They are generally placed near a fountain, the water of
which is conducted through a _canna_ into the centre of the booth, and
there, finding its own level again, makes a little spilling fountain
from which the _bibite_ are diluted. Here for a _baiocco_ one buys
lemonade or orangeade and all sorts of curious little drinks or
_bibite_, with a feeble taste of anisette or some other herb to take
off the mawkishness of the water,--or for a half-_baiocco_ one may have
the lemonade without sugar, and in this way it is usually drunk. On all
_festa_-days, little portable tables are carried round the streets,
hung to the neck of the _limonaro_, and set down at convenient spots,
or whenever a customer presents himself, and the cries of "_Acqua
fresca,--limonaro, limonaro,--chi vuol bere?_" are heard on all sides;
and I can assure you, that, after standing on tiptoe for an hour in the
heat and straining your neck and head to get sight of some Church
procession, you are glad enough to go to the extravagance of even a
lemonade with sugar; and smacking your lips, you bless the institution
of the _limonaro_ as one which must have been early instituted by the
Good Samaritan. Listen to his own description of himself in one of the
popular _canzonetti_ sung about the streets by wandering musicians to
the accompaniment of a violin and guitar:--
"Ma per altro son uomo ingegnoso,
Non possiedo, ma sono padrone;
Vendo l' acqua con spirto e limone
Finche dura d' estate il calor.
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