With British Guns in Italy: A Tribute to Italian AchievementDalton, Hugh Dalton, Baron
History
With British Guns in Italy: A Tribute to Italian Achievement
Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Baron
World War, 1914-1918 -- Italy
From St Peter's we drove up the Janiculum, stopping on the way at the
convent of S. Onofrio, where Tasso passed the last three weeks of his
life and where a Tasso Museum has been accumulated. Very admirable is
the equestrian statue of Garibaldi on the Janiculum, both as sculpture
and for its details of intention, such as that sideways turning of his
head, looking down hill at the Vatican, as though saying, "Non ti
dimentico,"--"I do not forget you, my old enemy." The view of Rome from
this point is magnificent, the best that I have seen, though the view
from the Pincio only just falls short of it.
Thence, passing outside the old city walls through the Porta San
Pancrazio, we stood on ground made memorable by Garibaldi's defence of
the Roman Republic in 1849, and went down, past the. Pope's monument to
the French who died fighting to defend his Temporal Power against the
Garibaldini, into the beautiful garden of the Villa Pamfili. "Attendono
il finale risorgimento,"[1] says the Pope's Italian version on the
monument. It is an ironical phrase in view of the history of the next
twenty years. "They did not have long to wait," I said, "a bird in the
hand is worth two in the bush." And my guide said, I thought well, of
the French that they are a people of great gifts and of most generous
mind, but that their rulers have often showed "un po' di volubilità, un
po' di fantasia."
[Footnote 1: "They await the final resurrection." But "risorgimento" to
most Italians suggests modern history more than theology.]
We visited last of all the Depôt of the Bersaglieri in Trastevere, where
is also the famous Bersagliere Museum. Here we were received and shown
round with great courtesy by the Colonel commanding the Depôt, a
handsome man with most sad eyes, but full of great regimental pride in
this creation, intimately and characteristically Italian, of General La
Marmora.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account