Excerpt from Old Rome and New Italy: Recuerdos De Italia Following our baggage, we entered a wretched store-house, dark as a' dungeon of the Inquisition 5 an obscurity incom prehensible in this land of resplendent heavens and dazzling light, which gives to the eyes a feast of colors, and fills the mind with poetic rapture. For articles worn, or intended to be worn, custom-house dues were exacted. When these were paid, and we fancied we were free to move, all our effects were placed in a cart drawn by a number of ragged and shirtless lads, who cried, To the custom-house l A second time? These taxes and tariffs, this want of intercourse with the world - are these also of divine right? Is it essential to the exercise of the Pope's authority over consciences that he should incline to the economic errors of prohibition and the political errors of absolutism? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.