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Italian Rambles; Studies of Life and Manners in New and Old Italy
Italian Rambles Studies of Life and Manners in New and Old Italy Author:James Jackson Jarves General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1883 Original Publisher: G.P Putman's sons Subjects: Italy History / Europe / Italy Travel / Europe / Italy Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition... more » of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: II SERRA IN THE APENNINES I AM summering on an Apennine perch, thirty miles north-west of Florence as the crow flies. From it can be seen its giant dome, many-colored campanile, and ancient towers glittering in the clear sunlight, with the soft outlines of the Vallombrosa range looming high and broad in the background, bounding the horizon as many more miles away. So clear at times is the atmosphere that the roll of drums in Florence is said to be heard in the mountains here. In a line with the City of the Lilies, and seemingly close by, we look down upon Prato, Pistoia, and their outlying garlands of white villas and castellated hamlets dotting the hills and plains of the Arno ; their connecting roads, like veins in the human body, alive with the fructifying currents of life; a few square miles of the earth's surface, but none richer in art and history ; certainly none fairer to look upon. Southward, stretching east and west, isthe luxuriant Plain of Nievole, separated from the other by a narrow mountain spur, surmounted by a dilapidated castle, formerly a warlike barrier between hostile provinces, but now holding both in friendly embrace. Nievole blooms with fertile plantations and the residences of rich landed proprietors, the descendants of feudal lords who knew far more of the sword than the plough. Their children are converting this plain, once more water than land, into the garden of Tuscany; but there still remains to drain a shallow lake or marsh whose wide surface of emerald-green rushes...« less