Italian Letters of a Diplomat's Wife: January-May, 1880; February-April, 1904Waddington, Mary King
General
Italian Letters of a Diplomat's Wife: January-May, 1880; February-April, 1904
Waddington, Mary King
Rome (Italy) -- Social life and customs
We had a fine musical evening Saturday with the Landi family--five;
mother, father, daughter, son, and grandfather. Madame Landi sang
anything, everything, delightfully. Some of the stornelli and peasant
songs, those particularly of the Abruzzi mountains, were charming. I
wonder what Italians have got in their "gosier" that we haven't, that
gives such a charm to their simplest song. I sang once or twice in
French, and then Madame Landi and I did some duos in Italian which went
very well. She was very complimentary over my Italian (I told it
triumphantly to W., but he remains under the impression of the razor),
said it was evident I had learnt in Rome; the language is so much
softer, or rather the pronunciation "Lingua toscana in bocca romana."
The old father was killing, knew everything, was wildly interested, and
criticised freely. I think the daughter will have a very pretty voice,
like her mother's, a rich, low mezzo.
I was called off by some visits, and will finish now. My letter will go
to-morrow morning. We don't start very early--9.30--but I shall not have
time to write anything more.
_To H. L. K._
HÔTEL DE LONDRES, ROME,
February 24, 1880.
We arrived last evening for dinner, dear mother, and are most
comfortably settled. We have a nice apartment on the second floor--a
large bright salon with a good bed-room on either side of it for me and
W., and a very fair anteroom where Madame Hubert has just had another
wardrobe put up. She interviewed the gérant and made it clear to him
that it was impossible for her to unpack her mistress's dresses until
she had something suitable to put them in. We found flowers and papers
on the table from the Schuylers, Mrs. Bruce, and the proprietor of the
hotel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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