St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-11-21

ing about and in and out" at every
issue into day having a new panorama
and all the way getting glimpses of
Pistoja and the valley of the Arno at
our feet. This Pistoja is memorable as
having been the last retreat of Cataline
and his fellOw-conspirator Maulins, who
here collected small army to over
throw the Roman republic. Here we
strike the Arno and, skirting the base
of the mountains, through lovely and
highly cultivated district speed on our
way to the old capital of Tuscany. Our
room in Florence faces the Pitte Palace,
which for long years was the abode of
the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, and is
the residence of the King of Italy when
he is in this city. Florence was gay
and growing place for the several years
that Victor Emmanuel made it his cap
ital, but now in this early autumn it is
quiet to dullness and the Piazzi Pitte is
almost deserted. One afternoon line
team of seven span of bay horses with
liveried attendants came from the di-
rection of the palace. Fancying it
might be the Kings cortege we made
haste to inquire and make sure of the
fact. ''Oh no, that's an American,
New Yorker" was the reply, and, with
the thought that we wouldn't rush after
royalty again, and that certainly the
befooled American didn't care for closer
acquaintance with the other fool, even
if he was from his own country, we re-
turned to our prior occupation.
Part of the Pitte Palace and nearly
the whole of the Uffize Palace, an older
edifce on the other side of the ArnO,
are filled with works of art. A passage
connecting the two is lined with pic
lures. There are 30, 900 drawings, thou
sands of engravings, 1900 paintings,
many fine sculptures and mosaics, gems,
precious stones and ivOries almost with
out number. One passes unnoticed
much that elsewhere would command
admiration, simply because there are
so many transcendent objects. In one
saloon is a mosaic table executed for
the London Exhibition of 1851 and
valued at Sl50,000, in another, tables
of alabaster and malachite, in others,
vases of porphyry and porcelain of huge
dimensions, and tables of jasper, lapis
lazuli, and verde-antique. Some of the
passages are hung with tapestries of
rare and curious patterns or of special
interest from the history woven into
their threads. But, if two or three
pieces of sculpture,-the Medici Venus,
the Wrestlers, and the Group of Niobe
are excepted, the paintings are the
chief glory of this incompatible muse
um. If the finest works of the greatest
masters are not all here, yet in sl other
one place can we see any fair repre-
sentation of the talent and skill of so
many celebrated artists, nowhere else
is there so slight proportion of colored
trash. If Raphaels superbest Madonna
is that of the twin cherubs at Dresden,
there are at least, three of his at FlOI-
ence 1.-THE del Granduca, the della Sedia,
and the CardinaD that hold the second
place, and his Julius ii. and Leo X. are
the finest of portraits. Here are Titian's
Flora, Venus, Magdalene, and head
of Christ, Leonardo da Vinci's Adora-
ton of the Magi, the treatment of the
same subject by Ghirlandajo, Fra Bar
tolOmeO's Resurrection, Pieta, and other
works, Giorqione's Concert, and Ma
dOnnas and Holy Families by Paul
Veronese, Correggio, Andrea del SartO,
Fra Angelica, Murillo and scores OF
lesser lights in the realm of art. Three
of Michael Angeles most celebrated
sculptures are in Florence, but not here.
His David is in the Academy, and his
Night and Morning at the tombs of the
Medici in the chapel of San Lorenzo.
The monastery of San Marco is one OF
the most interesting spots in Florence,
partly because it gives one good no.
tion of clOistered life, and partly be-
cause it was the home of Savonarola
and Fra Angelica and has now some OF
, the best of the latter's works. San
Croce is the Westminster Abbey of
. Florence and contains the tombs OF
Michael Angelo and Galileo, and scores
of other eminent Italians. A monu-
ment to Dante is within this church,
and in the square without his colossal
T statue in white marble surrnOunts il
magnificent pedestal. Hard by is
the house of Michael Angelo, now il
museum containing many interesting
, relics of the artists utensils and his
work, and a little way off in an opposite
direction is the house in which Dante
was born. This and many other build
, ings in Florence bear tablets recording
important events in her history. The
cathedral with its dome 300 feet high
the bell-tower adjoining, and the Bap-
those designed by Ghiberti being
probably the finest in the world, d,-wert
all attractive, and yet no one or several
of these objects of interest draw upon
, us as does the city itself. Its site is
lovely and its architecture remarkable
; 1t has almost as many palaces as there
were successive Grand Dukes in foul
centuries, and they are all structures o
| oaSSiyanaSS onI c+no.~.l. D.:I