Fancy has here amused itself by composing interminable
arabesques where the most fantastic figures wind and twine. All forms
are here. The imagination is at last fatigued by this vast gallery of
abnormal shapes, where in stormy weather the sea makes rough assaults
which have ended in polishing all ruggedness.
You will find under a naturally vaulted roof, of a boldness imitated
from afar by Brunelleschi (for the greatest efforts of art are always
the timid copying of effects of nature), a rocky hollow polished like
a marble bath-tub and floored with fine white sand, in which is four
feet of tepid water where you can bathe without danger. You walk on,
admiring the cool little covers sheltered by great portals; roughly
carved, it is true, but majestic, like the Pitti palace, that other
imitation of the whims of Nature. Curious features are innumerable;
nothing is lacking that the wildest imagination could invent or
desire.
There even exists a thing so rare on the rocky shores of ocean that
this may be the solitary instance of it,--a large bush of box.
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