x.] ALPINE TRAVELS, 1844. 309 



putting me into good condition. We are at this moment 

 passing the hills of Calabria, which are covered with snow, 

 down even among the woods a bad prospect for Etna/ 



To the Same. 



' GlARDINI, NEAR TAORMINA, April 2Qtk. 



' I am so far safely on my journey to Catania, having 

 spent more time than 1 wished at Messina, especially as 

 I may have to return and wait there again ; but I could 

 meet with no conveyance until this morning, and I have 

 at all events happily arranged my main point, of seeing 

 :mina well. I travelled with a chance party of 

 Sicilians, for strangers are scarce, and found the country 

 rather monotonous, with now and then a peep of Etna 

 but then there was such a fine fresh breeze off the sea ! 

 The vegetation in this neighbourhood is far richer and 

 more striking than near Messina, while the abundance 

 y where of the Indian fig (cactus) is astounding, and 

 forms one main feature of the landscape. At Taormina 

 we found the loveliest wild flowers already in bloom ; 

 wild oleanders, and even palm-trees, growing in the 

 open fields. . . . 



1 The ruined Graeco-Roman theatre at Taormina is a 

 fine thing in itself, but it would be little worth men- 

 tioning were it not for its magnificent situation on 

 a promontory of rock, overhanging a very picturesque 

 town, with other villages around perched on the wildest 

 crags, a sea-shore broken into curved bays on one hand, 

 and the whole " massif" of Etna rising in front. I 

 T saw a mountain whose height deceived me nearly 

 so much : it rises more gradually than you can imagine, 

 anl in some respects Vesuvius might be called a more 



objoct. . . . On this side there is much em 

 but, as I am told, far less on the south side, from \\ hi< h 

 is.-ent is made; so I still hope. . . .' 



flu 1 - Same. 



\NA, VAI. M.I. Hi i:, A/'i-if "><>'/>. 

 :ui n d from a nm-t delightful and 

 es>ful . n to the Val del Hue. Although the 



