Florence
Decr 9th 1822
My dear Henry
We think you had better take rooms for us for a week in an Inn as we said before as we are still undecided about staying at Rome now (surely Naples must be better during this wet weather). There are three new bridges on the Sienna road which they say make it the best as it is the shortest but both are I believe equally vile with regard to Inns. When the time comes for our departure from Florence we shall determine which road to take till then we change our minds daily but we shall certainly be at Rome on the 21st & see you after an absence of 4 years! (I think) I am much obliged for the introduction to the Professor Raddi <1> & intend making a good use of it. We have been this very day to the Accademia delle Bell’Arte where we <illegible deletion> saw the cast of the new Venus she may be very fine but Statues have very few charms for me particularly when larger than the life; <illegible deletion> I shd say he must be a bold man who wd say it is as fine as the Venus de Medici but whatever the French possess they are sure to think finer than anything else. Our journey from Paris to Lyons was without any very great interest & we took the road by Troyes & Dijon principally because it went over some of the highest ground in France & consequently we supposed it must be beautifully picturesque instead of which we found a horrid road thro’ a melancholy uninteresting Dorsetshirelike country with wretched inns from Dijon to Lyons, we skirted the Côte D’or one of the richest & yet most lovely lowland countrys <sic> I have yet seen, Lyons is I think full of interest & beauty but more in the neighborhood than the Town itself. Our day for going from Haut de Beauvoir’s by les Echelles de Savoie to Chambery was as fine as we could wish but the Grande Chartreuse is a very sore subject for I was not well enough to undertake the fatigue of the ride & yet I would willingly have submitted to being half killed with the fatigue! – I regret it more than I can tell, only I live in hopes of seeing it some day when we come again which we intend (I was delighted with the whole drive to Cha <missing text> <2> where we stayed two days & I enjoyed <missing text> neighborhood tho’ we were not able to make any very long excursions. From Lanslebourg to Turin a snowy, rainy & eventually a thick foggy day we could not see two yards before us neither at <Lasa?> cd hope go to the triumphant Arch or see anything in that beautifull <sic> Valley – We had fine weather at Turin & a lovely day at the <Lupirga?> the chain of Alps was beautiful & Mt Viso preeminently so – I rode up on a Donkey who tumbled me into the dirt notwithstanding which I think that the best way of being conveyed where the road is steep & the scenery fine. Let us hear soon where you have taken rooms for us, as letters are 6 days comming <sic> from Rome & likewise tell me anything I am particularly to remark on the road. I do not expect to find many plants at this time of year tho’ I get delicious nosegays here.
Yours affly
Jane H. Nicholl
à Monsr
Monsieur W. H. Talbot
Palazzo Civa
Via Magnanapoli
à Roma
Notes:
1. Joseph (Giuseppe) Raddi (1770–1829), Italian botanist.
2. Text torn away under seal.