Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-07-16
CHAPTER w.
VAL DI ORNO.

4
Val di Orno is a village situate some
thirty miles from Rome, in an easterly
direction, and near the Neapolitan from
| tier. 1t will not be found in the guide
books, as tourists seldom stray that
way; for it is mountain town."
reached by roads upon which wheels
have never made mark, and only trav-
| elled by pedestrians or the sure-footed
mule and donkey. Besides, not far off
is the famed district of the Abruzzi-
| classic land of brigands-where roads
are as dangerous as they are difficult.
Though in modern times places of
! little note most of. these villages-so
had their prosperous past, and were
/ once the centres of stirring life and
pompous splendor. as attested by the
| ruins around them; here those of an
! imperial palazzo; there a baronial cas-
! tie, or grand conyentual establishment.
/ Val di Orno has had its castle, too in
! by-gone days the fortified residence of
some feudatory of the Orsnis, or Colo
nas-like these great families, long ago
1 gone to ruin, bats and owls the only
inhabitants of it's crumbling and ivy
mantled walls
In the town itself there is nothing to
excite a strangers interest, save the
quaint architecture of its houses, most
of them in the medieval Gothic style,
its few shops, scarcely distinguishable
from the private dwellings, while the
osteria, or hostelry, is less used for the
entertainment of travellers than as a
drinking, smoking and lounging place
for the Valdiornians themselves. Like
most Italian villages, it has its piazza
! or public square, with grand stone
fountain in the centre; the church, con-
spicuous on one side, with the resid-
ence of the parish priest (Parroco), and
/ opposite another public building whose
single iron barred window proclaims it
prison, for although Val di Orno is
town of tolerably honest repute, it's
chronicles tell of an occasional trans
erosion of the law A third side of
the square is occupied by private dwell
lingS, while the esteria and a number
of shops front upon the fourth. But
one other house calls for special men
tion-the residence of the sindico, or
chief magistrate-a structure of more
imposing appearance than its fellows,
not standing on the piazza, but in the
! main street leading up to it, also on
the madiavel style, with the rounded
Norman arch a grand porticoed en-
trance. and loggia balcony to the CEN
trail upper window. It's owner, the
Signor Francesca Torreani, is of a good
old Italian stock, somewhat reduced
in circumstances, for though most of
the land around belongs to him, its
arabic surface is limited, with a low
rental, and yields him but a moderate
emolument, while the syndicate of such
a poor place is an Office more honor
airy than profitable.
Fortunately he has neither a large
nor expensive family to maintain,
being a widower with only two child
ren-one a daughter, by name Lucetta,
who has well-nigh reached womanhood,
the other a son. just grown TO man
hood apd oiroad,, t,ou,p 20 ~ -aodar
as the youthful conspirator who made
that singular escape in che car of the
balloon.
1t is the day succeeding this event
Saturday, for the fiesta was on Friday
and Lucetta Torreani is seated in the
balcony of her fathers house. A pref
ty picture she makes there, for she is
beautiful girl of the true Italian type,
possessed of all those traits and graces
which distinguish the mezzocete, or
lower-upper classes of the Roman peo-
! ple The day has been warm and
bright, but the sun is now declining;
| the houses cast their shadows across
the street, and the flags of the pave
ment, become cool, are pleasant for
a promenade. On their doorsteps sit
the villagers in groups, as also in rows
along the kerbstone-women with dis
taft in hand or lace needles in their
nimble fingerS-while near by disport
their progeny. playing with the family
pets-cats, dogs, goats and pigs-all
on an equality, the quadrupeds appar-
emily as much cared for as the child
| rem. The men are, most of them, in
| the piazza in front of the osteria, smok-
! ing, slipping bibite, and otherwise in
dulging in the far nicute, for they have
| completed their weekly tasks with the
| tolls of the day. Now and then young
grown girls with rounded breasts and
broad upright backs, dressed in the pic
turesque contadina costume, march
with arms locked along the middle of
| the street; there formidable platoons,
exchanging sharp repartee with the
| garzoni on the pavements, the last get
| ting as much as they give Here and
/, there general conversation Is struck
up, and carried on in loud tones. all
within earshot taking part In it; 1T In