24 
NOTES  OF  TRAVEL  IN  EUROPE. 
until  passing  Sestri,  we  soon  entered  the  gates  of  the  natal  city  of  Colum- 
bus, and  at  7  o'clock  were  united  to  our  party. 
It  is  difficult  to  pass  by  Genoa  without  dwelling  upon  its  many  objects  of 
historical  interest,  or  visible  attractiveness,  its  narrow  streets  of  palaces,  mar- 
ble quays,  numerous  churches,  and  antique  structures  of  various  kinds.  The 
hotel  occupied  by  us  once  belonged  to  the  Knights  of  Malta,  and  from  its 
watch  tower,  which  yet  exists,  we  obtained  a  goodly  glimpse  of  city  and 
harbor  ;  but  it  must  suffice  to  say  that  we  saw  three  autograph  letters  of 
Columbus  to  the  authorities  of  Genoa  at  the  City-hall,  and  esteemed  them 
well  worth  seeing,  and  also  visited  the  monument  to  the  great  navigator,, 
and  saw  the  spot  alleged  to  have  been  his  birth -place.  Before  leaving  we 
rode  out  to  the  Villa  Pallavicini  to  see  one  of  the  best  examples  of  orna- 
mental Italian  landscape  gardening  suited  to  a  hillside.  We  were  much 
gratified,  but  more  especially  with  the  grounds  and  trees.  Among  the 
latter  was  a  cork  oak  (Quercus  suber)  three  feet  in  diameter,  with  the  bark 
well  developed ;  a  camphor  tree  (Camphom  officmarum}  two  feet  in  diam- 
eter and  thirty  feet  high  ;  a  flourishing  specimen  of  bamboo,  twenty  feet 
high  •  sugar  cane,  bananas,  an  Auricaria  brazilliensis,  30  feet  high  and 
a  foot  in  diameter  ;  besides  many  palms — all  growing  in  the  open  air  and 
soil.  The  grounds  rise  several  hundred  feet  to  a  castellated  structure,  at 
the  highest  point,  from  which  a  superb  view  of  the  sea  and  the  surround- 
ings is  obtained.  There  is  an  abundant  supply  of  water  brought  in  from 
the  mountain  in  the  rear,  and  to  the  complete  command  and  the  judicious 
use  of  this  important  element  of  fertility,  by  irrigation,  is  due  the  luxuri- 
ous growth  at  a  time  when  almost  a  drouth  prevailed.  The  comparatively 
level  grounds  below  the  villa  are  devoted  partly  to  an  orange  grove  and 
flower  garden,  but  mainly  to  the  vine,  which  is  grown  on  horizontal 
trellises.  As  we  rode  back  to  the  "  Croix  de  Malta,"  along  the  extremely 
dusty  terminus  of  the  Corneche  road,  we  could  but  contrast  the  paradise 
we  had  just  visited  with  the  dust-eovered  foliage  and  parched  aspect  of 
vegetation  along  the  route. 
Leaving  Genoa  on  the  evening  of  the  11th  of  May,  in  the  Italian  steamer 
Principe  Amedio,  we  reached  Leghorn  to  breakfast.  The  steamer  remain- 
ing until  evening  for  mails  afforded  the  opportunity  to  land  and  visit  Pisa0 
After  a  hasty  ride  through  Leghorn  we  called  at  the  water-works  to  see  an 
admirably  arranged  filtering  reservoir,  supplied  by  an  aqueduct  from  Colog- 
nola,  enclosed  in  a  building  supported  partly  on  columns,  standing  in  the 
reservoir.  The  clear  crystal  water  is  seen  making  its  way  through  the 
gravel  beneath  as  it  flows  from  one  apartment  to  the  other  previous  to  dis- 
tribution. At  12  we  set  out  by  rail  for  Pisa,  over  a  flat,  marshy,  partially 
wooded  country,  with  occasional  specimens  of  Pinus ponclerosa,  the  seeds 
of  which  are  used  as  food.  Pisa  is  a  walled  city,  and  the  terminus  is  just 
with  the  wall.  As  our  time  was  limited  to  a  few  hours  we  gave  them  to 
the  Duomo  and  its  accessories,  the  Baptistery,  the  far-famed  Campanile, 
or  leaning  tower,  and  the  Campo  Santo.    To  the  architect  the  three  first 
