The National tribune., 1883-05-17
LIFE IN SUNNY ITALY.
From Naples to Florence. Fruitful
Lands and Thrifty People.
Special correspondence National Tribune.

Special correspondence National Tribune.
FLORENCE, April 21-It is related that dur
ing the war of the rebellion the Secretary of
State, finding it necessary to impress certain
friendly foreign potentates with the power
of the North, conveyed them to Niagara
from New York city by one route and back to
New York by another, calling attention in
passing to the industrial and agricultural ac-
tivity conspicuous on every side, and saying at
the end, Gentlemen, you have now seen
part of one of the States of the Union" Italy,
happily, has no need to publish her activity
or her natural wealth, but if she had, a jour
ney from Naples to Florence could hardly fail
to convince any stranger that she abounds in
both these requisites for national welfare.
Since writing from Naples of q visit to Pom
peii l have made flying trip to Florence via
Rome, with an ever increasing admiration
of the country. the people, and the present
administration.
No city that have seen bears such traces of
the evils of the old regime as Naples; yet, even
there, progress is already visible since the time
of Dickens graphic Pictures from Italy"
The city is cleaner, the administration of rail-
roads, cab service, &C., has established fixed
tariffs and abolished the old impositions upon
travellers; government employees, such as Gus
todians of museums and parks, are forbidden
thus discouraged; the Lazzaroni have vanished,
and the women, at least, are conspicuously
hard working. Naples is still, however, far
from an ideal city, its population being
throughout large sections over-crowded and
poyerty-stricken; and there is a certain relief
IN escaping from the exaggerated contrast be-
tween its wretehed denizens and the aggressive
overwhelming beauty of its surroundings
The sea and the mountains about Naples COM
mand the whole of the travellers attention
they are oVersatisfying and almost wearisOme,
by reason of their dominating all the ordinary
occupations of the mind. For a time this is en-
chanting, and the views from Capri, Sorrento,
Castellamare, Pompeii, and the Chiaja consti-
tute an experience never to be forgotten but
after time the thought of Northern Italy be-
comes alluring-where human life is on better
plane and the contrast is less between the pop
ulation and its surroundings.
FROM NAPLES TO FLORENCE.
The journey from Naples to Florence is very
beautiful. There is surprise in store for all
of US Americans who, hearing of "Sunny
Italy," find in the phrase a suggestion of glare
and heat. Sunny, Italy is, indeed, in this
lovely spring month, but only in the sense of
being charmingly bright and mild. The rapid
railroad ride revealed every variety of cloud
shadow, haze and mist, with long stretches of
cloudless sunny sky as well, but of glare
there was rarely a trace. In the rather dense
atmosphere the distant mountains, which were
rarely out of sight from the train, were soft
ened in color and outline until it was often
difficult to see where the mountains ended and
their luminous cloud-caps began; their con-
slant presence lending to the landscape a Dig
nifty IN which nothing was forbidding or stern.
The journey would be well worth making were.
1T deprived of all human interest and viewed
merely as charming panorama. Happily,
there is abundant human interest also.
The towns scattered about, now perched on
sharp hiH-tops, now struggling through shell
tered valleys are all dusky and somber when,
indeed, they are not ruinous. Some of them
call wildly to mind Dickens jesting compari-
son to devices in pastry" There seems to be
scarcely red brick in Italy. The Monuments
of the ancients are chiefly IN dark brown trav-
ertine, and the brick buildings that remain
from antiquity are scarcely more brilliant.
while the medieval and modern towns are
either of the same somber materials or covered
with stucco. which soon becomes as dusky
When the afternoon grew dark the last rays of
the sun had trick of resting on a single one
of these dark hilltop villages, throwing into
bold relief the queer nest of human creatures
while the surrounding valleys lay buried in
shadow.
After week of outdoor life in and near
Naples, a quiet Sunday in Rome is most well
come rest. The very street cries have reStful,
teriors of the Roman buildings wear a friendly
mien for him who knows what beauty turks
within, readily shared by its generous owners
with all who care for art. There is a sense of
luxury in turning away from the open galleries
and going for a long, quiet afternoon to the
Coliseum 1t is fitting too, that that most
typical Roman ruin should be repellant with
out, but within bathed in floods of caressing
sunlight, brooding over its ragged arches and
turning every scrap of turf to delicate decora-
ton of green and gold. The vastness and the
ugly history of the bad old place of amusement
shrink out of notice, and only a venerable
beauty born of age and decay remains. Such
an afternoon makes fitting adieu to the en-
chanted city.
The spring exodus from Rome is at its height.
and the Rome Florence express train bore
large assemblage of English, German and
American tourists drifting northward, some on
their way to the season i" in London, but more
about 30 sojourn for time in Northern Italy
before beginning the summer in Switzerland.
SCENES BY THE Way
The ride from Rome to Florence affords
panorama moro entertaining even than that
from Naples to Rome. The Campania, through
an hours ride, is not fiat nor, strictly speaking,
billy. 1t abounds in strange, irregular, turf
covered undulations, of which many have
openings in the side inviting to culture and
removal of the soil might reveal some ancient
palace, earth-eoyered in the course of centuries
like the villa of Hadrian at 1ivoli, near by, or
the palaces of the Caesars ON the Palatine Hill,
near the Forum in Rome itself But no one
makes the attempt, and the shepherds who
roam over the rich, unwholesome surface
know as little as their hocks what ancient
wonders may be sleeping beneath the sheep
walk.
The aspect of the country soon changes, how
ever. The route lies nearer the mountains and
among rich farms. As some happy inspiration
leads the Neapolitan fisherman to wear scarlet
cap and sash, so the rich green fields of Tus-
cany are dotted with huge white oxen, who,
with the simple pillow they draw, are the only
visible substitutes for human labor. while even
these are often supplanted by groups of men
and women digging with long handle spades.
The peasant is evidently social creature,
fond of bright colors; for there were many
groups of peasants on hands and knees weed
ing the young crops, their brilliantly colored
shirts making them visible at long distances
Indeed, the only isolated workers were the
shepherds and the young girls whose hands
moved swiftly as they braided long tresses of
straw and watched their small troops of fat
white sheep and lean black swine. The people
live chiefly out of doors throughout the year,
and a handsomer, wholesomer population it
would be difficult to find. At every station
thera was orouD of idiers vary diffarepf f-os,,