242 Travels in Italy 



is more pleasing and more commodious; it is more circular. 

 There are apartments contiguous for the first singers and dancers^ 

 communicating with a noble inn^ the albergo del teatro. — 15 miles 



13/A. This morning Signore Bignami had kindly appointet 

 for examining one of the principal dairies in the country, notel 

 for making good cheese; fortunately the farmer proved con- 

 municative and liberal, — conducted us to the scene of acticn 

 very readily, and directed his dairyman to answer my inquiries. 

 We attended the making of a cheese, and then walked over tie 

 farm: the farmers seem much at their ease. Take leave of my 

 very friendly conductors, and reach Crema, in the Venetian 

 state. Here also a new-built opera-house, and the Mara from 

 London first singer; they did not appear to relish too much 

 her altitudes of divisions, — yet she was considerably applauded. 

 Great powers in singing, when much exerted in difficult passages, 

 surprise much more than they please. The airs that touch the 

 heart, and what the poet calls lengthened sweetness long draivn 

 out^ that breathe a continuity of melody, flowing, not broken 

 notes. The number of theatres in this part of Italy is astonish- 

 ing: two great ones at Milan ; in twenty miles, another, at Lodi; 

 in fifteen, one way, Codogno; in ten, another, Crema; in ten, 

 another, Plaisance,^ etc. — yet trade and manufacture are very 

 inconsiderable. — 16 miles. 



14/A. To Lodi, through ten miles more of the same country; 

 bad road through the state of Venice ; but the moment you enter 

 the Milanese you find an excellent one. Return to Milan. — • 

 30 miles. 



i^th. The country continues flat, much of it watered, but 

 without such exertions as to Lodi ; all a crowded scene of willows. 

 Vaprio, where we stopped, is a poor place, with a dirty, miserable, 

 wretched inn : here I am in a chamber that sinks my spirits as 

 I sit and look around me; my pen, ink, and tablets are useless 

 before me; I want them for two or three subjects that have 

 passed across my mind in the journey, but I can do nothing: to 

 arrange ten words with propriety is an insurmountable effort. 

 I never in my life wrote three lines to please myself when the 

 circumstances around were untoward or disagreeable; a clean, 

 neat apartment, a good fire, something to eat better than paste- 

 soup, with tolerable wine, give a lightness to the bosom and a 

 facility to the ideas. I have not yet read any of the Abbate 

 Amoretti's pieces; but if he writes badly in that elegant apart- 

 ment, and with all the circumstances of ease and luxury around 



^ Piacenza. 



