New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-07-04
ROME.
Correspondence Of The N. Y. Tribune.

Correspondence Of The N Y. Tribune.
JUNE 10, 1857.
Rome is herself again in Summer-Old, deserted
and lonely There is nothing new now, unless 1t
be that the Pope is away at the NORTH having his
toe kissed at Rimini, at AncOna, and 80 along the
Adriatjc, cOnsOling courts and communities with
bis paternal benedictions You Knight as well expect
"news" from Rip Van Winlle in his mid-slumber
time, as from us; and as for "passing events,
they are out Of season. The Russian Empress
cam and went; and left pttance of three paus
apiece to the six thousard beegars who petltloned
for her aims not one of whom ever figured to him.
self any thiDg less than good round yearly income
at bis gratuity from an Empress's revenue Her
bequest still lies deposited, no one daring to dis
tribute it, lest the disappointed poor should accuse
himself Of rObbiDg them, and SO turn and rend him.
Visitors and strangers are mostly scattered
away, and foreign residents wait the 1st OF July to
90 TO the hills or to the sea. Yet l am told that
going into the country FOR the Summer is more
matter of fashion than health, here rs elsewhere.
Many American residents passing the Summer IN
town have found it as tOlerabe most OF our New
England vlages-the only difference being the
longer The sea breeze is felt at noon, and that,
with shade, keeps us comfortable. Even with its
fevers Rome is found more healthy than the noun
tain towns. The Spring was backward, but now
the sun is in full blastbOth the heat and the cold
being attributed to the closely comet for dread OF
which some of the peasants said to have forbOrne
the cultivation Oftheir fields.
The promenades are throngcd in the evening" but
in the middle Of the day the city is silent as
churchyard. The inhabitants mostly dine about
noon or little after; then those who do not work
sleep and then 90 out to drive or walk couple OF
hours before sunset. The Ccrso, the Ripetta, the
BabrimO, pour their full currents through the
Piazza del Popolo, whence they turn to the Pin.
clan hill or out to the Villa Borghese. The
Porta Pia, the Lateran and ST. Pancras gates
open to airy promenades. No place can be more
delightful in its envirOns than Rome. All around
her is spread the most glorious panorama OF hills
and verdant plains, and every road or radius
out is cut and worn down by time past. Nearer
the center, within the walls, are the old
sights that never tire, like dear old friends
more cordial and entertaining at every visit.
The most random ride or walk brings you within the
beck Of monuments and structures full OF interest
from Numa till now. We turn down the COrso,
thrOnged with ladies in hats and hOOps-between
modern palaces with their grated windows, and
shops full of French fashiOns-and just now at the
right we catch glimpse of antique columns. We
halt and turn backs il is the magnificent Corinthian
porticO of the Argonauts, or ofthe Temple of Nep-
tune, as you will. but now walled up between the
columns and economical into the facade OF the
Custom house. Thus its grand cOrDce and marble
columns are preserved for us in their places. We
grumble at times that modern Rome has much
attached itself, Gchen-like, to these fine old
ruins: but often it serves as kindly prop
to what the wild fig tree, or the church,
might otherwise long ago have wrestled down
But We cannot stop to measure or to muse; the Rel
Book is instructed with all that. We only note the
wondrous variety Of fine pieces that this kaleid-
scope ride turns round to us. Anon We are tracing
the circumference of part of the Theater of Marcel
lus, of Augustan times, shut up in the thickest OF
the CITY, knee.deep in the soil of ages, yet stall
wart and strong with an array of Doric and Ionic
columns around it. Its lower arches are worked
into old iron shops, bakeries and cObbler cells, all
built Of enormous blocks, time cOlOred and withal
Jewish scent that leads us Oh close by to the POrta
d'Octavia. Here are more grand pilasters and
acanthus tops and marble pediments and great
arches; and within, the fish market (begging your
pardon for the smel; the whole the entrance to the
Ghetto, the Jews quarter and which till lately
locked them up at night. The marble soOunters, the
ancient pavement of the PorticO, are cleared now
Of their merchandise; but outside on stona sits
hard knotty old Je~ess nodding beside her fish
basket BY some turn we pass through an old
clothes, rag.fair street, lined with clothing being
uduc Icdu., anu IfouLy hitu anu WOiueH Wltn IOUg
earrings piecing patching and stitching all sorts of
garments, every one begging US to look and to buy.
Out Of the Ghetto, the streets are still narrow; the
men before the shops knitting making nets or
mending their jackets, the women doing the same
and tending the babies VIII ch from swaddng-
bands they put into leading and totte along
till they can 90 alone Themselves thus forestalng
creeping, and making every other child bow legged
or more positively deformed.
But here We are halted again before capricous,
ly figured brick and stone facade Of some say Ri.
enzs, some say Pilates house; but the fact is it is
near the bank Of the river and this is as near as the
doctors Of archaeology can agree. The guide book
hesitates whether TO quote from Byron or the
Bible; the small point of difference being whether
here lived Cola Rienzi whom the people killed, or
POntius PLATE who sent our Lord to crucifxion.
But, perhaps, it is more certain that just down
this bank, if Virgil be good authority, is where
Eneas landed to seek Evanders aid; and near by
was Numa's tomb, now washed away by the Tiber.
Down little at the right is the Tbern isle, forued
Of the floating debris of Tarquin's ravaged fields,
where the god Escuapius, in the form of serpent,
retired, when brought to Rome to heal the pest.
All these are souvenirs of the highest respectability
from their great antiquity, and on which l do not
know that srchgOlOpsfs Disagree Those nohs and