THE ITALIANS AT HOME.
THESE volumes, translated by the Countess D'Avigdor from the German of Fanny Lewald, give an account of a tour in Italy during 1845-46. Beyond a sojourn at Ischia and Palermo, the traveller's route had no no- veiny: Milan, Leghorn, Florence, Rome, Naples, Bologna, Venice, were duly visited, and described with a particularity which is not needed for the English public, whatever it may be for the German. Fanny Lewald, too, has some of her country's inclination for reverie ; occasionally her descrip- tions of characteristic scenes, instead of rising to the imaginative, sink to the literal, and have rather the effect of bathos. The book, however, pos. sesses some novelty from the national and individual character of the wri- ter. There is much less of exclusiveness—of attention to a dignified reserve —than an Englishwoman, or even an Englishman, might display in mixing with the casual company of's stage, a vetturino, or what not. The tra- veller's connexions of course lay chiefly amongst her own countrymen or other foreigners ; and though their ideas of matters are not formally put forth, the tone of opinion throughout the book is novel, because it exhibits Italy and the Italians from the German point of view. Then the writer herself is an independent-minded person, who throws convention overboard, and freely expresses her likes and dislikes without respect to received opinions. " She speaks as she finds." In the specimens of the Byzantine and early Italian schools, she does not perceive the heavenly sentiment, though stiffly expressed, which many discover ; she shrinks from the physical torments exhibited in martyrdoms ; in the beauty of the Medicean Venus she found something " soft and weak," and she says so. " Thus," she continues, "one might picture to oneself the daughter of a noble race, who, by over care, through many succeeding generations, had become delicate and effeminate. The small limbs are elegant and well-proportioned ; but one degree more elegant would render them too delicate." This, and more to the same effect, may not be true; it may be necessary, as the writer intimates, to have an instinctive love of art to apprehend its beauties : but the expression of a real opinion is always better titan the reclio of a common cant ; for even if wrong it is a truth, and argues a self-relying habit of mind.
Some reference is made to Romanism ; and this part of the work will have an interest for many readers, owing to its Protestant view. Fanny Lewald is a Prussian Lutheran, with a leaning to Rationalism ; which produces a tolerance, as far as opinion goes, but not without a distinct perception and a free censure of the superstition' theatrical pageantry, and actual idolatry of Romanism, especially in the South. The following remarks are on the fete of St. Rosalie at Palermo.
" There is sufficient splendeur and joy at these solemnities, and the people have their fair share of them; which is but just, if it is to be looked upon as a popular festival. But in the night, when I saw the painted angels and wooden saints and gods carried past, followed by a train of monks, then I asked myself, what right the missionaries have to destroy the idols of the untutored heathen, when they themselves have degraded the Christianity of Catholicism to the most entire Paganism ? There did not seem a vestige of the real spirit of Christianity —not a single symbol of it in the whole fête. "During nearly two thousand years since the Christian faith was propagated, the clergy have so confused human reason and common sense that there now seems no return from the path of error. For while in the zeal of reformation, Protestants have succeeded in pronouncing every enjoyment of the senses to be sinful, the Catholics, on the other hand, seem to have forgotten that the forms they worship ought to be vivified with soul in order to be really living and useful. The first weep eternally over the corpse of the Saviour, and beat their breasts with downcast heads: the others have made rich clothes for the body, and play with it as though it were a toy."
This fact touching the head of the Church in Sicily affords a hint that other potentates may profit by. The incident occurs at the same fete of St. Itosalia.
"The King entered the church on that evening, to receive the benediction which he in turn gives to the people on the last day of the fete; this being one of the principal solemnities.
"From the time of the Roman princes, the Sovereign of Sicily has been the head of the Church, the same as is the case in Rama. Not that he is con- sidered likes Pope, for the Pope is recognized as the representative of Christ; but the representative of Christ can only act through the medium of the head of the Church, who is the King. He dispenses indulgences in the name of the Pope, and deposits the money in his own private purse. The Pope has only con- cluding, not executive power there; and this is a very sensible arrangement. There is therefore no Papal ambassador or anonce in Sicily, but all Church affairs are in the hands of the King.
"On the last day of the fete he stands before the high altar with his hat on, and his hands on the Bible; he is greeted with incense like the Pope, and bestows his blessing amidst the thunder of cannon, the music of all the regiments, and the ringing of all the bells in the town; and, as the churches are very numerous in Palermo, the noise is by no means inconsiderable."
The foreign frankness and adaptability we have already alluded to enable Fanny Lewald to give more inner pictures of Italian character and domestic life than, we think, are generally found in English books of travels. This account of lodgings at Rome, though somewhat homely, is useful.
"I had heard so much of the discomforts of domestic life in Italy, that! was quite uneasy about it. I had heard complaints of the cold and dirt in the dwel- lings, and of the thieving among the servants, and of the bad provisions ; and I found the account partly untrue and partly exaggerated: the prices are not much higher than in other great towns, particularly in Berlin. Whoever has hired fur- nished apartments in the best part of Berlin during the winter months, will not have found the prices in Rome much higher: of course, if rooms are taken for a whole year, the price is much diminished, for scarcely half is paid in summer. There are single rooms, as well as large and small suites of apartments, provided with every convenience—with carpets, arm-chairs, and abundance of kitchen uten- sils, and all the plate that is necessary. Most of the rooms have fireplaces, and if that is not sufficient in very cold weather it is easy to have a stove; and in the smaller rooms the bracciere or caldaro is used, which is filled with burning coals, and produces the necessary heat. [" The stove or caldaro produces a very unpleasant effect on those unaccus- tomed to any heat but that imparted from an open fireplace; and the author's opinion of their harmlessness may probably result from their almost universal prevalence in Germany, where stoves are the rule and open fireplaces the excels- tion.—Translator's Note.] "The apartments are neatly and sometimes even handsomely furnished; and extra furniture can always be hired if found necessary. The Roman furniture is handsome, and much more massive than ours. The large iron beds, as wide as they are long, are very comfortable, with their muslin or net curtains, which are suspended from the ceiling, and rolled up in the day—at night protect from the inroads of flies and gnats. The tables, with large heavy marble slabs, and the little iron washing-stands that support the basin and ewer, are most convenient; and the mattresses and pillows, filled with cotton, are probably necessary in a climate where it would be difficult to keep horse-hair and woollen mattresses free from in sects. It is also easy for strangers who have not their own servants with them to have their table well provide& Almost all the men-servants understand cook- ing, and are able to perform two offices; besides' dinners of all sorts can be had from the restaurants at any hour at the differentprivate residences. "There are also restaurants, kept by Lepri, Bertini, and Nazari, where men, and even ladies accompanied by gentlemen, can go to dine. In the morning, cof- fee can be had from the different cafes, with rolls and butter, and all that is re- quired. They are not dear, and quite as good as in other places. * • • "Our host, who was a clerk in a conntinghonse, lived on the floor above us in small rooms, with his wife, four children, and his sister-in-law. They were all handsome. Their simple mode of life often astonished me. In the morning, their coffee was brought from the café; at one o'clock they dined, which dinner was usually composed of a single dish of fish or meat; and at seven in the even- ing they had eena, (supper,) which consisted of cold fish with salad; but they al- ways had white bread and abundance of wine. I never saw soup or stews, or any of the various dishes which we consider necessary. "The house-door was open day and night; there were very slight locks on the doors on each floor; and 1 never heard of anything happening to my friends in Rome. Daring the whole time that I resided there, I never had occasion to com- plain of any workpeople or washerwomen. Moderate prices were charged for everything; and the work was so well done, that I know no place where a stranger can be better served or more comfortably established than in Rome."
The fortified palaces of old Florence have frequently been described, but we think Fanny Lewald throws an additional light upon them in the following account.
"The Palazzo Vecchio and the Palazzo Strozzi are like knights' castles in the centre of a town. The walls looked as if they were built for offensive and defen- sive war; and one can easily understand that their possessors considered them- selves as powerful and impregnable as any German Graf (Count) in his castle on a lofty mountain. Even the cannon-holes on the top are still open; the heavy doors, with their massive iron bolts, are to be seen in the same places which they once protected from all invaders; there are the same iron rings to which the horses were fastened before the houses; and the same keeps where the pitch torches were placed which were the privilege of noble houses. "On the ground-floor of those palaces, there are no windows towards the streets; and as in the Etruscan buildings, which may probably have served as mo- dels, there are large pieces of rock one above the other, only hewn out as far as is necessary for the shape of the building.
"These blocks are of different forms and sizes, and so thick that I was able to stick my parasol half its length into the interstices of the stones in the beautiful Palazzo Pitti.
"The really ancient part of Florence looks nowhere more dignified and beau- tiful than on the Piazza del Gran Duca; where the dark, sober Palazzo Vecchio stands forth with its towers, ornamented with crenelated battlements, like a monument of the middle ages. A covered walk leads from this palace through the neighbouring Palazzo degli Uffizii, over houses and bridges, to the Palazzo Pitti, in order to render the flight of the nobles more easy when they were be- sieged in their own castles by the people. In the Palazzo 'Vecchio, a window is still shown whence one of the Medici made his escape when the family was exiled from Florence and their lives were threatened in consequence of the jealousy of EOM other powerful families."
The volumes would furnish many more passages descriptive of scenery, society, customs, and amusements ; but we have quoted enough to indi- cate the nature of The Italians at Home. For the German public, the book is perhaps well enough as it stands. For England, it would have been improved had the translator curtailed some of the German senti- ments, and omitted descriptions of well-known places which have been written about again and again. The whole of the Carnival, for example, tells nothing new • and the effect of the old is rather broken by setting it in a tale of small interest.
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