text:  The high almost the highest Apennines were right a-head; and could we have taken the wings of the bird or of the morning and lighted on any of those peaks at no great distance we should have looked directly down on to the Mediterranean and almost into the gulf of _La Spezzia_; we should have seen the long Ligurian promontory in the distant horizon to the right and have embraced Leghorn Elba Gorgona and the coast as far as _Piombino_ in the opposite direction