s. She pressed us to pass the winter at Genoa; and
indeed I was almost persuaded: but I had attachments at Nice, from
which I could not easily disengage myself.

The few days we staved at Genoa were employed in visiting the most
remarkable churches and palaces. In some of the churches, particularly
that of the Annunciata, I found a profusion of ornaments, which had
more magnificence than taste. There is a great number of pictures; but
very few of them are capital pieces. I had heard much of the ponte
Carignano, which did not at all answer my expectation. It is a bridge
that unites two eminences which form the higher part of the city, and
the houses in the bottom below do not rise so high as the springing of
its arches. There is nothing at all curious in its construction, nor
any way remarkable, except the heighth of the piers from which the
arches are sprung. Hard by the bridge there is an elegant church, from
the top of which you have a very rich and extensive prospect of the
city, the sea and the adjacent country, which looks like a continent of
groves and villas. The only remarkable circumstance about the
cathedral, which is Gothic and gloomy, is the chapel where the
pretended bones of John the Baptist are deposited, and in which thirty
silver lamps are continually burning. I had a curiosity to see the
palaces of Durazzo and Doria, but it required more trouble to procure
admission than I was willing to give myself: as for the arsenal, and
the rostrum of an ancient galley which was found by accident in
dragging the harbour, I postponed seeing them till my return.

Having here provided myself with letters of credit for Florence and
Rome, I hired the same boat which had brought us hither, to carry us
forward to Lerici, which is a small town about half way between Genoa
and Leghorn, where travellers, who are tired of the sea, take
post-chaises to continue their route by land to Pisa and Florence. I
payed three loui'dores for this voyage of about fifty miles; though I
might have had a feluca for less money. When you land on the wharf at
Genoa, you are plied by the feluca men just as you are plied by the
watermen at Hungerford-stairs in London. They are always ready to set
off at a minute's warning for Lerici, Leghorn, Nice, Antibes,
Marseilles, and every part of the Riviera.

The wind being still unfavourable, though the weather was delightful,
we rowed along shore, passing by several pretty towns, villages, and a
vast