Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-03-20
NOTES OF TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD.
Wrasa for ne National Latelltgeacer By a Citizen
Of Washington.

can ooiy speak IS appeared 10 me in the month OF
October after the parching heats Of summer The bril-
iancJ Of the skies and the saluby Of the climate at this
OF the year cannot be surpassed in any part Of
world but am not that il is the season to
the scenery Certainly the parched and barren aspect
of the whole country very unfavorable opinion
of the fertility Of the SOIL the beauties of can see
merry. Nearly the entire tract of hundred and fifty
miles lying between Palermo and Gaia MIA perfect de-
rocky mountains and barren valleys without water
trees, and nothing indicate any means by which the
inhabitants subsst here and there
ing spot erraced ground scratched over and dotted
with the stumps Of grapeyines Yet they do i've and
apparently without labor for during my whole journey
to Catania. 90 not think dozen men at work
An intelligent Italian however informed me that the land
although apparently 20 sterile yields abundant crops
when cultivated. and requires very little ploughng The
villages throughout the interior the direst and
wreched looking places imaginable filed with beggars
and ragged ders and dilapdaed to the last habtable
degree. SYRIA the Holy Land, scarcely furnish
dplorable example Of the decay of civilization in
the old world than meets with at every turn Of the
road throughout the interior Of Sicily is almost i'm
possible for the American traveller accustomed he is
progress and enterprise and oil their concomitant
Suits realize the barbarous condition in which these
poor people i've Passing through the villages ut night
many of them asleep the road side, without
verng shelter and the squaor and restitution Of those
who lived in houses surpass belief Whole families are
huddled together in wretched apartment without
beds furniture living in with mules goats,
and swne and about cultivated the brutes around
them Few that conversed with had heard Of Ame-
rca and those who knew there sucha country,
had no idea whether il was in China in England That
such of things should exist in the nineteenth
tury country highly civilized and still boast
ing antiquities that excite the admiration of the world is
almost Incredible.
The implements of agriculture the rude and halfsavage
people, the entire absence the comforts
of civilization all bore evidence of the depressing effects of
military rule What object is there in these poor
wretches endeayorng to benefit their condition said my
friend, the Italian, to What good will it do them
increase their crops build better houses educate
their children? The they have the heavier they
are taxed they naturally think they might well
main idle labor for the support of horde Of brutal
soldiers keep them in state of slavery and there is
Indictment education, for it only makes them the
sensible of their degraded condition Yet is not
be conended that they fit for self government all
they need is udicious and humane system Of lays,
which viii afford them adequate protection against the
errors and foes of despotic rulers They not def
cen in capacity industry where they have any object
in making of their natural gifts You them
in state of hopeless degradation and bondage
said started from Palermo at night II is jour-
ney of hiryx hours Caania, making just two nights
and one day the road. One would naturally suppose
it would be quite well to set out in the morning, and
make two days and night of it but these among
the unaccountable peculiartes of sicilian travel.
Catania is a large town. containing population Of
fifty thousand many fine buildings, many soldiers many
churches and of the finest converts in Sicily The
monastery of San Benedetto is the most extensive esab
lishment Of the kind have yet Here the monks,
who chiefly Of noble families live in royal style If
had money Enough nothing would please me better than
adopt the cow and sack and become brother in the
monastery of San Benedetto The building lisa magnih
palace ornamened with courts and fountains gar
dens pleasure grounds bowers for devotional exercises
splendid marble halls in the interior, suites of elegant
apartments pictures of all the saints organs that fill the
spacious chapels with food of solemn music statuary,
mosaic ana woluptuous rescoes-a that charm the
senses and make glad the heart Of monks. The good
wines the choicest selections of the Marsaa and San
Nchooso brands the macaron is the purest and richest
the fish the best that be hed out of the bay Of
Catana the chickens and capons the samis the salads,
the roast beef aud unexceptionabe but the
brotherhood do not these things-hey for the
of visiters. No traveller visit the convent
of Monte Sanario Vale 0mbrosa, in Tuscany,
indeed any of the converts throughout Italy Sicily
without grateful of their genuine goodnature and
hospitality. They soured by ascetic mode Of
life, msanthropic from THEN, seclusion the world is
open to them, and they enjoy it in quiet way
Close by the convent Of San Benedetto is the female
convent was permitted to enter, having friends
there.
Six miles from Catania the road along the coast to
Messna is the group Of Rocks where it is said Cycops
born They called the Cyclopean Isles. went
up forenoon to make sketch Of them. The weather
unpropitous and, after at glance at the rocks and
thorough drenchng, compelled to return without
the usual boat-excursion to the grottO
1t is good forenoons work prepare for the ascent
Of Mount Etna. There horses be hired bargains
to be made clothing to be put in readiness; pro-
visions to be laid in; brandy and cigars be stored
away for the night and sundry other little matters to be
attended to- the adventurer designs spending the night
on the mountain My companion the occasion was n
young Englishman attached to the army at Malta he
anxious the from the summit Of the
mountain To this arrangement Twas opposed for several
reasons first had often the rise from the top
Of mountain secondly the was late, and IT is no
pleasant journey the beds of lava to the crater OF
Mount Etna in the middle of the night But inasmuch
my friend had recollection of having seen the
rise from mountain, gave up, and agreed to be
vctimized
The distance from Catania to the crater of Mount Etna
Is twenty-threc miles the Of the base
tent Of more than hundred miles; and the height, ac
cordng to the most authentic French measurement is
thousand four hundred feet above the level of the