The only circumstance which displeased me was, that every where, even in the chief streets, the people dry clothes on large poles at balconies and windows.

This makes the town look as though it were inhabited by a race of washerwomen.

I should not even mind so much if they were clean clothes; but I frequently saw the most disgusting rags fluttering in front of splendid houses.

Unfortunately this barbarous custom prevails throughout the whole of Sicily; and even in Naples the hanging out of clothes is only forbidden in the principal street, the Toledo: all the other streets are full of linen.
Among the equipages, which were rolling to and fro in great numbers, I noticed some very handsome ones.

Some were standing still in the great square, while their occupants amused themselves by looking at the bustle around them, and chatted with friends and acquaintances who crowded round the carriages.