Submitted by scott on Sun, 02/12/2012 - 11:26

Mark Twain travels through Bolognia, Pistoia, and into Florence. Because of the fatigue from the journey as well as the distain he feels for Florence's treatment of Galileo and Dante, he does not speak highly of Florence. Apparently, some years in the future he does change his mind about the place as he chooses to live there for some time, at least circa 1902. He writes of the mosaics and the maltreatment received by the artists, or "pensioners". He then travels to Pisa and climbs the Leaning Tower. Twain writes of the "old original patriarchal Pendulum--the Abraham Pendulum of the world". This is the lamp hanging from the ceiling of the Baptistery that inspired Galileo. Twain then travels on to Leghorn and returns to his ship, the Quaker City. The threat of quarantine in Naples prompts two or three of the travelers to jump ship and travel to Civita aboard a French steamer. I've again tried to create an instructive slideshow that includes images from Wikipedia Commons as well as the original illustrations from the book. The slideshow was created using the open source program Imagination. The audio was recorded live using Audacity.

Reading Date
October 11, 2011
SL Venue
Fate Gardens

Twain Chapter Comments

I have actually attached the letter, published in Daily Alta California on September 16, 1867, to chapter 25. I'd like to move it to this chapter but this will take some research into Drupal modules. I don't want to upload a second copy of the letter to this site. In this letter is his description of the gunboat "set to watch the Quaker City at Leghorn", as per McKeithan.

SLC and companions departed Venice by train, passing through Bologna and Pistoia overnight.  

23 July SLC and companions arrived in Florence; QC departed Genoa, 7:00 p.m.  

24 July\ QC arrived at Leghorn, 7:00 a.m.  

25 July SLC and companions departed Florence on the noon train for Pisa, where they spent two hours; they arrived at Leghorn in the evening and boarded the ship.