一八四四年，已是成名作家的狄更斯舉家赴義大利渡假一年。此時的他三十二歲，此時的義大利猶是一個四分五裂的地區。下面三小段是他作別翡冷翠，離開義大利的心情文字。
Beyond the walls, the whole sweet Valley of the Arno, the convent at Fiesole, the Tower of Galileo, BOCCACCIO'S house, old villas and retreats; innumerable spots of interest, all glowing in a landscapeof surpassing beauty steeped in the richest light; are spread before us. Returning from so much brightness, how solemn and how grand the streets again, with their great, dark, mournful palaces, and many legends: not of siege, and war, and might, and Iron Hand alone, but of the triumphant growth of peaceful Arts and Sciences.
越過牆外，一望無際展現在我們眼前，是阿諾河美麗河谷的全貌，還有座落於費葉索里的修院、伽利略的高塔、薄伽丘的寓所、古老的別院別莊、數不清的勝地，千嬌百媚，都在這一片浸浴無限光華的景緻中綻放光芒。從如此耀目的視野回來，這些街道愈顯得肅穆莊嚴，它們那高大沉雄蒼涼的宮室，以及背後多少傳奇舊事：不但是慘烈激昂的圍城與戰事、權勢與鐵腕的高壓統治，更有藝術、科學祥寧的成長凱歌。
What light is shed upon the world, at this day, from amidst these rugged Palaces of Florence! Here, open to all comers, in their beautiful and calm retreats, the ancient Sculptors are immortal, side by side with Michael Angelo, Canova, Titian, Rembrandt, Raphael, Poets, Historians, Philosophers - those illustrious men ofhistory, beside whom its crowned heads and harnessed warriors show so poor and small, and are so soon forgotten. Here, the imperishable part of noble minds survives, placid and equal, when strongholds of assault and defence are overthrown; when the tyranny of the many, or the few, or both, is but a tale; when Pride and Power are so much cloistered dust. The fire within the stern streets, and among the massive Palaces and Towers, kindled by rays from Heaven, is still burning brightly, when the flickering of waris extinguished and the household fires of generations have decayed; as thousands upon thousands of faces, rigid with the strife and passion of the hour, have faded out of the old Squares and public haunts, while the nameless Florentine Lady, preserved from oblivion by a Painter's hand, yet lives on, in enduring grace and youth.
翡冷翠的宮室已舊，可是即使今天，何等的光耀仍在熠照世界！上古的雕刻家，在美麗沉靜的別莊內向所有的人開放，永垂不朽，與米開朗基羅、卡諾瓦、提香、林布蘭、拉斐爾、詩人、史家、哲人比肩併立──和這些史上的輝煌巨人比起來，那些側身一旁的戴冠的君侯、披甲的戰士，顯得多麼渺小、貧乏，多麼快便被歷史湮忘。在此，高貴心靈那不滅的一線馨香，嬝嬝長存，平和、沉靜。攻防的堅固堡壘，卻都已傾頹潰散。暴民、暴君，徒留故事在人間；驕矜、權勢，也封隱盡成塵灰。面目嚴峻的街道內、高大的宮室樓塔間，火燄依然燦亮焚照，是上天降下的光芒點燃，搖曳的兵燹卻已滅盡，幾世的爐火俱已敗熄；千張萬張來去的臉容，為一時的傾軋、激動而嚴峻，都已從舊日的門庭、公眾的廣場消失、淡褪。只有那不知名的翡冷翠仕女，因畫家手從湮滅保存下來，永遠年輕、永遠雍容、永遠地活著。
Let us look back on Florence while we may, and when its shining Dome is seen no more, go travelling through cheerful Tuscany, with a bright remembrance of it; for Italy will be the fairer for therecollection. The summer-time being come: and Genoa, and Milan, and the Lake of Como lying far behind us: and we resting at Faido, a Swiss village, near the awful rocks and mountains, theeverlasting snows and roaring cataracts, of the Great Saint Gothard: hearing the Italian tongue for the last time on this journey: let us part from Italy, with all its miseries and wrongs, affectionately, in our admiration of the beauties, natural and artificial, of which it is full to overflowing, and in our tenderness towards a people, naturally well-disposed, and patient, and sweet-tempered. Years of neglect, oppression, and misrule,have been at work, to change their nature and reduce their spirit; miserable jealousies, fomented by petty Princes to whom union was destruction, and division strength, have been a canker at their root of nationality, and have barbarized their language; but the good that was in them ever, is in them yet, and a noble people may be, one day, raised up from these ashes. Let us entertain that hope! And let us not remember Italy the less regardfully, because, in every fragment of her fallen Temples, and every stone of her deserted palaces and prisons, she helps to inculcate the lesson that the wheel of Time is rolling for an end, and that the worldis, in all great essentials, better, gentler, more forbearing, and more hopeful, as it rolls!
啊趁我們猶能之際，回首再望一眼翡冷翠，當視線再也不能望及那輝熠的圓頂，便向入目愉悅的塔斯坎尼繼續前行，帶著它明亮燦爛的記憶在心頭。因為心中有它，回想之際義大利將變得更為美好。夏日的腳步近了，熱那亞、米蘭、科摩湖，都已遠遠拋在我們身後，我們在瑞士一處小村Faido過夜，聖哥達山脈的崇石峻嶺、終年不化的積雪、怒吼奔流的飛瀑，就在左近拔起雄峙。這是我們在旅途上最後一回聽見義大利語了。就在此作別義大利吧，縱有它各種的不是與不幸，卻在它千種風情、萬般姿態，在它人為的、自然的、流溢滿洩的美麗裡，懷著溫柔不捨的心情，向原本天生和氣、甜蜜、善良、堅忍的義大利民告別了。多年的疏忽、迫害、失政、混亂、蹂躪，破壞了他們的本性，墮落了他們的精神。那些視統一、聯合為仇讎的小公小爵，為不幸的忌恨搧火加溫，再加上分裂的勢力，俱都像癰毒般啃嚙著他們民族的根、使他們的語言日趨下作野蠻。但是他們心中良善的本質，過去在，今天依然也在；一支高貴的民族，有一天，或將再度從這些灰燼之中重生，崛起。讓我們懷抱著這份光明的希望！讓我們對義大利的回憶，不因此減低半分敬意。因為在每座倒塌神廟的殘破之中，在每一塊廢棄宮室與監獄的石塊之上，它都為人類記載了永恒的教訓：那就是時間之輪，並非隨意漫轉，乃是向一個目標滾動。隨著它的滾動，人世間那所有最偉大的精華，都不斷變為更美好、更溫柔、更容忍、更有希望！
