The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-10-22
II Has Been Converted Into an I'm
mense Public Park Under the
Name Of Villa Umberto, Thus
Entailing Social Loss.
WORLD KNOWN DRIVE
PROMPTLY at Four O'Clock Every AZ.
ternoon all the Famous Roman
Families Started on Drive
Through corso.
[By Henry Wood, Rome correspondent
of the United Press

[By Henry Wood, Rome correspondent
of the United Press.]
ROME, Oct. 2l-Through the &C
QUESTION by the city of Rome of the
famous Villa Borghese. which lies
just outside the walls of the old city,
and its conversion into an immense
public park under the name of the VIZ
la Umberto, Rome has lost one Of it's
most famous and most characteristic
social customs. This was the world
known drive every afternoon to the
Corso and the Pincian HILL The drive
is still taken, but the things that went
to make it famous are now, like SO
many other things in Rome, merely
matter of the past.
Until this change came about, all OF
the Roman aristocracy and "Patriz-
ioso", for fully century past took
as obligatory as the necessity o eat
ing and as unchanging as the laws of
the Modes and the Persians.
The Corso itself. over which the
drive started was formerly the ia
nous Flaminian Way leading out
from the Capatoline Hill, and over
which for centuries before the begin
ming of the christian era, Rome rushed
its troops to the north, just as over
the equally famous Appian Way. it
poured its troops to the south. The
portion of this old Flaminian Way,
xr,Li oI ct;1 ~, .I,o oil lie
of the present day Rome. extends from
the Piazza venezia to the Piazza del
Popolo and is one of the narrowest of
the principal streets of the city.
1t was this narrowness. however,
more than anything else that probably
came to make the afternoon drive to
the Corso so famous and which
brought to the street, under its new
modern name, almost as much fame,
although of transitory nature. as it
enjoyed in its palmiest days as the
Flaminian Way. Promptly at four
o'clock every afternoon all the ia
nous Roman families started on this
drive through the Corso. There were
the families whose princely titles
came to them through the church.
| During the latter part of the last
century there were also the families
whose honors came to them through
the Quirinal There We're all of the
aristocracy, all of the patrician best
old families of the Roman aristocracy,
all OF the old patrician families, fam
lilies whose names have runC down
through the ages of italian history.
Then after few turns in the Corso
the carriages drove from the far end
of the Corso, the piazza del Popolo.
to the Pincian Hill, a little park over
looking the entire city, but covering
in its original confines hardly more
than two or three city blocks. Here
again the narrow limits and confines
kept everyone in the closest possible
proximity.
And so for fully a century this daily
drive was made. AS the heads OF the
Ipatrician families died off, the chill
dren continued the drive By them it
was passed down to other generations.
In time, the fortunes of family after
family of the "patrizoso" crumbled
: and fell and but few indeed were the
families whose fortunes ebbed so low
that they could not keep their car
rage and horses with which to make
the daily drive to the Corso. They
might live on bread alone at home.
their servants might work solely
through family loyalty. with never a
thought OF pay, but always enough was
somehow kept together to make this
brave show in the Corso that had been
. their heritage from the past
or course, while this same brave
show was being made in the Corso
and the Pincian everybody who
d wasn't among Who's Who in Rome
d gathered along the edges of the street
OF along the driveway and watched it
], all go by. But now all this is a
a thing OF the past 1t has not come SO
d much through the crumbling away of
s the old aristocracy's fortunes as
e through the very plebian system of the
g opening of big public park by the
e new democratic Rome for it's demo
e cratic masses.
]. The new villa Umberto is now CON
o hected with the old Pincian Hill by a
L bridge and the two thrown together
make one great park that compares
!, not unfavorably with Central Park OF
New York the Bots de Boulogne OF
n faris or Hyde Park of London.
Although that portion of the Flam
I inian Way inside the city walls. which
e as stated above is now known as the
Corso umberto, he's thus lost much OF
IT'S more recent fame, that portion Of
S The ancient Rome roadway which lies
outside the walls and extends fa1
away to the north is again just com
ing back into fame Its sister road
way, the Appian Way. to the south, II
also ENJOYING similar rejuvenation
These two roads, SO famous in his
tory, have for centuries been Of but