Byways in southern Tuscany . rimes, catastrophes, and warsthan upon the long, recuperative intervals when life wenton more normally, children were born and grew up to fillthe gaps in the population, and fields were sown and har-vested. Massa having lived through it all is now a pleas-ant, orderly town, full of a busy, cheerful coming andgoing, and with a general air of thrift. While sitting in the dimly-lighted Benini dining-roomon the evening of my arrival, a subdued noise as of manyvoices and many footsteps reached my ears, and minuteby minute increased in volume. Dinner being over, Isought
Byways in southern Tuscany . rimes, catastrophes, and warsthan upon the long, recuperative intervals when life wenton more normally, children were born and grew up to fillthe gaps in the population, and fields were sown and har-vested. Massa having lived through it all is now a pleas-ant, orderly town, full of a busy, cheerful coming andgoing, and with a general air of thrift. While sitting in the dimly-lighted Benini dining-roomon the evening of my arrival, a subdued noise as of manyvoices and many footsteps reached my ears, and minuteby minute increased in volume. Dinner being over, Isought a window from which to look down upon the street,and found that the whole population seemed to be col-lected there, filling the narrow thoroughfare from side toside. It was not a stationary crowd, however, but a slowlymoving procession, for men and women, girls and boys,were walking steadily at a moderate pace, seeminglyfixed by common consent. Complete decorum was main-tained; there was no hurrying nor any attempt of the i6. Roccatederighi. BYWAYS IN SOUTHERN TUSCANY impatient, if there were any such, to push past thosein front, and as they walked they talked; there was noloud laughter, no vociferous tone, no rising to a higherpitch in order to talk down a companion. It was in facta sort of ambulatory conversazio7ie of the most amicablekind. The streets of many Italian towns are populous atnight, but anything quite like the serious unanimity ofMassa I had not before encountered. It pleased me and Iwatched it for some time. I soon observed that the samegroups and couples continually reappeared, and thisshowed that having passed to a certain point on thisprincipal street, they crossed into a parallel one by whichthey returned, to emerge again upon the main thorough-fare. I also noted that they were dressed for this socialceremony with a certain smartness, and altogether it im-pressed me as a felicitous and civilized custom that spokewell for the people of this comparatively isol
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecttuscany, bookyear1919
