SPRING IN ROME

Evening Star, Issue 19661, 14 September 1927, Page 11

SPRING IN ROME

Af! EHBH/iHT!SSG USE 1 have been walking this afternoon along the Appian Way. It has been a. perfect spring day, which means that Romo and all her surroundings are at their glorious host. Many motor omnibuses, char-a-bancs, and “sight-seeing cars have passed me, for the tourists are now hero in portentous numbers, all “ doing ” Romo at a pace that fairly turns dizzy the more leisurely visitor (writes “M.T.G.," in the ‘Christian Science Monitor’). There lias been much dust, which J have occasionally avoided by climbing a wall and wandering across a green meadow among the ruins of the villas whence • once the Roman aristocracy probably regarded with disgust the ever-growing chariot traffic along this same Appian Way. 1 have, as a matter of fact, strayed very far aficid this afternoon, never turning my face toward Rome again until the twilight haze had settled over the Campagna. For 1 think that it is only in springtime that one really “feels” Rome, and the way to do it then is to avoid the throngs of sightseers, dodge the übiquitous “ guides,” avoid with studied care the “ personally conducted ” tours—and wander aimlessly by one’s self in all directions, never heeding whither they led, taking to-day the Pineio Gardens, tomorrow the Appiau Way, the next day the enchanting ways and byways of Romo itself, and so and ever on about the task that is never completed and never can be completed, but that is never wearisome—tho task of making tho acquaintance of Romo. One hears tho story of tho American clergyman stationed in Rome who was asked by a party of visitors to toll them all about Rome,” that they might make the best of a lew days stejj; “ That I am scarcely qualified to do, ho said, “for, you see, 1 have only been iu Romo ten years.” Only ten years! What a hopeless task it is, to bo sure, this attempt to know Rome 1 Yet to learn to “ feel ” Romo is not so difficult, and of all times to achieve that tho spring time is the best. Of live visits this is my first at the ideal lime of the year in all Italy, and 1 felt, as I commenced my usual aimless wanderings immediately 1 had found lodgings, that this was a different Rome from those oi my previous tarries. Ever a wanderer without plan or guidance about the cities ol the world, east and west and north and south, 1 have found that whatsoever place is Duly exotic and whatsoever place is invested with an “ atmosphere ” whoso absorption depends very largely upon the degree of receptivity in one’s own self, that place is most appreciated and best understood iu such a fashion. But of them all I love most to wander in Rome. 1 think that if 1 were able to spend a year, two years, five years there 1 should still wander about in the same aimless fashion, coming unexpectedly, now into a well-known corner like the Piazza Espagua or before tho Fountain of the Trevi, now into some cosy little “ piazza” or some bit of garden quite unfamiliar and thus doubly enjoyed. . Yet never until Hus lair month when Rome is, as Casius observed with quite another significance, “Rome indeed,” have 1 realised to the full the pleasure of this fashion of making Rome’s acquaintance. At such a time iQ is a closer acquaintance that one achieves, a sort of tender intimacy springing, perhaps, from the beauty of the flowers, tlio vivid green of the palms, the golden splashes of sunlight on the steps leading from the Piazza Espagna, flic glory of the view from windows of tho Villa Rorghese, and tho soil haze that cloaks the ruins on the Palatine at twilight, 1 wonder Fomelimes U these hurrying tourists have really taken away with them anything lasting from Rome, even an’enduring impression of her as she is in her beautiful springtime. I encountered several score of them in. the Sistine Gliapcl yesterday morning. They talked in many languages, for they were from many lands. But .1 heard sonic discussing with animation (he possibility of “ catching ” tho next day’s train “dc luxe” for Milan, with its Pullmans and its observation ear, ami there “catching,” in turn, something else for somewhere else, quite as if the ultimate were away somewhere iu the far dim distance, lo be sought through ono hectic day alter another, instead of right hero about (hem. There is a lively sense ol efficiency abroad in Rome to-day as there is in all of Italy. One feels tho oxisto ro of a powerful system wilh a strong and determined directing arm behind it. Bo that system a good one or a bad one only time, I suppose, will show; but that it is all-dominant one fools before he has been twenty-four hours in Italy. Yet it docs not obtrude itself disagreeably upon tho visitor, ami it does not alter Rome iu spring nine in the least.

Tho tranquillity of this alternoon warps itself quite as closely as evtr about the little Foro Italian, .bout the Piazza Espagna, and the flower stands at the foot of the steps, about the grass-grown ruins of the Palatine and the craggy battlements of the Coliseum It is quite ns possible to “ leel ” Rome to-day as it ever has been, and the way to do’ that is lo wander without p.;;,n or purpose wherever one’s undirected footsteps may lead through tho soft sunshine of a spring afternoon.