mply impossible to make
the circuit of Etna without a courier. He procured some eggs, macaroni,
fruit, snow, tomatoes, and even meat, and cooked everything well,
without a trace of garlic. He also took care that the linen was clean,
and the general arrangements as comfortable as they could be under the
circumstances. Let us also admit that neither at Aderno, Bronte, nor
Randazzo were we troubled with musquitoes or any worse species of
insect. These, we were assured, would appear in full force in the
following month (September). Our only inconvenience of this nature
arose from swarms of flies. The inns of these out-of-the-way towns
probably receive scarcely a dozen travellers in the year, and these are
Sicilians, who are not used to better accommodation. Evidently a
_forestiare_ is quite a novelty: the people of these small towns used to
look at us with great curiosity, and crowded round the carriage when we
started. At Bronte we had a good example of this curiosity: owing to the
hardness of the lava of 1832 the head had come off the handle of our
hammer, and we went into a carpenter's shop to have it put on again.
Presently we noticed that eleven people, including a priest, were
looking on, apparently with intense and absorbing interest.

From Randazzo the base-road descends, until at Giarre it is near the
sea-level. This road is one of the most beautiful in Sicily; it is part
of the old military route from Messina to Palermo, and it was traversed
by Himilco in 396 B.C.; by Timoleon in 344 B.C.; and by Charles V. in
1534. After leaving Randazzo the valley of the Alcantara becomes
visible, while beyond it rise the lofty mountains of the Nebrodes. The
road passes near Monte Dolce, and soon reaches Linguaglossa, a small
town from whence the craters of 1865 may be reached in about four hours.
The rapidly descending road passes through Piedemonte and Mascali, in
the heart of an extraordinarily fertile region. Mascali, a village of
3050 inhabitants, was considered by Cluverius to be the site of the
Greek town of Callipolis, founded by a colony from Naxos as early as the
fifth century, B.C. A full view of the coast line is obtained from the
Capo di Taormina on the north, to a point below Riposto on the south. We
descended through plantations of nuts, and groves of oranges and lemons,
to gentle slopes covered with vineyards.

From the town of Giarre, (17,965 inhabitants), we get a view of the Val
del Bove, which, however, is a