3bb SESTRl LEVANTE. 



and was buried here. In its prosperous da^'s Cervara 

 could boast of many a distinguished truest. Saint Catli- 

 arine ol Siena visited tliis monastery- and shorth' after- 

 wards Pope Gregory XI, who at the request of tlie Saint 

 had resolved to return to Rome from Avignon. Then 

 came Cardinal Farnesi, who was later Pope Paul III; 

 then Don Juan of Austria, the victor of Lepanto. But in 

 the meantime an unwilling guest staved here. This was 

 King Francis I ol France who, alter losing the battle 

 of Pa\-ia, had to spend a night here (Februar\ 25th, 

 1525) on his \\a\- to Spain. ^V quadrangular tower is 

 the only part of this building which can lay claim to 

 any great anti(_|uit\'. This was erected by the Genoese 

 as a detence against Pirates. 



CHAPTER VI. 



A few diiys later I arri^'ed in Sestri Lcvante. At 

 first I could not resist a certain feeling of disappointment. 

 The whole of the scenery round the railway station was 

 devoid of loliage and the road to the town led through 

 an avenue of leafless Plane trees. Near the Grand Hotel 

 Jensch, it is true, there was a garden planted with southern 

 evergreens, but the sea shore by the modest little town 

 appeared to us somewhat bare. Until quite recently 

 Sestri Levante has only been frequented in the hot season 

 by Italian visitors for the bathing, but during the last 

 ten }-ears it has begun to rank as a winter resort and 

 has not ^-et had time to arra)- itself in those borrowed 

 plumes in which the gardens of Nervi and the coast 

 towns of the Ponente make such a show. But there 



