JOUUNEY TO CATANIA. 
33* 
While the Italian was talking, a Capuchin friar came to 
the door of the diligence to beg for the church. I thought 
my friend might have added some reflections on this branch 
of the subject, that would have 
shown more clearly the root 
of the evils under which the 
Sicilians labor; but being a 
good Catholic he was silent 
I contented myself by giving 
the poor friar a baiocco, and 
making a sketch of his face as 
he stood waiting for the Italian 
to give him another. There 
was plenty of time to get a 
good likeness. 
I said we started from Palermo at night. It is a journey 
of thirty-six hours to Catania, making just two nights and 
one day on the road. One would naturally suppose it would 
be quite as well to set out in the morning, and make two days 
and one night of it; but these are among the unaccountable 
peculiarities of Sicilian travel. 
Catania is a large town, containing a population of fifty 
thousand, many fine buildings, many soldiers, many churches 
and some of the finest convents in Sicily. The monastery of 
San Benedetto is the most extensive establishment of the kind 
I have yet seen. Here the monks, who are chiefly of noble 
families, live in royal style. If I had money enough, nothing 
would please me better than to adopt the cowl and sack, and 
become a brother in the monastery of San Benedetto. The 
building is a magnificent palace, ornamented with courts and 
fountains, gardens, pleasure-grounds, bowers for devotional 
exercises, splendid marble halls in the interior, suites of ele¬ 
gant apartments, pictures of all the saints, organs that fill 
the spacious chapels with a flood of solemn music; statuary, 
mosaic, and voluptuous frescoes—all that can charm the 
senses and make glad the heart of monks. The wines are the 
choicest selections of the Marsala and. San NTicoloso brands; 
the macaroni is the purest and richest ; the fish are the best 
