What I Saw in Italy

Of Paris and the landmarks of its charm Mrs. Anissa Najjar spoke in last month's issue... And here we continue the tour with her across Italy — what will she tell us of today??

We left Paris for Nice by way of the Alps, and from there took the car along the azure coast into Italy. The coast is very beautiful with its headlands... scrubby and mountainous, thrust into the sea — among these headlands lie the lovely bathing places, and along their sides are scattered crowds of bathers from every corner of the world. The shore is narrow, pressed close against the public roads. The Lebanese shore is more beautiful, and the possibility of calling forth a captivating work of art is there, if the Lebanese will believe in their own capacities and work for them.

The weather changed in Italy — and at Menton, on the Franco-Italian frontier, I remembered the Syro-Lebanese customs! Two Italian policemen climbed up to the car and asked us whether we were carrying foreign currency; they contented themselves with our denial, wishing us a happy journey...

Here the people are more companionable and kinder to the stranger; here the rain pours down less than in France; here the food is nearer in taste to the Eastern; here the prices press more lightly on pockets already plundered by the delights of France; here social life rushes less headlong toward the unknown future. What draws Paris and Rome together is, on one side, their artistic wealth — classical painting, sculpture, and the public gardens — though Rome surpasses Paris in the richness of her churches and the multitude of her statues. Rome enjoys the majesty of museums; Paris, the pulse of life.

No visitor to Italy may miss Venice, the city of canals and gaiety. How lovely is the Piazza San Marco with its tame pigeons — no sooner do you offer one a few grains than you find it has taken possession of your shoulder or your head. This Piazza San Marco is the center of commercial, social, and artistic life. It is the largest square in the water-borne part of Venice, full of museums of Venetian art, whose relics are displayed in the palaces of the Doges. Around the square stand the great commercial houses. Besides all this, from one day to the next an excellent band takes its place in the middle of the square and plays free of charge for the square's frequenters, tourists and townsfolk alike. How this idea pleased me on the part of the municipality of