Diary of Annie Adams Fields

Saturday 31st Busied packing for Italy.

Sunday 1st of January 1860. The air is mild and the grass green like early spring. The streets are overflowing with half crazed people. We attended Mass at the “Madeleine” and on the way were literally beset by beggars. It is one of the very few days when they are allowed to ask alms in...

Monday January 2d A New Year, a new year; we are obliged to say it again & again in order to believe that 1860 is truly here. Such a warm damp atmosphere covers the great city. They seem sorry to have us leave our snug quarters at the Hotel de l’Empire. They all came out in the street to say...

Tuesday 3d Slept at Marseilles.

Wednesday 4th Completed with much tribulation our arrangements for taking the Coupé in tonight’s diligence from Toulon, I say carefully & with tribulation which was not thrown away because another unfortunate party having done the same on arriving a little late, found us all completely...

Thursday 5th It was nearly mid-day before we reached our pleasant quarters at Nice and it was already raining but we were accustomed to that and looking for nothing else were charmed with the soft air and our comfortable quarters at “La Grande Bretagne.”

Friday 6th Day, unspeakably beautiful. The windows open, oranges in profusion & roses on the table. Dear Jamie brought them in early before the dews were brushed away—and this is January.

Saturday 7th Lovely summer weather. Riding and walking about all day, drinking in the exquisite beauty of this place.

Sunday 8th The sun was basking into our rooms making them like mid-summer when we came to breakfast in our little parlor. Fresh fruit and flowers were awaiting us on the table. We sat reading an hour or two afterwards before driving to “the castle on the hill.” Here was Italy indeed, such...

Monday 9th Left lovely Nice while the moon was yet in the sky on our way to Genoa. It was the Cornic[h]e road (is not its name a very synonym for beauty and wonder?) which we followed all day long, winding out and in among the ever untold “wonders of the shore”. We slept at an inn at...

Tuesday 10th Winding all day again along the shore only stopping once when we gladly jumped out and walked a mile or two beyond. It was almost night when we came to Genoa.

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...

Thursday 12th In Genoa. Wandering through those grand old palaces.

Friday 13th In Genoa. Went to the Pallavicini Villa. A perfectly enchanted scene and enchanting place. Just at sun-set we left Genoa being rowed out, seemingly the only disturbers of that spangled water floating rich with stars; to the little steamer waiting for us.

Saturday 14th Waked this morning to find a yellow sunshine flooding the shores and mountain peaks of Italy. I felt that I had never known before how beautiful this lovely country was or what a dreamful happiness to be here among beauties I had so long thought of and loved. The water was as blue...

Sunday 15th We came to Florence. Utterly fatigued we were obliged to stay in Pisa overnight. The morning was lovely and at 1 o’clk we found ourselves safely landed at the “Grande Bretagne.” The bells were ringing at sun-set as if in mere excess of wonder at such glory. Certainly it was an...

Monday 16th Our first day of sight-seeing. We went about till we were utterly tired just discovering how much there was to see at some other time. Took a heavy cold at the Uffizi. The marble heats and excites your brain but clasps its deadly fingers at your heart. Such inexpressible wonders of...

Tuesday 17th We have been to the Palazzo Vecchio the ancient home of the Medici. Wonderful old place, nor are the statues in front the least wonderful part. Here stands the David of Michael Angelo and at one side the Perseus of Benvenuto Cellini unrivalled in Art and the Rape of the Sabines by...

Wednesday 18th Bad cold at home all day.

Thursday 19th Visited the tomb of Michael Angelo at Santa Croce and his house at the Via Ghibellina.

Friday 20th Called upon Mrs Kennard. She is living in a palace built by Napoleon le premier. The paintings in the drawing-room are superb. Had a nice talk with Dr Wilson about Edinburgh and dear old England.

Saturday 21st At home until the evening when J. and I went to tea at Mrs Stowe’s. Poor Lissie was too ill to go. Mrs Stowe has some fine copies of Fra Angelico angels. Her dramatic power showed itself strikingly in a few stories she told towards the end of the evening. Her daughters were very...

Sunday 22d Such a lovely day as it was. The sun was so bright and warm that the shade of those laurels, hedges and tall trees in the Boboli Gardens was truly refreshing. We walked about among these exquisite promenades till the afternoon when we drove to Bellosguardo. We went to the house where...

Monday 23d At the Corsini Palace among the Carlo Dolci’s. His “Poesia” is here. My picture.

Tuesday 24th Rainy. Nevertheless we went to Falardeau’s and enjoyed his pictures & pretty things immensely.