Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-06-06
Foreign Correspondence of THE HERALD.
a letter from Rome.
BY A RUTLAND LADY.

ROME, Italy, April %, 1872.
Editor Rutland Herald You will
excuse me if 1 write abrupt and careless
". for I am somewhat Hurried and cN-
cited, vet I wish to write while the i'm
pressions are fresh and vivid in mymind.
1t is of a journey I have just taken,
which is interesting at any time, but
never more so than at the present date.
will tell you something about my
journey to Naples. The train left at one
o'clock and we had the most delightful
ride there of eight hours, through the
lovelest country. You have no idea
how fresh and green and bright every
thing looked after being shut up in
Romes dirty, dingy walls six months.
Going out of Rome there is the wide
expanse of the Campagna, with its vine
draped aqueducts, the red plots of titled
earth, the green fields bright with every
hue of flowers, the green little huts of
the peasants, the peasants themselves in
groups digging or lying lazily on the
grass, the fiocks of goats and sheep, the
heads of the great white cattle Of the
Campagna, and the beautiful blue dis
tant mountains.
Then, further away from Rome, came
the lovely undulating hills near AlbanO,
where you look down through lovely
valleys covered with vineyards, and hills
rising on both sides, far off to the plains
which meet almost imperceptibly into
the sea. On one side rise high, rocky,
bare mountains, all in that purple light,
which looks exaggerated in pictures,
but is not at all. 1t is one changing
scene of beauty.
We had an interesting coupe: priest,
a captain, and a Neapolitan swell. Be
fore the eight hours were over we all
were talking busily. Mr.. X. and the
Neapolitan in French and the rest of
us in Italian Towards dusk, l gave a
sudden glance, and sudden eXclama-
ton: ''Robin, there's Vesuvius! :"
There it was peacefully smoking its
pipe away over the plains. Little did it
look as if it was going to astOnish and
brighten us to death in few hours. 1t
was too dark to see the Bay when we
got in, but the streets were brilliantly
lighted. and they looked so broad and
airy and light after these close. dingy
Roman streets. In Naples they have a
pretty way Of setting the thousand little
fruit stands in front of shrine, and
Il, 81 Il
lighting dozens of lamps or candles
which shine through the leaves and
brighten up the golden oranges and yell
low lemons. Some of them pick whole
branches from the orange and lemon
trees with the fruit growing, and they
look very fresh and tempting among the
green leaves The shop doors are all
open, and as you ride by, you glance in
at the bright corals, the gay pictures and
all the variety of wares.
After we had got settled in the Hotel
de Rusie, we made for the quay, which
we found lined with crowds watching
Vesuvius / supposed it was the ordi-
nary spectacle until | asked some one,
who said there hadn't been such an erup-
ton since 1920 Next day we took the
boat for Capri, and as we were being
rowed over from the wharf to the steam
er, bearer of dispatches said to Mr.. r.
that about thirty .t0restieri Foreigners
who had spent the night up on the noun
tain watching the eruption, were all
killed by the stones and sulphur. We
were terribly shocked, of course, though
hoped it was not true.
The little steamer was quite full of
travellers going out to Sorrento and Capri:
very few English and Americans, but
lots of Germans, French and Italians.
We made acquaintance directly with a
Partisan family, father, mother and two
young daughters, not pretty, but so
''nettes," trim, pretty-footed and thor
oughly Frencby. | can't describe the
bay to you, except to say that it is beau
tiful. The curve is perfect, the water
blue, the shores charming; but look at a
picture and it will E@ejust as pretty as |
found it. The great thing which fixed
our eyes was Vesuvius. It had increas-