Wintering in the Riviera: With Notes of Travel in Italy and France, and Practical Hints to Travellers
John Stuart Mill · en
As soon as possible, as we were only to stay one night, we went out
for a drive of some hours, and were taken first to the two leaning
towers, which stand together. These are long, lanky, and square, dark
with age and long exposure to the weather, often, I suspect, of a
humid character. One of them—the _Torre Asinelli_—said by Bædeker to
be 272, and in other authorities 320 feet high, was originally 476
feet, or 40 feet higher than the top of the cross of St. Peter’s. It
was shortened in 1416 after an earthquake. It now lies 3 ft. 5 in.
off the perpendicular. The other, that of Garisenda, is, according to
Bædeker, 138 feet high, and upwards of 8 feet out of the perpendicular,
and by no means assuring to look at. They are neither of them imposing
architecturally, although noted features viewed from outside the
city. From this point we went to the Etruscan Museum, in which a
variety of antiquities are exhibited, and, among other things, several
skeletons of an old date discovered in neighbouring excavations. Under
the same roof there is also a large library, comprising upwards of
100,000 volumes. I believe the museum and library are connected with
the University, 760 years old. Close by is the large church of San
Petronio, 384 feet long by 154 feet wide, intended to have been a
vast deal larger. Here Charles v. was crowned emperor in 1530. There
are various other large churches interesting to see, but, after those
in Rome and Florence, they have, with all their grandeur, rather a
provincial look. We then drove beyond the walls to the Villa Reale, one
of the royal palaces. It stands upon a height, and commands admirable
views of the town, out of which rise a good many towers, domes, and
spires, relieving its otherwise spiritless level. One also sees far
into the surrounding country, which, for the most part, is very flat.
The villa contains some long corridors, one of them 500 feet long,
adorned by statues. The church of the monastery is entered from the
galleries. From this we drove (still outside the walls) to the Campo
Santo, which is much larger, is more ramified, and is older than that
at Genoa, but it is by no means equal to it either in arrangement or
in monuments. Some of the monuments are good, but many are paltry. On
our way back to town we entered the churches of San Domenico and San
Pietro, both large, and containing greater objects of interest than San
Petronio.
Cab fares in Bologna are moderate. I paid the cabman half a franc more
than his fare, and, wonderful to say, he thanked me. It was the first
and only time in Italy. The usual course is to take all that is offered
and beg for more. Do the cabmen of Bologna graduate at the University?
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