The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-07-10
n CALIFORNIAN
ABROAD.
BY Thomas Fitch
GENOA.
GENOA.
Copyright 1904.1

much value to him as the cost OF the
trip. From the warnings of guide
books and newspapers you expect to be
robbed at every opportunity; as ma
tural consequence your American gore
rises, you go armed cap-a-pie for the
encounter, and determined not to be
swindled. 1 would not dare to meet at
home the whitening stare of the hotel
servant to whom / should offer less
than fifty cents for the most trif1lng
service, but yesterday I requested and
obtained from the omnibus driver
change for a ten cent piece, in order
that I might properly but not unduly
remunerate-with four cents-the curly
headed Roman porter who had carried
a huge trunk on his back a hundred
yards or more from the baggage room
to the omnibus, and / think it probable
that had no change been obtainable, 1
would have allowed the satrap to join
the ranks of the great unpaid rather
than have enriched him and played the
reckless prof1igate by giving him the
entire dime.
The gardens, and palaces, and mar
bles, and statues, and paintings of
Genoa are most beautiful, but with all
their art, and with all their religion. il
is but a species of refined sensuousEess
at last. You do not wonder that Ialy
should have produced a Titan or a
Michael Angelo, but you marvel that
she should ever have brought forth a
Columbus. I do not see how it is pos
sible to live a vigorous, individual,
strenuous life, amid these surround
ings.
Il, INfk Ion ATyy io.fi ton
marvel of beauty. Its vaulted ceiling
and dome literally blaze with gliding,
and the immense columns which sup
port them are of white marble inlaid
with red. It contains many paintings
of the old masters, of a religious char
acter, of course. It is a pity that the
Roman church was almost the only
conservator of medieval and ancient
art, for ones piety tires after while,
and crucif1xions, and TRANSFORMATIONS,
and Last Suppers, and suffering saints,
grow monotonous. One painting was
covered with a curtain. I asked the
guide wherefore, and he replied that 1t
was a Jolly tableau." I remembered
reading that there was one portion OF
the church from which, by order of
Pope Innocent VIII, females We're care
year. I persuaded my lady companion
to examine some carvings in an oppo-
site corner, and then offered the guide
a franc to unveil the "jo1Iy tableaux"
for me. He drew aside the curtain, and
1 beheld another crucifiXion scene. I
afterwards learned that it was not this
church at all, but the church of San
Lorenzo in which is a chapel from
whence daughters of Eve are excluded,
and it is not painting at all, but two
silver prns, containing the ashes OF st.
John the Baptist, which are there ex-
hibited.
From the church it is but a step to
the Palace Durazzo. The floors of this
latter building are of re- and blue
mosaic, it's dimensions vast, and it's
ceilings splendidly gilt. 1t contains a
large collection of Italian paintings,
most of which are religious, but some of
which are very much the other way.
A painting of Rubens and his wife, al
legged to have been painted by the great
artist himself, is not exactly the style
for Sunday schools, and suggests that
the Italians of his day must have lived
open and candid lives. and never