The
Double Napoleon Of Forty Franchi Of The Kingdom Of Italy Is A Beautiful
Coin; On The Run Are The Words, Dio Protegge L'Italia.
It may not be
unnecessary to remark that in Italy by the word Napoleone, as a coin, is
meant the five franc piece with the head of Napoleon, and a twenty franc
gold piece is called Napoleone d'oro.
At the Zecca I was shown some gold, silver and bronze medals, struck in
commemoration of the formation of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, under the
sceptre of Austria. They bear the following inscription, which, if I
recollect aright, is from Horace:
Redeunt in aurum
Tempora priscum,[54]
but this golden age is considered by the Italians as a very leaden one; and
it seems to bear as much analogy to the golden age, as the base Austrian
copper coin, daubed over with silver, and made to pass for fifteen and
thirty soldi, has to the real gold and silver Napoleoni, which by the way
are said to be fast disappearing; they are sent to Vienna, and Milan will
probably be in time blessed with a similar paper currency to that of
Vienna.
Napoleon seems to be as much regretted by the Milanese as the Austrian
Government is abhorred; in fact, everybody speaks with horror and disgust
of the aspro boreal scettro and of the aquila che mangia doppio, an
allusion taken from the arms of Austria, the double-headed Eagle.
I have visited the ancient Ducal, now the Royal, Palace; it is a spacious
building, chaste in its external appearance, but its ulterior very
magnificent; its chiefest treasures are the various costly columns and
pilasters of marble and of jaune antique which are to be met with. The
salle de danse is peculiarly elegant, and in one of the apartments is a
fine painting on the plafond representing Jupiter hurling thunderbolts on
the Giants. Jupiter bears the head of Napoleon. Good God! how this man was
spoiled by adulation!
The staircase of the Palace is superb, and the furniture is of the most
elegant description, being faithfully and classically modelled after the
antique Roman and Grecian. After visiting the Ambrosian library (by the
way, it is quite absurd to visit a library unless you employ whole days to
inspect the various editions), I went to the Hospital, which is a
stupendous building, and makes up 8,000 beds. The arrangement of this
hospital merits the greatest praise. I then peeped into several churches,
and I verily believe my conductor would have made me visit every church in
Milan, if I had not lost all patience, and cried out: perche sempre
chiese? sempre chiese? andiamo a vedere altra cosa. He conducted me then
to the citadel, or rather place where the citadel stood, and which now
forms a vast barrack for the Austrian troops. We then went to visit the
Teatro Olimpico, which was built by Napoleon. It is built in the style of
the Roman amphitheatres, but much more of an oval form than the Roman
amphitheatres were in general; that is to say, the transverse axis is much
longer in proportion to the conjugate diameter than is the case in the
Roman amphitheatres, and it is by no means so high.
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