File:The country of The ring and the book (1913) (14597142868).jpg

Identifier: countryofringb00trev (find matches)
Title: The country of The ring and the book
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Treves, Frederick, Sir, 1853-1923
Subjects: Browning, Robert, 1812-1889
Publisher: London : Cassell
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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re-quenter of taverns, who wandered about at night,would either find himself repeatedly at the place hestarted from, or would fall off the town into thevalley and be lost. The visitor to Castelnuovo attains very suddenly tothe heart of the town. A step or two from the opencountry, and he stands in the Piazza del Duomo, orCathedral Square, which is to Castelnuovo whatTrafalgar Square is to London. It is into this squarethat the two prisoners would be led from the inn.The piazza is small, prim and neat. On one side isthe church. It has been recently rebuilt and is a pooraffair, tawdry and garish ; but the campanile of Romanbrick is very old and dignified, and might remindCaponsacchi a little of the superb bell tower of his ownChurch of Santa Maria della Pieve. On another sideof the square is a large ancient building, very vagueand curious. It has a massive outside stair of stone,beneath which is an archway. It is surmounted by abelfry and a little cross. It must have been a monastic 224
Text Appearing After Image:
Castelnuovo house of some kind, but it is now apparently emptyas regards its upper regions. On the ground it accom-modates, in very picturesque and casual fashion, theshops of Castelnuovo—the grocers shop, the charcoaldealers, the leathersellers shop, the pork shop andthe cafe (Plate 98). On a third side of the piazza is an amazing brickwall of such aggressive height and substance that itoverwhelms the tiny square. It is a wall some centuriesold, the warm, ruddy colour of which is in contrastwith the green weeds and tufts of green bush whichspring from every cranny. Early in May these strangelyplaced plants are covered with yellow flowers. Thewall is so vast that it might form the base of aTower of Babel, a conception which is assisted bythe fact that on the face of the wall, and cut out ofits thickness, is a zigzag stone stair, such as is shownin pictures of the tower in childrens books on Biblehistory. The stone stair leads to an immense building ofhoary brick, situated on the top

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