so wide as well as long, and is so mellowed
with such rich browns and golden grays in the noble edifices.

I do not know, now, what all the edifices are, but there are churches,
more than one, and palaces, and the reader can find their names in any
of the guidebooks. If I were buying piazzas in Rome I should begin with
the Navona, but there are enough to suit all purses and tastes. The
fountains would be thrown in, I suppose, along with the churches and
palaces; but I really never inquired, and, in fact, not having carried
out my plan of visiting them all, I am in no position to advise
intending purchasers. What I can say is that if you are in a hurry to
inspect, that kind of property, and in immediate need of a piazza, you
cannot do better than take the wagon for touring Rome. In two days you
can visit every piazza worth having, including the Piazza di Spagna,
where there is a fountain in the form of a marble galley in which you
can embark for any fairyland you like, through the Via del Babuino and
the Piazza del Popolo. Come to think of it, I am not so sure but I would
as soon have the Piazza del Popolo as the Piazza Navona. If the
fountains are not so fine, they are still very fine, and the Pincian
Hill overtops one side of the place, with foliaged drives and gardened
walks descending into it.

Everything of importance that did not happen elsewhere in Rome seems to
have happened in the Piazza del Popolo, and I may name as a few of its
attractions for investors the facts that it was here Sulla's funeral
pyre was kindled; that Nero was buried on the left side of it, and out
of his tomb grew a huge walnut-tree, the haunt of demoniacal crows till
the Madonna appeared to Paschal II. and bade him cut it down; that the
arch-heretic Luther sojourned in the Augustinian convent here while in
Rome; that the dignitaries of Church and State received Christina of
Sweden here when, after her conversion, she visited the city; that
Lucrezia Borgia celebrated her betrothal in one of the churches; that it
used to be a favorite place for executing brigands, whose wives then
became artists' models, and whose sons, if they were like Cardinal
Antonelli, became princes of the Church. So I learn from Hare in his
_Walks in Rome,_ and, if he enables me to boast the rivalry of the
Piazza Navona in no such array of merits, still I will not deny my love
for it. Certainly it was not a favorite place for executing brigands,
but the miracle which