The Complete Works and Life of Laurence Sterne

CHAPTER I. IN the year 1865 Rome was still in a great measure its old self. It had not then acquired that modern air which is now beginning to pervade it. The Corso had not been widened and whitewashed the Villa Aldobrandini had not been cut through to make the Via Nazionale the south wing of the Palazzo Golonna still looked upon a narrow lane through which men hesitated to pass after dark the fibers course had not then been corrected below the Farnesina the Farnesina itself was but just under repair the iron bridge at the Ripetta was not dreamed of and the Prati di Castello were still, as their name implies, a series of wasto meadows. At the southern extremity of the city, the space between the fountain of Moses and the newly erected railway station, running past the Baths of Diocletian, was still an exercising- ground for the French cavalry. Even the people in the streets then presented an appearance very different from that which is now observed by the visitors and foreigners who come to Rome in the winter......