# Three Years in Europe, 1868 to 1871/Chapter 10

CHAPTER X.
Italy.
The sky was cloudless, and the sun shone gaily and brightly on the morning of the 28th November 1886, the day I had fixed for crossing the Alps by the Brenner Pass on my way to Italy! I could scarcely believe my eyes when in the morning I saw from my hotel windows the snowy peaks dazzling in the sun on every side, like a vast wall of adamant and silver surrounding the gay town of Innsbruck. A little after ten I left the town to cross the Alps, and the scenery that I witnessed during the whole day was glorious.
The train slowly ascended along the valley of the Sill, working its way now through narrow gorges, and now through tunnels excavated through the solid rocks. The mountain river Sill foamed and clattered over a stony bed below, wooded valleys or solid walls of rock extended on both sides of us, while high overhead towered the peaks over seven thousand feet high, and covered with snow. As we ascended we came above the srtow line, which is not very high in this season; valleys and rocks on all sides were covered with one vast sheet of snow, Brenner Pass.and water dripping from the fissures of rocks were frozen into icicles and glistened in the sun. At last we reached the highest point of the Brenner Pass, 4,490 ft. above the level ​of the sea, and as the train stopped here for about five minutes I came out to have a better view of this famous pass. I had travelled by the pass of St. Gothard fifteen years before—before a railway had been constructed through it,—but I had travelled then in July, and there was no snow then on the pass. The view of the Brenner Pass in the end of November was grander and finer. One vast white sheet of snow covered the narrow pass and the towering rocky walls that rose on both sides of it. The hardy pines on the sides of the rocks had lost their bloom and were mostly brownish. Drops of water issuing from the rocks had frozen into icicles, or had collected here and there on the ground and frozen into ice, which broke under the feet. The cold was bracing and to me delightful, and a bright sun shone from a blue, cloudless, mistless sky over this magnificent scene.
Our train now began its descent, and the descent was far easier, as the poet has sung, than the ascent. Our train went rapidly downwards, through tunnels and along precipices, and soon we saw far below us a beautiful valley and the infant river Adige flowing through it. The Adige, which is a mighty river in Italy, is a tiny infant stream here The Adige.which a child can cross without waiting his knees! Our train winded down the side of the hill, and within half an hour we found ourselves in the beautiful valley which we had observed erewhile from the above!
And now we went down further and further southwards, along the course of the Adige, and through one of ​the loveliest valleys in the world. We had left the snow line far behind, and were going through a fertile valley, crossing and recrossing the winding Adige, and passing by small villages and their humble churches and small clusters of huts. We passed by the vineyards which are plentiful in this southern Tyrol, and which produce the cheap and harmless wine known as the Tyrol wine; and groups of Tyrolese women with their quaint attire and their ruddy healthy faces looked at the train as it passed. At last we reached Franzenfeste where the train stopped for twenty minutes and I invested a florin very profitably on soup and roast beef and Tyrol wine!
We soon left behind Brixen which is the see of an ancient Archbishopric founded in the fourth century. We then passed through a very romantic country, the valley narrowing itself into a gorge and the Adige, now stronger and deeper, rushing and sweeping along its stony bed, and washing the foot of the perpendicular rocks that rose from its bed. The valley widened again and we were soon in Botzen, the ancient capital of Tyrol.
Botzen is still the principal place of trade and business in Tyrol, and as it is almost closed by mountains on the north, and is open to southern and mild winds, it is still a favourite place for invalids who seek a healthy resort and a mild climate. After we left Botzen we still went between the rocky walls on both sides of us but the valley began to widen more and more. We passed Trent, formerly the wealthiest town in Tyrol and still a place of much importance, and by 8 p. m. we reached Ala, the frontier town before reaching Italy. An ​examination of the luggage followed of course, with time for a cup of coffee and some biscuits which were very much needed! At 10 p. m. I was in Verona.
"Am I in Italy?" asked poet Rogers to himself in rapture when he came to this classic land, and the same question seemed to arise in my mind as I walked through the streets of Verona on the sunny morning of the 29th November. Verona.There could be no doubt however in the matter. Everything around me told me that I had left the last traces of gloomy Gothic architecture behind and had come to a land where the very houses spoke of tropical taste and tropical imagination. As I walked through the narrow but cleanly streets with the well plastered houses and green venetian windows, I could well fancy myself in some Indian city,—in some quiet handsome streets in Calcutta! From the doorways I could see square courtyards inside the large houses, not unlike our Indian courtyards, and as portly Italian gentlemen passed lazily by me with the right wing of their loose cloaks flung over their left shoulders, so as to cover their chin and even their mouth and nose,—I thought to myself I had seen their not very distant relations of a winter morning in the streets of Calcutta! Inside the numerous churches I saw women kneeling before images of Saints or of the Virgin which would have passed as Lakshmi or Kartikeya if robed in Indian drapery.
But the resemblance, which is not altogether fanciful, goes farther and deeper. The same genial climate and ​fertile soil enabled the peoples of India and of Italy to light the lamp of civilization at a time when northern nations were buried in barbarism. But as these nations rose in their turn, that ancient civilization declined. After the tenth century Italy and India were the unfortunate battlefields of foreigners,—India of the Moslem and Italy of the Frenchman, the Spaniard, the Austrian. The sympathy and help of modern Europe has helped Italy, feeble as she is compared to northern powers, to regain her place among nations and administer her own affairs. That sympathy and help will yet spread beyond the limits of Europe.
Verona still contains some monuments of ancient Roman civilization of which the Amphitheatre or arena is the principal one. Arena.It was built in the first century of the Christian era,—anterior by a thousand years to the most ancient of the cathedrals and churches which had been the object of my admiration in my recent travels through Germany. It is in the shape of an oval, and its lesser diameter is 404 feet, and that of the arena itself 146 feet. Forty-five ranges of seats rise from the arena to the top of the second story. The whole was built of solid marble, and could, when entire, have seated 22,000 people to witness the cruel sports of the old Roman days. Among other Roman remains are the Porta dei Borsari,—a solid Roman gate, still entire, and the Arco di Leoni another gateway.
The centre of Verona is the Piazza (or square) dei Signori with its fine Palace of Council. It is a handsome ​building adorned with statues and figures of distinguished Veronese. In the centre of this square is a marble statue of Statue of Dante.the greatest poet of modern Italy. Dante stands in a contemplative mood, with a finger on his cheeks, and with that melancholy frown on his forehead which befits the poet of the Inferno.
Not far is a spot which every lover of English literature must regard with the deepest interest. It is the old palace or family house of the Capulets, from the window of which Juliet is supposed to have given away her soul to Romeo! Scene of Romeo and Juliet.The palace is a brick building and by no means an imposing one according to our modern ideas, but in those days must have been considered fine. Modern travellers are disappointed with the mediæval "Palaces" of Verona and Bologna, and even of Florence and Venice, as those palaces could hardly be compared to a rich man's residence in modern days. But in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries these were the most superb private residences in Europe, and the histories of these families, then the most civilized in Europe, were the theme of the poet's song and the chronicler's narrative.
In the Franciscan cemetery (now a vegetable garden) near the Franciscan convent (now a magazine) they still shew a stone coffin within a railed chapel in which Juliet is said to have been buried. Hundreds of Englishmen and Americans have left their cards in this coffin, and one gentleman bearing the name of Shakespeare has left ​a wreath with his card on this tomb of Juliet. But I could not ascertain what had become of the body of Juliet,—for the coffin is now empty. Is it profane to suspect that this coffin is a hoax,—even if we suppose Juliet to be a historic person? But tourists never ask questions, and like a faithful believer, I instantly paid my homage to that most gushing of all lovers buying a photograph of the place!
The cathedral of Verona was built in the fourteenth century and is worth visit. A fine painting of the Assumption by Cathedral.Tatien hangs over one of the altars. I left Verona in the afternoon, and as I had seen Milan and Venice during my previous visit to Europe, I went southwards to see Florence and Rome. I passed by the classic town of Mantua, which was the residence of Virgil for a time, and reached Bologna a night.
Bologna is a city of arcades, the foot-paths in most of the important streets are arched over. The Piazza Vittorio Emanuel (Victor Emanuel Square) Bologna.is the centre of Bologna, and some of the oldest historic houses are situated here. In the centre of this square is the celebrated statue of Neptune by John of Bologna, and on one side of this square is the great church of San Petronio. The immense proportions of the church, its beautiful Lombard-Gothic architecture, less rigid than pure Gothic, and Church.its beautiful painted windows, all make the church imposing. The chapels are rich and splendid, and belong to the ​principal families of Bologna. A sister of Napoleon Bonaparte is buried in one of these chapels.
Close to this great church is the Archiginnaseo, the famous old University of Bologna. The lecture room of the great Italian naturalist Galvani University.is shewn to visitors, while in front of the building, Galvani's marble statue adorns a square. Passing by Square Cavour and Square Galileo I came to church San Dominico, containing the magnificent tomb of San Dominico and the humbler tomb of Guido Rene, the greatest of Bolognese painters. I passed by the house of the famous Bolognese painters Caracci and the new bank, Cassa di Risparinio, all built of marble, and the finest modern building of Bologna. I also saw the group of seven old churches, San Stefano, a curious agglomeration of the oldest churches in Bologna. This ancient place was at first used for pagan worship, and Christian churches were built after, when Christianity was introduced.
The leaning towers of Bologna are the most curious sight here. They are two old brick towers of the twelfth century, 272 ft. and 130 ft. high respectively. Leaning towers.The former is 3 feet 5 inches out of the perpendicular, while the latter and the smaller one is no less than 8 1/2 feet out of the perpendicular and looks as if it was about to fall! The obliquity of many towers in Italy has been caused by the settling of the ground.
In the Accademia della Belle Arte I saw a good collection Academy.of the works of the three Caracci and of Guido Rene, ​all of whom were born in Bologna. Guido Rene's famous Massacre of the Innocents and his crucifixion are among his best. But the lion of this collection is Raphael's St. Cicilia in ecstasy. She is listening to a heavenly choir in the clouds, and St. Paul, St. John, Augustine and Mary Magdalene are her companions, and all seem rapt in ecstasy.
The Campo Santo or burial ground of Bologna (and that of Genoa) are considered the finest cemeteries in Europe. The Campo Santo is not like the Pere la Chaise of Paris, a crowd of monuments on a vast exposed plain, but is a great structure, in which the graves and beautiful marble monuments are arranged in long arcades. The building is increased as more room is wanted, while the poor are buried in trenches in the open courtyards. Space in this building is very costly, and a room about 12 feet square costs about 12,000 francs. The monuments on many of these tombs are of the finest Carrara marble, and are executed by the most eminent sculptors of the day, and defy description. A magnificent statue of Murat, the general of Napoleon and the king of Naples has been executed and erected on the tomb of that dashing soldier, and his daughter is also buried here. Exquisite statues of mothers bewailing the loss of children, of daughters weeping over the grave of parents, of Grief or Fame or Virtue sorrowing over the dead, adorn many of these graves. One circular room is reserved for the busts of the great men of Bologna, the busts being placed on niches. This is called the Pantheon. Galvani the ​naturalist occupies the central place of honor, and Rossini the musician occupies the niche under him. In this temple of fame—this hall of the departed great,—one niche, and not an obscure one, is occupied by a woman,—Anna Manzotine who was a distinguished professor in the university here.
I left Bologna in the afternoon and soon after we crossed the Reno which flows close to Bologna, and entered into the gorges of the wild Appenires along the valley of that river. We passed through a number of tunnels and crossed and recrossed the Reno which clattered along its stony bed below with all the wildness of a mountain stream. The mountains around us became wilder as we went further until the scenery was all obscured in the darkness of night. At about 7 p. m. we reached Pistoja, the town where pistols were first manufactured, and after 8 p. m. we reached Florence.
In the morning as I looked out of my hotel window and saw the classic Arno rolling below, as I surveyed the beautiful houses of Florence Florence.and its streets all paved with frisole stone, and as far beyond I surveyed the high wooded hills bounding the horizon on every side,—I remembered the lines I had read in my school days:—
"Of all the fairest cities of the earth, None is so fair as Florence!"
In writing thus the poet however not only thought of the beauty of the town, the river, and the hills and gardens around, but must also have involuntarily thought of the glorious past of Florence! For when Europe was buried ​in the gloom of the Middle Ages after the extinction of ancient civilization, it was Florence which first lighted the torch of civilization, it was Florence which imparted to a dead world the vivifying energy of poetry and literature, of painting and sculpture, of arts and civilization! And where is the town in Europe or in the world,—Athens alone perhaps excepted,—which can boast of having given birth to such a galaxy of great men, such a crowd of the instructors of the world, as Florence? The names of Galileo and Dante alone would suffice to make a city proud, but Florence displays to the admiring world a host of other names almost as great and glorious. Petrarch and Boccacio, the merchant prince Lorenzo di Medici, Leonardi da Vinci the father of modern painting, and the matchless Michael Angelo, were all born in Florence! The devotee who sets out on an intellectual pilgrimage cannot come to a nobler shrine than Florence!
The glory of modern Florence is her matchless picture galleries, those of Uffizi and Pitti. One may study painting and sculpture in these galleries for months Picture galleries.and years. I cannot pretend to give here any thing like a proper account of even the most celebrated paintings and statues collected here; all I can do is to mention by name only a few of the most important. The famous Venus di Medici, the matchless statue which was found in the sixteenth century among the ruins of Hadrian's palace near Tivoli, is in the Uffizi gallery. The still more famous statues of Niobe and her children which have been copied and reproduced in so many modern mansions in the capitals ​of Europe are also here. A long series of remarkable busts of Roman Emperors are also chronologically arranged in this gallery, and an excellent copy of the Laocoon group is also kept here. Among the paintings, Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch, his Madonna with the Scroll and his St. John in the Wilderness are in the hall called the Tribune, and the same room contains two of Titian's matchless Venuses, and Albert Durer's Adoration of the Magi. Leonardi da Vinci's Head of Medusa and Corregio's picture on the same subject are in a neighbouring room.
A covered passage connects this Uffizi gallery with the Pitti gallery on the other side of the Arno, and the whole of this passage is lined with portraits of the Medici family and also of historical characters of all countries and ages.
The Pitti palace was commenced by Pitti a merchant in 1440, but as he was unable to finish it, he sold it to the wife of Cosmo and it thenceforward became the palace of the Medici of Florence. It is a massive building of rough hewn stone, more strong and massive than elegant in its external appearance, but the great halls inside are paved and decorated with the finest stones and richest marbles that money could buy or art could arrange. The hall of flowers and other rooms are superb in their beauty. The rooms are now filled with about 500 pictures of the highest merit, Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola, his Madonna del Bladachino and his Holy Family, Michael Angelo's celebrated Fates, Titian's Bella and his Magdalene, Murillo's Virgin Mary and Christ ​and Madonna with the rosary, Guido Rene's Cleopatra, Rubens's Results of War and Sacred Family, and Van Dyke's Charles I. of England and his Queen are among the most important pictures of this priceless collection, Canova's famous Venus is in this Pitti gallery.
The Uffizi gallery is located near the Piazza della Signoria which is the central square of Florence. A short way from this square leads to the Duomo or Cathedral of Florence. The Florentines commenced it in 1298 A. D. with the intention of raising a Cathedral.monument which would outvie all previous structures, and it was not till the fifteenth century that this splendid edifice was completed. It is a superb building of brick encrusted with white and black marble which gives it its curious outward appearance. To my eye, however, a building of such vast dimensions looks finer and purer in white marble like the Taj of Agra or the Cathedral of Milan than in marbles of different colours. The roof of tiles too takes away from the beauty of this building.
Close to the cathedral is the Campanile or Belfrey also of variegated marble, and light and graceful in appearance. Belfrey.The work on the marble is so exquisite the Charles V. said of it that it ought to be kept in a glass case! It is 275 feet in height. In front of the cathedral is the Baptistry also of variegated marble and splendid Baptistry.bronze gates. The figures on these bronze gates represent scriptural events and are so exquisitely done that Michael Angelo declared ​they were worthy to be portals of paradise! Dante too speaks of this Baptistry in his Inferno as "St. John's fair dome of me beloved." Inside, the walls are lined and the pavement inlaid with marble. It is dedicated to St. John the Baptist and all Florentines are baptised here. Before the principal gate are two columns on which was formerly suspended the immense chain with which the Pisans in 1406 attempted to close their harbour against the Florentines and the Genoese, and which was brought to Florence as a trophy of victory.
Scarcely, five minutes' walk from the cathedral is the church of San Lorenzo, close to which are the New Sacristy and the Medicean Chapel. Medicean Chapel.This chapel is a wonderful octagon building, the inner walls of which are covered with agate and jasper and amaranth and lapiz lazuli and about eighteen different kinds of rich marble! The cost of this hall of valuable stones must have been enormous, it is said, it amounted to 22 millions of franks! The New Sacristy contains the sarcophagi of the Duke of Nemours and the Duke of Urbino. Over the tombs are the statue of Night and Day and of Dawn and Twilight, both by Michael Angelo, and considered among his master works. The statues are still unfinished as Michael Angelo left for Rome before finishing the works, and no profane hand has since touched what that great master left unfinished.
From these tombs of the "great ones of the earth" I turned with far deeper interest to the ashes of some of the really greatest men that the world has ever produced. ​The church of San Croce is the Pantheon of Florence. There I saw the tomb of Galileo with a statue of that San Croce Church.luminary of science, holding the telescope in his hand and contemplating the heavens. There too I saw the tomb of Michael Angelo with the statues of three females over it, representing painting, sculpture and architecture. The poet Alfieri also sleeps there, and there too reposes Machiaveli's dust. But "Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar." Dante was banished by his fellow-citizens and is buried in Revenna. The modern Florentines have done all that they could to wipe out the ingratitude of their fathers. The church, though it does not contain the tomb of Dante, has a magnificent monument of marble,—the finest in the church,—dedicated to the memory of the poet. And outside the church in the centre of the square there is a still finer marble statue of the great poet, 18 feet high, standing on a pedestal 22 feet high, and seeming, with his frowning meditating brow, to contemplate those scenes of the Inferno which are among the grandest and most terrible productions of the human imagination.
One may spend months in Rome and yet not see all the sight of that wonderful place,—and I stopped there only for four days! One may write a volume Rome.without exhausting the ancient and mediæval remains of Rome, and I proposed to write a few pages only! My readers need not therefore expect in these pages anything but the barest summary of those sights which most interest tourists by ​their historic associations or their beauty and grandeur as works of art.
There is a spot in Rome in which the history of two thousand years may be said to be recorded on the very stones of the pavement and on the hoary ruins which are scattered on it,—I need hardly say I mean the Forum. It is a low valley with the Capitoline Hill Forum.on one side and the Palatine Hill on another, and the traveller, the historian, and the antiquarian find themselves lost here in a perfect wilderness of ancient ruins. From the Capitoline Hill to the great Colosseum of Rome, it is scarcely more than five minutes' walk, and in this short walk the modern traveller sees the ruins of an ancient world and an ancient civilization. It was when sitting on a shapeless stone among these ruins that the historian Gibbon was first inspired with the idea of his matchless history; it was when standing amidst these ruins that Byron composed some of the sublimest passages that even he ever wrote. And the most commonplace tourist cannot survey this spot without, for a moment at least, forgetting the present, and being lost in a reverie of the past.
Let us walk along the Via Sacra by which the Vestal Virgins of Rome went in procession in the olden days. Close to the Capitoline Hill is the Tabularium where the famous "Tables of the Law" were recorded, and not far from it is the massive arch of Severus still entire. Three solitary columns are all that are left of the temple of Vespasian, and eight Ionic columns close by are all that remain of the temple of Saturn, Proceeding along ​the Via Sacra, we have on our right the remains of the Basilica Julia begun by Julius Cæsar and finished by Augustus, who dedicated it in honor of his daughter. It comprised the Law Courts and the Exchange of ancient Rome, and the pavement and the bases of the long lines of columns are all that remain of it. On our left is the famous column described by Byron as
"The nameless column with a buried base."
It was erected in the seventh century, and was dedicated to Phocas whose statue adorned its top at one time.
Passing further onwards along the Via Sacra we have to our right three beautiful Corinthian pillars which are all that remain of the temple of Castor and Pollux, and to our left the remains of the Regia where Julius Cæsar lived up to the time of his death, and where his body was cremated in sight of all the gods of Rome. Near this Regia was the famous Lake of Curtius, which was probably little more than a quagmire and was afterwards turned into a fountain. Proceeding further by the winding Via Sacra, we have on our right the site of the ancient temple of Vesta where the sacred fire was kept, and adjoining it are the ruins of the spacious palace where the Vestal Virgins lived. The Vestal Virgins were honored in those days as the custodians of the sacred fire; they were allowed the place of honor in all public processions and sights; and if history speaks the truth, they attained a considerable influence with the emperors in later days, after they had ceased to have all claims to the respect which is due to purity.
​Almost facing the temple and palace of the Vestal Virgins, are the ten beautiful columns that remain of the temple of Faustina. Further on, also, to our left are the ruins of the vast and colossal Basilica of Constantine built by Emperor Vespasian. Only one aisle, consisting of three arches, each with a span of 75 feet, remains, and this aisle gives us the idea of the magnitude of the temple when entire.
The winding Via Sacra now passes under the Arch of Titus—massive and still uninjured. It was erected by the people and the Senate of Rome after the taking of Jerusalem, and upon it therefore are sculptured the seven branched candlestick and other treasures of the Jewish temple. Even my guide-book waxes eloquent over this Arch,—and I will quote from it. "Standing beneath the Arch of Titus, and amid so much ancient dust, it is difficult to forbear the commonplaces of enthusiasm on which hundreds of tourists have always insisted. Over the halfworn pavement and beneath this arch, the Roman armies had trodden on their onward march to fight battles, a world's width away. Returning victorious with royal captives and inestimable spoils, a Roman triumph, that most gorgeous pageant of earthly pride, has streamed and flaunted in hundredfold succession over these same flagstones and through this yet stalwart archway."
To our left now are the ruins of the great temple of Venus in Rome, erected in 391, and which was the last pagan temple which remained in use in Rome. Passing onwards by the same paved way we proceed along a ​place which was probably the market for fruit and honey in olden days. Here Horace used to take his favourite walk as he has told us himself, and Ovid, too, delighted to see the purchases made here in his time. We at last come to the remains of the fountains called Meta Sudans, where gladiators used to wash before entering the Colosseum. Seneca who lived close by complains of the noise made by a showman who blew his trumpet at his fountain! The road now turns to the right and passes under the Arch of Constantine, and is called the Triumphal Way, as Roman triumphal processions used to come to the Forum by this way.
To our front and a little to the left stands in all its solidity and vastness the huge Colosseum of Rome, the vastest monument that antiquity has Colosseum.bequeathed to modern times! This vast structure is an elliptic, its longer axis being 584 feet and the shorter 468 feet, and the arena inside is 278 feet by 177 feet. It was commenced by Vespasian on his return from the war against the Jews, was dedicated by his eldest son Titus in 80, and was completed by his youngest son Domitian. It was calculated to hold about 1,00,000 people to witness those cruel sports which delighted the populace of Rome, 5,000 wild beasts and 10,000 captives are said to have been slain at the inauguration of the structure by Titus; and for centuries after, thousands of prisoners, Christians or gladiators or captives from the far East and West, died a cruel death and stained this ground with their hearts' blood, to make a spectacle for the rabble of Rome. ​"Two aqueducts were scarcely sufficient to wash off the human blood which a few hours' sport shed in this imperial shambles. Twice in one day came the Senators and matrons of Rome to the butchery; a virgin always gave the signal for slaughter." Roman virtue and Roman heroism have passed into bye-words in history and in tale; but every nation has its vice, and no civilized people of whom there is any record in history were so brutally cruel, so savagely and passionately fond of witnessing suffering as the Romans. It is said, indeed, that the truly brave are never cruel; but to that assertion the Roman amphitheatre gives the lie.
The partial destruction of this solid pile is no doubt partly due to the effects of time and partly to the vandalims of barbarians, but it is mainly due to the vandalism of the people of Rome itself during long centuries in the Middle Ages. For centuries the Colosseum was used as a quarry, and many palaces of modern Rome, have been built with materials taken from the Colosseum. As Byron sings:—
"A ruin, yet what a ruin! From its mass, "Walls, palaces, half cities have been reared!"
We have now traversed the whole length of the valley from the Capitoline Hill to the Colosseum. Along one side of the valley, as I have stated before, is the Palatine Hill,—that Hill Palatine Hill.which was all Rome in the time of the early kings. On this hill are the ancient ruined arches of a house said to be the palace of Tarquinus Priscus, one of the early kings of Rome.
​Not far from Tarquin's Palace are the foundations of the famous temple of Jupiter Stator, said to have been built by Romulus. And in another part of the hill are pointed out the ruins of an old wall said to have been built by Romulus, and at any rate belonging to the kingly period of Rome.
Close to Tarquin's Palace is also the later palace of Augustus, which is however mostly buried in earth; and the vast ruins now visible here are those of the still later palace which Vespasian built on the top of the older palace of Augustus. The Basilica or the ancient law court, the Tablinum where statues and pictures were kept, the Lararium dedicated to the worship of deified members of the family, the Peristyle or court-yard, the Triclinium or dining-room, and a Nymphium or fountain, are all pointed out to visitors. It is from the Peristyle of Vespasian's palace that we descend by a narrow staircase into the excavated fragment of the older palace of Augustus, in which are still remains of gilding and fresco paintings on the walls.
Beyond the Palatine Hill is a valley which separates it from the Aventine Hill. The Romans lived on the Palatine and the Sabines on the Aventine, Aventine Hill.and it is in this valley that the rape of the Sabines is said to have taken place.
From the top of the Palatine Hill are seen, like the vast ramparts of a fortified town, the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla! Next only to the Baths of Caracalla.Colosseum these baths are the most gigantic ruins of ancient Rome, and the colosseum ​itself scarcely strikes one more than the vastness of these baths which occupy an area of 1,40,000 yards! The Romans came here not for bathing only, but to see races and sports which were held here, to see the training of gladiators, to meet their friends and acquaintances, and to pass their time among crowds of people come for the same purpose. The entire population of Rome turned out here and lounged about the walks and racecourses, or the ornamented walls and fine marble statues of these buildings, and regarded it as a place of public amusement. Some of the finest specimens of ancient sculpture preserved in museums have been found in this place.
In the opposite corner of the city are the Baths of Diocletian, a part of which has been formed into the church of San Maria Degli Angeli, and thus saved Baths of Diocletian.from the spoliation to which every other ancient building has been subjected. The superb granite pillars of the church, each consisting of a single block, 43 feet in height, still remain as they stood in the days of Diocletian. The conversion of a part of the baths into a church was the work of Michael Angelo.
The other most important ruins of Ancient Rome are the Pantheon, and the columns of Trajan and of Antonine. The Pantheon Pantheon.was built by Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus, and is therefore eighteen hundred years old. The portico has sixteen magnificent Corinthian columns, with bases and capitals of white marble and with shafts ​of single pieces of granite 5 feet in diameter and 46 feet in height. The interior is a perfect circle, 142 feet in diameter. It was converted into a Christian church under Emperor Phocas in the seventh century, and to this fact it owes its complete preservation. Raphael, the prince of painters, is buried here. The last interment in the Pantheon of Rome was of King Victor Emanuel II.
Trajan's column stands in the place known as Trajan's Forum, strewn with nameless pillars and shapeless ruins. The column stands however entire and uninjured, Trajan's Column.probably because it was taken under the protection of the church, and Trajan's figure on the top has been supplanted by a figure of St. Peter! The column is 141 feet high and consists of 23 blocks of Carrara marble with a series of bas reliefs spirally arranged and representing the wars of Trajan against the Dacians, and comprising about 2,500 human figures, all in the dresses and costumes then in vogue. Antonine's column is a similar one, consisting of 28 blocks of marble, and is of the same height as Trajan's. Though known as Antonine's Column it is proved by an inscription found near it to have been erected by Aurelius. The statue on the top is now supplanted by that of St. Peter. Napoleon's column Vendome in Paris, constructed out of the metal of 1,200 pieces of cannon captured by him in battles, is in imitation of these ancient Roman pillars, as Napoleon's triumphal arches are imitations of the Roman arches.
​Of the other ruins of Ancient Rome the vast aqueducts supported on arches are the most remarkable, and can be seen in numbers to the south-east Aqueducts.of Rome. The Aqua Marcia was 56 miles in length, the Aqua Claudia was 46 miles, the Anio Novus was 62 miles. Aqua Julia was built by Augustus, B. C. 34, and Aqua Virgo derives its name from the tradition that its source was pointed out to the soldiers by a young girl. Older than all these is the ancient Cloaca Maxima of Rome, a part of which I saw among the ruins in the Forum, and which was built by Tarquinus Priscus or Tarquinus Superbus to drain that low valley by connecting it with the Tiber.
Mediæval Rome boasts of one superb structure which combines with the stupendous size of the monuments of Ancient Rome, a beauty and rich elegance which has never been equalled in the world. St. Peter's Church.St. Peter's church is beyond comparison the grandest work built by the hand of man for the worship of the Deity.
"But thou of temples old, or altars new, "Standest alone with nothing like to thee.— "Worthiest of God, the holy and the true."
The church is approached by two semi-circular colonnades consisting of 284 lofty columns, on which 192 statues of saints stand as sentinels! But the loftiness of these columns is lost in the presence of the church itself, and the loftiness of the church too is lost in its extremely just proportions. The proportions are so just that the eye fails to grasp the stupendous height of the ​great edifice, and in this respect St. Peter's church is certainly disappointing. The remark of Addison strikes every traveller who visits this church. "The proportions are so well observed, that nothing appears to an advantage, or distinguishes itself above the rest. It seems neither extremely high, nor long, nor broad, because it is all in a just equality. As, on the contrary, in our Gothic cathedral the narrowness of the arch makes it rise in height, or run out in length; the lowness often opens in breadth, or the defectiveness of some other particular makes any single part appear in great perfection."
The same deception continues after one has entered the church, but in spite of his inability to grasp the vast magnitude of the building, the traveller is lost in admiration as soon as he crosses the portal. The magnificent gilded ceiling, the spacious marble pavement, the lofty marble pillars which rise on every side of him, the exquisite statues of saints and cherubs by which he is surrounded, the splendid bronze canopy supported by bronze pillars over the high altar, and the great dome towering far above, form a scene which for richness and elegance and grandeur surpasses his wildest expectations. The glorious edifice bursts upon his view in all its richness like the picture of a dream! It is an epic in marble,—but an epic of Virgil's,—ornate, elegant, and replete with beauty, as well as massive and stupendous.
"Rich marbles, richer painting, shrines where flame "The lamps of gold, and haughty dome which vies "In air with Earth's chief structures, though their frame "Sits on the firm set ground, and this the clouds must claim!"
The deception of the eye however is complete. Letters ​inscribed on the dome appear scarcely more than a foot in length though they are six feet each. A pen in the hand of Moses scarcely appears 18 inches, but is seven feet long! The Baldacchino, the rich bronze canopy over the altar, looks about 25 feet high but is 120 feet in height! And even little cherubs in marble on the floor of the church appear of the size of little children, but are quite six or seven feet when you walk close to them! It is when you see the people in the church at a distance, creeping like pigmies on the spacious marble pavement that you can believe the comparative height of the figures and pillars. But even when the mind is convinced of this fact, the eye still fails to realize the vast proportions of this magnificient edifice.
I went all round the aisles and saw the exquisite marble figures on the tombs of the men buried here. One or two of these deserve mention. There is a tomb of the disinherited Stuarts of England whom the Pope of course took under his protection, and the fine monument over it is by Canova. In the Chapel della Pieta, there is a marble group by Michael Angelo, the great architect of this great church. It represents the Virgin with the dead body of Christ on her knees. The tomb of Pope Clement XIII. is by Canova and represents the Pope in the attitude of prayer with figures of Death and Religion before him. At the angles are the celebrated lions, one sleeping and the other awake, considered among the finest works of modern sculpture. The monument on the tomb of Pius VI. near the altar is also by Canova.
​The extreme length of the St. Peter's church within the walls is 607 feet and its width 445 feet, and the height from the pavement to the cross is 458 feet. Outside the church is the obelisk of the Vatican, one of the most remarkable monuments of antiquity. It is said to be one of the two obelisks mentioned by Herodotus as having been erected by Phero, the son of Sesostris, on his recovery from blindness. From Egypt it was transferred by the Emperor Caligula to Rome,—a vessel having been specially built for conveying it. The length of this obelisk including the apex is 77 feet, and it is said to be the largest wrought stone in Europe.
Close to St. Peter's church is the Vatican, the palace of the Popes who had a real kingdom until 1871 when it was annexed and united with the kingdom of Italy. There are some very fine pictures in this palace which visitors are allowed to see. Vatican Pictures.The most celebrated is the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo, covering an entire wall of the Sistine chapel. On the ceiling are other pictures of Michael Angelo on sacred subjects. In a gallery above are some remarkable paintings, among which the Transfiguration of Raphael and St. Jerome by Domenichino are considered the best.
Adjoining to the palace is the magnificent museum of Vitican containing the finest collection of ancient sculptures Sculpture.in the world. One might spend years in studying the immortal works of Phidias, Praxiletes and a host of other sculptors of ancient times,—men who worked in the very ​infancy of European civilization, and yet whose works have never since been equalled in any age or country in the world! These fathers of the art of sculpture did not try for effect; they did not put human forms in fantastic attitudes or violent action to attract attention. They knew the natural beauty and the dignity of the human figure, and they have sculptured that figure in repose or in dignified action, in calm delight or in patient suffering, such as no modern sculptors have ever since done. The celebrated Apollo Belvedere is in this collection.
Speaking of statues I ought to mention that there is another fine collection of old sculptures in the museum of the Capitol, comprising the celebrated Capitol.Capitoline Venus and the equally celebrated Dying Gladiator which inspired some of the finest lines that even Byron ever wrote.
Rome has more than 300 churches, and a few of them are worth a visit, even after one has seen St. Peter's. St. Paul's church originally founded Churches.by Constantine is just outside the town. The magnificent gilded ceiling, the spacious marble pavement, the rich chapels with mosaic designs, and the 80 Corinthian columns of granite, each of a single piece of stone, make the church one of the finest in the world. The church of St John Lateran within the town was also originally founded bp Constantine. The facade is composed of four large columns and six pilasters, supporting a massive entablature and balustrade, on which are the colossal statues of Christ and ten saints. The ​inside is ornamental as usual with Italian churches, and the ceiling is richly gilt.
Close to this church is the famous Scala Santa, a marble stair-case of 28 steps, which, tradition states, belonged to the house of Pontius Pilate, and by which Jesus descended from the Judgment Seat. No human foot is allowed to touch these steps,—they are covered by wood,—and even thus, people are not allowed to walk on them, but have to go on their knees from the bottom to the top. As I saw numbers of faithful believers slowly and painfully ascending these wood cased steps on their knees, I was reminded of the still more rigid penances imposed by a still grosser superstition in my own country, where pilgrims from the north of India measure their length, and thus creep along day after day and month after month along the high road to Juggernath.
There is another magnificent church in Rome which well repays a visit—it is the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. It was built in the fourth century but has been considerably enlarged and decorated subsequently. The richly gilt ceiling, the fine mosaics of the apse, and the splendour of the chapels charm the beholder as he enters this magnificent edifice. In front of it is the obelisk which at one time decorated the Mausoleum of Augustus.
Such are some of the most remarkable monuments of Ancient and Mediæval Rome. My list, however, I need hardly say, is exceedingly meagre and defective. I could, within the short period of my stay, only visit the most celebrated among those countless monuments ​of olden days which have made Rome the marvel of the world, and the wonder of historians, antiquarians and tourists. There is one other monument however which I did visit and which I must not forget to mention even in this meagre account. It is a spot redolent of holy associations, and in some respects more interesting than the vast Colosseum or the gigantic baths of Caracalla. While tens of thousands of proud Roman citizens were daily crowding in these vast and noisy assemblages, delighting in cruel sports and spectacles, while emperors and generals were returning from the ends of the earth in triumphant processions along the Appian Way and under the Arch of Titus, a band of lowly, silent, persecuted men were worshipping their God after the teaching of Christ in dark subterranean vaults within a few miles of Rome. Who could have foresaid in the first and second centuries after Christ, that the ebbing tide was with the proud and haughty Romans, the conquerors of the world! that the rising tide was with these persecuted lowly vagrants, crouching themselves in the very bowels of the earth to escape observation and persecution! And yet this was what happened. Rome fell, and Christianity triumphed in Europe!
A little over a mile from the city gate, along the Appian Way are the catacombs of St. Callixtus. These catacombs were originally excavated Catacombs.by the early Christians as burial places and were subsequently used for meetings and religious worship. A monk with a candle in his hand led me through the dark winding and subterranean ​vaults. The worshippers of Christ were buried in the walls on both sides of these winding passages, and their bones crumbling to dust are still shewn to curious and religious visitors after eighteen hundred years. A skull or an arm bone here and there is entire, but most of what remains now of the early Christians is crumbled, almost powdered bones. When Rome adopted Christianity at last, the remains of the more eminent among the early teachers, the "Saints," were removed from these catacombs to the newly-built churches of Rome, but the great mass of bodies buried here in the first, second and third centuries after Christ were left undisturbed. No subsequent interment took place in these catacombs, as men were buried in Christian churches after Christianity became the religion of the people.
The church of St. Sabastian was erected over catacombs where many early martyrs had been buried. What a place this for contemplation. The ruined temples of Rome mark the departing grandeur of an ancient religion; the catacombs of Rome mark the lowly origin of a modern religion.
Leaving Rome about midday on the 5th December, I travelled for hours through classic land, replete with ancient associations. The Campagna of Rome is covered with the ruins of some of those magnificent aqueducts of ancient Rome, fitly described as "Rivers on many an arch high overhead." These huge lines of arches, colossal and striking even in their ruins, show at once the untiring industry of the ancient Romans, as also their ignorance of simple law of Hydrostatics that water will always ​rise to the level of its source! These high arches were perfectly unnecessary therefore, as water conveyed in pipes under ground would have risen to its proper height in the town! But such criticism on ancient and classic labours is ungracious and irreverent!
Twenty-six miles from Rome, I came to the ancient Volscian town of Velletri. The great Volscian patriot and warrior Coriolanus fortified this place against the Romans but in 338 B. C. The Romans at last dismantled the fort and transported the principal citizens of Rome. Forty miles from Rome I passed by the ancient town of Segni colonized by the Romans under Tarquinus Priscus. At last we reached the important town of Ceprano at sunset. It used to be the last frontier town in the south of the Dominions of the Pope before those Dominions were all amalgamated with the kingdom Italy in 1871. The town is beautifully situated, and the view from it, extending to Monte Casino is one direction and through the valley of the Liris to the lofty Appenines on the other, is very fine indeed. The sunset too was magnificent, and was such as can only be seen in these southern climes. The whole range of rocks and mountains were illumined with lovely and variegated tints, blending almost imperceptibly into each other, and changing their colour until they disappeared in gloom as the sun went beneath the horizon. I could not see much of the country between Ceprano and Naples, where I reached late in the evening.
The beauty of Naples is in the lovely bay on which it ​is situated. It is like a vast amphitheatre which seems almost closed by the island of Capri Naples.in the south and those of Procida and Ischia on the north. A great part of this vast amphitheatre is studded with white buildings which look all the prettier from a distance, while the great Visuvius rises in the back ground, with its eternal film of white smoke ascending in a blue cloudless Italian sky. Such is Naples as viewed by an artist or a partial tourist. But a closer view of the town somewhat disenchants him! In spite of some fine roads and many fine buildings, Naples is a dirty town, one of the dirtiest, I think, even of Italian towns. Beggars too, rare in countries like England, France or Germany, are a nuisance in Italy, and many of those who publicly practise begging in the streets are by no means deserving of charity.
The palace of Naples is a historic building and has been the residence of long lines of kings who reigned in Naples when Naples was a separate kingdom. Palace.In front of the palace is the church of St. Francisco de Paolo with a graceful semi-circular portico on either side. The old castle is now appropriated by the Municipality. The Via Roma is the finest road in the town, and runs through nearly half its length. The Aquarium of Naples is probably the finest in the world, and contains sea-anemones Aquarium.of various kinds, and live conches, sponges and corals of all shapes and beautiful colours. An electric fish sent a shock into my arm as I touched it.
​To climb to the top of Visuvius and to look down on the boiling crater below had been my cherished desire since many a long year, and its fulfilment was luckily at hand! There is a company in Naples which spares modern tourists even the trouble of climbing, and takes them nearly to the summit of the volcano by a railway car! Early one morning then I paid my 28 francs at the office of this company and found myself along with a German traveller who spoke English, and an Italian priest who did not, journeying in a comfortable carriage drawn by two powerful horses, towards the summit of the volcano! We soon left the town behind and then began our ascent by a zigzag road up the side of the mountain. For miles and miles in every direction the sides and the base of Visuvius are covered by vast masses of lava, which have rolled down during Visuvius.long centuries and have congealed and formed themselves into all fantastic shapes and designs! As we slowly toiled up the winding path, we saw nothing on all sides of us but this uniform unending sheet of lava, stretching in black masses in every direction, and filling up every crevice and every slope of the hill. The weather was not fine, and torrents of rain descended as we drove upwards. From time to time however it cleared up, and as we ascended we had a most beautiful view of the town and the lovely bay sleeping below. I do not think I have ever looked on a prettier picture than this. The blue and placid bay of Naples with its magnificent curve, bounded far off by Capri and Ischia, slept gentle and azure ​and motionless far below. On its shores the lovely town of Naples and its suburbs of Resina and Torre del Greco stretched their far white walls and white houses in pleasing contrast to the blue waters of the sea. While behind the towns stretched lovely green fields and pastures for miles and miles, looking from this height more like a beautiful and extensive picture on a canvas than a real landscape!
We descended from our carriage at last and I stepped into a hotel where a little hot luncheon with a half bottle of Italian wine were not altogether unwelcome after our long journey in this damp weather. Thus refreshed we began our ascent over the remaining portion of the hill. The slope here is so precipitous as to be impracticable for horses. A railway has accordingly been constructed, but the car is pulled up this almost perpendicular height not by steam or electricity, but by rope and pulleys, along the rails! In this way then we were gradually pulled up nearer and nearer to the summit. The temperature was rapidly growing colder and we saw patches of snow on the sides of the hill which contained living fire in its bowels! At last we reached the terminus, and from this point we walked up to the summit.
I stood on the very brink of the crater and looked on the volumes of white sulphurous smoke issuing from The Crater.below. Visuvius is active now, and the smoke is accompanied every now and then by showers of stone issuing with great violence. The smoke issues with such great velocity ​that beside the big crater in the centre it has worked many small holes all around from which also it issues with great velocity. The mouths of these small holes are encrusted with sulphur. We threw a piece of crumpled paper into one of these small holes, and instead of going down it shot upwards with the velocity of a bullet through the force of the smoke issuing. Fresh lava rolls down from the crater almost to the foot of the hill on the Pompeii side.
Nothing which I had yet seen in the course of my continental tour had excited keener interest in me than the ruins of Pompeii, disinterred from the ashes and dust of eighteen centuries, and disclosing to Pompeii.modern nations the habits and manners and the daily life which men and women lived in ancient times! As I walked along the stone-paved streets, loitered among the ruins of ancient temples, forums or courts of justice, or examined minutely the courtyards and walls and paintings of private houses, as I surveyed the amphitheatre, the larger theatre and the smaller theatre, or walked past the public baths, the wine shops, and the fruit shops, or looked into the house of the poet Sallust or of the vestal virgins, I could vividly realize, without any great effort of imagination, the joyous and vigorous if somewhat coarse and cruel life which men and women lived in this very town, two thousand years ago. I could almost imagine their showy processions and public worship along these rough paved streets, their vociferous gatherings in the public places or near the stalls, the meetings of men in the ​outer courtyards of houses and the meeting of women in the inner courtyards, and on great occasions their tumultuous gatherings in the great amphitheatre to see prisoners and gladiators die a cruel death among the riotous joy and applause of multitudes. The scenes so often and so vividly described by writers seem to be passing before one's eyes,—ancient Roman history seems to be repeating itself, as one strolls silently and thoughtfully along these streets, conjuring up the venerable shades of an ancient world.
The quarter of the Forum is the finest. The Forum was the centre of all Roman towns, and naturally therefore we see here some of the finest temple of Pompeii; the temple of Jupiter, the temple of Venus, the temples of Augustus and Mercury, the tribunals and the prisons. Not far from this place is the quarter of the Theatres, with its great triangular Forum, the temple of Neptune and the extensive Barracks in which 63 skeletons and a great number of valuable objects have been discovered. Here are situated the large theatre and the small theatre, the first of which could probably accommodate nearly 4,000 people. Here, too, is the temple of Isis in which Lord Lytton lays one of his most striking scenes in his Last Days of Pompeii; and not far from it is the great amphitheatre of the town with its 34 rows of seats which could accommodate probably 30,000 people! The skilful novelist has very justly laid the last scene of his novel on this spot.
In the quarter of the Public Baths, we see the ruins of the Public Baths, and close to them we find wine ​shops and fruit shops and other establishments to which the people must have crowded daily from the baths. One of the most important quarters however of Pompeii is that near the northern gate, called the gate of Herculaneum. The street outside the gate is called the street of tombs on account of the number of monuments with which it is bordered. In this street is the villa of Diomede one of the largest habitations in Pompeii. Near this villa is another called Cecero's Villa. Inside the Herculaneum gate are the house of the vestal virgins, the house of courtesans, and that of the Poet Sallust, one of the most elegant in the city. There are bakeries, laundries, stablings, fuller's establishments and all other establishments such as are met with in the busy towns.
The most careless observer walking through these streets and houses of an ancient world cannot fail being struck with the difference between ancient and modern methods of living. The splendour and beauty and magnificence of all ancient public places, be they forums, temples or baths, contrast with the utter insignificance and, one would think, the positive discomforts of private houses. The ideas of comfort and even of sanitary laws were very crude in ancient times all over the world. The largest and finest houses in Pompeii would scarcely equal the size of a rich man's house in an ordinary modern town, while in most of the houses the rooms are so small as to be almost unhabitable. It is curious that among a highly civilized European nation like the Romans, windows in private houses did not exist at all, ​and judging from what we see in Pompeii, there was very little ventilation. As in India there is an outer courtyard for men, and an inner courtyard for women; the men's apartments, small and without windows, surround the outer courtyard, and the women's apartments still smaller and closer, surround the inner courtyard. To come out of these dark cells and sit in the courtyard, was apparently the only way of enjoying a little of free air and heaven's light.
The streets are paved with huge blocks of stone scarcely levelled, as one sees in many ancient Indian towns. The widest street would be called a lane in a modern town, and is just wide enough for two carts, while most of the streets were barely wide enough for one. Over these narrow and rough-paved streets, which served as drains as well as streets, were witnessed, 2000 years ago, riotous processions, joyous and religious festitivities, assemblages of thousands of human beings, warriors from distant climes, matrons and vestal virgins in their gala costumes, senators and guards, thinkers and poets, and a miscellaneous and vociferous multitude, all proud to call themselves Roman citizens, the conquerors of the world! What tales could the very stones of Pompeii tell!
But the stones and the houses are not altogether silent, there are no more valuable materials of history in its true sense, than these silent ruins. They tell us how the ancients lived and died, how they assembled in their forum, worshipped in their temples, gathered in thousands in the amphitheatres. We see the houses where they ​lived, the rooms which their women occupied, the shops where they purchased their food, the wine stalls where they gathered in crowds. The very sins of this ancient people are laid open to modern eyes. Close to temples or market places are brothels with four or five or six small chambers designed for so many women. The chambers are so small as to be simply loathsome to the lowest pleasure-seekers of modern days, but were in keeping with the size of houses in the olden times. The very beds are there, beds of masonry which were probably covered with mattresses, while the walls are disfigured by paintings, the most obscene that human imagination can invent. It is curious that these indelicate paintings are not confined simply to houses of ill fame, but are also found in many private houses. Domestic articles like lamps or vessels were often very indelicate in their designs, and a large collection of such things is kept in a separate room in the the Naples museum. Outside the walls of houses too one not unfrequently comes across indelicate figures. Just facing the house of the vestal virgins is a house of ill fame, denoted by a most disgusting sign sculptured over the door-way. This public exposure of indecency is shocking to modern ideas. I do not think the moderns have improved very much over the ancients in morality, but modern nations choose wisely to throw a veil over their sins which ancient peoples thought unnecessary.
Herculaneum is nearer the foot of Visuvius, and is therefore covered over, not by lava Herculaneum.dust like Pompeii, but by hard, ​solid, massive lava which flowed into it as it poured out of the crater on the eventful day of the 23rd November 79 A. D. New towns like Portici, Resina and Torre del Greco have now been built over this solid foundation covering the ancient city. To disinter Herculaneum therefore it would be necessary not only to dig out the hard lava which covers it, but to destroy the new towns which have been built over it. For both these reasons Herculaneum has not yet been disinterred and probably never will be disinterred, the more specially as such disinterment is not likely to lead to any fresh discoveries, beyond such as have been made in Pompeii. A portion of the great theatre of Herculaneum has been cleared. It consists of 19 tiers of seats and could probably accommodate 10,000 persons. The orchestra lies 26 ft. below the modern town of Resina. Other excavations have also been made disclosing several private houses, similar to the houses in Pompeii.
The treasures and mementoes of the ancient world found in Pompeii and Herculaneum have been collected and preserved in the National Museum in Naples, which is therefore unique in its value and Museum.importance among the Museums of the world. A collection of no less than 1600 wall paintings gives the visitor a fairly correct idea of the art of painting as it was practised among the ancient Romans in the days of their highest prosperity and civilization. The very materials of paintings,—chalks and stones and earths of various colours have been found among the ruins of the burned cities and ​have been carefully preserved. Even more interesting than these are the beautiful bronze statues both large and small which have been found in the burned towns. Six dancing girls with eyes of enamel adorned the Theatre of Herculaneum. A colossal figure of Antonio, wife of Drasus the younger, and a fine bust of Scipio Africanus are among the historic figures. Mercury in repose is one of the most exquisite statues in the Museum, while a sleeping Fawn, a dancing Fawn and a drunken Fawn are among the gems of the collection. A group of Bacchus and Ampelus was found in the house of Pansa in Pompeii, while a statue of Apollo holding a lyre is one of the best in the room.
Still more interesting than these remarkable bronze figures of antiquity are the industrial bronze things preserved in this collection. No branch of industry seems to be unrepresented. Pots and pans and cooking utensils, lamps of various designs and patterns, scales and weights and balances, sacred vessels and sacrificial vases, carpenters' tools and agricultural instruments, armours and toilet requisites, surgical and musical instruments, all the various arts and industries of a busy and civilized past are exhibited before the eyes of the antiquarian, the historian and the general student. Passing from room to room the visitor examines with curiosity the curious colored glass which was in use in olden times, and the finer rock crystal beautifully cut and engraved for the use of the wealthier people, and the beautifully worked gold and silver trinkets and ornaments which graced the fair foreheads and rounded arms and necks ​of the stately dames and damsels of old. In one room he sees the very clothes worn two thousands years ago,—the very food grains, eggs and vegetables as they were used by the ancients,—the very preserves and fruits which had been stored by careful Pompeiian housewives, ignorant of the great catastrophe which brought untimely ruin on their flourishing town and at the same time preserved these their handiworks for the curious gaze of future generations of men. The visitor as he inspects these curious relics of the almost forgotten past cannot help losing himself in contemplation, and almost seems to be surrounded by those long forgotten men and women who wore this clothing, ate this food, and stored these preserves in glass bottles for their brothers, their children or their husbands!
Leaving Naples on the 9th December I slept that night in Rome, and on the 10th I was in the maritime republic of Pisa. In the early dawn of modern civilization, Pisa took the lead of the Italian Pisa.commercial republics in the tenth century of the Christian era. In the eleventh century, the fleet of Pisa was supreme in the Mediterranean, commanded the coasts of Corsica and Sardinia, Sicily and Africa, and helped the early crusaders in their memorable expeditions to the East. In the 13th century, as Genoa rose in power, the power of Pisa began slowly to decline, and in 1298 the fleet of Pisa was destroyed by its rivals. Still however the city maintained its importance until in the sixteenth century it was merged in Tuscany.
​Modern Pisa is known to tourists best for its Leaning Tower, i. e., the Belfrey. The Cathedral, the Baptistry and the Belfrey are three separate buildings, Leaning Tower.close to each other but totally detached. The Cathedral is the most ancient and was built in the eleventh century. Tradition states that it was the oscilations of the bronze lamp in the nave of this Cathedral that first suggested to Galileo the theory of the pendulum. The Baptistry is a beautiful circular building built in the twelfth century. The Belfrey or the famous leaning tower of Pisa stands at one end of the Cathedral opposite to the Baptistry. It consists of eight stories with a total elevation of 180 feet. It leans so much in one direction, that one almost wonders it does not fall down with a tremendous crash. Nevertheless it has stood there for six centuries, and may stand for as many centuries more!
The Campo Santo of Pisa is like those of Bologna and Genoa quite worth a visit. Campo Santo.It was here that distinguished Tuscan artists displayed their powers in the dawn of modern painting. The University of Pisa was founded on the 13th century, and was renowned in Europe University.in the Middle Ages and still holds its own among the universities of the modern world. The Academy of Fine Arts in Pisa was founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1812.
Coming from Pisa to Genoa one passes through some splendid scenery where Genoa.the Appenines gradually approach the sea. ​At last the mountain chain runs quite close to the sea, and the train runs now over a narrow ledge of the mountain and now through it by numerous tunnels. Genoa itself is situated in its beautiful harbour of the shape of a horse-shoe,—with the sea to the south and the mountains forming a splendid amphitheatre on the other three sides. It is in this beautiful natural amphitheatre that the ancient Republic of Genoa,—the rival and then the conqueror of Pisa, the pioneer of modern civilization and maritime discovery, and the birth place of Columbus,—is enthroned in her glory!
As one leaves the railway station and enters the town, almost the first object that strikes him is a fine marble monument with the figures of Religion and Geography, Force and Wisdom, on the pedestal. It is needless to say that Monument of Columbus.above these figures, on a circular pedestal, is the figure of Columbus! Prows of ships adorn the circular pedestal, and America kneels before her immortal discoverer.
The Duomo or the Cathedral of Genoa was built like the Cathedral of Pisa in the 11th century. The ashes of St. John the Baptist are said to be Cathedral.deposited in this cathedral, and are paraded through the streets of the town on Corpus Christi day. Perhaps more magnificent than the cathedral is the church of the Annunciation with its magnificent nave and aisles supported by twelve columns of white marble inlaid with red.
Like most Italian towns Genoa boasts of a large ​number of places built by the princely Italian families of the Middle Ages, and containing many valuable treasures of sculpture and painting. The only palace, however, which I visited was the historical palace of Andrea Dorea, the great admiral of the time of Charles V. The palace still belongs to the elder branch of the Dorea family. Andrea Dorea's Palace.Inside it are paintings of Charles V. and of Andrea Dorea, and of the great Christian victory of Lepanto over the Turks. How different the fleets of those days were to those of the modern times. Vessels in those days were mostly galleys with numbers of oars pulled by galley slaves, and the picture of the battle of Lepanto is instructive and interesting. We know that the biggest vessel of the Spanish Armada sent to conquer England was about 1,200 tons, and such vessels were considered monsters, for Drake and others had circumnavigated the world in vessels of less than half the tonnage. An ordinary modern passenger steamer is often more than four times the tonnage of the proudest vessel of the Invincible Armada, and is above ten times the size of the vessels with which Drake described a girdle round the Earth!
The one thing in Genoa which no visitor should omit to see is the Campo Santo or the Cemetery. It is outside the town and is beautifully embosomed Campo Santo.in an amphitheatre of hills. The building is imposing and the graves are arranged in long arcades as in Bologna, with beautiful and elaborate marble figures. There are ​graves and monuments also on the second and third stories.
On the 12th December I left Genoa for Turin. We crossed the Appenines and passed through some magnificent hilly scenery and then came to the plain of Piedmont, stretching from the Appenines on the south to the Alps on the north. This plain has been the scene of some of Napoleon's most brilliant campaigns and we crossed the liver Bormida within a mile of the celebrated field of Marengo. We then came to Alexandria and then to Asti, the birth place of the poet Alfieri, and it was dark before we reached Turin the capital of Piedmont.
Turin seems to be the show town of Italy, and without boasting of natural beauty or the historical association of Florence or of Pisa, Turin is, Turin.so far as modern improvements can make it so, undoubtedly the finest town in Italy. No Italian town can boast of such magnificent and straight streets and avenues, such fine and spacious squares, such noble and imposing buildings. It has been built with all the latest improvements of modern capitals, and it takes its place therefore by the side of Paris and Brussels, of Berlin and Vienna. Nor is the natural position of the town by any means against it. Situated on the valley of the Po it is embosomed in the wide plain overlooked by the snowy Alps on the north, west and south-west. Walking along the straight and spacious roads of Turin one can look on the snowy mountains to the north, and the snowy mountains to the south!
​The castle known as Palazzo Madama or Lady's palace is the centre of the town both in position and in point of interest. The castle was first built in the 13th century and then formed the residence of the Dukes of Savoy. All round this castle are the Royal Palace, the Theatre and other buildings of imposing architecture, Palace.underneath the first storey of which run handsome arcades with beautiful shops. From the castle northwards as far as the Po is the Via Po, lighted along its entire length by electricity. Most of the principal squares, too, as well as the Railway Station are lighted by electricity. Southwards from the Castle runs another beautiful street with handsome and uniform buildings along it, and called the Via Garibaldi. But the finest street in Turin, running north and south, and planted with rows of shady trees like the Boulevards of Paris is the Via Victor Emanuel.
On the 13th December I left Turin and soon passed by Rivoli, the scene of another of Napolean's brilliant victories. In the evening we crossed the Alps by the Mont Cenis tunnel 19 feet high and 26 feet wide and 7 1/2 miles in length. Half an hour is required Mont Cenis Tunnel.for the transit through the tunnel which is one of the longest in the world. We then came to Modane, the frontier town, where our baggages were of course examined, and a little dinner was ready for us. We then crept into our carriages again and the next morning we were in Paris. And the next day, (15th December) I was back again in London.
​Thus I completed my six weeks' tour. I had within these six weeks travelled through Belgium, Holland, Prussia, Germany, Austria and Italy, and I had visited, though in a tourist's fashion, a good number of the historical cities of Europe. The following is a list of the places which I visited during the six weeks from Tuesday the 2nd November to Tuesday the 14th December.
* Ostend.
* Bruges.
* Ghent.
* Brussels.
* Waterloo.
* Antwerp.
* Rotterdam.
* Hague.
* Leyden.
* Amsterdam.
* Harlem and North Sea Canal.
* Helder and North Canal.
* Minden and Zuider Zee.
* Hanover.
* Berlin.
* Dresden.
* Prague.
* Vienna.
* Salzburg.
* Bavaria and Rosenhiem.
* Inspruck and Brener Pass.
* Verona.
* Bologna
* Florence.
* Rome.
* Naples and Visuvius.
* Herculaneum and Pompeii.
* Pisa.
* Genoa.
* Turin.
A few notes on practical matters may be of use to my countrymen bent on travelling. In all the respectable hotels in the continent, English, French and German are spoken, so that a tourist knowing any one of these languages has no difficulties in hotels. Of guide-books, Badeker's series are the best; they are so good that a tourist, having these guide-books, does not require a guide anywhere, and saves a great deal more than the cost of the books in this way, and also sees everything thoroughly, and to his satisfaction.
​From the morning of the 2nd November when I left London to the evening of the 15th December when I returned to London it was 44 days, including both days. In these 44 days I had spent a little over £66. In other words I had spent a pound and a half a day. This is a high average, as a pound a day is considered sufficient for your expenses when you are staying in the continent. But then I travelled so fast that I could not make it cheaper. European travellers generally select a small area of a country where they spend a summer or a winter, and then choose another place for the next year and so on. According to this plan you can reduce hotel expenses, for most hotels make special arrangements when one is living for a long time, and then the railway fare comes next to nothing. But this plan was of course not suited to me, seeing that I have scarcely a chance of coming to Europe once in ten years. I had therefore to travel fast, and that means much Railway fare and high hotel charges. My Railway fares alone come to over £20, and my hotel charges, including hotel extras, over £30. I had, therefore, only £15 left for cab hires and occassional guides, for entrance to museums and picture galleries, and for such guide-books and a few photographs and mementoes as no tourist can help buying.
The coinage is different in each country and gives the tourist some trouble. In Norway and Sweden the kronor is the silver coin and is worth a little more than a shilling. In France the franc is worth 10 pence, and the coinage in Belgium is the same as in France. In Holland the guilden is about 2 francs, i.e., 1s. 8d. In ​Germany the mark is equal to the shilling. In Austria the florin is 2 francs i.e., 1s. 8d. In Italy the lira is equal to the French franc. If the English Government, without giving up the shilling, were to coin a silver ten pence piece, and the Germans followed suit, and if the Dutch and the Austrians would coin a half guilden and a half florin respectively, something like an international silver coin could be had in the 10 pence piece, equal to a franc, equal to a half guilden, equal to the proposed German coin, and equal to the lira! However Governments are not yet of the same mind as the perplexed tourist rapidly travelling through one half of Europe in six weeks!