We rose with day-break, and finding the wind still adverse, after settling with the captain, went on shore, and taking places in the voiture to Genoa, determined no longer to be the sport of the winds. There were but two vacancies in the coach, and finding our anxiety to proceed with it, the conducteur would fain have taken advantage of it, but the lady managed the affair well, for offering what she knew to be the usual sum, viz. five francs for each of us; on their refusal to accept it, under the plea that there was no other coach that day, we walked off, and pretended to be indifferent about it: this manœuvre brought them to, and before we had proceeded the length of a street, the conducteur came running after us, to say that he was willing to take us; after this, however, we had some trouble to get our luggage to the carriage, and were obliged to walk part of the way out of town, in doing which we were followed by the most importunate host of beggars I had ever witnessed in my life; my companion was so confused that she could with difficulty count out her money to pay the porters, &c. At length our supplicants dropped off, one by one, until we literally out-walked them all. I ought not to take leave of Savona, without mentioning, that at this point the maritime Alps terminate, and the Apennines commence. About four o’clock, we passed through a village, stated to be the birth-place of Columbus: this information excited much interest in my mind: I was led to reflect upon the manner in which his extraordinary genius had surmounted the various obstacles opposed to his discovery of a new world, and to regret the supineness of my own country, which might otherwise have had the honour of participating in so important an event; but the enlivening conversation of our party, would not admit of my indulging freely in such speculations, and ere long we made our entry through the gates of Genoa. CHAP. XIII. GENOA.—VOYAGE TO LEGHORN, AND JOURNEY TO FLORENCE. The narrowness of the streets prevented our coach from setting me down at the hotel to which I had been recommended; this is not, however, to be regarded as any evidence of its want of respectability, for the same objection lies against almost every other hotel in Genoa: for there are but three streets in the whole city which will admit of carriages passing each other, and which are, the Strada balba, the Strada nuova, and the Strada novissima, consisting entirely of ranges of palaces. I was disappointed in not finding accommodation at the hotel in question, and therefore, on the solicitations of a man who had followed me all the way from the coach, went to the Piccolo Paregé, a large house near the port, with a tower on the top of it, from whence there is a fine view of the harbour and shipping. After enjoying the luxury of what was formerly directed by some of the ancients as a religious ceremony, ablution, I retired to a comfortable bed, for the first time since I left Nice.