Wet all day.

Awoke at 4. The caged blackbird. Rose at 5 & was all ready to follow destiny. At cafè, paid Fernando Gallina 10 francs, which he well deserved, & with wh. he was content. Walked with G. about the town. people ugly. ― rain commencing. Resolved to go to Sestri, & hired a carriage for 15 fr. ― paid Oste who said, (“sono poco ― non so scrivere.”1 )  & at 7.30 off in a small vehicle drawn by a black “ponlekòs.” The driver did not take my fancy, being violent, just out of the town a white ass was brought & tied on with ropes, ― but zigzagged more than my head could bear, considering the precipitous sides of the road. So I got out & walked ― & walked on to the end of the day, G. being in the car. There were more picturesque passes down to Bonasola,2 but soon afterwards a thick mist came on , & rain at times, ― so beyond dark & deep precipices, I saw nothing till at 10 we reached the top of the pass, & the ass returned. (A man overtook us here, sent by the Oste for my name.) G. to Costella then went on, ― I walked still ― & got [wetted], arriving at the high Genoa road at a single home called La Baracca at 11. Here we had some eggs & wine, & staid one hour. Then I set off walking again ― all mist however, ― & nothing visible. 12.30 car passes me: road broad, its stone-fringed edges only seen in mist, all else blotted out. ― 1 walking on ― rain always: mist clearing off somewhat, & gleams of dim large mountain sublimities, opened, & shut 1.15. Chesnuts; descent: nightingales. 1 Beggar. 1 Cuckoo. ― 1.30 the view below clears, & shows a pretty village ― Moneglia. The name I learn from a postillion, dressed in trousers of yellow deer skin, given him by a ‘corriere di famiglia’!3 ― He also said “So bene che voi fate per la strada ferrata, e non vi voglio altro che bene: ma intanto sei di quei che fanno piangere noi altri postiglioni, e ci prendon via nostro pane.”4 ― Another large village above the last , a man told me was Lerniccio. This man, unlike folk hereabouts ― says ― “Inglese? oui? I speek English; was twenty, yes, ten months in Birmingham, oui, in all your land toujours, and sounded one organ. Good-bye!” 1.50 ― pass through Bracco: several Campanili hereabouts are beautiful. 2.30 one beggar: mountain pass [always]: came in sight of the other side ― plain of Sestri, & Portofino. ― 3.15 [below: am able, but not willing to perceive the long straight road leading straight to Sestri.] From 3.30, a long & dirty road, led me at 4.30 to Sestri, where at the Hotel d’Europa I found G. ― Washed, & at 5.30 dined.
At 6.30 utterly sleepy, & went to bed.

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

  1. This may either mean “[the money] is too little ― I cannot write,” or perhaps “I am not worth much ― I cannot write.” [↩]
  2. Bonassola. [↩]
  3. Family courier (?). [↩]
  4. I know very well that you are one of those who take the railway, and I do like you: however, you are one of those who make us postillions cry, and take away our bread. [↩]