Gleanings in Europe: Italy, Volume I follows James Fenimore Cooper from Milan through Lodi, Piacenza, Parma, Modena, and Bologna to Florence and the Tuscan region, combining descriptions of roads, inns, cities, architecture, and works of art with the observations of an independent-minded American traveler. Cooper admires Correggio, the Florentine collections, Pisa’s monuments, and the port of Leghorn while also commenting on Austrian troops, aristocratic and popular life, Tuscan manners, travel customs, and the comic or frustrating incidents that repeatedly shape his journey. His audience with the Grand Duke of Tuscany and his experiences of Florentine society and carnival lead him into broader reflections on monarchy, aristocracy, national character, and the way easier travel brings different peoples and political ideas into closer contact.
