Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1922-06-14
ANOTHER FROM PORTER
A Wanderers Diary

May 9-Left Marseille for French
Italian border. Passed lot Of lovely
cities on hillsides, palace hotels every
where. Cannes, Mention, Monte Carlo,
miles of reses, palms, flowers every
where. At Ventimille passed customs
easily and got Cooks $40 check chang
ed into $40 hire pronounced "leerah. .
Z IL lire for dollar. One dire six cents
/ u. S.. On to San Reno for the night.
American-Italian took me to fine hotel
with lovely room u lire, tax Is per
cent and gave him 5 lire for kindness;
cost of room $1.30 On TO Rome next
day, 405 miles fare $3.50. Rode all
day and night.
May 10th-Got room close to u. s.
embassy in Pension Santa Maria for
ten lire day, $4.20 week. Have to
change my jabbering now to Italian.
The Signorina is a lovely maiden lady
but we cannot understand one another
at all. this morning gathered my
dirty linen together and wrote the
marlboro Italian for Il want this
! linen washed" The bundle has gone.
Away from home 80 days. Expenses
total for passport rail, steamer and
all about $3.50 day. Only trouble
. is, | canrot get what | want to eat.
Have added macaroni and fish to my
dietary inItaly. Allthe coffee is abom-
niable over here. If | had left my
camera and Bible at home and a few
useless things and put in that alcohol
stove and some George Washington
Coffee, | would not be calling cafe
latte every morning and drinking the
Accountable stuff they make for coffee.
Fine oranges are 1S cents for over 2
pounds and | eat or every day, as
the natives do. when in Rome do as
the Romans do" Chocolate is another
food they eat much of and / eat con-
siderable. Tried win blanc yesterday,
a cross between win aigre and sweet
wine. Don't want more. Went to the
Forum, and to great church St.Mary
Maggiore.
May 13th--Lostmy reckoning. Took
Saturday to be Sunday and went to
four or FIVE churches. One, close by,
designed by NJ. Angelo, is built inside
brick walls of vast baths of Diocletian.
1t is a lovely church. Adjoining is ma
tional Museum also inside wall of the
hot baths, vast museum of Roman
Stone monuments.
May 14th-Sunday I heard lovely
music in several churches. Close by
U. s. Embassy is Methodist church.
Went $3.50 to hear discussion against
Catholicism. Fine church inside and
out. Gallery 80 feetabove floor. House
well filed, singing beautiful, but ser
mon in Italian. Side of Embassy is
church where Paulist Fathers from
America preach in English.
May 15th---Did Vatican Galleries.
For lire saw grandest collection of
art in world. In picture gallery sat
long before TRANSPORTATION" of Ra-
phael and that other greatest painting,
Last Communion of St.Jerome" by
Domenechini. Measured great Bible
in glass case. Book on sheepskin, writ
ten by hand, A. D. 1895, is 17x23x12
inches. Did Sistine chapel. Dark and
gloomy. Is 60xl80 feet. Angelo work
ed three years on frescoes of''The Last
Judgment. One gets more from pho
to of it than from seeing original it
self. They've burned too much in
cense in the chapel for good of fres-
Goes.
May l6th-Did st. Peters and gal
lerles agani. Tried to find little room
where are RaphaePs choicest small
paintings, but could not. Got 18 lire
for dollar today at Cooks. Lots of
phiColS III hOHle. 1Hey are superior
looking lot, clean and without appear
ance of alcohol or tobacco habits. Are
many fine faces among them. Heard
a lot of them singing at in room in
st: Peters. 1t was some singing too.
May 17th-Walked past Quirinal to
Coliseum and around it, 14O rods or
2300 feet. Coliseum at Aries / made
5000 feet around it. Studied Roman
Forum from outside until 8. then en-
tered and went first to "Tomba Rom
uli' Romulus founder of Rome was
buried near arch of severns in Forum.
Thick black polished slab from Greece
was put over his tomb. Varro wrote
a good description of it 10 centuries
ago; said stone was meters long and
wide. Much controversy. Inscription
in lapis nigra is oldest Roman writing
known. How much of history has
centered around the Forum Romanum.
Did the conquerers heap their spoils
here? Yes, and in yon field below,
a thousand years of silenced factions
sleep-A nd still the eloquent air
breathes-burns with Cicero"-Byron.
c. " p