Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/136

146 people are making ready to indulge the flesh in every way—of course such as are permissible! during this time, at the close of which they must take leave of the pleasures of the same—Carne-Vale!—in order that during the fast of a month they may consider what belongs to heaven.

People promise themselves this year an unusually gay Carnival, because the Pope has now, for the first time since 1848, the year of the Revolution, permitted the use of masks, at the express desire, it is said, of her Catholic Majesty the queen-dowager Maria Christina, who, being a gay lady, wishes to see the gayest scene of Rome in all its splendor. She herself gives this winter, in her hotel on the Piazza di Spagna, a grand reception every week, costume-balls and other festivities, to which all are invited who are presented to her, as well of Roman society as of foreigners of rank.

During one of the past days, which was less severe than the rest, we visited, in company with two Norwegian countrymen, the cradle of Rome, Monte Palatino, where La picciolissima Roma was founded by Romulus, and by degrees grew up to be the mistress of the world. The ruins of the palace of the Caesars lie now in shapeless, gigantic masses and heaps spread over a vast extent of this elevation, and it is now no longer possible to discover what was the form of the building, or the plan of its design. All they know is, that they are not arranged according to any regular plan; that many emperors, one after the other, and also various great or wealthy men, built for themselves palaces or villas upon this eminence, without troubling