Had the cathedral been constructed on the plan and dimensions at first
contemplated, it would have been incomparably majestic; the finished
portion, grand as it is, being only what was intended for a transept.
One of the walls of what was to have been the nave is still standing, and
looks like a ruin, though, I believe, it has been turned to account as
the wall of a palace, the space of the never-completed nave being now a
court or street.
The whole family of us were kindly taken out yesterday, to dine and spend
the day at the Villa Belvedere with our friends Mr. and Mrs. Story. The
vicinity of Siena is much more agreeable than that of Florence, being
cooler, breezier, with more foliage and shrubbery both near at hand and
in the distance; and the prospect, Mr. Story told us, embraces a diameter
of about a hundred miles between hills north and south. The Villa
Belvedere was built and owned by an Englishman now deceased, who has left
it to his butler, and its lawns and shrubbery have something English in
their character, and there was almost a dampness in the grass, which
really pleased me in this parched Italy.
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