Linked to my most recent editing:

July of 1867, Mark Twain was in Italy as part of the Quaker City
journey.  He, and some companions, spent a couple of days in Milan and
then departed by train for Lake Como, a very popular spot for today’s
celebrities and other rich folk.  The train took them from Milan to
Como, a town at the southern end of Lake Como, then a steamer to
Bellagio, where they were fumigated for cholera.  

“These miserable outcasts called that “fumigating” us, and the term was
a tame one indeed. They fumigated us to guard themselves against the
cholera, though we hailed from no infected port. We had left the
cholera far behind us all the time. However, they must keep epidemics
away somehow or other, and fumigation is cheaper than soap. They must
either wash themselves or fumigate other people. Some of the lower
classes had rather die than wash, but the fumigation of strangers
causes them no pangs. They need no fumigation themselves. Their habits
make it unnecessary. They carry their preventive with them; they sweat
and fumigate all the day long. I trust I am a humble and a consistent
Christian. I try to do what is right. I know it is my duty to “pray for
them that despitefully use me;” and therefore, hard as it is, I shall
still try to pray for these fumigating, maccaroni-stuffing organ-
grinders.”

Here is a link to a couple of pages from my twainsgeography site.  Much
of these pages include descriptions of the region from Karl Bædeker’s
tour guide of Italy from 1870.  I find it quite interesting to compare
what Bædeker describes with what is found in these regions today – not
to mention what Twain experienced.

https://twainsgeography.com/content/bellagio-and-lake-como