On Wednesday the 20th of September I left Lucca after dinner, having first packed two boxes of things for despatch to France. We traversed a level convenient highway, the country round being barren as the Landes of Gascony. We crossed a wide river by a bridge built by Duke Cosimo at a place where there are iron mills belonging to the Grand Duke, and good lodging, also three fish ponds, places divided off like enclosed pools and paved with bricks. In these they keep a vast number of eels, which we could easily discern, as there was very little water. We crossed the Arno at Fucecchio, and after a journey of twenty miles arrived at dusk at Scala.

We left Scala at sunrise and travelled over a good level road through a country of low fertile hills, not unlike France, taking our way through Castel Fiorentino, a small walled town, and then passed by the foot of the hill on which is situated Certaldo, the birthplace of Boccaccio, and a handsome little town. After going eighteen miles we halted for dinner at Poggibousi, a small town, and arrived in time for supper at Siena, twelve miles farther on. I remarked that the cold at this season was sharper in Italy than in France. The piazza of Siena is the finest of any city in the world. Mass is said therein at an altar in the open space, over which look all the houses and shops, wherefore the craftsmen and all the people can participate without quitting their work. At the elevation a trumpet is sounded to let every one know.

On Sunday the 23rd of September we left Siena after dinner, and travelled over a convenient road, which was a little unlevel in places, as the country is broken up in low fertile hills. At the end of twenty miles we came to S. Chirico, a pretty little town, where we found lodging outside the walls. Our baggage-horse fell down as he was crossing a brook we had to ford, and thus damaged greatly all my things, my books especially, and we were forced to stop and dry them. Montepulciano, Montecello, and Castiglioncello, were towns standing on neighbouring hills to the left hand.

Early on Monday I went to see a bath about two miles distant, called Vignone, after a little town near thereto. The bath is situated in a somewhat elevated position, beneath which runs the river Urcia, and round about it are grouped about a dozen cottages, ill-found and distasteful, a lousy-looking den. There is a large pool, surrounded with a wall and steps, in the midst of which may be seen boiling up several springs of the hot water which, as it has no smell of sulphur, little exhalation, and a red sediment, seemed to me more ferruginous than anything else. It is never drunk. The size of this pool is sixty paces by thirty-five, and near it are four or five covered enclosures for the use of bathers. The bath has considerable reputation, and for drinking the patients here give the preference to the water of S. Carriano near S. Chirico, and eighteen miles towards Rome, to the left of the main road.

In looking at the earthenware of these parts, which resembles porcelain, and is white, and clean, and very cheap, I thought it would be far more appetising for table use than the pewter used in France, which in the inns is especially disagreeable. About this time I felt in my head a slight return of the pain from which I deemed I was now fully delivered. It troubled me as before, round the eyes and brow, and the forepart of the head generally, in the form of heaviness and a weary, disquiet feeling, causing, me much anxiety. On Tuesday we dined at La Paglia, after a ride of thirteen miles, and slept at a bad inn at S. Lorenzo, sixteen miles farther on.

On Wednesday morning a dispute arose between our people, and the vetturini of Siena, who, thinking that we were over-long in the road, made a demur about paying the outlay for the horses for this evening. The matter became so serious that I brought it before the governor, who, having heard it, decided in my favour, and sent one of the vetturini to prison. I argued that the accident to the baggage-horse in the river, by which the greater part of my goods were spoilt, was the real cause of any delay.

About six miles from Montefiascone, a few paces to the right of the main road, is a bath called Naviso, in the middle of a wide plain. It is three or four miles distant from the nearest hill, and the outflow has formed a little lake, at one end of which is to be seen a strong spring of hot water boiling up briskly. It smells of sulphur, having a scum on the surface and a white sediment. On one side of this spring is a pipe which conveys the water to two baths in a house near by. This, the only bath-house in the place, has numerous chambers, but they are very bad. I fancy, however, that few people come here. The water may be drunk for seven days, ten pounds per diem, but before it is taken it must be left some time to get cool, as at the baths of Preissac.98 The patients bathe in addition.

This house and the bath belong to a church, and is let for fifty crowns per annum. The bath is likewise of great use to the sick people who come here in the spring of the year, and the man who hires it sells a quantity of the mud taken from the bath, which mud, when dissolved in hot oil, is good for the itch in human beings, and for scabby dogs and cattle, when diluted with water. The price of this mud when sold on the spot is two giulios a load, but they sell it also in dried balls for seven quattrini apiece. We saw here a lot of dogs belonging to Cardinal Farnese, which had been sent here for the bath.

Three miles farther on we came to Viterbo, and our arrival here was so ill-timed that we were forced to take dinner and supper together. I was hoarse and had a bad cold through having slept in my clothes last night on a table at S. Lorenzo, by reason of the vermin, a misadventure which only befell me at Florence and this place. At Viterbo the people eat a sort of acorn which they call gensole;99 it is found in various other parts of Italy and is pleasant to taste. Starlings are so plentiful that they are to be had for one baiocco each.

On Thursday, September 28th, I went in the morning to see some other baths near this place, situated in a plain in a remote spot some distance from the hills.100 Formerly there were two separate buildings used as baths, not very long ago, but these have perished through neglect. There is a rank smell throughout the place. All that now remains is a cabin containing a small spring of hot water which forms a pool for bathers. This water is odourless, with an insipid taste, and not over-warm. It seemed to me to contain iron, and it is occasionally drunk. Farther on is what they call the Palace of the Pope, the story being that Pope Nicolas either built or restored it.101 Below this palace, in a deep hollow, three separate springs of hot water rise from the earth, one of which serves for drinking, having a moderate warmth, no smell, but somewhat sharp on the palate. I believe it contains much nitre. I came here with the view of taking the waters for three days, the quantity taken being just the same as in other places. Exercise is used after drinking, and they set great store on sweating.

This water is held in high esteem, and quantities of it are carried all over Italy; and the physician, who has written a treatise on the potable water of the baths of Italy, gives it the first place, commending it especially for diseases of the kidneys. It is usually drunk in May. I gathered faint hope of making a cure when I read an inscription on the wall, written by a certain man who cursed his physician for having sent him to such a place, and affirmed that he had suffered much ill from his stay there. Moreover, the proprietor hinted to me that I had come too late in the season, and certainly did not urge me to take the waters.

There is only one lodging-house, but it is large and well arranged, and situated only about a mile and a half from Viterbo, so I went thither on foot. There are three or four baths of various properties, and in addition provision for the douche. This water throws up a white scum, which hardens readily and becomes solid like ice, making a crust on the surface of the water. If a linen cloth be dipped therein, it will quickly become loaded with this scum and quite stiff. This substance is sold into other parts for use in cleansing the teeth, and when chewed it has no more taste than earth or sand; indeed, the composition thereof is reputed to be the same as that of marble, in which case it might well harden in the kidneys. It is said, however, that the water which is exported in bottles has no sediment and remains quite clear. I imagine it may be drunk in any quantity, and that the sharpness before-named may give it a certain savour and make it easier to swallow.

On my way back, I went over the same plain, which stretches out to great length and is eight miles wide, to see the place where the people of Viterbo (who are all either workers or traffickers with no gentlemen amongst them) collect the flax and hemp, the working of which is their chief industry, and found none but men employed, the women taking no part in the work. There was a vast quantity of material, and many craftsmen busy around a lake of water, which is boiling hot all the year round, and is said to be fathomless. From this lake they have formed other pools of warm water in which they put their hemp and flax to steep.102

On Saturday, Saint Michael’s Day, I went after dinner to visit the Madonna del Cerquio,103 a church about a mile outside the city. The road thither is a very fine one, level and straight and planted with trees from one end to the other, the work of the Farnese Pope.104 The church itself is very fine, full of evidences of devotion and innumerable ex votos. On the wall is the Latin inscription, some hundred years old, telling how a certain man, having been attacked by robbers and half-killed, sought refuge in an oak tree, upon which was set the image of the Madonna now preserved here, and offered his prayers thereto. By a miracle the Madonna made him invisible, and thus he escaped a most pressing danger; and from this miracle arose this particular worship of the Madonna. The present magnificent church was built near where the oak stood, and the trunk of the oak tree, cut off low down, may yet be seen; and the part to which the image was fixed, together with the branches, is hung up on the wall.

On Saturday the last day of September I left Viterbo in the morning and took the road to Bagnaia, a place belonging to Cardinal Gambaro, richly embellished, especially with fountains, in respect of which it not only equals but outdoes places like Pratolino and Tivoli.105 In the first place the fountains here all run with fresh spring water, which is not the case at Tivoli, and the supply is so abundant—at Pratolino it is very scanty—that they have been able to make all sorts of devices therewith. Messer Tomaso da Siena, who designed the fountains at Tivoli, or at any rate the principal ones, is still engaged on these, which are unfinished, and in this, his latest work, he has touched the highest point of art and beauty and grace, by adding continually some fresh design to the original. There is a lofty pyramid, from which three thousand jets of this matchless water gush forth in all kinds of different ways, some ascending, others descending, and round the pyramid are four beautiful basins full of clear fresh water. In the middle of each is a little boat fashioned in stone, each one manned with two arquebusiers and a trumpeter, who shoot water through their instruments on to the pyramid. Round about are most lovely walks furnished with seats made of fine stone and carved with most exquisite art. Other portions of the place may seem more delightful to other people; for instance, the palace itself, small, but well kept and pleasant. For myself, however, I maintain that this place far outshines any other in turning water to use and beauty. The cardinal was not there, but being francesco at heart as he was Francesco by name, his people in charge of the palace showed me the greatest courtesy and friendship.

From this place we followed the direct road and came to Caprarola, the palace of Cardinal Farnese, and the most famous in all Italy.106 I have seen nothing in this country to be compared with it. The upper part of the structure is in the form of a terrace built so that the tiled roof is invisible. It is pentagonal in shape, but has all the look of being a square. The interior is a perfect circle with wide corridors running round, arched and painted all over. The mass of building is immense, all the chambers being square and the large rooms very beautiful. Amongst these is one, a marvel, which has in its vaulted roof the celestial world with all its constellations, and on its walls the terrestrial with all the regions accurately displayed, every detail being richly painted on the wall aforesaid. In other places are pictorial representations of the most heroic deeds of Pope Paul III., and of the house of Farnese. The personages represented are so life-like that the portraits of our Constable, of the Queen Mother, or of her children, Charles, Henry, the Duke of Alençon, and the Queen of Navarre, will be recognised at once by any who may see them; and the same may be said with regard to King Francis, Henry II., Pietro Strozzi, and others. At the opposite ends of one of the saloons are portraits of King Henry II. and King Philip. Under King Henry’s portrait—which occupies the place of honour—is written, Conservatore di Casa Farnese, and under King Philip, Per li molti beni da lui ricevuti: in addition to these, there are many beautiful objects worth seeing, amongst others, a grotto in which an artificial spray of water falling into a basin conveys, both to ear and eye, the notion of natural rain. The villa is situated in a barren mountainous country, and the water for the fountains must needs be brought from Viterbo, eight miles distant.107

We pursued our way over a level road running through a vast plain of wide pastures, in the midst of which we came upon certain spots where there was no grass, and where springs of clear cold water gushed forth, but this water reeked so strongly of sulphur that it might be smelt a long way off. After riding twenty-three miles we slept that night at Monterossi, and on the morrow, Sunday, twenty-three more brought us to Rome.

The weather at this season was very cold, with an icy north wind. On the Monday and several days following I suffered from indigestion, and for this reason I took my meals apart, so I might eat less. From the effects of a purge I felt an improvement in my general health, but my head still gave me the same discomfort. On the very day of my arrival at Rome I received a letter from the Jurats of Bordeaux, who wrote to me most courteously concerning my election as the Mayor of their city, and begged me to repair thither to take up the office.

On Sunday, October the 8th, I went to the baths of Diocletian on Monte Cavallo to see the performances of an Italian who, during a long captivity amongst the Turks, had learnt some wonderful feats of horsemanship: for instance, while the horse was going at full speed, he would stand upright on the saddle and hurl a dart with all his force, and at the same moment drop down into his seat. Again, in full course he would get off the horse, grasping the saddle-bow with one hand, touching the ground with his right foot and keeping the left in the stirrup. He mounted and dismounted several times in this fashion, and turned somersaults on the saddle while the horse was going full speed, and shot arrows from a Turkish bow in front and in the rear with the utmost rapidity. He next rode the horse standing upright on his feet, and bending his body downwards so that his head and shoulders rested on the horse’s neck, and then he took a club in hand and, having thrown it off into the air, caught it again during his course. Standing on the saddle he took a lance, with which he struck a glove and transfixed it as if he were running at the ring. On foot he caused a staff to revolve in a circle round his neck, having first set the same going with his hand.108

On the 10th of October the French ambassador sent a messenger to me after dinner to inform me that he would call in his coach to take me, if I might be willing, to see the goods of Cardinal Ursino109 which were to be sold, the cardinal having died in Naples last summer and left all his vast wealth to an infant niece. Amongst other rare things was a counterpane of taffetas lined with swansdown. In Siena it is common to see the skins of swans entire, covered with feathers, and ready for use, at the price of a crown and a half, and as they are of the bigness of a sheepskin, it takes but few of them to make a coverlet of this sort. Then there was an ostrich’s egg carved and beautifully painted, a square jewel casket with certain gems therein, and fitted inside with mirrors in such fashion that the casket, when opened, seemed in every way much larger than it really was, while the gems were multiplied tenfold, each stone being exhibited many times by the reflection in the mirrors. Meantime it is hard to perceive that these are really mirrors.

On Thursday, October the 12th, the Cardinal of Sens fetched me in his coach to visit the church of St. Giovanni e Paolo, from which he takes his title: he is, moreover, Superior of those friars who make distilled waters and perfumes at their house on Monte Celio, of whom I have already spoken. It would seem that the loftiness of this site is artificial, the whole of the space beneath being vaulted with vast corridors and apartments underground. Legend says it was formerly the Forum of Hostilius. From the garden and vineyards of the friars the prospect is very beautiful, for both old and new Rome lie open to the view. The whole place, from its precipitous height and the deep ravine at its foot, is cut off and inaccessible from almost every point.

This same day I handed over to a carrier a well-packed box for transit to Milan, a journey which the muleteers generally make in twenty days. The box weighed one hundred and fifty pounds, and I had to pay four baiocchi or two French sous per pound. Inside it were many things of value, notably a very fine neck-chain of the Agnus Dei, the finest to be had in Rome. This ornament had been made specially at the order of the ambassador of the empress, and a gentleman had taken it to the Pope so that he might bless it.