Population—Manners and Customs—National Character.
The population of Italy, which, in the time of Pliny, was estimated at fourteen millions, is equally great, or rather is considerably augmented, even in its present state of All the cities, and almost all the great towns, with most places of any celebrity, still exist nearly under the same names as in ancient times. Many of them have regained, and several exceeded, their f .riner pros perity and population ; and if a few have emit ely perished, others have risen in their stead. In the year 1784. Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia, were supposed to contain from sixteen to eighteen millions of inhabitants; and in 1793, the amount was calculated to he no less than twenty millions.
The manners and customs of the Italians are very dif ferent and discordant in the several provinces, and not easily brought under any general description. Their dress, thougn not very dissimilar to that of the adjoining nations, is ex tremely diversified ; and, in the south particularly, all kinds of costumes are observable. The attire of the females is generally very unbecoming ; and, in Naples, is composed principally of black silk, with enormous black hoods. In point of food, the people are more uniform. The lower classes live commonly on soups, garden stuffs, milk and cheese. Turkish corn, different sorts of pulse, and great quantities of sea-fish, are used in the southern provinces. Macaroni boiled, sprinkled with cheese, sometimes mixed with the liver of chickens, is the national dish, and forms a principal part of every repast. It is frequently prepared in strings about a yard in length, and let down into the throat in a very awkward manner, with the arm extended. The verrina is also a celebrated dish, consisting of the paps of a sow, which epicures, always cruel, have unhappily con ceived to be most delicate when cut from the living animal. Among the more remarkable peculiarities of Italian diet, may be mentioned dormice, which in ancient Rome were fattened in warrens, and are still accounted excellent game in the southern districts ; horse flesh, which is publicly sold in the shambles at Bari and Francavilla, and is named by the wits among the populace capro ferrario, " shod deer ;" and dogs, which, at Lecce and Casahluovo, are a favourite food of the lower classes. Italian cookery, in roasting and boil ing, is said to resemble the English ; and the chief differ ence consists in the abundant use of oils in place of butter.
But the Italians, though not inattentive to good eating, are not accustomed to give feasts ; and are universally tempe rate in the pleasures of the table, particularly in the article of drink. Their repasts are short, and in their opinion too hasty for conversation ; but they devote their evenings, and no small portion of the night, to society ; holding conversa tions, as they are termed, for the space of four or five hours, and presenting their company with large glasses of lemon ade, or small cups of chocolate, in place of supper.
There are perhaps no people in the world, of whose na tional character more opposite and inconsistent sketches have been given, than of the modern inhabitants of Italy. It is utterly impossible to reconcile the varying testimonies of different travellers on the subject, or to collect the lead ing features of one generally applicable description. The cause may probably be found, not merely in the different degrees of judgment, candour, and opportunity, possessed by the writers ; but in the real diversity of character, which exists in the country, where the inhabitants live under so many different forms of government, and in such diversi fied circumstances of conditions. " The oaths and curses, (for instance,) so frequent in the mouths of the vulgar," says Swinburne, " change entirely at the first step one makes out of the Roman into the Neapolitan territories. The Romans, having the fear of the inquisition before their eyes, vent their choler in obscure words or pious ejacula tions ; but the swearing of the Neapolitan, who is under no such restraint, borders upon blasphemy." Nay, even in the different provinces of the same state, diversities are obser vable in the manners and dispositions of the inhabitants. The North Calabrese (according to the testimony of the last mentioned writer, founded upon the authority of a learned native,) have a great deal of German solidity in their dis position, supposed to arise from the colonies transplanted thither under the Suabian princes ; while the most evident traces of Grecian manners and turn of mind are found in the southern Calabrese and the Neapolitans; and the Pied montese approach in like manner to the French character. We must therefore content ourselves (after specifying a few points which appear to be best authenticated, and almost universally allowed) with extracting the testimonies of the more intelligent observers on the subject of the Italian character in general.