Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . he haven of havens, unites withinitself everything needful to become a Garden of Eden, if man would but have it so. Tothe eye, however, it must ever appear a landscape paradise. Comparisons are odious ;and if you gaze at Naples from the sea, or look from its shore across at Vesuvius, or thesmiling Sorrento, or that blue dream of the waters, Capri, nothing can be finer thanNaples. But when you behold Palermo spreading out upon the fruitful plain, her towersand cupolas, her palaces, and quaint curious houses, her two sphinx-like rocks advancinginto the sea,—Ca
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . he haven of havens, unites withinitself everything needful to become a Garden of Eden, if man would but have it so. Tothe eye, however, it must ever appear a landscape paradise. Comparisons are odious ;and if you gaze at Naples from the sea, or look from its shore across at Vesuvius, or thesmiling Sorrento, or that blue dream of the waters, Capri, nothing can be finer thanNaples. But when you behold Palermo spreading out upon the fruitful plain, her towersand cupolas, her palaces, and quaint curious houses, her two sphinx-like rocks advancinginto the sea,—Catalfano on the left, and on the right Pellegrino,—with the wild mountainsin the background; or when you lean upon the balustrade and gaze from the town over 3 N 2 46o ITALY. the unbroken expanse of sea, which breaks with a dreamy murmur almost at your feet,—then you forget even beautiful Naples, and give the crown to the city by MontePellegrino! Palermo is made up of the same elements as Naples ; sea and land, and the work of. CONVENT OF SAN MARTINO, NEAR PALERMO. mans hands. But the sea appears vaster; the land, although not so varied in its outlines,has grander forms, and is incomparably richer in its products ; and the edifices of the cityand on the hills around it, have preserved the characteristics of the various periods of itshistory (the same as those which Naples passed through) far more strikingly andperfectly than its rival on the mainland. In Palermo you realize the^ideal of a southItalian city more completely than anywhere else. Everything seems to have been
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcavagnasangiulianidig, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870
