More Italian Yesterdays

The fairest and, in some respects, the wickedest spot on the face of the earth is that wonder-city that broods by the “tideless, dolorous, midland sea,” Vesuvius smoking like so...

To judge from the sequence of events, it would appear almost certain that, in his amazing marriage with Princess Maria, Charles of Durazzo must have had the assistance—or, at le...

Many and enchanting books have been written about Italian cities and Italian country, but none about our Italian seas. People who look at the map may think this a limited subjec...

The real life of the Adriatic coast seems to diminish visibly when one leaves Venice and drops down towards Ravenna; it has been drawn away inland to busy cities that turn their...

One beautiful evening of early summer in the year 1810, the packet-boat plying between Genoa and Savona reached the latter port after a fair, but exciting passage; for, albeit t...

In the heart of the Sabines, where the Nar breaks out from the rock near the mountain called the Lioness, there has been since very early times a little town, too inaccessible t...

We had chosen Castel Gandolfo for our summer quarters and had spent two or three delightful months in the Villa Brazzà, situated on the lower edge of the town which climbed up t...

Nearly a hundred years have passed since the day when the young priest who was to be the best loved and the worst hated man in Europe said his first Mass, and Time’s heavy wings...

How much our Italy of Rome and Naples owes to the Apennines! How gratefully should lovers of romance and history regard that mighty chain that runs, an inland sea of crag and pe...

In the early part of the fifteenth century a Northern soldier, riding home through the sweet-smelling summer twilight, dreaming in all probability of some dusky-eyed maiden of t...

If you stand before San Pietro in Montorio and look down from the spot where St. Peter was crucified, you will see, rounding up in the low-lying heart of the city, a dome, white...

After his return from Chile, Father Giovanni Maria Mastai was appointed Director of the Ospizio di San Michele, a position which could not be called a great advancement in the e...

In those days of the King of Hungary’s assize in Naples Queen Joan reached her county of Provence and began to travel across it from Nice, where she had landed, towards Avignon.

Of all feminine sinners known to history, Joan of Anjou, Queen of Naples and of Jerusalem, affords, perhaps, the most conspicuous example of the perils attendant upon what are k...

No sooner was Caroline on board than the city broke out again and anarchy reigned, until the Austrians sent in some troops in answer to the frantic appeals of the magistrates, a...

It was my good fortune, many years ago, to make friends with a woman whose name was as beautiful as her mind—Mary Grace. We met in another hemisphere, under the Southern Cross,...

Three years before St. Benedict and his sister Scholastica passed away, there was born, in a palace on the Cœlian Hill, a child who was christened Gregory, a name which signifie...

This detestable butchery, strictly in accord with the criminal procedure of the day, was but the beginning of a reign of terror in the city and realm of Naples. The murder of An...

Melancholy Ravenna—Early Byzantine architecture—Forests of stone-pine—Smiles and tears—The need of a little misfortune—Monte Gargano—Millions of Spanish merinos—Primæval forest—...

Our moods and the seas—Memories in landscapes—The healing of the sea—A vision in the Bay of Naples—Marion Crawford’s yacht expected—The family together at Leghorn—Lady Paget—A b...

A follower of the Condottieri—The raw recruit—Division of the Dukedom of Milan—Carmagnola’s turn—Growth in wealth and power—Disaffection—Venice acquires his services—War with Mi...

The Pantheon—Hadrian’s best monument—Long idle—Consecrated as St. Mary of the Martyrs—The Cathedral, the symbol of the soul—Its purification—Continuity of the Church—A priest’s...

A Friend in Rome—A story of two ways of loving—Aglaë and Boniface—Become Christians—A new life—Boniface endures terrible tortures—Martyrdom—Death of Aglaë—Church of St. Boniface...

Beauty of Naples—Figures of its history—St. Januarius—Murat, King of Naples—Achievements as King—The Carbonari—England’s promises—Napoleonic diplomacy—Rise of the Bourbons—Allia...

Norcia in the Sabines—A matrona—The twins, Benedict and Scholastica—Benedict goes to Rome—Conversion of Placidus—Benedict’s retirement to La Mentorella—Life in a cave—Temptation...

Pact between Charles and Andrew of Hungary—Joan’s homage to the Papal Legate—Andrew ignored—Arrival of Andrew’s mother—Andrew upheld by the Pope—His reprisals—“The man must die”...

Joan detained at Aix—Greeted as a Queen—Joan pronounced innocent—Plans to regain Naples—Sale of a city—Return to Naples—Indecisive war—Proposal for personal conflict—Flight of t...

Lebzeltern, the Ambassador of the Austrian Emperor—Origin of his mission—Napoleon’s anger against Pius VII—Arrest of the Pope—Protests from the Church—Napoleon excommunicated—Va...

Director of Ospizio di San Michele—A splendid record—Archbishop of Spoleto—A turbulent populace—Order restored—Revolution in Europe—Spoleto saved—The earthquake in Umbria—New po...

Charles’s further acts as dictator—Rise of the favoured Louis of Taranto—Civil war—A scheme of the Empress of Constantinople—Interference of the King of Hungary—The Empress agai...

Birth in 1792—A happy family—His youth—Epilepsy—The Church at the time of Napoleon—Abduction of Pius to Avignon—Napoleon’s downfall—Return of the Pope to Rome—His reception—Prop...

Birth and lineage of St. Gregory—Path from the world to the cloister—Prayer, study, and charity—His cat—A prophecy—A Cardinal Deacon—Mission to Constantinople—Eutyches’ heresy—R...

A conspicuous feminine sinner—Marriage of State—Her beauty—Her Hungarian husband—Petrarch and the monk—Joan’s ascent to the throne—The Naples succession—Her favourites—The churc...

Castel Gandolfo—Its gardens—The Sabine Hills—The Reverendo—An expedition into the hills—The Campagna in the early morning—“Our Lady of Good Counsel”—Ancient Præneste—Italy’s lan...

Naples in anarchy—Entrance of Austrians—Murat’s repulse by Napoleon and by Louis—His demon of ill-luck—Shipwrecked—Aid in Corsica—Emperor of Austria’s proposal—Attempt against N...

The Apennines—View from a peak—Real hospitality—Polenta—Woods of Sabina—A hill family—The cook—A queer adventure—People of the South—A night festival in the Abruzzi—The journey—...