huge drawing-rooms, chandeliers, carpets, open fireplaces, and all sorts
of useless rubbish, costing us forty francs a day.

My back aches, and the soles of my feet burn from tramping about. It's
awful how we walk!

It seems odd to me that Levitan did not like Italy. It's a fascinating
country. If I were a solitary person, an artist, and had money, I should
live here in the winter. You see, Italy, apart from its natural scenery and
warmth, is the one country in which you feel convinced that art is really
supreme over everything, and that conviction gives one courage.




NAPLES,
April 4, 1891.


I arrived in Naples, went to the post-office and found there five letters
from home, for which I am very grateful to you all. Well done, relations!
Even Vesuvius is so touched it has gone out.

Vesuvius hides its top in clouds and can only be seen well in the evening.
By day the sky is overcast. We are staying on the sea-front and have a view
of everything: the sea, Vesuvius, Capri, Sorrento.... We drove in the
daytime up to the monastery of St. Martini: the view from here is such as I
have never seen before, a marvellous panorama. I saw something like it at
Hong Kong when I went up the mountain in the railway.