only their _padroni_
could be brought to realise that a flavouring of rosemary and garlic in
every dish is not appreciated by the palates of the _forestieri_, the fare
provided would be excellent. As in all Italian cities, northern or
southern, however, the nocturnal noise is prodigious. Shouting and
shrieking, quarrelling and yelling rend the air at all hours, whilst the
practice of serenading, more agreeable in romantic poetry than in everyday
life, is here carried to excess, and the twanging of the mandoline and the
throaty voices of ardent lovers are rarely silent o' nights in the dark
narrow streets of Salerno.

"A lu scur' vagi cercann'
La bella mia addo e?
Mo m'annascunn' po' fann' dispera',
I mor', I mor' pe' te,
Ripos' cchiu ne ho!"

("In favouring dusk I wandering go,
My fair, where shall I find her?
Now she attracts, now drives me wild;
I die, I die for her;
Repose no more have I.")

Behind the long line of lofty well-built houses facing the Bay, the
streets are gloomy, narrow and crooked, a labyrinth of dark mysterious
lanes that contain no palaces or churches of note, and but few artistic
"bits" to catch the eye and delight the soul of a painter. As in the case
of Amalfi, the Cathedral of San Matteo at Salerno is almost the sole
monument left standing of a past that is peculiarly rich in historical
associations. Ever since the accession of the Angevin kings Salerno has
remained a quiet provincial town, neither rich nor poor, but stagnant and
without commerce. Into its harbour, which Norman and Suabian princes
attempted to improve, the sand has long since silted, and Naples for many
centuries past has been able to regard with serene contempt the city that
it was once intended to make her commercial rival:

"Se Salerno avesse un porto,
Napoli sarebbe morto."

Well, Naples owns an excellent harbour, and has in consequence grown into
one of the largest sea-ports on the shores of the Mediterranean, whilst
little Salerno can only afford anchorage for fishing boats.

The chief interest of the place centres in its close connection with the
great Norman house of Hauteville, and especially with Robert Guiscard,
Duke of Apulia and Calabria, who after a fierce struggle managed to
capture this city from the Lombard princes. Sprung from a hardy race of
_valvassors_ or _bannerets_ in Normandy, Duke Robert was one of the twelve
sons of Tancred of Hauteville in the bis