St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-11-21
e Letters from Italy.--No. Q.
From Venice to the Appenines. Bolog-
na.-Tunnels and VieaUs. Florence
EjpeOlp


that part of Italy lying between the
Appenines and the Adriatic are less in
teresting than those of any other por-
ton of this country. The dead level is |
monotonOus, the soil is not very fertile,
and, at the time of our journey from
Venice to Bologna, the fields and pas
lures were parched and white from ex-
ceeding drouth. There had scarcely
been rain for three months. Cracks in
the clay ground were from two to four
inches wide. The vine leaves were
crisp and withered. Only the olives
seemed to rejoice in the fierce and un
mtigated burning of a southern sun.
While Italy is scorched, England has
been drowned, and the farmers of Amer
lea are benefited at the expense of
both.
In this journey we cross two famous
livers, the Adige and the Pc. Both are
sluggish in their coursings,- fall of
the latter for long distance being less
than one inch in mile. The beds of
each are above the level of much of the
country through which they flow, for
the washings of the light soil from the
higher regions has raised the channel
and obliged the people to add to the
dykes which on either side confine the
waters within proper bounds. An in
undation of the Pc, like crevasse in
the levee of the Mississippi river, is
widespread and irreparable calamity,
Two cities on this route are Of his
tOric interest Padua was all through
the middle ages the great university
centre of northern Italy, and here the
celebrated painter, Andrea Mantegna,
lived and labored. Ferrara was also
seat of learning and patron of the
arts, but is now a gloomy decaying
town with hardly fourth of its former
population.
AT Bologna we spend day. The
strong walls with their imposing gates,
the massive architecture of the old
palaces, the arcades which border many
Of the principal streets and thus make
it matter of Indifference to the side
walk-strollers whether it rains or shines,
and the two ugly brick leaning towers
at once attract the most careless visitor.
But there are other things to be sought
and seen. The Bolognese undertook to
build the largest cathedral in Italy but
completed only the nave, and with
mingled pride and chagrin show re-
luctantly to visitors the wooden model
of what they wished it to be. In the
thirteenth century its university had
ten thousand students. Here the anato-
my of the human frame was first taught,
and here by the metal connecting be-
tween frogs legs galvanism was dis
covered in 1889. In this university
several ladies have been professors and
one of them, of great personal beauty,
is said to have concealed herself by a
curtain during her lectures.
San StefanO is a pile of seven churches
i'll a single enclosure. No two are alike,
one or two are easements rather separ-
ate buildings, some of them are nearly
a thousand years old and yet are con-
structed, at least in part, out of the
ruins of Roman temples built in Greek
styles. The edifice seemed admirably
to suit an ecclesiasticism which has ap-
prOpriated some pagan superstitions
and which has from time to time made
extensive additions to its creed and
formularies.
But the central point of interest in
Bologna is the Academy of Fine Arts
which contains among many of inferior
merit, a few of the best paintings in
Italy. The gem of the collection is the
st. Cecilia of Raphael, Guido Reni's
f Crucifxion, and Madonna della Pieta
+ are among the finest of his larger COM
positions, while Perugino, Francia, and
the Cavacci are here represented by
Madonnas of note. Madonnas, indeed
greatly abound in this gallery. In one
room are thirtytwO pictures, twenty
one of which have the Virgin either
alone or with accessory figures. After
one has finished Venice, Verona, and
Bologna, he cares little to see more
paintings of the Holy Family, and
would like glimpse now and then OF
an American landscape. We do think
that our own cOuntrymen excel in theiI
delineations of natural scenery, and
some OF them may not be ashamed to
put their productions alongside those OF
! : the best of European artists. But will
their colors endure Will two or three
E centuries bring no perceptible change
to the works of Clifford, Cropsey, and
. Bierstadt? The medieval painters had
r good cOlors to mix, as well as brains
, with which to mix them, and the por.
s traits, especially, of many of these OLD
T. galleries stand the test of time wonder
$ fully.
: We remembered that one of our goO6
friends in st. Johnsbury said to us as we
: started Don't travel by night, and
be sure to go from Bologna to Florence
j by daylight" We have needed both
t parts of the injunction, and with thanks
; which we hereby express to the en-.
a joiner. In this journey we steal ovel
and under and around the slopes of the
, Apprentices. On the northern side they
are bare and broken. All the fertility