A desert or fruit concludes the repast. Wine is drank at
discretion. The wine of Lombardy is light and not ill flavored; it is far
weaker than any wine I know of, but it has an excellent quality, that of
facilitating digestion. A cup of strong coffee is generally made for you in
the morning, for which you pay three or four _soldi_ (sous), and in giving
five or six _soldi_ to the waiter, all your expenses are paid supposing you
are _spesato_, i.e., that the _vetturino_ pays for your supper and bed; if
not, your charges are left to the conscience of the aubergiste, which in
Italy is in general of prodigious width. I therefore advise every traveller
who goes with a _vetturino_ to be a spesato, otherwise he will have to pay
four or five times as much and not be a whit better regaled. The
_vetturini_ generally pay from three to three and a half francs for the
supper and bed of their passengers. As the _vetturini_ invariably make a
halt of an hour and half or two hours at mid-day in some town or village,
this halt enables you to take your _dejeuner a la fourchette_, which you
pay for yourself, unless you stipulate for the payment of that also with
the _vetturino_ by paying something more, say one a half franc per diem for
that.
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