, situated on a plain and near a river called the Taro, along which we went a short distance on Tuesday morning on our way to Borgo San Doni,[119] twelve miles distant. This is a small town which the Duke of Parma is now enclosing with a fine wall well set with bastions. Here at table they gave us _mostarda_[120] made with honey, and in it oranges cut in strips like quince marmalade, and half-cooked. Cremona is about as far as Piacenza from this place; and, leaving it on our right, we travelled over a fine level road running through a very fertile country, in which there was not a hillock to be seen as far as the eye can reach. We changed horses at every post, and for two posts I made them go at full gallop, so as to test the strength of my loins. I felt no ill effects or weariness therefrom. Close to Piacenza are two large columns, one on each side of the road at a distance of about forty paces apart. On the bases is written in Latin a prohibition to plant trees or vines, or to raise any building between them. I know not whether this notice aims merely at the preservation of the width of the road or to keep the view uninterrupted, as it is now, from the site of those columns to the town, a distance of about half a mile. At the end of twenty miles we reached Piacenza, where we purposed to sleep.