MODERNISING ROME.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1612, 21 January 1903, Page 20

MODERNISING ROME.

The City of the Caesars, the city of the Popes, the city of the Italians, is in a fair way to be modernised out of all recognition* Here il“is no question, of not knowing what, to call the streets, but of such a' plethora of names that they have to he changed occasionally to make way for each other. Up to two years go the following were absolutely indispensable in every Italian town: —“Vittorio Emanuele,” “Garibaldi/ 5 “Cavour,” “Independence 55 and Rome got along without much difficulty, as she opened up so many new streets. Then came the terrible event in the House of Savoy, and “Umberto I. 55 was added to the list. What was to be done ? • There was no new street, and still the name must be commemorated, so the oldest street in the city was chosen, given the new name, and thus, alas! the Corso ceased to exist. Now Rome has bought the Villa Borghese, and it will soon blossom forth as Villa Umberto’l. Bet us hope that the other members of the Royal house will die in their beds, if for no'other reason than to leave the -Eternal City some of what should he her cherished names. To foreigners, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the North Pole tq. the South, the Corso and the Villa Borghese meant a certain, street and a certain villa in Rome, and in Rome only, with unique associations and history, while to the next generation they will only mean the regretted memory of a modern monarch.