The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1877-03-01


jewellers, who make a most attractive dis
/ play Of their wares, especially OF turqnolscs.
Inosaics and canoes, and sell them, l am
\ told, at very low prices. The narrow Aoor
like streets are
i TiKONGED WITH A CONSTANT STREAM OF
LIFE.
For Florence, although but one-third lar
ger than Detroit, has far greater crowds OF
/ pedestrians in her ttoroughfares, and as the
i larger proportion OF these walk in the street
! instead OF on the sidewalk, the throng ap-
pears yet greater. II you will note the
crowds on Woodward avenue, between def
| ferson avenue and Campus Martius, between
1 five and six D. H., OF q Saturday evening,
/ you can imagine how the principal Floren
| tine streets are crowded every day. Many
/ small businesses are carried on upon the
/ curb-stone or at the corners, and the climate
4 makes out -door life pleasanter than that in
the chilling, dark houses, both in summer
and winter. So the avenues are full OF
| loungers, and each sunny corner or little
| square is the resort OF groups OF oilers VIII"
seem to spend half the day.here. engaged II,
the most animated looking and sounding
conversation, in which the fingers take
! quite as much part as the tongue-for Italy
| Is THE LAND OF aEsTICULATIoN.
There are signs for almost every common
! expression, which, If you learn them, will
answer you quite as we'll as the vernacular,
and it must be the paradise OF dumb men.
| il nature has only left them quick eyes and
plant fingers. There is an unsayory Gus
! tom at all these corners, permitted by i'm
perceptible usage, to which | cannot partic
| ularly allude. Through these crowds street
cries constantly resound, quite drowning
the clatter OF horses hoots, the light roll OF
carriage wheels and the ordinary roar OF a
multitude. For wares and petty merchan-
disc are yelled and beloved, each with Its
peculiar cry, all day long, and when the
T! shades of eve prevail the vendors OF evening
| papers take up the wondrous tale and make
| night hideous, and when these have sold
| their sheets or screamed themselves speech
| less, then the seventeen theaters disgorge
| their crowds, who march home i'll squads.
chanting their favorite airs, with good
voices and in good time, but tremendous
moderation. So you will perceive that Flor
enco is not the place for u nervous man to
| sleep in unless he goes to church all Gay
as steadily as do.
| THE CHURCHES OF FLORENCE,
Should ore commence describing them,
would furnish an almost inexhaustible
| theme. They are so numerous, and there
are so many beautiful ones, rich in treasures
Of sculpture and painting, OF frescoes and
| mosaics. SO many, too, apart from their
| beauty, charm the Imagination with the his
toric "reminiscences that Ill their aisles and
| linger around their cloisters. For remem-
Der that this was the city In which art had
it's new birth, its renaissance. After the
| gloom which overspread the world with the
downfall VI the Roman Empire, when all
| that was spared OF culture and learning, OF
arts and sciences, took refuge within the
walls Of ByzaHtium, where it dourished with
a feeble light until Florentine wealth and
1iberality ard aesthetic taste Brought rays OF
| the heavenly fire across the archipelago and
the Adriatic and kindled it into glowing
| flame on the Arno, thence TO spread over
/ Europe and the world; while the parent
4 light expired in utter darkness before the
ravage assaults Of the fierce sons OF Gilman,
and Constantinople became 'Stantoul. And
in the strong, vigorous, though turbulent
life of the commonwealth Of the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, and beneath the
magnificent patronage of the Medicean
usurpers who overthrow the republic of the
people and erected on its ruins republic OF
arts and of letters.
THINK OF THE GALAXY OF INDUSTRIOUS
MEN
Who called Florence their mother and gave
to their parent city the choicest fruits of
talents and their labors! Daute, Boccacio,
Macchiaveili, Guiccardlna, Calico, Arnolfo,
Oreagana, BruMelleschi, in literature and
architecture; Glotto, Ghibelti, Cimabue, Fra
Angelica, Donatello, Ghirlandajo. Leonardo
da Vinci, Carlo Dolce, in the arts. And
Michael Angelo, the inspired, architect, en-
in all. What galaxy of names to spread
the lustre and renown Of Florence over the
world. And, without exception, all these
great genluses devoted their highest talent,
their lively fancy and strong inv 'ntive pow
crs, without measure or stint, to the design
Ing, planning and identifying ofthe church
es that arose on every hand as monuments
Of the wealth, piety and skill Of the Italian,
Athens. And 80
THE BEAUTIFUL DUNNO,
With its dome, the first ever erected, The
highest in exlstance unless some OF the iror
and glass exposition palaces have recently
surpassed it), and the model OF st. Peters
with its checkerwise walls Of black ant
white marble; the Daptisery with its match
less bronze gates ''fit,'' said Michael Ange
10, ITO be tile gates Of Paradise;'' the ez
!, quisitc tower OF the Campaliilc, Ike an orr
entail gem, which Emperor Charles V. sait
! ''sliould be kept under Il glass case, it wa
, so beautiful" with It's inner wealth Of stat.
, ues, to one of which the artist Donatelio, as r.
} gave it the last stroke Of the chsel, exclam
, ed''ParIa," (speaD; the Annunzata, whcl
: glows with brilliant beauty until the eye be
; comes yearied.
FAMOUS EDlFICEs.
Santa Croce, the Florentine Westmiaiste
I Abbey, home OF the illustrious dead and ric
with their monuments; La Badia, with it
! beautiful assumption" its richly an
, deeply carved oaken roof and interestin
: monumental efligies; San Marco, where tn
e inspired Savonarola taught. preached an
!. prophesed until he revoiutionized the cit
J, and swaycd it ooedient to his will; San liz
: ranzo with it's surperb tonbs Of the Medic
e and it's marble unriyalled in the world; Sar
c ia Maria Novella, to view which Intelligent
h Is an art education in itself; the Apostle
e with the carved arches, composite column
: and Quaint architecture OF Charlemagne
!, time; Or Sar Michele with the great marbl
II taberna Gle exquisitely fine as Nurember
). Goldsmth's work. and Its rows OF saints lool
: ing down from their inches in the onts
L walls on the crowded street below, saints s
1t rarely carved that Michael Anveio. who az