Imola, Ferrara and Modena, as well as the hills about Verona, Mount
Baldus, &c., seeming to rise abruptly from the dead flat which extends
on three sides of Bologna. On the south are some very pleasant hills
stuck with villas.' The Garisenda tower, erected probably by the family
of the Garidendi, is about 130 feet in height, and inclines as much as
eight feet from the perpendicular. It has been conjectured that these
towers were originally constructed as they now appear; but it is
difficult to give credit to such a supposition.

"According to Montfaucon, the celebrated antiquary, the leaning of these
towers has been occasioned by the sinking of the earth. 'We several
times observed the tower called Asinelli, and the other near it, named
Garisenda. The latter of them stoops so much that a perpendicular, let
fall from the top, will be seven feet from the bottom of it; and, as
appears upon examination, when this tower bowed, a great part of it went
to ruin, because the ground that side that inclined stood on was not so
firm as the other, which may be said of all other towers that lean so;
for besides these two here mentioned, the tower for the bells of St.
Mary Zobenica, at Venice, leans considerably to one side. So also at
Ravenna, I took notice of another stooping tower occasioned by the
ground on that side giving way a little. In the way from Ferrara to
Venice, where the soil is marshy, we see a structure of great antiquity
leaning to one side. We might easily produce other instances of this
nature. When the whole structure of the Garisenda stooped, much of it
fell, as appears by the top of it.

"Bologna, like most of the cities of Italy, has been the seat of many
tragical incidents, affording such rich materials for her novelists.
Amongst others, is one which we give in the words of the excellent
critic by whom it is related. 'The family Geremie of Bologna were at the
head of the Guelphs, and that of the Lambertazzi of the Ghibbelines,
who formed an opposition by no means despicable to the domineering
party. Bonifazio Geremei and Imelda Lambertazzi, forgetting the feuds of
their families, fell passionately in love with each other, and Imelda
received her lover into her house. This coming to her brothers'
knowledge, they rushed into the room where the two lovers were, and
Imelda could scarcely escape, whilst one of the brothers plunged a
dagger, poisoned after the Saracen fashion, into Bonifazio's breast,
whose body wa