VERROCCHIO
"LA NOTTE," FROM TOMB OF GIULIANO DE' MEDICI, BY MICHELANGELO
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS, BY DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO, ACCADEMIA
THE THREE GRACES, FROM THE PRIMAVERA, BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI, ACCADEMIA
THE BIRTH OF VENUS, BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI, UFFIZI GALLERY
THE ANNUNCIATION, BY ANDREA VERROCCHIO, UFFIZI GALLERY
PIETÀ, BY FRA BARTOLOMMEO, PITTI GALLERY
THE TOMB OF ILARIA DEL CARETTO, BY JACOPO DELLA QUERCIA, DUOMO, LUCCA
THE TOMB OF THE MARTYR S. ROMANO IN S. ROMANO, LUCCA, BY MATTEO CIVITALI

[Illustration: A MAP OF THE CITIES OF NORTHERN TUSCANY]

* * * * *




I. GENOA

I


The traveller who on his way to Italy passes along the Riviera di
Ponente, through Marseilles, Nice, and Mentone to Ventimiglia, or
crossing the Alps touches Italian soil, though scarcely Italy indeed, at
Turin, on coming to Genoa finds himself really at last in the South, the
true South, of which Genoa la Superba is the gate, her narrow streets,
the various life of her port, her picturesque colour and dirt, her
immense palaces of precious marbles, her oranges and pomegranates and
lemons, her armsful of children, and above all the sun, which lends an