There was a weekly ball at the Pitti Palace, and another at the Casino dei Nobili, which latter was supported entirely by the Florentine aristocracy.

There were two or three balls at the houses of the foreign ministers, and generally one or two given by two or three wealthy Florentine nobles--there were a few, but very few such.
Perhaps the pleasantest of all these were the balls at the Pitti.

They were so entirely _sans gene_.

No court dress was required save on the first day of the year, when it was _de rigueur_.

But absence on that occasion in no way excluded the absentee from the other balls.