[Genoa—Wednesday, 11 January 1860]
Wednesday 11th The morning was soft and the view from the windows of our Hotel l’Italie something inspiring. The full moon was in the sky as we arose silvering the harbor in gorgeous contrast to the rays of the sun gilding the light-house top. The forests of masts on the blue water, the cries of the boatmen, separated from us only by a magnificent colonnade already crowded with busy market people was all so foreign to us that we never for a moment imagined ourselves elsewhere than in Genoa. And this is one of the distinctive pleasures and features of Genoa. One can never forget that it lives and you are a very busy and practical individual in it, nevertheless the past lives here with an ever-present reality which more than any thing I ever saw represents the glory and actuality of things that were.
