The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1827-04-25
From the .Neao York Statesman.
LETTERS FROM EUROPE.
RnME. MAJ. I826,

cupied in the examination of our passports
and baggage, was far from being an neon
venience, or hanging heavily on our hands
at this instance. Before us opened the
spacious Piazza of the Porta del Popolo,
enriched with many of the peculiar monu-
ments of Roman magnifcence.-Three of
the principal streets in the city terminate
like radii in this square, enabling the eve
to extend far up their vistas lined with pal
aces and churches, in long perspective. Of
these streets the middle one is the Corso.
IN all respects the finest, most fashionable,
and most frequented in town. 1t runs from
the Capitol to the Porta del Popolo In
nearly direct line, is broad, handsomely
paved, and a part of the way furnished with
sidewalks. At the hour of our arrival it
was thronged with carriages, which were
pouring necessarily into the Piazza. Some
of them continued their course through the
gate; others wound their way up a terraced
road to the top of the Pincian Mount, on
our left; and the remainder, wheeling
round an Egyptian Obelisk, erected as a
goal in the centre of the square, either
halted on the great Exchange of fashion,
to stare and be stared at, or made another
circuit through the Corso.-Such are the
high sports in the capital of his Holiness,
on Sunday evening.
The magnificent area, surrounded by
three stately churches ard by two white
marble fountains crowned with colossal
statues thronged as it was with no incon-
siderable share of the splendour, beauty.
taste, and fashion, which a population of u
hundred and fifty thousand can afford, form
| ed an imposing yestibule to the imperial
city. We sat in our carriages, In the midst
of the multitude, and learned much in a
short time The Roman ladies are bea-ti-
ful-pre- eminently beautiful over those of
any part of Italy we have yet seen-in
face, form and complexion; blending grace
with dignity of manners, and a compare
tive simplicity with richness and elegance
of dress. AS for the other sex, they appear
in most cases to have degenerated sadly
from their patrician ancestors and few
traces of the old Roman character, either
in mind or person, are to be found in their
descendants. The Italian language as
here spoken, is melody itself in comparison
with the harsh, cultural intonations of the
! Tuscans, though the latter are the fathers
of the modern dialect, and are said to
write it with greater purity than the Re-
mans.
/ On the morning Of our arrival, we hast
! ened to the centre of attraction. rche Cant
! toll and the Forum, and the visit he's since
been daily repeated with almost as mnch
: regularity, as Cicero and Hortenslus at
tended the courts some two thousand year:
ago. Let us again hurry thither, and with
out pausing at present to look at objects OF
our right or left, ascend to the top Of the
comparatively modern tower, which rise:
to the height of perhaps two hundred fee
upon the summit of the Capitoline Hill
The reader has already received from my
own remarks, and perhaps from hundred
other more correct sources, some ntlma-
tons of the great outlines of the picture,
which he hence surveys. He here finds
| himself in the centre both of the ancient
and modern city, as well as of the Cam
! pagna di Roma. To the north and east in
the distance, the eye rests upon the blue
SUBMITS of the Apprentices, sweeping round
the plain like vast amphltheatre, from
TivoG, to the heights Of Baccano, embrac-
( ing in the long range the sombre crest of So
racte, and hundred other hills, with their
I tops fading into the skies. Between these
mountains (near the village of Tivoli,
which is seen elevated upon their brow
and Mont Albano lifting its woody summit
above q cincture of white hamlets, towards
the south, an arm of the Campagna, resem-
bling a strait of the sea opens in boundless
perspective, which beyond the reach Of
vision, is lost among the hills. On the
west. and southwest, the prospect is cock
! tensive with the sensible horizon; for al
the distance of twelve or fifteen miles, the
Mediterranean bathes the solitary shores
\ and so similar is the complexion Of the two
Al. y. Ia a
the precise boundary between land and
sea.
Such are the remote features of this
great panorama. The aspect of the Cam
pagna has already been described 1t is o
belt of utter solitude, twelve miles in
breadth in the narrowest part, and COM
pletelv encircles Rome. Two or three
struggling churches, forming the very ont,
posts of the city, are but few miles from
the gates. Dark ruins are scattered ovel
the waste in shapeless masses, fast sinking
into the grave of empire. On one side arr
seen wrecks of tombs, which skirted tn,
Appian way on another side, the specta
tor traces the winnings of the Tiber through
its lonely borders, from the walks of The
city to the sea. The eternal silence which
broods over this region, once rural, popu
lous, and gay, sends chill to the heart:
Horror ubque animos stimuli ipsa siientia terrent.
: But the gloomiest features in the picture
have not yet been portrayed. The high
dark ramparts, visible in their whole cir
conference Of about sixteen miles, enclose
an area which exhibits chaos of desolate
ruins and modern splendor. As the former
image predominates in the mind, the latter
; by contrast only serves to render it the
more hideous.--More than half the space
within the walls is not occupied at all 10y
buildings. These waste places once ccv
cred by golden palaces and temples of the
gods, are now strewed with rubbish, OF
converted into gardens and patches of cul-
tivation, the sell of which is enriched b.
the dnnt nc mn onnnirn A llylIriant rrnNth