ROUTE.

XII. We are now to speak of the time requisite to make a full and complete Tour of Italy, as well as of the season best adapted to the commencement of such a tour. A year, I think, is the shortest space that ought to be allotted, and a year and a half or even two years might be well devoted to this useful and amusing part of our travels. The want of leisure is the only objection that can be made to this arrangement, but it is an objection seldom well grounded, as youth in general from nineteen to three or four-and-twenty, have more time than business, and seem much more frequently at a loss for occupation than for leisure. Occupation, necessary at all seasons, but particularly in youth, should be furnished, and no occupation can suit that age when the mind is restless and the body active, better than

travelling. Moreover, every man of observation who has made a cursory visit to Italy, will find that a first view of that country has merely qualified him to make a second visit with more advantage, and will perhaps feel the cravings of unsatisfied curiosity, the visendi studium*, at a time when travelling may be inconsistent with the cares and the duties of life. It is more prudent, therefore, to seize the first opportunity, and by then allotting a sufficient portion of time to the tour, gratify himself with a full and perfect view for ever. Supposing therefore that a year and a half is to be devoted to this part of the journey. I advise the traveller to pass the Alps early in the autumn, thus to avoid the inconvenience of travelling in winter or cold weather, an inconvenience always felt on the Continent, where ready fires, warm rooms, doors

The desire of repeating his visit.

and windows that exclude the air, are seldom found. His route to the Alps may be as follows. He may first proceed to Brussels, thence to Liege, Spa, Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, Bonn, and along the banks of the Rhine to Coblentz, Mentz, and Strasburg; there cross the Rhine to Manheim, traverse the Palatinate, the territories of Würtenburg, Bavaria, and Saltzburg, enter the defiles of the Tyrol or Rhetian Alps, and passing through Inspruck and Trent turn to Bassano and to Maestre, whence he may send his carriage by land to Padua, and embark for Venice. From Venice he may go by water up the Brenta to Padua, where he may establish his head quarters, and visit Arqua, the Monti Euganei, and thence pass onwards to Ferrara and Bologna; then follow the Via Emilia to Forli, thence proceed to Ravenna and Rimini, make an excursion to San Marino, and advance forward to Ancona, whence he may visit Osimo. He will then

continue his journey by Loretto and Macerata to Tolentino; thence over the Apennines to Foligno, Spoleto, and Terni, and so follow the direct road through Civita Castellana to Rome.

I suppose that a traveller passes the Alps in September; of course he should reach Rome by the end of November. I calculate ten or fifteen days delay on account of the autumnal rains; for it is advisable by all means to stop at some large town during that period of inundation. These autumnal rains take place sometimes in September, though they frequently fall at a later period. At any rate, I would by no means advise a traveller to pass the Apennines, or visit any territory supposed to lie under the influence of the malaria, till these salubrious showers have purified the air and allayed the noxious vapours that hover over the Pomptine marshes, the Campagna di Roma, and some other low tracts, during the latter

weeks of summer and the beginning of autumn: the air of Venice itself is supposed by many persons not to be quite exempt from this inconvenience.

The traveller will devote the month of December to the first contemplation of Rome, and the consideration of its most striking beauties. He will then do well to proceed to Naples, where the months of January, February, and (if Easter be in April) of March, will be delightfully employed in visiting the numberless beauties that lie in that neighborhood, and along the storied shores of Magna Grecia. all events, the traveller must so time his return as to be at Rome the week before Easter, in order to be present at the ceremonies that are performed in the Sixtine Chapel, and in St. Peter's, before and during that festival.

At

The months of April, May, and June will not appear long when passed in a