The Innocents Abroad

Traveling by ship again, the company lands in Italy and visits the port city of Genoa, which Twain enjoys for its palaces, high and well-built houses, and fine-looking women. Here they visit the birthplace of Columbus—although the guide later tells them it is actually the birthplace of Columbus’s grandmother.

Milan is the next city on the itinerary. Twain waxes rhapsodic about the cathedral, which he terms “the princeliest creation that ever brain of man conceived” (123). At the same time, the sights in the crypt underneath the main altar, which contains the tombs of such famous people as St. Charles Borromeo, sober him.

Led by their English-mangling guide, the travelers visit the Arch of Peace, then go on to La Scala, the world’s largest opera house. Next comes the Ambrosian Library, which occasions Twain to disapprove the historic romance between Petrarch and Laura.

A fine dinner followed by a leisurely walk down a popular street leads Twain to contrast European ease of life with American hurry and drive. He wishes that business-minded Americans could absorb some of the more graceful European ways.

Twain and some friends take a bath in a public bathhouse, where they discover yet again to their dismay that soap is not available and must be specially sent for.