BOSTON New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street 1884 Copyright, 1884, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge: PREFACE. PURLIA THE ordinary traveler too often resembles that little animal which carries his house on his back. Whenever he meets with anything that conflicts with his experience or prejudices, he retires within himself, and can with difficulty be induced to examine what he disapproves. Italy has especially suffered from the hasty judgments of unsympathetic travelers. But let any fair-minded person live here for a number of years and he cannot fail to perceive the reasonableness of much that once astonished and perhaps offended him; and on this better knowledge will follow charity and, not unfrequently, admiration. To contribute in some small degree towards a right understanding of Italian habits and customs is the purpose of this little book. |