The country
is much the same as that which we have already passed thro', being a plain,
with a rich alluvial soil, mulberry trees and a number of solidly built
stone farmhouses. The next morning at eleven o'clock we arrived at Piacenza
on the Po, and were detained a quarter of an hour at the _Douane_ of Her
Majesty the Archduchess, as Maria Louisa, the present Duchess of Parma, is
stiled, we being now arrived in her dominions. We drove to the _Hotel di
San Marco_, which is close to the _Piazza Grande_, and alighted there. On
the Piazza stands the _Hotel de Ville_, and in front of it are two
equestrian statues in bronze of the Princes Farnesi; the statues, however,
of the riders appear much too small in proportion with the horses, and they
resemble two little boys mounted on Lincolnshire carthorses.
I did not visit the churches and palaces in this city from not having time
and, besides, I did not feel myself inclined or _bound_ (as some travellers
think themselves) to visit every church and every town in Italy. I really
believe the _ciceroni_ think that we _Ultramontani_ live in mud hovels in
our own country, and that we have never seen a stone edifice, till our
arrival in Italy, for every town house which is not a shop is termed a
_palazzo_, and they would conduct you to see all of them if you would be
guided by them.
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