And to both my companions, but especially to George Eliot, the great beauty of the scene we entered on gave the keenest pleasure.
Assuredly Saint Romuald in selecting a site for his Camaldolese did not derogate from the apparently instinctive wisdom which seems to have inspired the founders of monasteries of every order and in every country of Europe.

Invariably the positions of the religious houses were admirably well chosen; and that of Camaldoli is no exception to the rule.

The convent is not visible from the spot where the visitor enters the forest boundary which marks the limit of the monastic domain.

Nearly an hour's ride through scenery increasing in beauty with each step, where richly green lawns well stocked with cattle are contrasted wonderfully with the arid desolation so recently left behind, has still to be done ere the convent's hospitable door is reached.
The convent door, however, in our case was not reached, for the building used for the reception of visitors, and called the _forestieria_, occupies its humble position by the road side a hundred yards or so before the entrance to the monastery is reached.

There Antonio halted his cavalcade, and while showing us our quarters with all the air of a master, sent one of his attendant lads to summon the _padre forestieraio_--the monk deputed by the society to receive strangers.
Had our party consisted of men only, we should have been received in the convent, where there was a very handsome suite of rooms reserved for the purpose.