As many authors writing of Italian journeys around the end of the 19th century, Montgomery Carmichael likes to break with the tradition of the Grand Tour leading the reader off the beaten track with his Tuscan Towns, Tuscan Types and the Tuscan Tongue, published in London in 1901.The British consular official was more a long time resident than a traveler and he is able, in the first part of the book, to offer us an almost anthropological collection of Tuscan types of the time.
After a interesting middle section about the many difficulties of the Tuscan dialect, our author chooses five towns to explore the ways and the habits of our cities: Livorno, Lucca, Pisa, Volterra and Portoferraio and the island of Elba.
One of the many fascinating features of the chapter about Livorno is a set of photographies, by a Dr. Pietro Rossini, portraying some typical scenes in still easily recognizable places around town.Carmichael signed off his book in “Livorno la Cara” (Leghorn the Dear) on December 31, 1900.
Original captions of the above photos:
A Levantine Trader - The Majesty of the Law
Water from the public founts - Two Policemen (New Uniform)
What Delays the Letters - Coral Girls
See also: Leghorn “la Cara”
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