ome, historic names are not wanting. One of
these, the Princess Christina Bonaparte, _nee_ Ruspoli, died in 1907 in
her Roman villa in Via Venti Settembre. She was the widow of Prince
Napoleon Charles Bonaparte and a cousin of the Empress Eugenie. With her
husband in Paris until 1870, she fled (whilst her husband was fighting
at Metz) as soon as the Commune was proclaimed. The princess was
considered a beautiful woman and her portrait had been painted by Ernest
Hebert, but it was lost when the Palace of the Tuileries was destroyed
in 1870.

With this princess dies the name of the Bonaparte family. Her daughters,
Donna Maria Gotti-Bonaparte and Princess Maria della Moskowa, were often
with her in Rome.

The Palazzo Bonaparte is very near Porta Pia. Although called a palace,
it is simply a plain house of some five stories, with narrow halls and
stone staircases, no elevator, no electric lights. The princess occupied
the first floor, while the apartments above were let to various
families.

With the exception of the royal palaces there are few in which suites
are not obtainable for residence by any one who desires them.

[Illustration: CASTEL SAN ANGELO AND ST. PETER'S, ROME
_Page 204_]

It was at a pleasant _dejeuner_ one spring day in Rome that the project
was launched, that we should go motoring that afternoon to Frascati,
Albano, Castel Gandolfo, Lago di Nemi, and all that wonderful region. We
were lunching with a friend who had a charming apartment in one of the
sumptuous old palaces of Rome, where, in a niche on the marble
staircase, the statue of Caesar Augustus stood,--a copy of the famous
statue in the Capitoline,--where lofty, decorated ceilings, old
paintings and sculptures adorned the rooms, and where from the windows
we looked out on the tragedy-haunted Castel San Angelo, with the dome of
San Pietro in the background. Our friend who invited us to fly in his
motor had brought his touring car over from America. The one note of new
luxury now is for travellers to journey with their touring cars. In a
year or two more it will be airships or soaring machines. On this
wonderful May afternoon, all azure and gold, we started off in the
great, luxurious touring car which was arranged even to carry two
trunks, with a safe in it for the deposit of valuables, a hamper for
refreshments, and, indeed, almost every conceivable convenience. On we
flew through Rome, past the great Basilica of San Maria