FRONTIER CITIES OF ITALY 



563 



and away to the hills, green in the fore- 

 ground, misty violet as they rise higher 

 into the distance, into the spaces of eter- 

 nal snows. The rugged valley of the 

 Adige is crossed ; the river spreads out 

 on a plain, and in its folds sits Verona ; 

 but she turns her back upon the train 

 and is passed almost unnoticed, while 

 eyes are yet straining for the last glimpse 

 of lake and mountains. 



She does not come very close to the 

 railroad nor show it her best side ; even 

 if one is watching, there may be disap- 

 pointment. One must go to her, walk her 

 streets, linger on her bridges, idle in her 

 churches, gossip in her market, drink 

 sweety syrups and eat tiny ices under her 

 stars, absorbing every murmur of her 

 breezes, every moaning of her ancient 

 stones, and then one may know not 

 Verona only, but Italy. 



RUSKIN TRIBUTE TO VERONA 



It is old-fashioned today to read Rus- 

 kin, but a line comes back: "She [Ve- 

 rona] has virtually represented the fate 

 and beauty of Italy to me." We have not 

 all Ruskin's eyes to see nor language to 

 describe, but Verona's history is that of 

 northern Italy ; Verona's beauty — ah, 

 well ! there are those that deny it : Venice 

 is so near and ever her rival. They are 

 so different, however, these two Italian 

 cities ; there can be no comparison, so let 

 us make none ; certainly V^erona was the 

 richest and loveliest city on the Venetian 

 "terra firma." 



Just when the few little hillocks by the 

 Adige came to be tenanted no one cer- 

 tainly knows, but Rh^etians, Euganeans, 

 and Cenomani had come and gone before 

 Verona became a Roman colony, in 89 

 B. C. Seated by a great river coming 

 straight from the Alps, a swift highway 

 for every ambitious northern tribe, it was 

 inevitable that Verona should suffer and 

 profit from invasion. "There are no trag- 

 edies like the tragedies of Verona under 

 the Gothic and Lombard kings;" but 

 through them all the city prospered 

 fairly ; the history written in blood and 

 passion lends her beauty to that tragic 

 veil which so adorns her today. 



Much beloved she ever was by her con- 

 querors, Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the 



Dietrich of Bern of German legend, 

 loved to linger there, although Ravenna 

 was his capital. On the fortified height 

 of Veronetta, the little old city on the 

 Adige's left bank, he built a spacious 

 castle and fortress and robbed the old 

 Roman structures, the Theater and the 

 Arena, to strengthen his fortifications. 



rosamunda's tragedy 



Fifty years later Rosamunda, wife of 

 the Lombard King Alboin (568), gave 

 Verona one of its gruesome tragedies. 

 Rosamunda's father, Cunimond, King of 

 the Gepid^e, third of the Gothic nations 

 who maintained a home in the Balkan 

 plain, had been conquered by Alboin and 

 slain, his skull being mounted as a drink- 

 ing cup for the victor. Rosamunda, prize 

 of conquest, became Alboin's bride. 



One evening at Verona, flushed with 

 many successes, inflamed by much beady 

 wine, Alboin forced his consort to drink 

 a toast with him from her father's skull. 

 Now, Rosamunda had naturally never 

 loved Alboin, and had loved, with none 

 too nice taste or discrimination, the King's 

 armor-bearer and, so rumor has it, one 

 or two of his men. Hate flamed in her 

 heart and tools for vengeance lay ready 

 to her hand ; her lovers were easily in- 

 cited to slay the King. 



It profited Rosamunda little, however. 

 Verona rose against the murderers. She 

 and the two men fled, but never so fast 

 that punishment could not overtake them. 

 One was slain ; the other she caused to 

 be poisoned, and he, dying, slew her. 

 Alas ! Verona can tell more than one such 

 tale. 



PEPIN's love for VERONA 



The Frankish rulers loved A^erona too ; 

 Pepin, son of Charlemagne, made it his 

 best-beloved town and Charlemagne him- 

 self tarried gladly there. One of his 

 wives was Desideria, daughter of the last 

 Lombard King, Desiderius, and Charle- 

 magne's repudiation of her adds another 

 to Verona's sorrowful tales. But it is 

 with the della Scala family that A'erona 

 reaches her greatest importance ; it is 

 after the bitter and bloody struggles of 

 Guelphs and Ghibellines that Mastino 

 della Scala, a man of no particular birth 



