_5th._ It rained heavily this morning, but cleared up before we left Sienna. The country at first is rather barren and hilly, but improves the nearer we approach to Florence. Tavernelle, where we stopped to dine and bait the horses, is a small and insignificant village; the country beyond it becomes very pretty; the road is bordered with neat villages and villas, from the gardens of which immense clusters of roses hang over the walls, and the distant hills are covered with fine wood, and with the beautiful fan pine. We saw Florence in the valley of the Arno long before we reached it; in itself smaller than I expected it, but surrounded on all sides by innumerable villas and hamlets, peeping through the fine woods, or standing in the midst of beautifully cultivated fields. We entered the city by the Porta Romana, a plain old brick gateway, and drove to the Hôtel de l'Europe, where we were splendidly and comfortably lodged.
_6th-9th._ We remained these days at Florence, that Sir Humphry might a little recruit his strength; and during this time, at intervals when he did not want me to read to him, I saw as much as I could of the curiosities of this magnificent capital. The celebrated gallery, which is perhaps its greatest attraction, I was only able just to look at, having but two hours to devote to it. The anatomical cabinet of preparations in wax is undoubtedly the finest thing of its kind existing, and shows what effects patience and perseverance can produce, being chiefly the work of one person. Many rooms are filled with glass cases, containing the most beautiful and exact representations of the structure of the human body in all its parts, moulded in wax. The finest and most intricate parts of the human frame are delineated and traced with a distinctness and exactitude hardly to be conceived, and the slightest ramifications of the nerves and vessels have been followed with a clearness and accuracy rarely seen in the most exact preparations of the best cabinets of anatomy. The collection is not confined only to the anatomy of the human body, but contains also numerous specimens of comparative anatomy, amongst which is a most beautiful one of a fish, with all its internal organs. In the museum annexed to the anatomical cabinet are also three representations of the plague at Florence, describing this terrific scourge with a horrible and disgusting accuracy. This, and all other collections, are open on certain days, and at fixed hours, to the public, and any one is allowed to enter, and without paying.