[fragment unreadable in scan of first edition]
Finally we reached Messina. The surroundings of the city are majestic; but the entrance to the pier, when sailing from Malta, Africa or Greece, is quite difficult for sailing ships: you have to turn sharply, rounding the spit at such a point where the current is strongest, because Charybdis is already close. Ships often have to adjust for a very long time, and sometimes even have to be towed. The port is semi-circular, in the middle of which our ship stopped and dropped anchor.
Despite the fact that we arrived on the Sicilian steamship, and were provided with quarantine equipment from the Sicilian Consul, we were surrounded and kept on board the ship for the whole day: each passenger was called one by one, and all under the guise of precautions against the plague. I admit, I'm pretty bored with this; I impatiently wanted to go ashore and walk along the embankment; many residents had already gathered in the city, who, it seemed, also wanted to see the newly arrived guests. But there was nothing to be damned! At least there is time to look around the pier. It is formed by a long spit, running directly from the eastern side of the coast. This spit protects the pier from the tides and is completely protected from the tide; therefore Messina harbor is the most reliable and calmest that can be. In addition, it is well protected by a fortress built at the very beginning of the spit, and by four redoubts at its end. In the pier, on the city side, a beautiful Fountain represents Neptune holding the monsters Charybdis and Scylla in the sky.
,Finally we were let off the ship. I sent my servant to take a room for me in the tavern, while I stayed to walk along the embankment. Oh, it's beautiful; It is about two miles long, like a crescent, and the houses on it are magnificent, two and three stories high. The width of the embankment, from the houses to the sea, is 46 fathoms. here is the favorite and best promenade of the residents, because the air is constantly freshened by the sea breeze from the fast current of the strait. Having walked until I was full, and it seemed that I had aroused the curiosity of the local public with my kurazhka and Cossack half-coat, I sent him to a tavern to rest.
The owner fussed around me a lot, calling me either Monsignor, then Yotelenets, or Signor Pringipe. I was very aware that the next day my going to the tavern would be bloated because of this, but I didn’t want to contradict him. Signor Printapé had some fish, drank a glass of Syracuse wine, and went to bed. Fortunately, the bed was soft, the sheets were quite thin and clean, and I had a good rest until the morning.
No matter how ancient the city of Messina is, it is only 0 years old; The last earthquake, in 4783, destroyed it to the ground. It was the fifth or sixth, preterized by him into one table.
Little by little, the city was restored, new buildings took revenge on the old ones; but the horror of the earthquake is still noticeable everywhere: with the exception of the embankment, the newly built houses are low; It's rare to see one taller than two floors. On the edge of the city there are shacks in which the inhabitants took refuge during times of adversity; it was still built up, as if to serve as a refuge in the event of a new god.
The earthquake not only destroyed the area of Messina, but also caused a disruption in its trade. Until that time, she was considered one of the most active and richest merchants in Italy; now it is completely different: its trade has fallen significantly, and despite its growth, it cannot return to its previous level. Residents dropped to 75 thousand people.
In its present state, Messina is nevertheless quite a cheerful and lively city. The streets in it are wide, and since the houses in them are not very high, they seem even wider. The best thing about the city is the cathedral: it is great, and its architecture is mixed, from the Gothic, 21th century, to the patterned 18th century.
It has two beautiful rows of columns of Egyptian granite: they say they were transported here from the Temple of Neptune. Their noble and austere simplicity is completely different from the heavy and massive gilding of the altars, and all this collection of tasteless and indecent decorations for the morning eyes. I have not seen any other buildings worthy of the Zamfa residents. Everything here is smeared with yellow paint. They say that the Viceroy once announced his position to the city, and the Governor here, not knowing how best to show his city, ordered everything to be painted with ocher; He didn’t even spare the marble columns: he even coated them with T6!