Sights of Rome

Monday, January 11th., Hotel Russie, Rome.

We did a bit of sightseeing yesterday, mainly for Dorothy's benefit. We had a driver and went first up the Janiculum Hill. Suddenly, despite protests, the driver got out and said in Italian: "House of Torquato Tasso, author of 'Jerusalem Delivered'. He enjoyed the sun, meditated, and then he wrote." I thought this wonderful; it was so naive and so direct, with a smile. Then we descended to the Tiber and saw the outlet of the Cloaca Maxima, and the Temple of Vesta and Fortune, and home along the left bank of the Tiber. It was good, though I thought later that it was a bit odd to 'see' a sewer outlet, however ancient. As for Tasso, he obviously wasn't writing to maintain an income; lucky him!

Difficult to have gone today because of the Queen Margherita funeral. The maitre d'hotel had seen it and he described it to us. The electric street lamps on the route were draped in crepe and lighted. A good scheme that London would never have thought of. The walls of the streets have been covered with large black appeals to members of various societies to honour the mourning for the queen. This afternoon crowds back in the streets. Shop shutters lowered but the majority of shops open, with a gloomy, holiday air. But no sign of gloom in the demeanour of the thousands of saunterers.

I hear that a new king has been proclaimed in Arabia, and is to rename the country after himself, or his family at least. I don't know much about it but it seems that there has been fighting going on to gain supremacy, and this is the final stage. The muslim holy sites seem to be important in all this but probably they are used as an excuse for action by both sides as and when necessary. I hope this does not presage a resurgence of militant Islam.