Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . l Stagna,Carpane, and Val Sugana. On their steep rocky heights lies that singular Island, asit were, of the German language, called I Sette Comuni {, The Seven Com-munes); ancient German settlements which stand like outposts of the Empire, in , before the railway had marked out the present path for travellers, a curiousenquirer would make his appearance now and then among the lonely hill-farms ; andthe inhabitants were enchanted to hear his greeting in the familiar tongue, like amessage from their distant fatherland. But now that has nearly
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . l Stagna,Carpane, and Val Sugana. On their steep rocky heights lies that singular Island, asit were, of the German language, called I Sette Comuni {, The Seven Com-munes); ancient German settlements which stand like outposts of the Empire, in , before the railway had marked out the present path for travellers, a curiousenquirer would make his appearance now and then among the lonely hill-farms ; andthe inhabitants were enchanted to hear his greeting in the familiar tongue, like amessage from their distant fatherland. But now that has nearly ceased ; father andsons have yielded to the foreign language, and only an old woman may be heardhere and there singing a German lullaby over the cradle of her grandchild. Whoeverclimbs now into the villages of the Sette Comuni, visits the death-bed of theGerman tongue. FROM VFRONA TO THE MOUNTAIAS OF VENETIA. 49 But before mounting- thither, we will take a look around the remarkable district whichdivides Venetia from the PORTA RUSTERI, FELT RE. Nearly all the towns in it have an air of hoary antiquity, and in their history we findthe traces of the destroying hordes of Attila, the hand of Alboin, Odoacer, and Theodoric. Ho, Marcoman and Vandal, Swabian, Colli !Up, Attila, up gloomy scourge of God !Hurl down this half-dead city in thy wrath !Her cup is full, she sinks beneath the sod.—H. LlNGG. These lines occur to us here, and yet a new life has arisen out of the ruins. 11 50 ITAL Y. There is Feltre with her turretted battlements ; squeezed together on a hill-side, withher ancient Porta Imperiale, which recalls the Roman processions of the German Emperors,her Casa Guarnieri, a specimen of the finest Gothic architecture, and the little Byzantinechurch erected up aloft there on Miesna, by the Crusaders. The situation of Belluno isalmost the same :—on a delightful slope, half hidden among the Alps, with its giganticstone gateway, and slender campanile (bell-tower).
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