Charles Burney

The Present State of Music in France and Italy (2nd, corrected edition)

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

Rome

present period; and, at Rome, they
still speak of his performance, in Pic-
cini's Didone Abbandonata, with rapture.
Signor Guarducci, in a manner truly
obliging, gave me letters to several emi-
nent professors at Rome and Naples,
and not only treated me with the greatest
hospitality while under his roof, but load-
ed my chaise with exquisite wine, the pro-
duce of his own vineyard, and with other
refreshments*.

ROME.

It is impossible to approach this city
the capital of the world, for such it still
is with respect to the arts, without sen-
sations which no other situation can ex-
cite. The remains of antiquity, like the
Sibyls works of old, become of greater
value the less there is of them. At a tra-
veller's first entrance into Rome, every
stone half devoured by time, or incrust-