A hundred years ago
Even now, if any very strong-minded traveller should be able to defy the ominous silence of Bradshaw and the neglect of Cook, and more regardful of what has been, than what is, spend a few days in the home of Poverty, he will not regret we think, in after years, his deviation from the accustomed routine of travel; nay, if he gain no other advantage, he will at least have had a brief space in which to take quiet breath, ere the red-books and the valet de place are again in requisition, ere St Peter's becomes No. 17 in the often consulted plan, and Rome takes 'at least a week to see properly.' For at Assisi there is no hurry, and so strong is the spirit of the place that the most energetic tourist quickly succumbs to it; even those who rush over here from Perugia for a day's excursion treading softly, ere they have been a couple of hours in the city of St Francis.
Spectator, 10 May 1879
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