§388. The Inns.--There were numerous lodging houses and restaurants in all the cities and towns of Italy, but all of the meanest character. Respectable travelers avoided them scrupulously, either possessing stopping places of their own (_dēversōria_) on roads that they used frequently, or claiming entertainment from friends (§303) and _hospitēs_ (§184), whom they would be sure to have everywhere. Nothing but accident, stress of weather, or unusual haste could drive them to places of public entertainment (_tabernae dēversōriae_, _caupōnae_). The guests of such places were, therefore, of the lowest class, and innkeepers (_caupōnēs_) and inns bore the most unsavory reputations. Food and beds were furnished the travelers, and their cattle were accommodated under the same roof and in unpleasant proximity. The plan of an inn at Pompeii (Fig. 185) may be taken as a fair sample of all such houses. The entrance (_a_) is broad enough to admit wagons into the wagon-room (_f_), behind which is the stable (_k_). In one corner is a watering-trough (_l_), in another a _latrīna_ (_i_). On either side of the entrance is a wineroom (_b_, _d_), with the room of the proprietor (_c_) opening off one of them. The small rooms (_e_, _g_, _h_) are bedrooms, and others in the second story over the wagon-room were reached by the back stairway. The front stairway has an entrance of its own from the street and the rooms reached by it had probably no connection with the inn. Behind this stairway on the lower floor was a fireplace (_m_) with a water heater. An idea of the moderate prices charged in such places may be had from a bill which has come down to us in an inscription preserved in the museum at Naples: a pint of wine with bread, one cent; other food, two cents; hay for a mule, two cents. The corners of streets were the favorite sites for inns, and they had signs (the elephant, the eagle, etc.) like those of much later times.