Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

Earth has no quickening spirit here,
Nature no charm, and man no dwelling."

From the hills, beyond Baccano, the traveller discerns the

"Vast and wondrous dome,

To which Diana's marvel was a cell,"

and, after crossing the Tiber at the Ponte Molle, enters the city by the Via Flaminia.

Note. In a small work lately published by Galignani, “Brief Advice to Travellers in Italy," the authoress says, "Fair Florence stands first of the above-mentioned cities (Rome and Pisa), for badness of climate and company. Naples comes next, both being of a mixed kind. Florence is cold in winter, hot in summer, and damp at all times. It is the winter that is dangerous to health, being foggy, windy, and rainy, and exceedingly apt to attack the throat: the teeth and eyes have their share of the compliment. The Lung' Arno is the most tempting situation, but dampest in winter and hottest in summer." She prefers the town to the villas for the summer, in which I differ from her, the villas raised above the level of the valley being more exposed to the air, and less affected by the reflection of the sun's rays from the surrounding hills.—As regards Nice, I need not dwell upon what Mrs. Carleton says of its peculiarities during the seasons when it is deserted by visitors; but I do not agree with her statement as to the dampness of the Croix de Marbre; and some of the residents with whom I have spoken deny that any of the houses are built upon piles. Winter visitors, however, need not be under apprehension of the effects of damp and malaria from a residence at any part of Nice, dryness being the prevailing characteristic of the climate at this season.

[blocks in formation]

THE symmetrical aspect of the Piazza del Popolo, its fine obelisk, fountains, and statues, with a church and handsome buildings on either side, together with the long vista of the Corso, rarely fail to impress strangers on first entering Rome with an idea of its magnificence. The relics of antiquity constantly met with, the obelisks and fountains with which it is embellished, and the meeting almost at every step members of the different religious orders, give Rome an appearance distinct from that of any other city; yet, as an ensemble, it cannot be termed handsome. It possesses only one good bridge, but few squares, and the streets are narrow (though now much, better paved and cleaner than formerly), so that its palaces cannot be seen to advantage.

There are few cities where it would be so difficult to lose one's way three of the principal streets, meeting in the Piazza del Popolo, front the visitor on entering. The central one, or Corso,

The

extends for more than a mile in a straight line, and leads to the Capitol and the Forum. Via Babuino on the left, and the Via di Ripetti on the right, gradually diverging from the line of the Corso, lead, the one to the Piazza di Spagna, the other to the river. From the Piazza di Spagna a series of streets is continued, almost in a straight line, cutting across the centre of the Corso to the Ponte St. Angelo, and on the opposite side of which stands the imposing mass, Hadrian's tomb, the

"Superba mola

Che fe' Adriano all' onda Tiberina,"

(now a fortress and state prison, surmounted by the statue of the Archangel Michael), whence a dirty street leads to St. Peter's. The above-named are the most frequented streets, and the majority of strangers reside in the neighbourhood of the Piazza di Spagna.

The Piazza di S. Pietro is unique, and defies criticism. The massive and lofty pillars of its colonnades, ranged in a semicircle on either side, enclosing a vast area, in the centre of which are two splendid jets d'eau, and the finest obelisk in Europe, together with the facade and dome of St. Peter's, form a most striking and magnificent coup d'œil. The interior of the church is surpassingly grand; its size and the harmony of its proportions can only be properly appreciated after the several parts have been repeatedly viewed in detail

"Vastness which grows, but grows to harmonize,

All musical in its immensities:

Rich marbles-richer paintings-shrines where flame
The lamps of gold; and haughty dome that vies

In air with earth's chief structures, though their frame
Sits on the firm-set ground."

There are, however, no paintings, though the magnificent mosaics might easily be mistaken for paintings without a close inspection. The most remarkable are the Raising St. Petronilla, the Communion of St. Jerome, and the Transfiguration.

The Pantheon, now transformed into a church, is a noble remnant of antiquity, and in admirable preservation. It is of a circular form, having an aperture twenty-six feet in diameter in the roof. The interior is adorned with several elegant fluted marble pillars, between which altars are placed. The portico consists of sixteen circular granite pillars, each of which is a single piece, thirty-nine feet high, and fourteen feet in circumference, with an entablature and pediment of proportionate magnitude.

Among the other principal churches, which the stranger will be gratified by repeatedly visiting, may be mentioned the St. Giovanni in Laterano, whence there is a good view of part of the Campagna, with the aqueducts and Tivoli, and in the vaults of which is a chef d'œuvre of Bernini— the group of the Saviour dead, and supported on the lap of his mother; the Santa Maria Maggiore; the Santa Maria degli Angeli, formerly part of

Dioclesian's baths, several of the colossal granite pillars of which still support the roof; the Jesuit's church, after St. Peter's the richest in Rome; the San Stephano Rotondo, formerly a temple of a circular form, and the S. Pietro in Vincoli, in which will be admired the figure of Moses seated, which is considered the chef d'œuvre of Michael Angelo:

"Quel ch'a par sculpe e colora

Michel piu che mortale, Angel divino."

The church of St. Paul, two miles from Rome, will, when completed, surpass all the others, St. Peter's excepted, in size and richness of decoration.

The Doria is perhaps the handsomest of the Roman palaces, and contains one of the richest galleries of pictures, among which the attention will be more especially attracted to the two celebrated Claudes, viz., the Molino, and the Sacrifice to Apollo; the Madonna, by SassoFerrata, the Flight into Egypt, the Assumption, and the Visitation, by Annibale Caracci; a Magdalen, by Murillo; Belisarius, by Salvator Rosa; and Queen Joan of Naples, by Leonardo da Vinci. In the Borghese palace will be particularly remarked Diana and her Nymphs, by Domenichino; the Cumean Sibyl, by the same painter; the Deposition from the Cross, by Raphael; the same subject, by Garofolo; four pictures of the Seasons, by Albano; and Cesar Borgia, by Raphael.

« EdellinenJatka »