Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1922-01-10
Following Is the seconds of series Of artts
cles BY Mr.. Mowrer on modern Italy.)
BY EDGAR ANsEL MowRER.

cies oy Mr. MoWrer on mo0eFn AS4iJJ
BY EDGAR ANsEL MOwRER.
Not all Of Italy. of course. Is always
pleasant to live in. In the north the
winter rains recall the intense dis
agreeable Yetness of the low coun-
ties of Ireland; in the south q fiam-
ing. pitiless sun for i've months
scorches animal and plant. But. in
general. heat and cold are tempered,
the air is clear and vision far-reach-
ing. while in the sky floats q real and
visible sun AID not the nat. red disk
that swings over London.
In its nature Italy is uniformly
beautiful and endlessly varied. Here
is nearly every type OF scenery
imaginable. from the peaks of the
Alps and crags of the Apprentices to
marshes like those Of Louisiana The
scenery, less majestic than that of
America, is superior In perfection of
natural form and in establishment by
man. Unlike American towns, Ital-
| ian cities harmonize> with their sur
roundings, and nothing Is more nat
ural than the way the hills Of GEN.
| trail Italy break into villages at the
top.
People ms Varied as Climate.
.Pervading the entire peninsula Is q
common italian personality. but even
more typical of Italy Is the richness
OF local character. Nature and eli
mate are 2et more varied than the
people. Roughly, these is a general
cleavage between north and south,
and we must n3ver forget that we are
dealing with a country where two
! stages of civilization co-exist in the
I G ms IN a oh a I'd n
Sicilian. Piedmontese and a
Pugilese. there is an abyss that fifty
years of national unity have hardly
| begun to bridge. Piedmontese and
Lombards are among the most mod
| ern of men. The Genoese is a mod
ern merchant with something Of the
old Levantine trader about him
Southern Italians almost without ex-
| ception exhibit some oriental char
| acteristics. Even in the center, the
home of all that is left of the old
Italic races. there are differences be-
tween the clever. skeptical, sarcastic
Tuscan. the gentle Umbrian from As
sisi or Perugia, the passionate primi-
tive mountaineer of the Abruzzo and
| the proud, lazy. savage Romans of the
! Campagna and the Alban hills. Ply
| sically, in Italy, one sees all the types
! of white humanity, and blue eyes and
| light-brown or red hair are commoner
|
north, where German blood runs in
| many veins, but in Sicily.
Wide Differences in Cities.
Wonderful and rare are the cities.
Turin, with its broad streets and
center. the home of the old Pied
montese aristocracy and the new
| radicals, yet intellectually backward.
Milan. however. is a splendid, up-to-
| date town, the first in Italy in BUSH
ness, industry, intellectual life, mu-
prising population and a good mu-
nicipal administration. No other town
| can dispute it's claim to be, the ma
| tion's moral capital" The cities
of Venetia are beautiful, old-fash-
| Toned places, with comfortable houses
| and an air of solid prosperity. Venice.
| of course. is unique.
Bologna, the real capital of Ro-
| magna-though actually situated in
another region, the artificially ere
ancient and modern. 1t Is the center
| of the perpetual opposition. Now
| ultra communist, it would, were the
socialists to triumph, soon pass to a
| more radical attitude, anarchy Or alb
solutism. The Bolognese, a hand
| ment of ferment among people who
are. despite appearances, far too in
different and meek.
Florence, Siena Pisa, Lucca, are,
alas. cities Of the past, and, with the
exception of the first, have value only
modern Tuscan can better be studied
in the turbulent merchants and
sailors of Leghorn or the unspOiled
Inhabitants Of the towns neglected
by tourists.
One might continue indefinitely
such a summary description of Italian
towns of the Italian lakes, the
tropical winter resorts of the Riviera,
| the quaint hilltop villages Of Tus-
cany. Umbria, the Abruzzo, Latium
and Campania; there is siren-cal!ing
Naples; there are the poverty-strick-
en- and charming towns of the ex-
treme south. the semi-oriental viii
lagos of Sicily and the Puglie.
Many Dialects Are Spoken.
| The point is that there are not two
cities alike. and an uninteresting town
is rare. There is hardly a common
language Spoken Tuscan constitutes
eigner familiar with ii. can be under
stood wherever he goes. Most of the
dialects resemble it. But I defy the
foreign professor of Italian to COM
prehend without previous experience
the Piedmontese or Sandman dialects,
while the speech of Bolognese, Geno-
ese and some Sicilians is fatty unin-
telfigible to educated Italians from
other parts. Names of common OBJ
jects and foods change bewilderingly
from place to place. and within a.two-
mile circle around the town of Amalfi
the word for wine is pronounced in
three different ways.
AS with language, so with social
customs, art and architecture. Be-
tween the habits Of the Piedmontese.
the so-called Prussians of Italy, and
the semi oriental Sicilians there
would seem to be no resemblance. Not
iilogically skillful blending Of Pied
montese firmness and Sicilian and
Sandman dash produced during the
war some of the finest brieades In