Chapter 24 Summary

The excursionists are burned out on travel by the time they reach Florence. Twain admits that he didn't even bother to take notes in Bologna and Pistoia. His description of Florence is not exactly a pleasant or exciting one and he tells the reader (rather apologetically) "How the fatigues and annoyances of travel fill one with bitter prejudices sometimes! I might enter Florence under happier auspices a month hence and find it all beautiful, all attractive. But I do not care to think of it now at all..." His attitude is most likely due to an unpleasant encounter one night when he wandered off and got lost. He came upon the city gates and asked the guards where his hotel was. They arrested him. After begging them to bring him to the hotel, a soldier agreed to escort Twain, but then they both...