2-982-499 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Port of Leghorn, 1858. Livorno in Italy, '...a town of considerable trade, importing corn, woollens, cottons, hardware, and salt-fish; exporting silk in thread or manufactured, straw hats, oil, iron from the first Napoleon's petty empire of Elba, potash, alabaster, and coral. About six hundred foreign vessels annually enter its busy port, and at least two thousand coasting-vessels...Its imports some few years since were valued at nearly £3,000,009 annually; its exports at £2,500,000...Leghorn is situated on the slope which descends from the hills of Montenero, at the southern angle of a marshy and barren level lying between those hills and the River Arno...a railroad now connects the busy port with its sister city, Florence...The harbour is of tolerable dimensions, with a mole upwards of a mile in length, terminated by a lighthouse; both mole and lighthouse, as we have said, were erected by Cosmo I. Vessels of heavy burden do not enter the harbour, but lie in the offing, where there is excellent anchorage. Small craft are admitted into the darsena, an interior harbour or dock'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.