St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-04-16
NUMBER THIRTEEN,

NUM6ER IHlRTEEN.
Rome and its Historic Associations -Ap-
preaching the Eternal City-The New
amid the Old Visiting Italy IN the
Summer-SOme Mistakes Corrected
Ho'o aUe did our Sight Seeing and Uhat
zoe Sa'o-Ihe AdUantage of good Guild
Gnce-St. Peters and the Vatican
ihe Forum and the Colosseum
esttng- Relics of the Churches
and CdtacOmbs-Ih Church of the
Cdpuchin Monks and ats Unique Bu-
r'Gt Ptace-Basking Royal Smiles.
HOTEL CosTANzI,
ROME, ITALY, 1879.
APPROACHING THE ETERNAL CITY.
"All roads lead to ROme," is an old
saying, and the traveller through Cen
tral Europe and Great Britain, is con-
stantly reminded ofits truth. In France,
Switzerland, Germany and England,
and especially along that great highway
of the nations, the Rhine, are the foot
prints of the old Roman cOnquerors
The desire to visit the Eternal City in
creases at every step, and thousand
eager anticipatiOns attend the stranger
when he sees for the first time, rising
in the distance over the Campagna, the
great, swelling dome of st. Peters.
MODERN ROME.
The Rome of to-day rears itself amid
the crumbled splendOrs of the ancient
city. Modern palaces have risen upon
the walls of ancient structures, whose
magnitude and departed magnifcence
they can only suggest. Some of its
three hundred and sixty-five churches
are built upon the site OF more ancient
places of worship. In one instance a
prior who possesses a love of arch9o-
logical research, has dug down beneath
his church, Ga modern edifice which
dates back to ll09) not only to a Basil
ica built in the fourth century, but also
to still another underlying structure,
which was the house of St. Clement,
tire titular saint of both the upper
churches. st. Clement was the third
successor of St. Peter as Pope, and there
are evidences that his house was once
occupied as Temple of Mithras. The
Tiber flows along n0iselessly amid this
mingled scene of modern life and an
cient ruin, its current laving alike the
marble chiseled but Yesterday and the
stone fashioned by hands which mould
cred into dust over two thousand years
ago. Rome is constantly presenting to
the visitor the strangest anomalies.
He alights from his railway carriage in
a station having every modern appoint
ment of comfort and luxury, just after
, passing ancient walls, aqueducts and
temples, and a moment later is
traversing in the hotel omnibus the
l site of the Baths of Diocletian
$ He visits the Colosseum by moonlight
and standing in that immense ruin peo-
} pies its silver iliumined circles and
shadowy recesses with fierce exultant
' Romans, and its spacious arena with
4 the gladiatorial combatants, or cringine
' victims awaiting the signal for the un.
? lOOsing of the wild beasts. A short
l walk brings him to the gay Corso, ol
: the more spacious via Nazionale, which
= sparkle with hundreds of brilliantly
= lighted shops, cafGs and hotels. He
0 seats himself at table outside a catS
ments and aspect as any to he found OIL
q the boulevards of the French capital
S and sips his gelato or granita beneatl
+ the shadow of some tall column erected
v centuries and centuries ago to com
e memorate some hero or magnate of the
= still more shadowy past. Standing OF
4 the crumbling walls of the abodes o
e the Caesars, or upon the verge of tn,
4 Forum, so crowded with relics of the
: eventful past, his eye sweeps alike owe
# the wasting vestiges of Rome's forme
;. greatness and the richest evidences o
s its present life. The Forum ROmanum
/. and much else which marks the exist
s ence of the Rome of past ages, Ii,
7. twenty or thirty feet below the level o
d the surrounding thoroughfares, ant
:, the modern Roman citizen traffics ant
e pleasures himself over the buried habi
e tations of those of his ilk who shouted
: for Caesar. or rejOiced at his takin:
IS Off
VISITING ROME IN SUMMER.
d Our visit to Rome was in midsummer
e and going about in the sun was, O
st course, attended with some discomfort
/, no more, however, than would be eX
l. perienced in summer round of sight
II seeing in Boston, New York or Phila
e delphia. Nevertheless, shawls, ligh
IL Overcoats, or wraps of some sort wer
y necessities whenever we visited the in
II terror of churches, where the tempera
e ture is much lower than without
Neglect of these precautions doubles
e leads to many cases of illness anon
Of travellers, while carelessness in die
Is causes many more. Just here l wish
Is say word about that bugbear of a
al Jewellers in Italy, Roman fever. Thi
: disease is not caused in the manner in
e dicated, but by a miasma which arise
Is from the Campagna when the grOun
If has been mOistened by rains. In tn
d heat of the summer the Campagna
rs dry, and in its heathiest state: henc
4 Al l.. I 4 n