Maggiore; past
the wonderful pile of San Giovanni Laterano, with the colossal statues
of the apostles surmounting the facade; through the Porta San Giovanni
into the narrow, walled lane leading out on the Campagna; on, on, to the
Alban hills. We flew past olive orchards and vineyards, and the vast
green pasture lands of the Campagna whose vivid green was ablaze with
scarlet poppies. Far away to the west there was a white shining
line--the line of the sea.

At Frascati we stopped at the Villa Torlonia, the country place of the
ducal family, whose grand Roman palazzo is in the Bocca di Leone in the
old part of Rome. The Torlonia have an only daughter, Donna Teresa,
whose _debutante_ ball a year ago is said to have been the most
magnificent entertainment in Rome for fifty years. A writer, in a recent
article on the nobility of Rome, said of this family:--

"The Torlonia figure repeatedly in the novels of Thackeray, who
was never tired of portraying them. They have been most useful
citizens, and since the days of the old army contractor, who
founded the house, have augmented the family wealth by judicious
investments, especially in connection with the draining and
reclaiming of the marsh lands that abound in the former Papal
States. They have contracted matrimonial alliances with the
Colonna, with the Borghese, the Belmonte, the Doria, and the
Sforza."

The Villa Torlonia at Frascati is a very large estate with extensive
gardens, terraces, and a cascade of three falls on the hillside, which
is turned on (the water) at pleasure. The house, however, is a
shabby-looking affair, a two or three story, rambling, yellow structure,
which, at Newport, would not be considered too good for the gardener.

After the usual fashion of the Italians who seldom travel, the Torlonia,
wealthy as they are, simply remove from their palace in Rome to their
villa at Frascati instead of travelling to Switzerland, Germany, or
elsewhere in the summer.

The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland were the guests of the Torlonia that
day, the entire party enjoying themselves _al fresco_, and the beautiful
cascade pouring down within the near distance.

These outlying towns, Frascati, Albano, Castel Gandolfo, and Lago di
Nemi, the picturesque group in the Alban Mountains, are some sixteen to
eighteen miles from Rome. These Alban hills rise like an island from the
vast plain of the Campagna, the highest point be