ITALY. 



651 



iars and tc give Uim a certain sum, perhaps half a dollar, at the end o( the journey, if he has 

 been civil and obhgmg. The main roads are good, but the cross roads are hardly passable ; 

 and in Sicily, there are hardly any interior roads. The custom-houses, and the passports, are 

 great annoyances. The custom-houses are at the frontiers of the states, and at the entrance to 

 cities ; the officers well know how to visit the traveler with manifold vexations, if he should 

 fail to purchase their forbearance with a few pauls, generally less than half a dollar. When 

 this preliminary is adjusted, the traveler is permitted to pass with his baggage unopened. 

 There is no escaping the Doganieri. " They stop the chariot, and they board the barge." 

 The vexations of the passports are of more frequent occurrence. The passport is taken at 

 the gate of all considerable towns, carried to the commandant, endorsed and returned by a 

 soldier, whose low bows are generally rewarded with a small coin. When a stranger resides 

 in a city, he surrenders his passport and receives a written permission to remain for a certain 

 time, and this must be renewed when the time has expired. Before quitting one independent 

 State, to visit another, it is necessary to have the permission of the minister or consul of the 

 State to which the traveler is going. These various endorsements and seals on a passport soon 

 cover every part of it, and new paper must be added to it, which in time becomes a long roll. 



The inns are few of them good ; but generally on tiie main routes the accommodations are 

 equal to those in France. The beds are almost universally good ; and the bedsteads are of 

 iron, with a network of thin iron bands to support the bed. In cities, the hotels generally sup- 

 ply only lodgings. A furnished room is let, and the occupier receives his meals from a trat- 

 teria, or goes to one himself. 



In Italy, which is cut up into so many States, with inefficient governments, robbery is or has 

 been almost a profession, and committed on a scale unequaled, except in Spain. The robber, 

 in Italy, seems to be shielded by popular favor, and he is celebrated in ballads. Fra Diavolo, 

 of Itri, was renowned and feared beyond the limits of his country, and many other brigands 

 have raised themselves to " that bad eminence." The frontiers of the kingdom of Naples, 

 beyond Terracina, were the most dangerous defiles for the traveler, who, if he failed to satisfy 

 the robbers with sufficient plunder, was held to ransom himself by a draft on his banker ; and 

 [he brigands seldom omitted to keep their threat of murdering him when the draft was pro- 

 tested. Not only travelers were thus seized, but wealthy residents ; the wife of one of these 

 sent for ransom a sum less than that demanded, and received in return the captive's ears, with 

 in intimation, that the knife would next be directed against his throat. The house of Lucien 

 .Bonaparte was robbed within 15 miles of Rome, and his secretary carried away and held to a 

 ransom of several thousand ducats. It was intended to capture the prince himself, who hap- 

 pened on that day to be absent. The weakness of the government is the strength of the bri- 

 gands, though at the present time the roads are generally safe. A cardinal, the secretary of 

 state, was sent to Terracina, to confer with the robbers, and an offer of amnesty to all that 

 would surrender, and suffer a limited imprisonment in the castle of St. Angelo, with a certain 

 allowance or salary from the government. Some leaders, their vvives, and many followers sur- 

 rendered, but the government broke faith and held them after the stipulated time. While in 

 prison they were much visited. They were a fine race of men, but hardened and ferocious. 

 The wife of the chief was celebrated for beauty, and the little son went through the brigand 

 exercises with his musket, for the amusement of visiters. Sicily was formerly impassable, by 

 reason of robbers ; but when the English had possession, they introduced the code of Alfred, 

 making districts answerable for crimes, and the success was so complete, that Sicily is not much 

 infested with robbers, even now. 



Before closing this article, it is proper to mention some of the peculiarities of Italian trav- 

 eling. In Sicily, where there are hardly any roads, the common conveyance is the letiiga, a 

 sort of sedan on long poles. It is carried by two mules, one before and one behind it, with 

 the poles supported over their backs, like common shafts. At Naples, there is a small, but 

 very spirited breed of horses, driven about at full speed in a little open chair, or caleche. The 

 driver stands on a board behind, and holds his reins over the passengers' heads. There are 

 seats but for two passengers ; but persons often cover the little carriage, holding on wherever 

 they can find space to plant a foot. Eight or ten may be seen thus, carried swiftly by one 

 horse. 



Before the present stupendous roads over the Alps were made, it was toilsome and danger- 

 ous to cross the mountains. It was the labor, without the glory, of Hannibal. The trav- 

 eler, in going from Savoy, often descended the mountains to Lans le bourg, on a trainean or 



