Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 2: Studies from the Chronicles of RomeCrawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
History
Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 2: Studies from the Chronicles of Rome
Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
Rome (Italy) -- Description and travel
In 1893 the Pope began to inhabit the new pavilion designed and built by
Vespignani in pure fifteenth-century style. It is built against the
Torrione, the ancient round tower constructed by Saint Leo the Fourth
about the year 850. In 1894 Leo the Thirteenth made a further extension,
and joined another building to the existing one by means of a loggia, on
the spot once occupied by the old barracks of the papal gendarmes, who
are still lodged in the gardens, and whose duty it is to patrol the
precincts by day and night. Indeed, the fact that two dynamiters were
caught in the garden in 1894 proves that a private police is necessary.
During the great heat of summer the Pope, after saying mass, goes into
the garden about nine in the morning and spends the whole day there,
receiving everyone in the garden pavilion he has built for himself, just
as he would receive in the Vatican. He dines there, too, and rests
afterward, guarded by the gendarmes on duty, to whom he generally sends
a measure of good wine--another survival of a country custom; and in the
cool of the day he again gets into his carriage, and often does not
return to the Vatican till after sunset, toward the hour of Ave Maria.
In the evening, about an hour later,--at 'one of the night,' according
to the old Roman computation of time,--he attends at the recitation of
the rosary, or evening prayers, by his private chaplain, and he requires
his immediate attendants to assist also. He then retires to his room,
where he reads, studies or writes verses, and at about ten o'clock he
eats a light supper.
While in the garden he is fond of talking about plants and flowers with
the director of the gardens. He walks with the officer of the Noble
Guards and with the private chamberlain on duty. He speaks freely of
current topics, tells anecdotes of his own life and visits the gazelles,
goats, deer and other animals kept in the gardens. From the cupola of
Saint Peter's the whole extent of the grounds is visible, and when the
Pope is walking, the visitors, over four hundred feet above, stop to
watch him. He has keen eyes, and sees them also. 'Let us show
ourselves!' he exclaims on such occasions. 'At least they will not be
able to say that the Pope is ill!'
The Pope's favourite poets are Virgil and Dante. He knows long passages
of both by heart, and takes pleasure in quoting them. When Father
Michael, the apostolic prefect to Erithrea, was taking his leave, with
the other Franciscans who accompanied him to Africa, his Holiness
recited to them, with great spirit, Dante's canto upon St. Francis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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