[Gutenberg 46092] • A Little Pilgrimage in Italy

FOREWORD

One morning of high summer three pilgrims met together in the City of Genoa to sally forth in search of sunshine and the Middle Ages.

At least that was what the Poet said, for sunshine and Ancient Stones were the passions of the Poet's life.

The Philosopher insisted that we went in search of Happiness.

It is no matter. But in fact we did meet one July day of sweltering sunshine in Genoa, the Western Gate of Italy, which is a city of grateful shadows, whose narrow streets defy the brilliant sun.

This is a book of simple delights, a chronicle of little pleasures, so I shall not talk much of Genoa, although to my mind she is the most Italian of all the great cities of Italy. Nor shall I speak of Florence, or Naples, or Venice, or Rome. Doubtless, like me, you have loved them all.

If you come with me I shall take you away from the great cities where your feet are bruised on the stony streets and never feel the soft warm earth beneath their soles, where mountainous walls of brick limit your vision to smoke-clouded strips of sky, where you never smell the fragrance of the night. If you come with me I shall take you to the hills, the deep-bosomed rolling hills, with their valleys and their plains and with towered cities riding on their crests. You will lie with me under the olives and stone-pines, where the warm earth cushions your limbs in luxury, and the sunlight flickering in the green shadows lights on a wealth of flowers.

Then, if you will, come back to your haunted streets.

But I am persuaded that if you go there you will find a great content among the little cities of great memories which stand knee-deep in flowers upon the hills of Italy, or in those nobler towns,—Siena, who belongs to the Madonna, and Perugia, whose name is as a torch to light your feet into the Valleys of Romance. In their streets you are seldom shut away from the mountains and the sky; and little gracious weeds and grasses have spread a web among their stones as though an elfin world sought to entrap a monster and pull him down to ruin.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

AREZZO

CORTONA

PERUGIA

TODI

SIENA AND THE PALIO

SAN GIMIGNANO DELLE BELLE TORRI

MONTE OLIVETO MAGGIORE

CHIUSI

HANNIBAL'S THRASYMENE

ASSISI

GUBBIO

ANCONA

LORETO

RAVENNA

THE REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO

URBINO

FOLIGNO

CLITUMNUS

SPOLETO

THE FALLS OF TERNI

NARNI

ORVIETO: THE CITY OF WOE

VITERBO

ROME

ILLUSTRATIONS

Perugia: Looking towards Assisi

Siena: Torre del Mangia

San Gimignano

Lake Thrasymene

Assisi: The Lower Church of San Francesco

Ancona: The Fishing Fleet

Spoleto: The Aqueduct

The Falls of Terni

Genoa: The Harbour

A Street in Arezzo

Cortona from the Porta S. Margherita

Perugia: Piazza del Municipio

Perugia: The Ring of the Blessed Virgin

Perugia: Porta Eburnea

Perugia: The Tomb of the Volumnii

A Street in Siena

Siena: S. Domenico and the Via Benincasa

Siena from the Convento dell'Osservanza

Siena: The Palio

San Gimignano: The Washing Place

Chiusi: The Palace of the Bishop

A Street in Assisi

The Little Cloister in S. Francesco d'Assisi

Assisi: The Porziuncula

Gubbio: Piazza Vittorio Emanuele

Gubbio: Via Carmignano

Loreto

San Marino

Urbino: San Francesco

Foligno: The Washing Place

The Temple of Clitumnus

A Street in Spoleto

The Cattle Fair at Narni

A Street in Orvieto

Orvieto: Etruscan Tomb

Viter