Travel
Diary of Mrs. R.P. Eaton:
Europe,
Egypt, and Palestine, ca. 1857
New and congenial acquaintances were formed, and respected visits to the wonderful creations of art and genius rendered my stay in the city increasingly attractive; while the streets and buildings assumed an improved appearance, and the muddy Arno sometimes really had a transparent aspect, especially under a glorious Italian sunset or the glitter of a thousand lamps that line its borders at night.
Trusch brings pleasures and benefits, and a kind of education that can be acquired in no other way. Opportunities are constantly afforded for observing the grand and beautiful works, both of nature and art, as well as for studying the character and habits of different people. No day need pass without something of good profit seen, learned, or experienced. Even the annoyances one constantly meets – the discomforts and perplexities where passports, custom houses, and various hungry officials detain and tax you; the swarm of beggars, including the lame, the blind, and the diseased, as well as the destitute and the lazy, who beset you like a pack of ravenous wolves; the ignorance and degradation that surround you; the blind and puerile superstition of the people, amid magnificent temples apparently devoted to God’s service; the great poverty of lands rich in natural capabilities and varied beauties – all these make you grateful for the bond of your birth, and lead you to praise more highly its people, its government, its religion and its good institutions.
Here and in fact throughout Italy, great contrasts are continually meeting the eye. Go into the galleries of painting and sculpture, enter many of the cathedrals, churches, palaces, and other public or private buildings,