New-York daily tribune., 1844-03-16
GIimpses at Europe.

SuMpER MILL [BY TRAVELLING NEw-YoRkEA.
Foreign Correspondence of the New-York Tribune.
PIACENzA To PARMA-CoRREGGIO'S S PAINTINGS.
The walls which surround all the cities OF
Italv are now rendered worthless for defence by
the modern improvements in military tactics, but
are made profitable by the governments as means
OF collecting at the gates which pierce them, the
heavy taxes and duties (or octrOD which they
impose on every thing which enters the towns
for the consumption of the citizens. Not sn-
gle cabbage can come in without paying It's
quota eggs must be counted and taxed before
they can reach the breakfast table, and chickens
have brief respite from slaughter while their
owner is paying so much per head at the gate.
All these duties must, of course, finally come out
of the pocket of the consumer, and be added TO
the cost of his articles of food This is petty
oppression from which we are luckily exempt.
How would the market men of Newly ork stare,
wonder and grumbe, if nothing worse, on find
ing at every dock where they landed their
"truck," party Of soldiers laying hands on
their property, turning every thing inside out,
running their swords through loads of hay, to
make sure that nothing was hidden within, and
compelling them to unpack and repack all their
baskets for the convenience of the inspectors
All this is, hcwever, the regular course of busl
ness in this country, though II does not generally
concern the stranger, except so far as he pays for
it at secondhand On leaving PAcENzA, how
ever, we encountered one Of its resulting annoy
ances in finding tie gate and the road complete
ly blocked up b, the crowd OF country carts
bringing in their poduce at the early hour OF our
setting out. The Entering current was too strong
for our single Garage to stem, and our vetturlno
appealed in vain TO the people, to the soldiers,
and finally to tn, saints and the Madonna. and
was at last obliged to make circuit Of mile to
escape the throny.
On reganing the main road, we found our
selves upon the celebrated Via Emilia, con-
structed by Emilius Lepidus, more than two
thousand years ago, but seemingly intended for
eternity, like all the works Of that wonderful peo-
plc AS in the Journey of William Of Deorane,
Straight TO the rish, before us lay
For many me the Roman way"
pursuing its arrow-likc course through fertile
meadows, while to the south rise the Apprentices,
"robed by distance with that azure hue which
in them is so peculiarly and intensely blue. At
noon we reached the breakfast place, Borgo San
Domino, so named from saint martyred there
by Macmillan. Once rival of Parma, it is
now petty village, but its antique cathedral,
built in the eleventh century, shows It's former
wealth. Strangely sculptured stones are inserted
in various parts of the church; one enbems
the hunt Of the soul by the demon, under the
symbolic hieroglyphic Of stag chased by hounds;
another represents woman with torch IN each
hand, sitting in chariot drawn by dragons;
third bears procession Of pilgrims and knights
with monkey on horseback, doubtless in allu-
sion to some legend now forgotten; fourth ex-
hibits the sun with inscription in uncla letters,
which no one can now interpret, and which may
preserve, too securely indeed, some important
and mysterious secret. The townhal (PalaS-o
PubZico) also contains on its front a few similar
sculptures, and among them, one OF a serpent
with mans head and arms. Many learned
volumes have been written upon these mysteries
by enthusiastic archnologists, but all amount to
little more than Yankee guessings. Like most
objects of interest in this part of Italy, they are
relics of the Middle Ages; and though they cannot
appeal to our classical recollections, they arouse
our Imagination in greater degree from the
doubts and mystery which envelope the period of
the Dark Ages-that intellectual night which
intervened between the setting sun of Rome, and
the rising one OF modern Europe.
The Emilian road shoots straightly on across
the Taro, stream now perfectly dry, but in win
ter such broad and dangerous torrent that it is
spanned by bridge nearly half mile long. 1t
was built by Maria Louisa, and with its twenty
semi. circular arches and solid construction,
should have been magnificent structure, but Is,
notwithstanding, tasteess and clumsy affair,
and proves that even in Italy, as well as in Ame-
rica, engineers are too often regardless of archl-
tectural and pictorial beauty, even when 1t Is at
tainabIe with equal or less expense.