St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1907-12-25
The Trip of a Pair of Docs.
Beyond the Alps Lies Italy.-ROme,
Naples and POmpeii.- The Trail of the
Nickeled Cents.

NlCktlCu SSHtSs
Editor CALEDoNIAN:
We arrived in Rome at a. m, after a
night ride from Florence of 1876 miles.
Italy looks small on the map, but is
much larger when you are travelling
nights for the most part, to economic
time. Rome, to me, was a disappoint-
ment. Of course the old buildings and
all ancient is there and there are some
fine streets and "piazzas," as the squares
are called, but l had dreamed of a
beautiful city where all streets were nice
and clean and all buildings either old or
beautiful or both, hence my disappoint-
tnent. AS a matter of fact it is dirty,
almost filthy in many places, and few
beautiful things in the city itself outside
of the things of antiquity. Ofcourse we
might have gotten over this impression
had we remained long enough, but few
days stay could not efface it. Then the
location of some of the noted buildings
was disappointing as for instance the
Pantheon and Coliseum. l had imagined
them up high on the local Boynton
Hill and to find them down in hole like
the Ide Back Day" took off much of the
polish from my dream. Presumably |
might have known all these things had
| read more, but that can only be re-
greet and one does not like to regret all
the time.
We visited the Coliseum, the Forum of
Trajan the Forum of Augustus, the
Arch of Constantine, Palatine Hill, the
Pantheon. the capital, the Roman
Forum, and the arches near by Of
course we saw st. Peters and attended
divine service there on Sunday morn
ing. l am getting Cramton quite
accustomed to attending church and
have advised him to continue the habit
when he returns to St. Johnsbury, that
is if four consecutive Sundays could be
called habit"
ST. Peters is in class by itself. 1t
stands on the site of the circus of Nero
and where St. Peter was or is said to
have been buried after his crucifxion. |
do not vouch for this story. 1t was told
to me. However, the church was begun
in A. D. 80 and is now as we saw it.
Many different architects labored upon
it, among them being Michael Angelo,
who was 70 years old when he began
work and continued it for II years. He
must have been quite a healthy
youngster to have done so great work
at this age. The building is 696 feet long
and $50 wide through the transepts.
The cross on the dome is 49, feet above
the ground and the dome itself is 1873
feet in diameter. which latter measure
ment is, think, the height of the North
church spire at st. Johnsbury. 1t takes
a little time to get an idea of the vast
ness of the interior of this building, but
the longer one remains the more likely
one will discover that it is not only
great but very great. | could not
describe this building and shall not try.
The guide books say it is the greatest in
the world and the finest and | accept
their dictum. | think we gained more
of an idea of the size of the building from
look at it from the rear when other
large buildings look very small in COM
parison. We did not ascend the stairs
to the dome for lack of time. 1t must
be grand view from the top.
From a standpoint of decorative
beauty the interior of St. Pauls dwarfs
St. Peters. This is outside the city walls
and again is said to be" where ST. Paul
was buried If he is he can be well
satisfied with his monument. This is
about 1900 years old from its beginning
but the present building is modern and
only at the present time are they build
ing on large addition to the front,
which in this case again is the back, at
least we land from the car and enter the
church and find the front where the back
ought to be. The marble interior is a
wonder as is also the mosaic work.
Nothing so beautiful has been seen by
us any where else on this trip. There are
many of the churches worthy a visit, in
fact, it is poor block which don't con-
tain church. | don't wonder that the
people are poor. The wonder is they are
not poorer if they have to support all
these churches.
The Palace of the Vatican was viewed
from the outside. 1t is an enormous
building containing II 900 rooms. 1t is
1850 feet long and nearly 800 feet wide.
There are portions of it open to the pub
lie and some of these we visited. They
were the Museum of Sculpture, the Sis
tine chapel. Library and the Picture
Galleries. In the Sistine Chapel is the
famous painting of NJ. Angelo, "The
Last Judgment" This is on the altar
wall 1t occupied his time for seven
years. The pictures in this chapel are all
the worse for the candles and incense
which have been burned all these years.
The Roman Forum is the most interest
ing thing in Rome Here are found the
arch of Septimius Severus, erected A. D.
203, in honor of his victories in the east;
the three fine columns of the Temple of
Vespasion;" the Temple of Saturn, of
which eight columns remain; the Temple |
of Castor and Pollux, now represented by |
fragment consisting of three fine
columns; the Arch of Titus, in honor of
his conquest Of Jerusalem. and many
other things of interest. The Coliseum
was 4 surprise to me, because from all
the pictures had ever seen, | gathered
that the outer wall was more OF ruin
than it really is. 1t would seem possible
to restore it quite readily. We wandered