236 Travels in Italy 



instance, as good as in France ; yet I am not at the best here, — . 

 for I understand the alberghi reali and ifnperiali are the first; 

 and I was not at the best at Turin. But village ones between the 

 great towns are bad enough. In France, one is rarely waited 

 on at inns by men ; in Italy hitherto never by women ; I like the 

 French custom best. Ferret among the booksellers and find 

 more tracts, in Italian, upon agriculture than I expected. At 

 night to the opera ; the pit is so commodious and agreeable that 

 it is a good lounge ; the sofas and chairs are numbered ; they 

 give you a ticket which marks your seat; but the performers 

 are poor. It was the Impresario in Augusta, by that beautiful 

 composer, Cimarosa; there is a quintetto in it, than which 

 nothing could be more pleasing, or repeated with more applause. 



6th. Signore Amoretti, whose attentions and assiduity are 

 such as I shall not soon forget, this morning introduced me to 

 Signore Beecken, a counsellor in the court of his imperial majesty; 

 and then we went together into the country, six or seven miles, 

 to a farm in the road to Pavia, belonging to the Marquis Visconti, 

 to see the method of making the Lodesan cheese; attended 

 the whole operation, which is so totally different from what we 

 use in England, that skill in making may have a great effect in 

 rendering this product of Lombardy so superior to all others. 

 The cheese, and the inquiries, took up the whole day; so that 

 it was five in the evening before we got back to Milan, where 

 they dined with me at the pozzo, an itinerant band of music 

 giving a serenade under the windows to the illustrissimi, 

 excellentissimi, nobili Signori Inglesi. This day has passed after 

 my own heart, a long morning, active, and then a dinner, with- 

 out one word of conversation but on agriculture. Signore 

 Beecken is a sensible well-informed German, who understands 

 the importance of the plough; and Abbate Amoretti's conversa- 

 tion is that of a man who adds the powers of instruction to the 

 graces that enliven company. 



Ith. Attended the Marquis de Visconti and Signore Amoretti 

 to Mozzata, the country seat of the Count de Castiglione, about 

 sixteen miles north of Milan. Stop very near the city to view 

 the Chartreuse, which, since the emperor seized the revenues 

 and turned the monks out, has been converted into a powder 

 ma.gazine. View, in passing, the fine church of Ro, and the 

 Marquis of Lita's villa at Leinate, in which the gardens are con- 

 spicuous. The Italian taste was the undoubted origin of what 

 we see in France; but decoration is carried much higher. 

 Marble basins, with fine statues, too good for the situation: 



