There is a very narrow stone sidewalk but it differs slightly before each house, every owner being required to make his own repairs. In the pavement broad ruts have been worn by the wagons, despite the restrictions (presently stated) upon wheeled traffic. Very few streets of Rome are wide enough for two carts to pass freely; and every driver has to look ahead and frequently to wait at corners to let other teams get by. Upon the pavement and especially at intersecting crossways are set groups of four or five large oblong stepping stones; these seem needless at present but can be a veritable godsend in the rainy season when every “Via” and “Vicus” in Rome seems converted into a raging torrent. =13. The House and Shop Fronts.=--Looking upward now, one is instantly confronted by a long expanse of stuccoed walls--some pink, yellow, or bluish, but mostly an ugly brown. The lower story, quite on the street level, is broken either by the petty shops which open their shutters and thrust their counters clear out upon the pavement, or else it is merely a solid blank space with only here and there a doorway, or a few small windows, mere peepholes for fear of burglars. The second and upper stories, however, are less solid. There are many larger windows set with window-boxes displaying bright flowers, or even with projecting balconies which reach out so far that neighbors in opposite houses can sometimes clasp hands above the hurrying life below. Shops abound almost everywhere. In the great commercial quarters by the fora, the Tiber and the Campus Martius, will be found the splendid establishments which cater to wealth, but no quarter of Rome is too mean for its bakeries, vegetable stands, wine shops, and cheap restaurants. In fact, the absence of a speedy means of interurban communication makes a multiplication of small shops absolutely necessary. Most of these retailers do business on the pettiest scale, and a glance reveals that nearly the whole stock in trade is spread on the counter facing the street. As for the shopkeeper, ordinarily he lives and sleeps either in a dark cell just in the rear or in an equally narrow chamber directly above his business. “Born over a shop,” snobbish people say when they wish to brand some person as a nobody. [Illustration: STREET SCENE BEFORE A COOK-SHOP. _After Von Falke._] =14. Street Shrines and Fountains.=--Nevertheless, commonplace and darksome as this street may seem, there are clear tokens both of an active religious, also of an artistic life. On the flat wall, beside a grocer’s stand, two serpents are crudely painted in yellow--emblems of the guardian genii of the place. Opposite, by a money-changer, is painted a fairly presentable Mercury, the god of Gain. As one goes about the city the painted snakes appear almost everywhere, and also pictures of Jupiter, Minerva, and Hercules. [Illustration: SHRINE AT THE CROSSWAYS.]