The Life of Charles Dickens 'Bye and bye, I came upon a polenta-shop in the clouds, where an old frenchman with an umbrella like a faded tropical leaf (it had not rained in Naples for six weeks) was staring at nothing at all, with a snuff-box in his hand.' An account by Dickens on climbing up Mt Vesuvius during a trip to Naples, Italy in 1853 Illustration by Fred Barnard