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Title: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 7
Italy, Sicily, and Greece (Part One)

Author: Various

Editor: Francis W. Halsey

Release Date: July 16, 2006 [EBook #18845]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: Courtesy International Mercantile Marine Co.

THE COLISEUM AND ARCH OF TITUS]

SEEING EUROPE

WITH FAMOUS

AUTHORS

SELECTED AND EDITED

WITH

INTRODUCTIONS, ETC.

BY

FRANCIS W. HALSEY

_Editor of "Great Epochs in American History"
Associate Editor of "The Worlds Famous Orations"
and of "The Best of the World's Classics," etc._

IN TEN

VOLUMES

ILLUSTRATED

Vol. VII

ITALY, SICILY, AND GREECE

Part One

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
[_Printed in the United States of America_]

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUMES VII AND VIII

Italy, Sicily and Greece

Tourists in great numbers now go to Italy by steamers that have Naples
and Genoa for ports. By the fast Channel steamers, however, touching at
Cherbourg and Havre, one may make the trip in less time (rail journey
included). In going to Rome, four days could thus be saved; but the
expense will be greater--perhaps forty per cent.

... "and now, fair Italy!
Thou art the garden of the world, the home
Of all Art yields, and Nature can decree;
Even in thy desert, what is like to thee?
Thy very weeds are beautiful, thy waste
More rich than other climes' fertility;
Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced
With an immaculate charm which can not be defaced."

At least four civilizations, and probably five, have dominated Italy;
together they cover a period of more than 3,000 years--Pelasgian,
Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Italian. Of these the Pelasgian is, in the main,
legendary. Next came the Etruscan. How old that civilization is no man
knows, but its beginnings date from at least