EUROPE TO-DAY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 54, 1 February 1938, Page 2

EUROPE TO-DAY

ROME. Mussolini is making great changes in Rome, driving a imgncy tnorougutaro through tne city, and seeing tue extension ot the new areas winch cover the Pontine Marshes. Not tui the mil century was the new Rome extended along the right hank ox the XiOer, but since Rome uecame the capital of a united Italy miles ox new streets have been built, and paving and drainage nave gone on apace. Much that was old anu picturesque has vanished, while wnole new districts have sprung up within tue last ten or twenty years. At the same tune extensive excavations have been made, and mucii tiiat was long hidden has been brought to light, lor with new greatness Rome is again prizing old treasures, bcores of oid villas and tiiousands ot treasures have been revealed. In recent years a huge scheme of river embankment has been carried out in order to prevent the flooding of low areas. Resides St. Peter’s, modern Rome has a magnificent group of public buildings. There is the handsome Victor Emmanuel Bridge which was begun in 1908, winged figures keeping watch over the traffic. We get a view of the dome of St. Peter's as we cross the bridge. Rome’s fashionable and historic thoroughfare, the Corso, follows the route of the ancient Via ETamina, and today it boasts many proud buildings with fine facades, many of them of the 17tli and 18th centuries. There are no fewer than 80 churches dedicated to the Virgin, the largest being St. Maria .Maggiore, founded in 352. Before its principal facade rises a high column crowned with a bronze figure of the Virgin. There is the royal residence. There are the scented gardens of the Vatican. There is the Piazza del Popolo with its red granite obelisk which has stood since 1589, lions watching at its base. There is the immense white building, over 200 feet high, on the north slope of the Capitoline Hill—a monument of Victor Emmanuel the Second. We see the king on horseback, and behind him are huge colonades lavishly adorned with paintings, the columns rising 50 feet. Great as was ancient Rome we feel that modern Rome is also great.—(G.)