The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-05-09
Letter from DIR. &. u. Gunner.

GENOA, April s, 1879.
One fine, sunny morning in the latter
part of March, left Turin, and after
ride Of five hours, through country
made historic by the battles fought be-
tween contesting powers, to whom
Italy was so long an ''apple of discord,'
| saw Genoa seated in majesty on her
mountain throne, at her feet the tideless
sea of the Mediterranean pays its hon.
age-behind her, the grey old Appen-
mines stand like faithful guards and
sentincls, and her situation fully merits
her title of "Genoa. the Superb" The
city is built On a succession of terraces,
and is in form like an amphitheatre,
rising ftom the sea to the height of five
hundred feet.
But with all its natural beauty of sit
uation, Genoa is city of disappoint-
ment to the stranger sojourning within
its gates, in consequence of its unac-
countable filth and horrible smells, and
its dirty, narrow, crooked streets,
which are often mere passages, through
which only two or three persons can
walk abreast, and in many of which the
sun never shines, owing TO the great
height of the houses, and their closencss
human beings can exist in such all at
mosphere.
In the upper and newer part of the
city, however, the streets are wider
and just trifle cleaner, and at intervals
there are open squares called palazzos,
from which the narrow streets diverge
The houses are immense square brick
and stucco structures, built around
small open courts, which open to the
streets by large iron gates, and ones
first impression is that they must be
prisons or Warehouses, but glance at
the top of the entrance will very often
show you a corOnet surmounting her
aldic emblems, which proves that the
dirty, dcsolate looking exterior is a
palace whose uninviting outside shell
contains marvels of beauty and grace,
accumulated by generations of titled
families.
The Genoese, and Italians generally,
delight in ornamenting their houses in
painting and frescoing outside walls as
well as inside, in gorgeous colors and
all sorts of designs. Holy subjects
abound, and the Madonna is fayorite
design.
From dirty, tumbling down old hou-
SEES, bright, rosy cupid occasionally
looks out at you through dampness and
decay. In one of my walks the other
day, | saw very clever representation
of IA woman leaning out of half open
window at short distance the illusion
was complete.
Churches at home mean generally
proper ecclesiastical looking edfices,
clean and wholesome. Churches i'm
Genoa mean unwholesome, tumbling
down, shabby-looking structures (and
their name is legion), with series of
sculpturcd, dirty saints in inches out
side, and a gorgeous fresco over the
principal entrance, whose subject is lost
in dirt and dampness. You open door,
push aside heavy curtain, which looks
as Joseph's coat might have done if ii
had been converted into quilted bed
comfortable, after he had outgrown and
discarded it, and you enter upon scene
of magnificence, lofty gilded domes,
brilliantly lighted, ceilings and walls
covered with exquisite paintings by
world-renewned artists, wonderful
wood carvings and statuary, pillars of
porphyry, alabaster and iniaid marbles,
and always few of "the faithful. !"
Though you do not see priest, you
will be sure to see some devout servant
of the Church, generally poor and lily
dressed, kneeling in some dark corner,
or before some gorgeous shrine. There
are no comfortable, cushioned pews or
footstools in these houses of worship.
but only the tessellated pavement for
the feet and knees of the worshippers.
A chair can be hired, however, for IL
few solids Gents by those who can af-
ford the luxury.
In the church of the Annexation, the
most magnificent church in Genoa, |
saw some wonderful wood carvings.
One altar especially attracted my atten-
ton. 1t represents the parting of the
raimcnt Of Christ by the Roman SOL
diers, just before the crucifixion. The
wounds and bruises on the Saviour's
body, and the flesh tints of the figures,
are wonderfully life-like.
Visiting the magnificent churches of
the old world, one does not wonder
that the church OF Rome retains its lold
upon the masses; its appeal to the
emotions of an emotional nature is n
strong one. The ceremonies always
varying, the magnificent pictures and
the grand music, all tend to hold tho
imagination of a people mostly inlet
tered and ignorant. In Rome, the lar
gcst and most thickly populated of all
the Italian cities, out of population of
pa, S44, according to the census of 1871 =,
115,767 could neither read nor write.
AT the principal railway terminus, of
which there are two, as you pass ont
among tribe of yelling cabmen and
waiting omnibuses of the various hotels,
on your entrance to the city, you are
confronted by very fine, white mar
BILE monument, erected to the memory
of Christopher Columbus in 1862, bv a
country who, though unwilling to rem
der to their illustriOus son the assist
ance which he required TO accomplish
his adventures in the western seas, arc
now ambitious of perpetuating his
fame.
In the municipal palace they have two
autograph letters written by Columbus,
and in the same building | saw large
bronze tablet recording II judgment of
Roman citizens, in dispute between
the city of Genoa and neighboring
castle, which was in existence III years
before Christ.
Genoa boasts of fine hotels, but ifany
readers of the Register should be medi-
tating visit here, | would particularly
recommend tie Grand Hotel de Genes,
a particularly comfortable, well-kept
house; But one ofthe peculiar features
Of all Italian hotels, is that they never
provide soap for their guests. and as
they demand an cxorbitant price for a
very inferior article, it would be well
to come into Italy already provided
with that very necessary article.
G. B. G.