The Iola register., 1886-09-10
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and one Of the most beautifully situa-
ted. It lies ON both sides Of the mighty
gray-green Arno in o broad. cheerful
valley, surrounded by hills of divers
forms and moderate height, not 80 inn
pressive 10 one who has seen the Alps
but lovely to look upon and to dwell
upon, for they are dotted with white
villas amid green copses and gray olive
groves, with rows Of sentinel poplars,
and here and there one Of those dark
slendar cedars like an admonishing fin
ger pointing heavenward. The some
what modern looking houses of the
city are dominated by the martial cren-
elated towers of the Palaxzo Vecchio,
the heavy, ugly dome of the cathedral
and its beautiful campanile or bell
tower. This Florence appears from
the heights Of the Pitt Place gardens,
open to the public on two days of the
week. These gardens are next to Kew
gardens London, and Prospect Park,
Brooklyn, the most beautiful public
pleasure grounds I have ever seen, al
though of wholly different character
from those two. They combine all
styles of landscape gardening, the
lawn-covered terraces adorned with
fountains and statues and marble steps
of the French gardens, with the shad.
ed alleys and green erboss loried of the
Germans, mooth flower-beds and bits
of tangled thicket. all mingled in pleas.
ing confusion, the nature of the ground
aiding the surprises in which the
gardener must have delighted, for the
garden rises from the level of the
Palace occupy several hillslopes and
interlying ravines.
The favorable impression obtained by
an outside view of the city is enhanced
by further acquaintance with it's streets
wide and narrow, the latter numerous
as usual in the older portion of the
city, but all tolerably tidy and well
lighted. Probably the large proper.
ton of civilized foreigners, English
Americans, German and Swiss, resid.
ing in Florence for pleasure, health
and business has something to do with
the prevailing cleanliness, a virtue
neither indigenous nor cultivated else.
where in Italy, excepting, perhaps in
Pisa which deserves honorable men.
ton: Florence appears to be prosper.
GUS in a worldly way, and better still
she is developing good public school
system according to the statement of a
competent judge, Swiss resident. The
presence of the thrifty Swiss, quite nu-
merous in northern Italy, is doubtless
great benefit to the country materi-
ally and intellectually.
The pride of Florence is of course in
her art treasures which are both nu-
merous and of surprising quality. 1t
takes hours to simply tDalk through
the two chief collections in the Uflizi
and Pitt Palaces, but one ought to
have weeks instead of hours for the ell
jOyment of these MASTERPIECES of Italian
art, the Dutch, Flemish, French, Ger
man and Spanish painters being also
well represented here. AS is inevitable
in all large collections there is much
that is interesting merely in techni-
cal or historical way, but aside from
that there is enough to afford pleasure
to even the average American traveller.
The Tribune in the Uffizi gallery is
called the richest room in the world
having paintings by Raphael Titan,
Paul VerOnese, Andrea del Sarto and
others, and few choice pieces of stat
uary among them the Venus de Medi-
ci, work that I found as 1 had antic-
pated vastly inferior to the Venus de
Milo Of the Louvre. The former is a
of a merely pretty
woman, the latter is goddess, and as
one gazes upon her the marble becomes
living, the statue seems on the point
of starting into action, and one fingers
long in the hope of witnessing the
ever impending drama. In my opin-
ion the Tribune does not begin to con-
tain the cream of the collection; there
are many other pictures and statues
that I should wish put into it only be-
ing small it could not possibly hold
them.
In the countless historic and poetic
that silently throDg the
streets and squares, Florence has o |
wealth that cannot rust, fade or crum-
BILE. 1t is one of the greatest pleasures
'ne can have, in wandering or riding
about the city, to happen upon the
'pots where were enacted scenes of
historic and romantic interest.
Foremost among these is the Piazza
leila Signoria moderately large ir-
'egular square adorned on one side by
heLoggia..dei Lanzi a sort Of large porch
magnificent groups of stat
larry on the other sides of the square
re various public buildings, chief
'mong them the grim Palazzo Vecchio
medieval castle Of severe yet stately
architecture, begun in 1898. the origin
i capitol of the republic, afterwards
esidence of the Dukes of Tuscany. In