EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CARRIAGES
Rome to Florence, by the way of Viterbo, Sienna, Leghorn, Pisa, Lucca, and Pistoia, for six Italian pistoles apiece; which was somewhat too dear a rate, tho', 'tis true, calashes were very scarce at Rome when we left it."[1]
Taylor, in his turn, remarks: "Travelling with a vetturino is unquestionably the pleasantest way of seeing Italy. The easy rate of the journey allows time for becoming well acquainted with the country, and the tourist is freed from the annoyance of quarrelling with cheating landlords. A translation of our written contract will best explain this mode of travelling: 'Our contract is, to be conducted to Rome for the sum of twenty francs each, say 20f. and the buona mano, if we are well served. We must have from the vetturino, Giuseppe Nerpiti, supper each night, a free chamber with two beds, and fire, until we shall arrive at Rome. I Geronymo Sartarelli, steward of the Inn of the White Cross, at Foligno, in testimony of the above contract.'"[2]
In this fashion James Edward Smith made his tour in 1786 from Pisa to Florence and thence to Rome. His carriage had two wheels and a speed of about four miles an hour. "We engaged a voiturin to convey us both (from Pisa) to Florence, forty-nine miles, for fifty pauls (not twenty-five shillings), to be fed by the way into the bargain. To our astonishment, we were excellently accommodated; and we made use of this same honest fellow, whose name was Diego Baroncello, to carry us over most parts of Italy.[3] We never had a word of dispute all the way."[4]
Most tourists who could afford the time and the money went as far as Naples, commonly with a vetturino. The invaluable Misson[5] tells us: "The journey from Rome to Naples is usually perform'd thus: the travellers hire either horses or carriages, or both together, that they may have the advantage of easing themselves by change: and the person with whom they agree at Rome, every passenger paying fifteen piasters,[6] obliges himself to give them eight meals in their journey outwards, and as many in their return; to stay five whole days at Naples, to pay the boat at Cajeta, to lend his horses one day to Vesuvius, and
65
- ↑ New Voyage to Italy, i2, 550.
- ↑ Views Afoot, pp. 102, 403.
- ↑ He agreed to take them from Florence to Rome "for ten sequins, all accommodation included." Tour on the Continent, i, 339.
- ↑ Ibid., i, 297.
- ↑ New Voyage to Italy, i2, 540.
- ↑ Nugent in his Grand Tour (1756), iii, 378, repeats Misson's information, except that he states the charge at fifteen crowns instead of fifteen piasters; and adds: "You pay your own expences at Naples, board and lodging one crown a day each person, and half a crown for your servant." William Bromley at the end of the seventeenth century paid seventeen crowns for the trip from Rome to Naples and back, having five days at Naples. His trip is essentially Misson's. See Several Years' Travels, etc., p. 122.
