Italian Letters of a Diplomat's Wife: January-May, 1880; February-April, 1904Waddington, Mary King
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Italian Letters of a Diplomat's Wife: January-May, 1880; February-April, 1904
Waddington, Mary King
Rome (Italy) -- Social life and customs
Just as we were finishing breakfast Ruspoli appeared to ask us if we
would come and see the castle. We entered directly from the little
square of the town--the big doors face the church. There is a fine stone
staircase, and halls and rooms innumerable. They have only just begun to
work on it--have made new floors (a sort of mosaic, small stones, just
as I remember them at Frascati in Villa Marconi) and put water
everywhere, but there is still a great deal to do. The proportions of
the rooms are beautiful, and the view divine. As in all old Italian
castles some of the village houses were built directly into the wall of
the castle. They have already bought and knocked down many of these
(giving the inhabitants instead comfortable, clean, modern houses which
they probably won't like nearly as well) and are arranging a beautiful
garden in their place. They have also a terrace planted with trees about
half-way down the slope to the lake, which would be a divine place to
read or dream away a long summer's day. I don't think there are ten
yards of level ground on the place.
[Illustration: Great New Bridge from Albano to Ariccia.
Built by Pope Pius IX.]
We couldn't stay very long as we were going on to Frascati and Castle
Gondolfo. They gave us tea, and when we came out on the piazza we found
the whole village congregated around the automobiles (another had
arrived from Rome--I am so cross I didn't bring mine with Strutz, it
would have been so convenient for all the excursions). It is a wild
beautiful spot, but I should think lonely. We went back to Albano, saw
the great bridge built by Pio Nono, with its three tiers of arches, the
famous tombs--Horatii, Curiatii and Pompey, and then drove along the
beautiful "galeria di sotto" to Castle Gondolfo, the old crooked ilex
trees nearly meeting over our heads, and the Campagna with lovely lights
and shades flitting over it, far down at our feet. There everything
looked exactly as I remembered it. It seemed to me the same priests were
walking about under the trees, the same men riding minute donkeys,
with their legs nearly touching the ground; the same great carts,
lumbering peacefully along, the driver usually asleep until the horn of
the automobile close behind him roused him into frantic energy; however
they were all most smiling, evidently don't hate the auto as they do in
some parts of France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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