NICE.

625

As the road to Nervi passes mid-way round the steep rocks, there lies beneath thetraveller a picturesque coast, rendered cheerful with towns, olive-grounds, and the finestgroves of orange-trees, while palaces, convents, and the most richly-varied foliage, areabove and around. The active, commercial, and flourishing town, which is not of greatextent, is about six miles south-east of Genoa . There are many handsome houses, severalpalaces, and some rich convents in its immediate neighbourhood. Almonds, oranges,grapes, and figs arrive at perfection on the apparently flinty rocks, which here rise to atremendous height above the sea. These fruits, with the olives which are not convertedinto oil, as they are in the valleys of the Savona, are exported in exchange for corn.Though throughout this lee-sliore the swell is sometimes alarming, the surf always high,and the rocks dangerous, the port appears to he secure. Votive chapels erected on theheights arc at once memorials of perils, and of the gratitude of merchants and nobles whohave been delivered from the waves. The people of Nervi are a handsomer race thanthose of Genoa ; and the dark but clear complexion, with its keen black eyes, is more.prevalent than on the western coast.

Chiavari , beautifully situated in the centre of its bay, is surrounded with hills. TheGenoese , appreciating its local and natural advantages from the earliest times, surroundedit with a strong wall, and gave it many privileges to encourage the resort of merchants,who came hither from far to seek its valued products. Salubrious in its climate and soil,and with inhabitants regarded as orderly and industrious, the leprosy has lingered there,after passing from the other parts of Italy . The town is flourishing, its church is hand-some, and in the neighbourhood there are beautiful villas.

Nice is pleasantly situated, being bounded on the north by the maritime Alps , andopen on the south to the sea. The citadel of Mont Albans, on a high and pointed rock,overhangs the town, and the Paglion, a mountain torrent, passes it on the west side,separating it from the suburbs called La Croix de Marbrc, or sometimes the English Quarter, from the number of English who resort to it. In this suburb the housesare painted externally in fresco, and surrounded with gardens containing standardorange and lemon-trees. The town itself is divided into two parts : the old and the newtown. The streets of the former are narrow ; the latter is better laid out, and the housesare painted like those of the English Quarter. There are two squares, one of themsurrounded with porticoes, and very handsome. Adjacent to the other is a raised terrace,which serves as a public walk, and for a defence of the town against the sea. On thisterrace is a statue of no great skill—the Catherine Seguiran who assisted in defendingNice against the Turks. A second promenade is formed by the ramparts of the town.

The environs of Nice combine all the sublimity of mountain scenery with the beauty ofthe richest cultivation. The vines are here trained horizontally on low sticks, and keptvery near the ground, forming a sort of medium between the short bare stems usuallyseen in France , and the luxuriant festoons of the Italian mode of culture. The arbutusalso arrays the rocky banks with its brilliant and redundant berries, flowers, and foliage ;the fig-tree spreads its broad overshadowing leaf; the pomegranate puts forth itsblushing fruit, relieved by the deep shade of the orange and lemon-groves; and then thetall palm rises occasionally, adding by its tufted top an eastern air to the landscape; andthe aloe throws aloft its gigantic arms. With such objects the eye of a traveller requiressome time to become familiar, while if he has never before visited a southern climate, hewill not fail to regard them with unusual interest, mingled, as they are, with the richvineyards, extensive olive-groves, and the minor productions of Piedmont. The stillmore striking and varied sublimity of the ocean is there also to add its peculiar andtranscendent charm to the scenery around Nice. For the wide waters of the tidelessMediterranean wash the base of the mountains, and stretch away along the coast, fadinginto the blue and aerial tints of distance; now apparent in the restless rage of a

2 s