Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber : $b or, The influence of Romanism on trade, justice, and knowledgeWylie, J. A. (James Aitken)
History
Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber : $b or, The influence of Romanism on trade, justice, and knowledge
Wylie, J. A. (James Aitken)
Catholic Church -- Italy; Italy -- Description and travel
Thus have we made the tour of the Seven Hills, commencing at the
Aventine on the extreme right, and proceeding in a semicircular line
over the low swellings which lie in their peaceful covering of flower
and weed, onward to the Quirinal, which rises, with its glittering
casements, on the extreme left. They hold in their arms, as it were,
modern Rome, with the Tiber, like a golden belt, tying in the city, and
bounding the Campus Martius, on which it is seated. On the west of the
Tiber are other two hills, which, though not of the seven, are worth
mentioning. The first is the JANICULUM, with the _Trastevere_ at its
base. The inhabitants of this district pride themselves on their pure
Roman blood, and look down upon the rest of the inhabitants as a mixed
race; and certainly, if ferocious looks and continual frays can make
good their claim, they must be held as a colony of the olden time,
which, nestling in this nook of Rome, have escaped the intermixtures and
revolutions of eighteen centuries. It has been remarked that there is a
striking resemblance between their faces and those of the ancient
Romans, as graven on the arch of Titus. They are the nearest neighbours
of the Pope, whose own hill, the VATICAN, rises a little to the north of
them. On the Vatican mount stood anciently the circus of Nero; and here
many of the early Christians, amid unutterable torments, yielded up
their lives. On the spot where they died have arisen the church of St
Peter and the palace of the Vatican,--now but another name for whatever
is formidable to the liberties of the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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