Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/357

Rh occupies the central place of honor, and Rossini the musician occupies the niche under him. In this temple of fame—this hall of the departed great,—one niche, and not an obscure one, is occupied by a woman,—Anna Manzotine who was a distinguished professor in the university here.

I left Bologna in the afternoon and soon after we crossed the Reno which flows close to Bologna, and entered into the gorges of the wild Appenires along the valley of that river. We passed through a number of tunnels and crossed and recrossed the Reno which clattered along its stony bed below with all the wildness of a mountain stream. The mountains around us became wilder as we went further until the scenery was all obscured in the darkness of night. At about 7 we reached Pistoja, the town where pistols were first manufactured, and after 8  we reached Florence.

In the morning as I looked out of my hotel window and saw the classic Arno rolling below, as I surveyed the beautiful houses of Florence and its streets all paved with frisole stone, and as far beyond I surveyed the high wooded hills bounding the horizon on every side,—I remembered the lines I had read in my school days:—

In writing thus the poet however not only thought of the beauty of the town, the river, and the hills and gardens around, but must also have involuntarily thought of the glorious past of Florence! For when Europe was buried