The Penn's Grove record., 1883-12-15
Genoa, the superb.

tne ulStOTlo WeD OF DOtu cli1et
is of admirable texture aud shot with
many a fair thread of romance, Venice
~conceals, beneath a wool Of dazzling
beauty, a warp dyed with the sombre
hues of deceit and intrigue. Genoa,
however, though her robe is spotted
with strife and cruelty. yet can point to
not a few noble deeds of adventure and
sturdy patriotism.
So different, physically as well as
politically, are the two cities that a
comparison of their nam features leads
only to a series of antitheses. Venice
is as level as a chess board; Genoa might
almost be termed perpendicular, so
steeply is she builded; and while Venice
appears like some fantastic old, box
bordered garden with canals for paths,
Genoa may not inaptly be likened to a
trellised frame worA set up against a
rocky hillside.
Long before the traveller reaches the
Ligurian capital, if overland bound
from the west, he upon the out
lying suburbs, whence in the distance
the city itself strikes his eye, with its
groups of tall white palaces and domed
aud lowered churches, looking so tair
as to make HIM loath to cease contem-
plating them. Far and high they as
cend, tier upon tier, along the monnt-
ainous slope, fronted by the mole, whose
crowds of ships are as it were, guarded
by twin lighthouses, which at night
flashes their beams cheerily w the
purple waves Of the Mediterranean. II
he arrives from the north he beholds 1t
from the heights from which he stands
sweeping down like the frosen foam of
q many-branched cascade that is eager
to Join the sea-down to the curved
shore where the sunlit pillows roll in
with messages from the distant Africa.
Come to this bower, which like a
verdurous frame sets off the picture of
the city and the sea.
Here atourfeet begin the habitations,
intermingled with grove and wall, and
diversified by supola and turret, bal
cony and arcIlway; they descend on
either hand SO the shore of the harDor.
shielded on the east, north and west
by the lofty mountains, but on the
south open to the influences of the sea
that comes with its myriad blue waves
straight from the far.away, pale cloud
that becomes, at a hundred miles dis
lance. the rocky ramparts of Genoa's
former vassal, Corsica,
Alexander Dumas here says that there
are only three streets, properly so named,
in the city-the Strada Baldi, Strada
Nuouissima and Strada Nuova-aIl the
other ways of communication being
mere alleys, but that these three COM
pensate amply for the want of q greater
number. Madame de Stael declared
them worthy to receive a congress of
kings and the poet Altierl called them a
store-house of palaces.
Yet with the regal aboaes there to be
found the hand of time has dealt harsh
ly, shrouding them with an air of
sad diIapidation, opening chunks in
in their walls and stripping off their
ornamental facings; while the rubbish
thus accumulated serves admirably to
obstruct the narrow, declivitous lanes
which climb the mountain. TITS a
mournful collection OF mortar and mar
BILE, wretchedness and ~opulence, and
one is not much tempted to envy ancient
doges and noblemen their possession of
such homes.
The finest palaces are in the Strada
Nuova. The one called Palazzo Tursiis,
outwardly, almost the richest in ap-
pearance, but the inside of it does not
make good its exterior promise. just
the contrary is the case respecting the
Palazzo Rosso, which, though some
what commanding, shows little exerior
elegance, while within 1t contains one
of the choicest picture galleries to be
met with in all Genoa, embracing ex
amples of Titan, Paoio Veronese,
Palma Vecchio, Carlo Dolci, Bordone,
Albrecht Durer, Caracc;, Guercino,
Guido, and especially of Rubens' pupil,
Vandyct.
But the ancient ducal residence, the
PalazZo Doris, bears away the palm
and outshines all its neighbors, many
of which are so restricted for space as
to be ~gardenless, with the exception of
their terraces and balcony trellises; for
it not only has q beautiful land pleas
anccs, ascending the mountain in its
rear, and connecting with it by a gall
lery, but also a charming pasture, and
a noble marble terrace that beholds its
whiteness reflected in the hssbor waves,
and wherein the famour adm tal, Andrea
Dorio, gave an ambassadorIai enter
tainment, at which the silver dinner
service, thrice changed, after every
course, was flung into the eea. to be,
however, $50 rumor slyly states) fshed
up again when the feast was Ger, al
though actual truth of the fact is
wanting.
In the grounds of this palace, close
by q statue of Jupiter, stands the monu-
ment of a dog named Radan, which was
presented to Dora by the Emperor
Charles ", and which, dying in the
absence of its master, was buried at
the foot of the statue, so that, accord
ing to the epltaph, even In death 1t
might not cease to guard a god. When
Doria returned be considered the in
scrlption to be a very plain one. and SC
allowed it to remain unaltered. He
himself lies buried IN the church OF
Matteo.
The site of his enemy, the conDpirator
Fieschi's palace, which was RACED to
the ground after the death Of tle I'M
fortunate noble, is near the church of
Santa Maria in Via Lata, and Is marked
by a nameless inscription indicating the
date, July Is, 1774. when it became
State property. In most cities a space
such as this palace formerly occupied
would convey but a paltry notion OF the
wealth and power or It's owner; but after
the ann OF Gotham's Fifth avenue,
height in Genoa means everything, and
breadth nothing; its magnificence is
altogether that of aspiration, u not at
all of expansion.
San Lorenzo is the principal church
edifce, a hano some eleventh century
building of black and white marble, as
are many of the Italian churches, but
having an advantage possessed by few
of them, in that 1t is really completed.
which is not generally the case in the
land of melody. Here is to be e the
celebrated false emerald dlsh, called the
Sacro Cattino, which, tradition asserts,
was presented by solomon othe Queen