The road was good and level, and though it was flooded by the continuous downpour, it was not muddy, the soil being sandy. At the end of eighteen miles we dined at Buffalora, and then crossed the river Naviglio, a narrow stream, but deep enough to allow the passage of large barges to Milan. Shortly afterwards we crossed the Ticino by boat, and twelve miles farther on reached Novara in time for bed. This is a small town standing on a level plain in the midst of woods and vineyards and fertile fields. We left it next morning, and after going ten miles we halted a little to feed our cattle at Vercelli, a town under the Duke of Savoy, situated on level ground beside the Zeza,[128] which we crossed in a boat. The aforesaid duke, by employing a vast number of men, has built a fort in a very short space of time--a fine strong place, as far as I could judge from seeing only the outside--and has thereby raised the suspicion of his Spanish neighbours. From this place we went through S. German and S. Giaco, small villages, and, travelling all the way over a lovely plain, which is especially fertile in walnuts--for here they have no olives but use only walnut oil--we came, after a journey of twenty miles, to Livorno, a small town with a good many houses, and there stayed the night. We started early on Monday morning, and travelling over a level road reached Chivas, ten miles distant, in time for dinner, and then onward for ten miles more, crossing on the journey a great number of streams by boat or by a ford, to Turin, whither we might easily have come in time for dinner. This is a small city with much water round about it. It is not very well built or agreeable, though, to be sure, rills of water run through all the streets to keep them free from dirt. I here hired horses at five crowns and a half each to take me as far as Lyons in six days, the cost of the horses on the road to be included in this charge. They speak French here usually, and were very friendly towards us. The common language here has little else of Italian about it except the pronunciation, most of the words used being French. We left Turin on Tuesday, the last day of October, and dined at S. Ambrogio, two posts farther on; and, after going the same distance over a narrow level space between the mountains, we reached Susa, where we slept. Susa is a large, populous town. I was here taken with a violent pain in the right knee, a pain which I had felt for several days, and which went on from bad to worse. The inns are better than in other parts of Italy; good wine, bad bread, plenty to eat, such is the rule everywhere in Savoy. After hearing mass on All Saints’ Day, I travelled one post, as far as Novalese, where I hired eight _marroni_[129] to carry me in a litter up to the top of Mont Senis and down on the other side. * * * * *