1930-08-01: ~AUDIO~---images---comment---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1930-08-01: ​audio---~IMAGES~---comment---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
On pages 3 and 4, Ruth wrote a sentence that crossed over from one page to the other.  I've merged the images of the two pages as best I could, and then given the individual images of the pages.
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1930-08-01: ​audio---images---~COMMENT~---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
So, whether or not Mussolini made the trains run on time, he built smooth roads.
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1930-08-01: ​audio---images---comment---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
August 1, 1930.

Dear Ones

This is our fourth and last day in Rome, and the weather has been ideal and it has been a wonderful four days.  Have to take Rome from the point of view of romance and poetry, it’s too tremendous to take too seriously.  The last afternoon we went to Austia to see the recent excavations there.  Another city coming to light, + a perfectly lovely drive along a smooth road Mussolini has built.

No one in the group cares for pictures so I have to go to those by myself + yesterday morning I was at the Art gallery of the Vatican, a few wonderful treasures beautifully displayed.  I was the only person in the gallery.  It’s buildings + ruins + religion in Rome evidently.

The vastness, size, + display in the churches is astounding.  St. Peters is the largest in the world and could seat 100,000.  The marble + jewels are endless.

Yesterday I also went to the tomb of the unknown soldier, the greatest in size of any of them.

The extraordinary appeal of the city is the splendid wide streets, fine vistas, imposing settings, + all the [???] fine buildings.  It makes St. Paul’s seem in a worse jumble than ever.

I suppose all I write is old old news about Rome, but it’s by far the handsomest city, in one way, I ever saw.  One new antiquity was seen on Thursday we got up a party to go to Nemi to see the great galley of Calligula, the one the lake was drained to recover.  It is quite a unique time to see it on the shore.  They are still getting the mud out from under + have a shed over it - marvellous preservation - such a beautiful little lake, hills all round + very still water.  These side trips are expensive but what is the use of coming so far + then saving on 10 dollars + so I think it wise to take in all I can, + this part of it is making me feel 100% better.  I have forgotten my nerves and eat + sleep well

The company is good for one.  One of the party is a rich young widow of a Col, Courin [???] and of that Mike Cudahay that was paralyzed this week this drink.  [???What does this mean???]  All the men are crazy over her, and she makes a pleasant change to conscientiously dull schoolteachers.  Two Irish white haired women are delightful + a sweet little S. Africa English girl is one of our group.

I realize this is not a long letter but the time goes so fast + then I can tell you later.  The time is on for you to start to Boston.  Be sure to go.  When away one sees how crazy to stop at home + get dull + slow.

I know you pass this on to Kathleen, Father.  The man wrote 50 for 15.00 in my letter, + said I’d have to take it in cash as he could not alter the letter, so I was landed with 35.00 but I see it going after all!

Best of love

​Ruth
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1930-08-01: ​audio---images---comment---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
we got up a party to go to Nemi to see the great galley of Calligula, the one the lake was drained to recover.

Wikipedia says:

The Nemi ships were two ships, of different size, built under the reign of the Roman emperor Caligula in the 1st century AD on Lake Nemi. Although the purpose of the ships is only speculated upon, the larger ship was an elaborate floating palace, which contained quantities of marble, mosaic floors, heating and plumbing, and amenities such as baths. Both ships featured technology thought to have been developed historically much later. It has been stated that the emperor was influenced by the lavish lifestyles of the Hellenistic rulers of Syracuse and Ptolemaic Egypt. Recovered from the lake bed in 1929, the ships were destroyed by fire in 1944 during World War II.

2.
The time is on for you to start to Boston.
Maybe a meeting at the Christian Science Mother Church?

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