In Rome he was simply a very dull Florentine, and it is not
remarkable that he should not have cared to pay frequent visits to a
place where, to carry it off, his dulness needed more explanation than
was convenient. The Countess lived with her eyes upon Rome, and it was
the constant grievance of her life that she had not an habitation
there. She was ashamed to say how seldom she had been allowed to visit
that city; it scarcely made the matter better that there were other
members of the Florentine nobility who never had been there at all.
She went whenever she could; that was all she could say. Or rather not
all, but all she said she could say. In fact she had much more to
say about it, and had often set forth the reasons why she hated
Florence and wished to end her days in the shadow of Saint Peter's.
They are reasons, however, that do not closely concern us, and were
usually summed up in the declaration that Rome, in short, was the
Eternal City and that Florence was simply a pretty little place like
any other. The Countess apparently needed to connect the idea of
eternity with her amusements. She was convinced that society was
infinitely more interesting in Rome, where you met celebrities all
winter at evening parties.
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