The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-09-15
VERONA,
One Of the oIde st of Italian Towns,
AT the Tomb of the CapuIets.
Especial Correspondence of the Press.l

S--'- ~SS SSoAA AOA6Ot my ukob NupItoolUuo
OF this old Italian city, the scene of ancient
Roman strife, the battle ground of the
Guelphs and the Ghibbelines; and little
later on it smiled las republic under the
peaceful reign of the Scaligers. In there
years the ardent Romeo and that lovely
chimera, Juliet, are said to have lived and
| suffered and died in loving.
had been travelling In the cool of the
the Tyrol and basking lin the shadows OF
those great mountains on the morning of the
day in which l alighted at Verona. Gradu-
ally the distant peaks had faded in the .hazy
atmosphere and the arid plains of Lombardy
had lcome into view. For some hours had
felt as if choking for some drafts of noun
tain air and water. Ala, the frontier station
had been harbinger of what the dust and
heat OF even northern Italian city might be
on July afternoon.
The people of the Tyrol with their frank,
open faces and sweet obliging manners were
still in my thoughts, when the cars stopped
and turned me out into this Italian jargon
| and clamor; for the people of Verona seem
to speak and understand no language except
their own rude dialect.
| moment. Their bad faces frightened me,
and their rough ways Jared strangely on my
nerves. 1t is hard to comprehend how peo-
pie of such sort walk every day the streets
of such classic city without becoming i'm
bued with something Of its spirit 1t is won
derful that SO much untidlness, ignorance
and disorder can abide amidst this grandeur
| of antiquity.
| In other cities of this sort have felt
that the people, though very primitive, pos
sessed kind of culture which could only come
from constant association with objects of
early times. But here nothing characterized
them as descending from a refined Roman
stock. They seem much more like the Goths
who once overran this region and almost
conquered it.
From the cabmen selected the least OBJ
lectionable face, and told the man to drive
me to the best and nearest hotel. The one
ne selected was certainly the best in its stu
alton, but miles away, ON the banks of the
lovely Adige. with the ramparts on the
heights beyond smiling down. But for the
unkemptness about me and the coarse BAN
ter and noise above in the hotel the garden
would have been gem of beauty. But as it
was could not remain, and fastened to
seek better quarters further back In the city,
where at least could look into the ewes of
past ages and be consoled. The Piazza Bra,
or place Victor Emanuel, has this advantage,
that II is close by the great Arena and old
palaces and leads into the streets containing
the magnificent churches and buildings en-
bellshed with paintings, and into squares
adorned with sculpture of the remote peri
DDS. In no other city have the Italians APP
peared to me like this, for with all foreign
nations they have come to seem to me as
worthy in their own peculiar attributes as
| any loved country becomes to its own people.
| All these old places strike you as weird at
first, though the inhabitants by their simple
ways soon win your love. Aries and Avgnon
| and the quaint old Nuremburg, are at first
| the same. The spirit OF past ages loves to
linger about its old haunts, and not until
long after the ancient landmarks are lev
| eled and the old bitches filled up will the
| ghosts of antiquity leave to return no more.
Progress loves 10 see these landmarks go,
but sentiment and fancy bids them stay, and
still depl0res the new Basic has these old
ghosts still, although the meats and bitches
have been long replaced by beautiful parks,
gardens and fine residences, but as long as
her massive gates in granite stand the old
watch angel will still hover over the town.
Verona Is the oldest of all these cities and
resembles Rome In its Arena and sumptuous
churches. 1t dates back in its origin to the
time of the Tarpeian Rock, AIS years after
| Rome was built Brennus. that old Gallo
leader, founded 1t 275 years Ii. G. 1t was
about this time that the geese cackled and
1 5usOA AtOinO HUH Vic dtbdCh VI ILLS odtuc
Brennus at the head of the IGNORES, a
Gallo tribe But Verona did not become a
Roman colony until SO b. c., just before the
death OF Marus, when in spite of intestine
feuds and bis wars with Sylla. Rome KEPT
annexiDg new territory. The Rhatian and
the Celtic tribes one after another monopo-
lized il, and today the inhabitants seem more
Celtic than Italian. Pliny the elder was
born here, and Catullus and Cornelius Ne
pos. Catullus had a castle near by on a
l prnmOnf0rv uphiph far onf int, q ha
Garda See. where he wrote the most cele-
brated Of his Latin sonnets, the ruins of
which are still seen, with its grottos well
| preserved. The republic. which flourished
under the Scaligers, although reign of
peace, was by no means democracy; like
all young republics, it was full of plots and
cabais; and 1t bad its crests and armorial
bearings.
the reign of the Scaligers. The Lombard
kings. and Ostrogoths. and even Frederick
Barbarossa tried their hand att and perched
themselves in castles on the heights over
looking the Garda See The crest of the
Scaligers was a ladder which is woven into
all parts OF the Gothic structure called the
Limb OF the Scaligers," and all the old sur.
cophagi Of the different members of the
Scala family, bear the crest although the
name Is often omitted.
Tins Gothic memorial is perhaps the OBJ.
1ect OF greatest interest to the Veronese
themselves and is the only thing which indi
Gates their pride In anything for they almost
wonder to see you admire the luxuriousness
you go out on the. old bridges, so many oil
which the winding Adige lean boast, and
over which the ramparts tower
Dante's statue is close by the Scaligers'
tomb, for in the palace at the right he lived
with them when he found In Verona an
asylum after his Punishment from Florence.
But what do the youth and maidens OF today
care about these old fossils of the past, these
tombs Of people dead so long that not hand
funeral urn. The things of interest to them
mere are the various "reminiscences Of those
often labulously considered lives of Romeo
and Juliet.
What maiden does not weep over their
history as she first reads it in Shakespeare's
plays and what youth is there, who does not
early seek some place, no matter how high
up, even over the stage to see 1t dramatized?
put IKE most realities, 1t Is after all quite
commonplace. The early sentiments re-
ceiye Eshock In the reaction from the ic-
tltious to the actual. People in Verona
laugh when you inquire about Romeo and
| juliet. Ii Is the same smile which older
people have when the wee ones talk of
panta Claus and those coming out of baby
MOOD ask about the storks
- 1t Is certain that the old house of the
Capuiets In Via Capello, which is said ito
nave been the home of Juliet's parents. looks
very unromantic. 1t is narrow and high and
| .no Aameu palc0ny which bears the lndica.
i've inscription over the gateway. ia mn al
most 70 the roof and suggests the impracti-
Dlllty Of their nocturnal whisperinps and the
great dliilculty Of ascent and descent nv how.
ever deity placed ladder, since il is in front
OF me house and minus garden. and the
mSalians seem never ready to 20 to he'd.
lhelr temptation must have been very yprest
ana the execution very adrOit in oydsr 20
nave accomplished their final escanada Rnt
tne house did not satisfy my CURIOSITY, even
standing as 1t does, the sign of the acfnal ey-
lstence Of some family of long ago. Cannlefs
or otherwise. / insisted upon seeing the
tomb OF Juliet. In spite of the sarcasm 'n oS
two well-dressed Italian ladies whom I met
VINO tried to put me of from the pursuit. nv
telling me 1t was far and the way difficuit'
pushed on with sweet little Italian bow for
my guide, who led me to the traditional spot,
| 1t is in garden of partly restored Fran.
cescan monastery named after "Can Grande
francesca" the greatest of the Scaligers and
a descendant Of Bartolomee Scala who is
supposed to be "Esculus," Prince of Verona
and the real Romeo. The history of Verona
records events which are sufficient founda.
| to us. O-0' "V"n
knocked at the gate Of the convent. when
humorous looking Italian, who was also
acting as gardiner let me in His face was
one grin and he had the same Joking manner