320 Foreign Notices i ■— Italy. 



being taken off), in which state they have a much sweeter and superior fla- 

 vour ; and made into bread, a sort of stiff pudding, and into thin cakes like 

 pancakes. This valuable fruit constitutes a considerable portion of the 

 food of the lower classes, who must daily consume in Florence some tons. 

 From the low price of chestnuts in Italy (5 quattrini for about a pint), there 

 can be little doubt that they might be imported into England (at a lower 

 duty), and afforded at a much cheaper rate than they are usually sold there, 

 and so as to become one of those innocent luxuries of the poor which every 

 benevolent political economist would desire to see Italy enabled to exchange 

 for our hardware and cottons, if the custom were introduced in London 

 and other towns, of roasting them on small beat iron stoves, heated by coke 

 or charcoal, at all the green-shops and gingerbread-dealers, so as to tempt 

 passengers with them, " piping hot," as is the case in Italy, in every street ; 

 where, in cold weather, the labourer or schoolboy, in buying a pint of 

 chestnuts, stores up in his pocket a stock of portable caloric, which warms 

 his fingers, while he at the same time both gratifies his palate, and appeases 

 his hunger. — W. S. Florence, Jan. 2. 1830. 



Weather at Florence. — The first half of November was clear, dry, mild, 

 and altogether delightful. On the 15th and 16th, a deluge of rain fell, with 

 snow, on the distant Apennines. The wind then veered to the N.E.; and, 

 from the 18th to the 23d, it froze more keenly than I remember it to have 

 ever done so early in England, the ice on the ponds being fully three inches 

 thick, with boys sliding on it. The chief cold must have been in the night, 

 as Fahrenheit's thermometer, at eight in the morning, stood at 36° and 37° 

 on the 18th, 19th, and 20th ; at 33° on the 21st and^23d ; and at 30° on the 

 22d ; and, during the whole period, the sun shone brightly in the daytime, 

 and the thermometer rose to 45° and 50°. Previously to this frost, which 

 was much more severe than is usual here in November, all the orange trees 

 in pots had been housed. Those of the hardy variety, called arancio forte 

 (a sort with a bitter peel, like that of Seville oranges), of which there are 

 many trees 12 and 15 ft. high in the open ground at Florence (and which, 

 as they often endure, unprotected, a much greater degree of cold, would, 

 doubtless, stand the winter equally well in Hampshire, Devonshire, and 

 probably the whole of the southern coast of England), were not injured ; 

 nor the plants of JVerium Oleander, which abound in gardens. The crop of 

 olives, however, seemed to suffer. Perhaps one third of the crop had pre- 

 viously the dark purple tint, indicating ripeness, but two thirds were still 

 green ; and 1 observed, when the frost went, that these last had their skins 

 much shrivelled; and they are now assuming an unnatural chocolate 

 colour, and have no appearance of ever becoming perfectly mature.* On 

 the 24th of November the frost broke up ; and, from that time to the 26th 

 of December, the weather was mostly open, with occasional slight frosts, 

 and very high winds, and often heavy rain, and altogether resembling the 

 same season in Devonshire, except in the longer continuance and much 

 greater quantity of the rain that fell, and the greater heat of the bright 

 days, on one of which (Dec. 13.) I observed three butterflies (Vanessa 

 Atalanta, Colias Hyale, and Hipparchia iEgeria), and many other insects, 

 on the wing. On the 26th of December, frost set in, and continued, at the 

 close of the month, very keenly, the thermometer being as low as 22° on 

 the 30th. 



The following are the results of my journal of the weather at Florence, 

 for the last 13 days of November and the whole of December : — 



* Some of the ripe olives were gathered by hand by the middle of Decem- 

 ber ; but the great bulk of the crop will not be pulled off for some time yet, 

 the total gathering often being not ended till March and April : indeed, 

 towards Naples, the ripe olives are sometimes suffered to hang till the new 

 blossoms appear in May. 



