From Florence the Lowells went, 23 February, 1874, to Rome, and were with the Storys at the Palazzo Barberini.
To C. E. Norton.
Rome, 26 February, 1874.
...The journey from Florence was one long surprise in the snowy mountains. There is much more than common, and I had never seen them so before. But the almond-trees are in blossom. Rome saddens me, I can’t quite say how. My associations with it are of so peculiar and deep a kind, and so astonishingly undeadened by time. Generally I find I have forgotten much, but here all my memories seem of yesterday....
I have not much time to myself here in the Palazzo Barberini, as you will easily fancy. I am thoroughly glad to find my old friend’s statues so much to my liking. The Libyan Sybil, the Salome and the Electra I especially like. But he is now at work on an Alcestis which will be a long way ahead of anything he has done. It is beautifully simple, graceful, and dignified.
To the Same.
Rome, 2 March, 1874.
...The sun is just about to set, and I see the moon rising white over the stone pines that sentinel the gate of the Barberini Gardens. We have been at Sant’ Onofrio and seen the incomparable view thence. We started for the Vatican, but were too late, and so walked on to Sant’ Onofrio. The mountains are white as Switzerland—the farther ones I mean. I hardly knew the road from Florence hither for this strangeness of snow. But the almond-trees are in blossom, and the daisies and violets and other little field flowers unknown to me.
To Miss Norton.