But to know the common people, and to feel truly in
Italy, I ought to speak and understand the spoken Italian well, and
I am now cultivating this sedulously. If I remain, I shall have, for
many reasons, advantages for observation and enjoyment, such as are
seldom permitted to a foreigner.
I forgot to mention one little thing rather interesting. At the
_Miserere_ of the Sistine chapel, I sat beside Goethe's favorite
daughter-in-law, Ottilia, to whom I was introduced by Mrs. Jameson.
TO R.F.F.
_Florence, July_ 1, 1847.--I do not wish to go through Germany in
a hurried way, and am equally unsatisfied to fly through Italy; and
shall, therefore, leaving my companions in Switzerland, take a servant
to accompany me, and return hither, and hence to Rome for the autumn,
perhaps the winter. I should always suffer the pain of Tantalus
thinking of Rome, if I could not see it more thoroughly than I have
as yet even begun to; for it was all _outside_ the two months, just
finding out where objects were. I had only just begun to know them,
when I was obliged to leave. The prospect of returning presents many
charms, but it leaves me alone in the midst of a strange land.
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