To-morrow
morning, the bare hills would stand out once more in all their
pristine bareness; the white roads would shine forth as white and
dusty as ever; the obtrusive rubbish heaps would press themselves
at every turn upon eye and nostril. She hated the place, to say
the truth; it was a terror to her to think she had to stop so long
in it.
Most famous towns, in fact, need to be twice seen: the first time
briefly to face the inevitable disappointment to our expectations;
the second time, at leisure, to reconstruct and appraise the
surviving reality. Imagination so easily beggars performance.
Rome, Cairo, the Nile, are obvious examples; the grand exceptions
are Venice and Florence,--in a lesser degree, Bruges, Munich, Pisa.
As for Umbria, 'tis a poor thing; our own Devon snaps her fingers
at it.
Moreover, to say the truth, Herminia was too fresh to Italy to
appreciate the smaller or second-rate towns at their real value.
Even northerners love Florence and Venice at first sight; those
take their hearts by storm; but Perugia, Siena, Orvieto, are an
acquired taste, like olives and caviare, and it takes time to
acquire it.
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