Byways in southern Tuscany . her rebuff. With the pout of a spoiled beauty shesaucily waved her hand toward the flower in his buttonholewhich he at once gave her with a bow of mocking depth anda smile which showed off^ his fine teeth. Dennis, writing in 1845, says the way from Chiancianosouthward is through forests and past castles. Wouldthat it were so to-day, but all have disappeared, the foreststo give place to cultivation, the castles to be first aban-doned and then to disappear under the desecrating handof those who pilfered their stones for building purposesand to whom they meant nothing
Byways in southern Tuscany . her rebuff. With the pout of a spoiled beauty shesaucily waved her hand toward the flower in his buttonholewhich he at once gave her with a bow of mocking depth anda smile which showed off^ his fine teeth. Dennis, writing in 1845, says the way from Chiancianosouthward is through forests and past castles. Wouldthat it were so to-day, but all have disappeared, the foreststo give place to cultivation, the castles to be first aban-doned and then to disappear under the desecrating handof those who pilfered their stones for building purposesand to whom they meant nothing more than convenientquarries. Yet in spite of what is gone nothing can destroythe loveliness of this region, nor would one spare a mile ofthe way especially if it is taken in the late afternoon, as itshould be, and one comes at last to Chiusi where, goldenin the sunset, she rises from the summit of her isolatedhill, as serene amid her pastoral surroundings as thoughunstirred by any memory of the storms that have beaten 206. A Street in Montichiello. BYWAYS IN SOUTHERN TUSCANY upon her head during the course of her long and changefulhistory. The ground that bears her is sewn thick withthe bones of dead heroes, it is hollowed with Etruscantombs and yields the golden ornaments of the was the wealthiest of Etruscan cities when Romewas in her infancy, and from her impregnable walls shefor long defied the armies sent against her. She wasGothic under Totila, the destroyer; later she became Lon-gobard and the palace of a duke succeeded Roman templesand labyrinths; finally she turned Christian and a cathe-dral rose, incorporating in its walls masses of costly orientalmarbles, alien columns, and pagan carvings. Then came those centuries when she sickened andwithered and malaria had its way with her while herstrange Laodicean river, which in Roman times was walledand flowed into the Tiber, now hesitated, turned back and,spreading over the valley which, under it became a swa
Size: 1370px × 1824px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecttuscany, bookyear1919
