Photograph by Von Gloeden 



THE SERENADE) 

 Music is as necessary to the Italian people as are their mild wine and spaghetti 



the Sistine Chapel, of the frescoes and 

 paintings and other treasures in the 

 Stanze and Galleries of Raphael in the 

 adjoining Vatican; indeed, of any of the 

 wonders of either Papal Palace or Ca- 

 thedral, save only the enthralling pros- 

 pect from Michelangelo's dome, 400 feet 

 above the pavement. 



Below, Bernini's huge colonnade, the 

 grandest Doric peristyle since the Par- 

 thenon, extends its giant arms to gather 

 the worshiping nations to its heart. The 

 river, guarded by the mighty cylinder of 

 the Castello Sant' Angelo, glistens like a 

 strip of curving asphalt after a summer 

 shower, as it winds between its fortress 

 walls. All about on every hand glows 

 the turbid monotony of orange-brown 

 tiles, broken hither and yon by round 

 dome or square campanile, by the green 

 of gardens and the gray of open squares, 

 with the ancient streets cutting it all into 

 erratic patchwork ; and beyond the city, 

 the flat monochrome of the Campagna 

 that tones away into the hazy mountains, 



those looming Alban hills whose wander- 

 ing sons begat all this — Rome ! 



ST. paul/s-beyond-the-waels 



St. Paul, too, has his memorial, on the 

 spot outside the walls where he is said to 

 have been buried, a church that outranks 

 all other basilicas in vastness of size. 

 grandeur of plan, and magnificence of 

 adornment, with eighty granite columns, 

 rich old mosaics, and a frieze of mosaic 

 medallion portraits of every Pope, from 

 St. Peter down to Pius X. Adjoining 

 the church are beautiful cloisters, cool 

 and refreshing after the ornate interior. 

 Graceful columns surround them in 

 couples, here plain, here twisted into 

 fanciful contours, here richly encrusted 

 with Cosmato mosaics. They give both 

 charm and distinction to the now silent 

 close where the monks of old used to take 

 their sober pleasurings. 



Modern Rome is as the visitor, and he 

 would be a hardy soul indeed to say how 

 and where the city most interestingly dis- 



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