Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/156

166 because the great painter used to go along it from Rome to his villa at Ponte Molle. One sees here an horizon such as one often finds in Poussin's pictures. Afterwards we went up Monte Pincio, and saw the great world sweep round, and the sun go down.

In the evening, I went, with some of our countrymen, to the ball, which is at this time given annually to the models in Rome. A large room with a dark brick floor and a number of cigar-smoking gentlemen did not promise much for the ball. In the middle of the room, however, an open space is left where men and women in the Italian national costume danced their national dances. The men distinguished themselves advantageously by their appearance, costume, and dancing. Some of them would have made a very good figure in the ballet of any theatre whatever. The women were less agreeable, except, however, the remarkably handsome model Alessandra. But her beauty was withered at the age of twenty! and her dancing was rather too much studied. A very young girl, whose countenance beamed with soul, danced with life and enthusiasm. It was lovely to see her dancing with her father, the model Angelino, a handsome man of thirty and the principal cavalier of the ball. In the mean time the dancers went round and regaled the strangers with red wine. Every thing went on in an orderly, simple, cheerful, and respectable manner. The dances which they danced were the Salterello, the Ballerina, and the Sospiro. The Saltarello is a kind of Tarantella (which is pre-eminently a Neapolitan dance,) and, as it were, a continued improvisation, in which the dancers advance and retreat according to pleasure, and