the sun. Situated near a
center which attracts life to itself, Padua is a dead city with an
almost deserted air. Its streets, bordered by two rows of low arcades,
in nowise recall the elegant and charming architecture of Venice. The
heavy, massive structures have a serious, somewhat crabbed aspect, and
its somber porticos in the lower stories of the houses resemble black
mouths which yawn with ennui.

We were conducted to a big inn, established probably in some ancient
palace, and whose great halls, dishonored by vulgar uses, had formerly
seen better company. It was a real journey to go from the vestibule to
our room by a host of stairways and corridors; a map of Ariadne's thread
would have been needed to find one's way back. Our windows opened upon a
very pleasant view; a river flows at the foot of the wall--the Brenta or
the Bacchiglione, I know not which, for both water Padua. The banks of
this watercourse were adorned with old houses and long walls, and trees,
too, overhung the banks; some rather picturesque rows of piles, from
which the fishermen cast their lines with that patience characteristic
of them in all countries; huts with nets and linen hanging from the
windows to dry, formed under the sun's rays a very pretty subject for a
water-color.

After dinner we went to the Cafe Pedrocchi, celebrated throughout all
Italy for its magnificence. Nothing could be more monumentally classic.
There are nothing but pillars, columnets, ovolos, and palm leaves of the
Percier and Fontain kind, the whole very fine and lavish of marble.
What was most curious was some immense maps forming a tapestry and
representing the different divisions of the world on an enormous scale.
This somewhat pedantic decoration gives to the hall an academic air; and
one is surprized not to see a chair in place of the bar, with a
professor in his gown in place of a dispenser of lemonade.

The University of Padua was formerly famous. In the thirteenth century
eighteen thousand young men, a whole people of scholars, followed the
lessons of the learned professors, among whom later Galileo figured, one
of whose bones is preserved there as a relic, a relic of a martyr who
suffered for the truth. The facade of the University is very beautiful;
four Doric columns give it a severe and monumental air; but solitude
reigns in the class-rooms where to-day scarcely a thousand students can
be reckoned....

We paid a visit to the Cathedral dedicated to Saint