Correspondence
A Letter from Rome
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Italy in the year 1926, or Anno IV. (of the Fascist regime) as it appears on national monuments, the chaotic condition of the first post-War years has been definitely overcome and a period of consolidation and reorganization has set in. The spasniodie -fluctuations* in the international exchanges have indeed Very obvious results, and the people are discouraged in every possible way from spending their money outside the country and thus further depreciating the national currency. The suggested total prohibition of certain imports and the stringency with which passports are to be issued to Italian subjects, as well as the most rigid limitation of the amount of money in any form that may be taken beyond the frontier, are typical examples of the methods adopted to prevent a further unnatural fall in the value of the lira, a fall which has been out of all proportion to the state of the national finances. ' On the other hand, no impediments have been put in the way of foreigners visiting Italy, and none of the messiahs taken will he Round Contrary to the interests Of
tourists. • •
Meanwhile Senator Crem- oneSi's great work of reorganizing the City' of Rollie cOritinties apace. Ainbitious plans are. oh loot for counteracting the 'great drawback of the city—its deafening nciiseand'also for overcoming the rapidly hiereasing .eongestiOn of traffic in its • narrow, ancient thoroughfares. There is no halt in the systematic demolition'Of insanitary and unsightly quarterS, and the 'isolation and testoration of*the Temple of Fertime haS been folloWed by the rio less excellent vork'deviited to the venerable church of St. George, a bnilding which,-apart • from its exquisite- proportions, is particularly interesting to English visitors as being the only basilica in the city dedicated to our national saint. Moreover, until the installation of a newly elected cardinal two years ago, it had borne no cardinal's arms since Newman was its titular. SO tastefully have been executed the restorations to these two famous buildings that even those 'who-stood aghast at the idea that other monuments such as the Theatre of Marcellus and the Mausoleum of Atigusths were to be taken in hand
have Ceased to feel. vandalism at the hands of the restorers.
We are told that in five years the fashionable quarters of Rome will have returned almost to their calm dignity of the nineteenth century. The trams arc to be removed and tunnels arc to be constructed to divert much of the traffic from the 'central streets. And it must be remembered that gone are the days when the schemes for five years were still but schemes at the end of the stipulated period. The Ostia railway taught us that; and the Rome-Naples direct line, the project of which was a legacy of innumerable governthents under the old regime is likely soon to be carrying passengers from the capital to the great seaport in two and a half hours.
1925 was essentially the year of St. Peter, and it is only natural that 1926 should witness a considerable diminution in the number of tourists, particularly those' from the Roman Catholic South and from the German-speaking countries. Nevertheless, 1926 is the seventh centenary of St. Francis, recently named St. Francis of Italy, and though Assisi and the hill-towns of Umbria are the main objective of this year's pilgrims, yet the majority journey on to the city of St. Peter.
One long cherished scheme of particular interest has re-
cently been realized. In spite Of all that had been done to Make Rome the intellectual as well as the political capital of the kingdom, it had never possessed its own opera-house. The Costanzi Theatre, where the lyrical productions have hitherto been given, was a private concern, and therefore more attention had to be paidto ensuring a profit on the season than would be the case if the theatre were a municipal or a national institution. The project, which is said to have the special benison of the head of the Government, is to make Rome " the centre of the theatrical life of Italy, and the centre of the artistic activity of the nation." So far as the drama is concerned the proposal includes the formation of three great companies, or rather of one great company with three branches, which will operate in the three cities of Rome, Milan and Turin, the principal artists spending four months of the year in each centre. A similar plan would be adopted for opera, when the Costanzi would become the sister theatre of the -hitherto more famous Scala at Milan.
The efforts to which I have referred above to dissuade
Italians from spending their holidays, and more especially their money, in foreign lands have made the authorities alive to the necessity of providing attractive resorts accessible to the inhabitants of all the large cities. Milan already has its lakes, Genoa its Riviera. Naples is but a few miles from the exquisite villages and islands of the Sorrentine Peninsula, Turin from_ the Alpine resorts which stretch from Mont Rose to Lake Maggiore. Of all the great cities of Italy Rome alone was without its dormitories by the sea or in the hills. Three -years ago the citizens of the capital could choose between the dilapidated beach cabins of Ladispoli and the mosquito- infested fiats of Anzio, both of which necessitated a railway journey of more than an hour. Then came the inauguration of the much talked of Ostia railway, bringing Rome within half an hour of the coast. With this a convenient Bank Holiday paradise was provided, enabling a cheap day to be spent at the sea, but there was still nothing for those who desired a quiet seaside resort where the strains of Valencia " and " Barcellona " were not the first requisite. With the aim of providing such a " spiaggia " great strides have been made in the development of Fregene, a hamlet surrounded by mag- nificent pine woods and possessing a great rarity in this part
of the coast, a fine stretch of white sand. A special motor road is to be constructed joining Fregene to Rome, and every effort is to be made to maintain its simplicity, excluding • alikethe nuisance of motor coaches and thewhining of hawkers.
Meanwhile on the landward side the hitherto undisputed supremacy of Frascati is being challenged:by the considerably
-higher and vastly more picturesque Rocca di Papa, while the constant development of Fiuggi is making it one 'of the most popular spas in the country.—I am,. Sir, Ste.,
YOUR ROME CORRESPONDENT,
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