by Jacob Abbott
CHAPTER III.
THE ARRIVAL AT ROME.
When Mr. George and Rollo awoke from their sleep, they found that theywere coming into the environs of Rome. The country was green andbeautiful, but it seemed almost uninhabited; and in every direction wereto be seen immense ruins of tombs, and aqueducts, and other suchstructures, now gone to decay. There was an ancient road leading out ofRome in this direction, called the _Appian Way_. It was by this roadthat the apostle Paul travelled, in making his celebrated journey toRome, after appealing from the Jewish jurisdiction to that of Caesar.Indeed, the Appii Forum and the Three Taverns, places mentioned in theaccount of this journey contained in the Acts, were on the very roadthat Mr. George and Rollo had been travelling in their journey fromNaples to Rome.
The remains of the Appian Way are still to be traced for many milessouth of Rome. The road was paved, in ancient times, with very largeblocks of an exceedingly hard kind of stone. These stones were ofvarious shapes, but they were fitted together and flattened on the top,and thus they made a very smooth, and at the same time a very solid,pavement. In many places along the Appian Way this old pavement stillremains, and is as good as ever.
At length the diligence arrived at the gate of the city. It passedthrough an arched gateway, leading through an ancient and very venerablewall, and then stopped at the door of a sort of office just within.There were two soldiers walking to and fro before the office.
"What are we stopping for here?" asked Rollo.
"For the passports, I suppose," said Mr. George.
The conductor of the diligence came to the door of the coupe and askedfor the passports. Mr. George gave him his and Rollo's, and theconductor carried them, together with those which he had obtained fromthe other passengers, into the office. He then ordered the postilions todrive on.
"How shall we get our passports again?" asked Rollo.
"We must send for them to the police office, I suppose," said Mr.George.
It is very customary, in the great capitals of Europe, for the police totake the passports of travellers, on their arrival at the gates of thecity, and direct them to send for them at the central police office onthe following day.
After passing the gate, the diligence went on a long way, through agreat many narrow streets, leading into the heart of the city. There wasnothing in these streets to denote the ancient grandeur of Rome,excepting now and then an old and venerable ruin, standing neglectedamong the other buildings.
Rollo, however, in looking out at the windows of the coupe, saw a greatmany curious sights, as the diligence drove along. Among these one ofthe most remarkable was a procession of people dressed in a mostfantastic manner, and wearing masks which entirely concealed theirfaces. There were two round holes in the masks for the eyes. Mr. Georgetold Rollo that these were men doing penance. They had been condemned towalk through the streets in this way, as a punishment for some of theirsins.
"Why, they treat them just as if they were children," said Rollo.
"They _are_ children," said Mr. George, "in every thing but years."
DOING PENANCE.]
Not long after this, Rollo saw a very magnificent carriage comingalong. It was perfectly resplendent with crimson and gold. The horses,too, and the coachman, and the footmen, were gorgeously caparisoned andapparelled in the same manner.
Rollo pointed it out to Mr. George. Mr. George said it was a cardinal'scarriage.
"I wish the cardinal was in it," said Rollo. "I would like to have seenhim."
"I presume he would have looked very much like any other man," repliedMr. George.
"Yes, but he would have been dressed differently, wouldn't he?"
"Perhaps so," said Mr. George.
"Perhaps he would have had his red hat on," said Rollo. "I should liketo see a cardinal wearing his red hat."
The badge of the cardinal's office is a hat and dress of a red color.
At length the diligence passed under an archway which led into a largeopen court, similar to the one in Naples where the journey had beencommenced. The passengers got out, the horses were unharnessed, and thebaggage was taken down. The trunks were all taken into an officepertaining to the custom house, to be examined by the officers there, inorder to see whether there were any contraband goods in them.
Mr. George unlocked his trunk and lifted up the lid. An officer came upto the place, and patting with his hand upon the top of the clothes, asif to prevent Mr. George from lifting them up to show what was below, hesaid,--
"Very well; very well; it is sufficient."
So saying, he shut down the top of the trunk again, and marked it,"Passed." He then touched his hat, and asked Mr. George if he would makesome small present for the benefit of the custom house officers.
That is to say, he evaded the performance of his duty as an officer ofthe customs, in expectation that the traveller would pay him for hisdelinquency. Most travellers are very willing to pay in such cases. Theyhave various articles in their trunks which they have bought in othercountries, and which, strictly speaking, are subject to duty in enteringRome, and they are willing to pay a fee rather than to have their trunksoverhauled. Others, of more sturdy morality, refuse to pay these fees.They consider them as of the nature of bribes. So they say to theofficers,--
"Examine the baggage as much as you please, and if you find any dutiesdue, I will pay them. But I will not pay any bribes."
"Now, Rollo," said Mr. George, when he had got possession of his trunk,"we want a carriage to take us and the baggage to the hotel. You may goand see if you can find one, and I will stay here and look after thebaggage. Engage the carriage by the hour."
So Rollo went out of the court, and soon found a carriage. Before he gotinto it, he said to the coachman,--
"_Per hora!_"
This means, By the hour.
At the same time Rollo held up his watch to the coachman, in order tolet him see what o'clock it was.
"_Si, signore_," said the coachman.
_Si, signore_, is the Italian for Yes, sir.
Rollo could not say in Italian where he wished the coachman to go, andso he stood up in the carriage and pointed. Following his indications,the coachman drove in through the archway to the court of the postoffice, where he found Mr. George waiting. The trunk and the bags wereput upon the carriage, in front, and Mr. George got in with Rollo.
"Hotel d'Amerique," said Mr. George to the coachman.
"_Si, signore_," said the coachman, and immediately he began to driveaway.
The Hotel d'Amerique was the one where Mr. George had concluded to go.He had found the name and a description of this hotel in his guide book.
"Why did you want me to take the carriage by the hour?" asked Rollo.
"Because it is very probable," said Mr. George, "that we shall not getin at the Hotel d'Amerique, and in that case we shall have to go toother hotels, and unless we take him by the hour, he would charge acourse for every hotel that we go to, and the charge even for _two_courses, is more than for an hour."
The event showed that Mr. George was right in his calculations. TheHotel d'Amerique was full. The waiter, who came out, as soon as he sawthe carriage stop at the door, told Mr. George this in French.
"Then please tell our coachman," said Mr. George, "to drive us to anyother principal hotel that is near here, and if that is full, toanother; and so on, until he finds a good place where they can take usin."
Mr. George said this, of course, in French. The waiter delivered themessage to the coachman in Italian.
"Yes," said the coachman, to himself, "that I'll do. But I shall takegood care that you don't find any place where you can get in this twohours, if I can help it."
The reason why the coachman did not wish that his travellers should finda hotel soon was, of course, because he wished to earn as much money aspossible by driving them about.
He immediately began to think what hotels would be most likely to befull, and drove first to those. The first of all was a hotel, situatedqui
te near one of the gates of the city, the one where the principalentrance is for all travellers coming from the north. It is called the"Gate of the People,"--or in Italian, _Porto del Popolo_. The gate opensinto a large triangular space, which is called the _Piazza del Popolo_._Piazza_,[3] in Italian, means a public square.
[Footnote 3: Pronounced _Piatza_.]
This Piazza del Popolo is one of the most celebrated places in Rome.There are three streets that radiate from it directly through the heartof the town. Between the centre and the two side streets, at the cornerswhere they come out upon the square, are two churches exactly alike.They are called sometimes the _twin churches_, on this account.
The Piazza del Popolo is a great place for public parades. On one sideis a high ascent, with a broad expanse of gardens upon the top, andzigzag roads, handsomely walled up, and ornamented with statues andfountains, and with marble seats placed here and there for footpassengers to rest themselves upon, when ascending.
Every year, at the end of what they call Holy Week, they have a greatcelebration of fireworks from the side of this hill and from the terraceabove; and then all the people assemble in the Piazza below to witnessthem.
But I must go back to Mr. George and Rollo. The coachman stopped at alarge hotel, fronting upon this square. On inquiring at the bureau, (onthe continent of Europe they call an office a bureau) Mr. George foundthat all the rooms were occupied except one large apartment, of fourrooms. This was, of course, more than Mr. George wanted.
At the next hotel where the coachman stopped, there were no rooms at allvacant, and at the next only one small room, with a single narrow bed init.
"If we can't find any other," said Rollo, "we will come back and takethis, and I will sleep on the floor."
"O, no!" said Mr. George.
"Why, uncle George!" said Rollo, "I can make it very comfortable on thefloor, by rolling up two coats or cloaks into two long rolls, andwedging them in under me, one on one side of me and the other on theother, and then putting a carpet bag under my head for a pillow. Itfeels just as if you were in a good bed."
Mr. George smiled, and got into the carriage again, and the coachmandrove on.
After a while, he stopped at the door of a hotel which stood in rather aretired place among narrow streets, though there was an open space infront of it. Mr. George inquired for rooms here, and the waiter saidthat they had one left.
"Are there two beds in it?" asked Mr. George.
"No, sir," said the waiter, "but we can put two beds in. Would you liketo go and see it, sir?"
"No," said Mr. George, "I will take it without going to see it. It isthe best that we can do."
So the porter of the hotel took off the baggage, while Mr. George paidthe coachman for an hour and a half of time. Mr. George and Rollo thenfollowed the porter to their room. In order to reach it, they had toascend several stories, up massive staircases of stone, and then to goout to the extreme end of a long corridor. The room, when they came toit, proved to be quite small, and there was but one bed in it. Therewas, however, room for another; and the waiter, who had followed themup, said that he would cause another one to be put in without anydelay.