V.

UP AND DOWN GENOA.

I had my note-book with me on this journey, and pledged myself to
make notes in it. And, indeed, I did really do something of the kind,
though the result of my labors is by no means so voluminous as I would
like it to be, now when the work of wishing there were more notes is
so easy. We spent but one day in Genoa, and I find such a marvelous
succinct record of this in my book that I am tempted to give it here,
after the fashion of that Historical Heavyweight who writes the Life
of "Frederick the Great."

"_Genoa, November 13_.--Breakfast _à la fourchette_ excellently
and cheaply. I buy a hat. We go to seek the Consul, and, after
finding every thing else for two hours, find him. Genoa is the
most magnificent city I ever saw; and the new monument to
Columbus about the weakest possible monument. Walk through the
city with Consul; Doge's palace; cathedral; girl turning
somersaults in the street; blind madman on the cathedral steps.
We leave for Naples at twelve midnight."

As for the breakfast, it was eaten at one of the many good caffè in
Genoa, and perhaps some statistician will like to know that for a
beefsteak and potatoes, with a half-bottle of Ligurian wine, we paid a
franc. For this money we had also the society of an unoccupied waiter,