296 Travels in Italy 



mixture of vines and much enclosed, with many buildings on the 

 hills, the features are so agreeable that it may be ranked among 

 the most pleasing I have seen in Italy. Within three miles of 

 Vogara all is white with snow, the first I have seen in the plain : 

 but as we approach the mountains, shall quit it no more till the 

 Alps are crossed. Dine at Vogara, in a room in which the 

 chimney does not smoke ; which ought to be noted, as it is the 

 only one free from it since I left Bologna. At this freezing 

 season, to have a door constantly open to aid the chimney in its 

 office, one side burnt by the blaze of a faggot and the other 

 frozen by a door that opens into the yard, are among the 

 agrhnens of a winter journey in latitude 45. After Vogara, the 

 hills trend more to the south. The sun setting here is a singular 

 object to an eye used only to plains. The Alps not being visible, 

 it seems to set long before it reaches the plane of the horizon. 

 Pass the citadel of Tortona on a hill, one of the strongest places 

 in the possession of the King of Sardinia. — 2>Z miles. 



14/A. Ford the Scrivia; it is as ravaging a stream as the 

 Trebbia, subject to dreadful floods, after even two days' rain, 

 especially if a sirocco wind melts the snow on the Apennines; 

 such accidents have often kept travellers four, five, and even six 

 days at miserable inns. I felt myself lighter for the having passed 

 it; for there were not fewer than six or seven rivers which could 

 have thus stopped me. This is the last. The weather continues 

 sharp and frosty, very cold, the ice five inches thick, and the 

 snow deep. Dine at Alexandria, joined there by a gentleman 

 who has taken the other seat in the vettura to Turin. Just on the 

 outside of that town there is an uncommon covered bridge. 

 The citadel seems surrounded with many works. Sleep at 

 Fellisham, a vile dirty hole, with paper windows, common in 

 this country, and not uncommon even in Alexandria itself. — 

 18 miles. 



x^ih. The country, to Asti and Villanova, all hilly, and some 

 of it pleasing. Coming out of Asti, where we dined, the country 

 for some miles is beautiful. My vetturino has been travelling 

 in company with another without my knowing anything of the 

 master till to-day; but we joined at dinner; and I found him 

 a very sensible agreeable Frenchman, apparently a man of 

 fashion, who knows everybody. His conversation, both at dinner 

 and in the evening, was no inconsiderable relief to the dullness 

 of such a frozen journey. His name Nicolay. — 22 miles. 



16th. ToTurin, by Moncallier; much of the country dull and 

 disagreeable; hills without landscape; and vales without the 



