The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-03-19
DAILY PRESS.
MD
Saturday Morning, March 10, 1870.
Our European CorresPondenee.
From Leghorn to Bologna,
Padua and Venice,
Saturday Morning, March 10, 1870.
Letter No. IL.

Letter No. IL.
VENICE, February II, 1871.
MEssRs. EDITORS Eight or ten days ago,
left the handsome city of Leghorn for Bo-
logna. The region of country between the
two cities abounds with most interesting his
torical "reminiscences, and for diversity OF pic
turesque scenery cannot be surpassed. The
hills and mountains nearest to the travelled
way, lean lovingly upon each other, and the
more distant, here and there seen through
some ravine, or overtopping all others, reach
up into the sky many thousands of feet, splin-
tered and shattered, and sparkling with their
crowns of ice and snow; while the valleys are
everywhere green and fertile. And there is
not foot of ground capable of producing
anything that can be turned to account, that
is net brought under cultivation.
Every cliff, every mountain spur, also, has
its rambling villa, its antique church, ruined
o0"SA "a .vA.ASSs, .---~ .--o--,
menced originally on hil[tops, or steep ac-
clivities, to render them the better capable of
defence in the lawlessness of the olden time,
have pushed towards the valleys, roof sue
ceeding roof in regular ranks, and deployed
on either hand, as they were titanic ar
mics! Still the people seem to delight in ele-
vated positions; and often you will see sim
Gle cot, or two or three, overlooking the sur
rounding regions from mural sleeps that seem
almost inaccessible.
All along our way, mile after mile, laborers
were engaged in spading up the soil prepara-
tory to planting. I did not, in single in
stance, see plough in use; but the men, and
in some instances the women, worked in con-
cert with their spades, by threes, fours and
fives, and sometimes larger ranks, yard or
two apart, alternating from right to left and
left to right, so as to complete their work
without being in each others way. Perhaps
this is well where laborers are so abundant; !;
and as at present many of them get but twen-
ty cents, or thereabouts, per day, the cost is
70 greater than the more expeditions method
of plowing in other lands.
Bologna is fine old walled city of about
90 900 inhabitants. In America it is chiefly
known by its reputation for sausage-making,
but it has its historical and poetical associa-
tlOuS VI taO hSlCot OluOAs AhOh Ato 3AohN
old palaces, its richly embellished churches,
most of them dating their foundations far
bach of the age in which America was dis
covered, its pictures and statuary, its magnif-
cent shops and stalls, and its slender campan-
lie or bell-tower, reaching almost to the
Clouds, often arrest the traveller on his way
to more renowned places.
In its celebrated gallery of paintings are
many by the old masters, particularly by
Guido Reni; and the notable one by Raphael
of "St Cecilia listening to heavenly music"
Every thing here is ancient, well preserved
and substantial You see no new buildings
going up, no alterations making. Indeed
Bologna seems to be a completed city. They
have got it done, no more to add, nothing to
take away-and we may say-come, and see
the great work which it has taken more than
two thousand years to accomplish!
Out-of-doors, statues may be found as
plentiful here as all over Italy. The people of
this Italian peninsular, in former times, must
have been statue-mad am half inclined to
suspect that the mania still continues) there
are suatues On morse DacK. statues erect anu
prim, statues stark and reclining; doubled up
| in agony, swinging their arms for joy, wrest-
ling in deadly combat, dying sadly with
wounds, committing murder in the first de-
gree, chained as slaves, crowned as rulers
expressing every trait and passion that man
is capable of. I speak more particularly of
out-ofdoor statues.
They are placed at the portals of preten-
tious buildings, stand in market-places, sup
port balconies, vomit pure water into fount-
ain-basins, diversity garden walks, rally about
churches, 1.-THE exterior of the Milan cathe-
dral alone upbearing more than five thousand
full sized, many Of which were executed by
master hands;) and where there is nothing
particular to set off or ornament, colonnades
are constructed for their accommodation!
Then there are all sorts of imaginary nom
descripts done in marble, performing among
other things, a useful part as gargoyles and
corbeilles; embodying, one would think, the
widest conception of nightmare and insanity
besides the recognized satyrs, fauns, cen
taurs, and not least in number, the orthodox.
ly received aoinged angels.
| But to those who have not been in Italy,
would say do not suppose all these to be of
| the spotless white of the few that have found
their way to America, like Akers' Drowned
Diver, or Powers Greek Slave. On the con
trary many of them are discolored by age,
| green, black, and tawny; but oitenest black,
apparently by a sort of lichen that will per-
sist in trying to conceal their nakedness.
Then some of them in the tumultuous
times through which they have passed, have
had their noses, fingers, toes, and other ap-
pendages knocked of, some have done duty
so long at fountains in spewing water, that
they are all mouth, and some have faced the
heat, cold, and storms of so many decades or
centuries, that they are almost worn out, and
only bear the outlines of humanity, or of the
non-descripts they were when they sprang
from the brains of their paternal Jupiters!
| do not know that there is ever any at
! tempt to clean or reclaim them. Possibly
they are priced all the more for these evi-
dences of their antiquity, and any essay in
such direction would be considered sacri-
| lege. 1 was about to express the wish that
| SohAS OAu NAOAtoiity NOuiu SPillS up " IT.
| chisel them; but it would take an army of
| Old Mortalities to attend to tithe of their
cases. However, on one point am sure, and
that is, that it would be an improvement to
dispense with many which have been worn
out in the public service and become unsightly
If they are to be venerated, let them be bur-
led with military, civic, or any other honors,
according to their representation. And hun
dreds of others, never having possessed merit
| in any way, would fulfil reasonable mission
by being ground into component for soda
water!
Enough Oh this score. From Boloona I
went, by way of Padua, to Venice. Padua
Is said to have been founded-I haven't the
date exactly-far back in the commencement
of the centuries when time began to be con-
sidered Of much account, by brother-in-
law Of Priam; and for six or seven hundred
years recently, it has been famed for its uni
versity. 1t is a quaint and quiet town Of
above $4,000 inhabitants, and its history pro-
| trudes in every direction with interesting
events! If there were not so much of the
antique and retrospective, to interest one all
over Italy, 1T would be considered worthy
of pilgrimage from distant countries to ex-
put T on