The females too are remarkably industrious and will work like horses all the week to gain wherewithal to appear smart on holidays.  Their dress is very becoming, and they wear sometimes jewellery to a large amount on their persons; a very common ornament among them is a collar of gold around their necks.  Their usual head-dress is either a white straw hat, or a black round beaver hat, with black ostrich feathers.  I prefer the straw hat; it is more tasteful than the round hat which always seems to me too masculine for a woman.  At the inn at Le Maschere we were waited on by three smart females.  The whole road from Le Maschere to Florence is very beautiful and diversified.  Vineyards, gardens, farm houses and villas thicken as one approaches and when arrived within three miles of Florence, which lies in a basin surrounded by mountains, one is quite bewildered at the sight of the quantity of beautiful villas and maisons de plaisance in every direction.

Every thing indicates life, industry and comfort in this charming country.  We stopped at a villa belonging to the Grand Duke called II Pratolino, seven miles distant from Florence.  Here is to be seen the famous statue representing the genius of the Appennines.  The Villa is unfurnished and out of repair and the garden and grounds are neglected:  it is a great pity, for it is a fine building and in a beautiful position.  The celebrated Bianca Capello, a Venetian by birth, and mistress of Francesco II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, used to reside here.

FLORENCE, 27th August.

I am extremely well pleased with my accommodations at the hotel where I am lodged.  Mme Hembert, the proprietor, was once femme de chambre to the Empress Josephine; she is an excellent woman and a very attentive hostess, and I recommend her hotel to all those travellers who visit Florence and do not care to incur the expence of Schneider’s.  There is an excellent and well served table d’hote at two o’clock, wine at discretion, for which, and for my bedroom, I pay seven paoli per day.  This hotel has the advantage of being in a very central situation.  It is close to the Piazza del Gran Duca, the post-office, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Bureaux of Government, the celebrated Gallery of Sculpture and Painting and to the Arno.  It is only 300 yards from the Piazza del Duomo, where the Cathedral stands, and 600 yards from the principal theatre Della Pergola on the one side; while on the other side, after crossing the Ponte Vecchio, stands the Palazzo Pitti, the residence of the Grand Duke, at a distance of seven or 800 yards.