That Was Another Of The Things Which I Distinctly
Remembered From The Year 1864, And I Did Not Find The Spectacle Of The
Modern Penitents Covering The Holy Steps Different In 1908.
Now, as
then, there was something incongruous in their fashions and aspirations,
but one could not doubt that it was a genuine piety that nerved them to
climb up and down the hard ascent on their knees, or, at the worst, that
it was good exercise.
Still, I would rather leave my reader the sense of
that most noble fagade of the church, with its lofty balustraded
entablature, where the gigantic Christ and ten of his saints look out
forever to the Alban hills.
XIV
TIVOLI AND FRASCATI
One of the most agreeable illusions of travel is a sort of expectation
that if you will give objects of interest time enough they will present
themselves to you, and, if they will not actually come to you in your
hotel, will happen in your way when you go out. This was my notion of
the right way of seeing Rome, but, as the days of my winter passed, so
many memorable monuments failed not merely to seek me out, but stiffly
held aloof from me in my walks abroad, that I began to feel anxious lest
I should miss them altogether. I had, for instance, always had the
friendliest curiosity concerning Tivoli and Frascati as the two most
amiable Roman neighborhoods, and hoped to see both of them in some
informal and casual sort; but they persisted so long in keeping off on
their respective hills that I saw something positive on niy part must be
done.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 241 of 353
Words from 66121 to 66398
of 97259
