The stone, a red
sandstone, is found in plenty in the adjoining mountains, and has a
rich, soft crimson hue with irregular lines of white. But it is very
hard to work, and could scarcely be made to pay the expense of the
necessary machinery.
"For what I should have to pay for a bath of red marble, about one
hundred lire (twenty dollars)," said the Count B---- to me, "I could
buy a bath of Carrara."
"Baths of crimson marble and of Carrara!" I thought, and remembered
with an involuntary shudder my dear native zinc.
But to return to the Sacro Collegio. In one of the immense labyrinthine
cellars is a _botte_ for wine capable of containing five thousand
litri. There, it is said--I know not how truly--once a year, when the
botte was emptied, came four of the spiritual fathers of the college
above, with a table and chairs, and played a certain game of cards,
which was one of their simple amusements. Whether this meeting was
intended as an exorcism of any evil influences which might threaten the
new must about to be put in, or a mild bacchanalian tribute to the
empty space from which they had drawn so much comfort and cheerfulness
during the year, or whether the wine left some fine perfume behind it
which they wished to inhale, tradition saith not.
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