Page:The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton.djvu/140

110 our Princess Royal's wedding day. We had a grand dinner, champagne, toasts, and cheering. The table d'hôte was decorated with our yacht flags. One of the English ladies invited us to her rooms, where we had music and dancing, and I talked to one girl of seventeen, who proved to be an original after my own heart. After the soirée, we smoked a cigarette and discussed our plans. The next morning we had to leave Pisa. We were all sorry to part.

Half an hour's train brought us to Leghorn, where we got pretty rooms at the Victoria and Washington. It is quite spring weather, beautiful sky and sea; again flat, ugly country, but the range of mountains shows to advantage; the air is delicious, and we are all well and in spirits. The town is very fine, the people tant-soit-peu-Portsmouth-like. There is nothing to see at Leghorn. Faute de mieux we went to see an ugly duomo, which, however, contained Canova's Tempo, the one statue of which you hear from morning till night. We also visited the English Cemetery, which contained Smollett's tomb. There are the docks to see, and Habib's bazaar, a rogue, and not too civil, but he has beautiful Eastern things. The town is in a state of siege, and no Carnival is allowed.

We left Leghorn on February 1 for Florence, and visited successively many queer, little, out-of-the-way towns en route.

The first day at Florence we drove about to have a general view of the city, and after that we visited the principal palazzos, churches, and theatres—all of which have often been described before. We were at Florence