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
fact no foreigners in the island. We had a very good breakfast in a
nice, fairly large room with views of the sea in all directions, and
started off immediately afterward to see as much as we could. Mother had
her chair, but didn't go all the way with us. We passed through narrow,
badly paved little streets with low, pink houses, lots of people, women
and children, standing in the doorways--no men, I suppose they were all
fishing--and then climbed up to the Villa Tiberius--a steep climb at the
end, but such a view. Before we got quite to the top we stopped at the
"Salto di Tiberio," a rock high up over the water from which the guide
told us that monarch had his victims precipitated into the sea. We
dropped down stones (I remember quite well doing the same thing when we
were there before) to see how long it was before they touched the water,
which showed at what a height one was. The palace is too much in ruins
to be very interesting, but there was enough to show how large it must
have been, and bits of wall and arches still standing. We went on to the
chapel, drank some rather bad wine which the hermit offered us, bought
some paper weights and crosses made out of bits of coloured marble which
had been found in the ruins, and wrote our names in his book. We looked
back in the book to see if there were any interesting signatures, but
there was nothing remarkable--a great many Germans.
We came home by another path, winding down through small gardens,
vineyards, and occasionally along the steep side of the mountain, all
stones and ragged rocks, with the sea far down at our feet. There were a
good many houses scattered about, one or two quite isolated near the
top. We had a running escort of little black-eyed brown children all
talking and offering little bunches of mountain flowers. The guides
remonstrated vigorously occasionally and they would disappear, but were
immediately replaced by another band from the next group of houses we
passed.
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