by the gate on the southern side, on the 28th of march, 1852, i entered the “holy city,” just as day was turning to night. i moved slowly along by the venerable walls of the great st. peter’s church, in a shackling old viturino. a celebrated writer says it is built on the site of the palace of julius c?sar. he also says the extent of ground covered by the ruined and inhabited parts of rome amounts to four and twenty miles. you there find eighty halls of the eighty eminent kings; from king tarquin, to king pepin, the father of charlemagne, who first conquered spain, and wrested it from the mahomedans. in the outskirts of rome, he said, there is the palace of titus, who was rejected by the 300 senators, in consequence of having wasted three years in the conquest of jerusalem, which, according to their will, he ought to have accomplished in two years. there is likewise the hall of vespasian, a very large and strong building, also the hall of king galba, containing 360 windows, the circumference of this palace is nearly three miles, and on this very three miles of earth, a battle was fought in times of yore, and more than one hundred thousand fell, whose bones are hung up there even to the present day. now rome is the leader of all christendom, and st. peters’ yearly carnivals are the glory of rome, instead of the gladiatorial festivals in the colisseum. some writers assert that it is only the forum upon the site of the palace of the c?sars. cooper says in his excursions in italy, that the first palace of nero must have occupied the whole of the palatine hill, with perhaps the exception of a temple or two. the ground round the colisseum, and all the land as far as the esquiline, and even to the verge of the quirinal, a distance exceeding a mile; this was occupying, moreover, the heart of the town, although a portion of the space was occupied by gardens, and other embellishments. when this building was burned, he returned to the palatine, repaired the residence of augustus, and rebuilt his residence with so much magnificence, that the new palace was called the “golden house;” this building also extended to the esquiline, though it was never finished. vespasian and titus, more moderate than the descendants of the c?sars, demolished all the new parts of the palace, and caused the colisseum and the baths that bear the name of the latter, to be constructed on the spot; the emperors were all elected, and they found it necessary to consult the public taste and good. thus we find the remains of two of the largest structures of the world, now standing within the ground once occupied by the palace of the c?sars, on which they appear as little more than points. from this time, the emperors confined themselves to the palatine, the glory of which gradually departed. it is said that the palace, as it was subsequently reduced, remained standing in a great measure, as recently as the 8th century, and that it was even inhabited in the 7th, so says cooper.
having been anxious to see the pope of rome, pius ix, i was a frequent visitor of the carnival, and at last got a good look at the great man. he was seated on a divan, which rested on the shoulders of twelve cardinals, or senators of rome; he was crowned with a gorgeously jewelled crown, as the eye of man need wish to gaze on. ten thousand people were in the church at the time, and they would carry the pope from one aisle to another. the people all would fall on their knees, and the great man would bless them in the name of god, and the organ would peal its bassy notes of te deum, from east to west, and north to south, whilst the alarum from the belfry jarred my heart strings.
rome, said a great traveler, is well known; authors of veracity assure us that for seven hundred years, she was mistress of the world, but although their writings should not affirm this, would there not be sufficient evidence in all the grand edifices now existing, in those columns of marble, those statues. add to the quantity of relics that are there, so many things that our lord has touched with his own fleshy fingers, such numbers of holy bodies of apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins; in short, so many churches, where the holy pontiffs, have granted full indulgences for sin.
this writer that spoke of these true merits of the city of rome, was among these great and magnificient ruins of rome, in the 14th century. his name was bertrand de la bracquiere, a lord of vieux chateau, counseller and first esquire carver, to phillip, duke of burgundy, living at that age in ghent.
one day when it was very warm, i went down to the tiber to waste a little time reflectively, where the golden candlestick that was brought from jerusalem fell off the bridge and never was afterwards found. whilst i laid there on its banks, listening to its most inaudible murmur a jew came and stretched himself close to my feet. i asked him if he recollected who it was that plutarch says was condemned to the hideous punishment of being nailed up in a barrel with serpents and thrown in the tiber to float on to the sea? he had never heard of such a thing. i then asked him if he was aware that the golden candlestick out of the temple of solomon lay at the bottom of that muddy stream? he said yes, and added that the pope had been offered millions of piastres by the jews to let them turn the current of the tiber twenty miles above rome, that they might recover all the lost and hidden treasure of nearly three thousand years’ standing, but the pope had refused because he was too superstitious to allow the tiber’s current to be changed.
my attention was just at this time drawn to a large old building that had the bearing of royalty deeply marked on its furrowed decay. i asked its use, and was informed that it was a maccaroni manufactory. i drew nigh, and stood, in company with dozens of girls, looking through its decayed apertures. i saw hundreds of men walking about in a perfect state of nudity, and also as many more moving round at quicker step. i would discover every few moments a couple of these that seemed to be mantled with small reeds of a bending nature, step on a platform and commence turning round, like crazy men imitating the spinning of a top, but i could discover nothing of their intention until they walked off the platform, when i could plainly see that they had divested themselves of something i knew not what.
the way they make maccaroni in rome, is thus: when it is hot or warm, the men stand by the aperture that squeezes it into a reed-like shape, and wind it round their bodies until they are totally covered or mantled, and then they walk in great haste in a circle until it is nearly cool, after which they walk on the aforesaid platform and unwind themselves from its cooling grasp, and there it stays until it becomes totally dry, after which they box it for export. that which is made for home consumption is not made on so extensive a scale, and different ideas of neatness is needed lest it affect the home consumption.
three days it took me to pass through the “vatican.” it is the great gallery of fine arts, and the pope lives in one part of this palace. the carnival being over, i took one day to go to tivoli to see an old temple and olive orchard and the vast ruins of the emperor adrian’s brick palace, after which i returned to rome, and bought some mosaiac work in breast pin jewelry, hired a viturino and four, went to st. peters and took a last farewell glance at st. peter, who stands in his statue dignity over an altar with his keys of heaven, and left rome in its decay of tyrannical monuments for naples, its bay and vesuvius.
