[28]. A rustic proverb.
[29]. Vol. i., pp. 254 et seq.
[30]. When the French army advanced against Rome, they found the road from Civita Vecchia strewn with large placards, on which this clause of their constitution was printed; so that they were literally obliged to trample its provisions under foot, in making as unjustifiable an attack upon the liberties of a people as was ever recorded in history.
[31]. Used in the same sense as by our sixteenth and seventeenth century writers. The old medical terminology still survives to a great extent in Italy; as does, or did till recently, the ancient practice of medicine which consisted chiefly in blood-letting.
[32]. The meaning is, “The Cardinal is going away with the Cask (Barile), but he will come back with the flask,”—the word fiasco having this sense as well as that in which it is sometimes employed by us, of “failure,” or “disaster.” Needless to add, the above was written before the establishment of the Regno in 1870.
[33]. I.e., the obelisk in the Piazza di S. Pietro.
[34]. The skin of the fig is supposed to be injurious, that of the peach wholesome.
[35]. The original is a ludicrous mixture of Latin and Italian.
[36]. The prison and court of justice.
[37]. A town in the south of Sicily.