RECOLLECTIONS OF ROME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 41, 7 February 1874, Page 8

RECOLLECTIONS OF ROME.

So. v. To LKAD myself back to St. Peter's of which I promised to toll you further, I pioposo tiiat to-day we travel in spirit over the road which lies between Via Felice, where I lived, and the Basilica. Our journey will be full of interest a3 there are many wonderful things to bo seen on our way. Do not be shocked if 1 make provision for our pilgrimage in the shapo of a score or two of those delicious chesnuts which are vended at the corner of the street. We need not be deterred by the fact that our feast will only coot two baioc'ii. Are we not foreslieri, eccentrics, barbatiane — wanderers from a land without sunsets and without a sky, without pictures except the miserable copies which we puy extravivautly for, without literature to speak of, except a red covered book" Lettered • Murray,' which we consult furtively before we dare to admire anything, and with a languige which consists principally of the absurd phrase 'Oh, yes' ? 1 readily admit that if in our own country we ou raged society by buying a penny's worth of fruit at a street-stali, we should be cut and deserve lo bo cut by such of our fashionable acquaintances as became aware of the disreputable occurrence. But here the solecism will be looked upon merely as a vagary of milor Ingleso who knows no better, and will not prevent us bjing received at the banquets of a Roman Prince, if our letters of credit ani introduction be satisfactory. Let us pay lor our cb.et.uuts with a two poul-piecc, and we shall get in change a whole handful of copper coin which we can distribute among the numerous mendicants who congregate on the steps of the Piazza di Spagna Five brigand beggars who demand alms in a tone which savours of " money or your life " noble looking beggars who adopt tho " Date obolum Belisario " role, witch Ike hags whom you would fear to reuse, pretty children who make their plaints in soft musical tones which sound like poetiy, and merry looking rogues whom you half expect to address you as "your honour " iiiote<id of eccelenza. These beggars arc uncountable, but I think their life is not quite so hard as the life of_the poor in other countries. They can obtain food in the convents, and in the day time bUl'cx iv the churche;, and the money which they get from

charitable Romans and lich strangers procure for them the little braziers full of charcoal which they almost all carry about in bad weather. There are more deformed people in Rome than any other country I have ever been ■ in. The reason of which perhaps i* that Roman mothers do not allow their little ones to creep about and " play with their pretty toes," but bind them updn a long roll of linen which makes them into convenient packages to oarry about, and prevents them indulging in what our nurses call spring. '.The - bombino if he is delicate suffers from this process, and is likely be deformed, but usually ho grows into a fine manly looking fellow, handsome., and with os mu;h of the bearing of an Ancient Roman as to make.him instinctively drape his modern cloak as much lik« a Toga, as hie tailor will permit bim. The bambinetta grows in turn into a fascinating child, a lovely girl, a beautiful matron, and a hideous old woman. I never saw an old woman in Rome, who was not painfully plain.; the foce which is perfect in youth, in old age becomes wretched and cronelike to a moet extraordinary degree. Whether this. is the result of climate or of too many fast days, I cannot tell.; but certain it is that pretty old ladies are not Gften to be seen in Rome except among the foretiieri. But the steps of 'the Pi;iE/?a de Spagna are not entirety monopolised by mendicants, they are also the rendezvous for the models who sit for painters. Tlie two tnen are of course very beautiful, and figure as saints or goddesses as the occasion may require, the children are sometimes little Samuels and oftener Cupidons, and the men who are generally chosen for their ugliness, as their sisters are for their beauty, are assassins, bandits are Roman senatore, just as you choose to paiut them for a few pouls a day. But before we descend into the Piazza we must mount the steps of the beautiful little Church of the Trineta di Monta, and see the famous " descent from the Cross " of Daniele da Volterra. This is counted the third finest picture in the world, the two which rank before Raphael's " Transfiguration," and Domeuichuo's "Communion of Saint Jerome" are in the Vatican. As I do not pretend to be an art critic I shall not attempt to describe tb's glorious picture, besides are you not with me in spirit, and can -you not «cc for yourself the wonderful manner in which the artist has contrived tc paint. the dead body of our Lord, the anguish of St. John, the grief of the disciples, and the swoon of the Blessed Mary, which is only not death. There are many other valuable pictures iv this Church which is attached to the convent of the Sacred Heart, where the daughters of the noble houses of Rome are educated. I have often been at mass there, and have also heard vespers sun=r by the angel like voices ot the Inly sisterhood ; but we must not linger now if we are to reach St. Piter's to-day. When we have come down • the steps, past the beggars and the models, we shall find ourselves in the Piazza with its obelisk of red granite covered with hieroglyphics. This column was carried out oi Egypt by the Roman conquerors, and •was old when Rome was new, and will last when the handsome modern hotels which are also in the Piazza shall have become luins. But as we are not antiquaries, and are holiday sight seers, we shall not make a vain attempt to decipher the stiange figures traced on the obelisk; ■bat rather listen to the pretty boy who aseutes us that he " speaks Anglnsh," aud wants us to buy some of his flowers. There are w cker work baskets filled ertirely with rosebuds fresh aud delicately beautiful. But although we do love roses, aud are stupid Inglese, we are ■riot going to pay you twenty pouls for your basket, my piccolo giovone jf you will take as many basocchi bene, if not our padrona shall get us flowers from a boy whoso charges are more moderate, and who will not require to be paid inordinately as he cannot " peak Anglnsh." But, I see clearly that we shall not get to St. Peter's to-day, (or here we are at the door of Piele's English readiug-room, and dearer to our hearts than anything that Rome can show us is 'II Galignani ' and <the ' Times.' We want to know what is going on in the world outside Rome, — whether the Bill we are. interested in is being suppo. ted •>"\ Parliament, and above all what is the news from Australia. Be--aides it is already getting late, and we have not got beyond the Piazza di Spagna, bo for the present we shall read our papers ; another day we shall continue our journey. S.G.D.