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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1822 Excerpt:... advantage of that conveyance, had we not been informed that the road from Otranto to Naples was infested by robbers, and impassable to carriages; we, therefore, preferred taking our passage on board a trabaccolo; she was one of the ships employed to import corn from Barletta to Corfu, and was about to return on ballast. We learnt afterwards, from a more authentic quarter, that the horrid description given to us of the Otranto road was a complete misrepresentation, originating in the total ignorance of the individuals who had drawn so highly a coloured picture of the dangers and miseries of the journey. The road from Otranto to Barletta is unquestionably better than from the latter place to Naples. At Otranto, the tedium of quarantine is likewise much diminished, by the great liberty given to travellers, who, after pledging their honour not to communicate with the peasantry, are even allowed to make shooting excursions in the neighbourhood of the town. At Barletta the traveller is shut up in a dirty building, the court-yard of which is hardly sufficiently extensive to allow him to stretch his limbs, torpid by confinement: at Barletta the traveller in quarantine is treated as a convict; at Otranto he is allowed the comforts of a prisoner on parole. Considering the proximity of the Ionian Islands to the coast of Italy, I was surprised to find the garrison, generally speaking, entirely ignorant of the state of the neighbouring country. It has been remarked that soldiers, placed for any length of time in one town, lose all activity of mind, and become indifferent to surrounding objects; to the truth of the observation I feel inclined to assent. The only amusement of a soldier, garrisoned at such a place as Corfu, is sauntering on the fortifications, lounging th...