A VENICE correspondent of an American journal writes as follows: The most interesting object in the world is man, or rather women, and that we care most to have or to read of l society. I do not mean now that “society” which half the world could give everything it possesses, including self-respect, to “get into,” but I use the word in a broader sense. It seems to me that the social life which we know in America does not exist in Italy. The visiting, the entertainments, the reunions scarcely are known here, in the sense I mean.
The Italians are economical, in the first place. It is cheaper to visit friends and acquaintances at the cafes, where each pays for his cup, than it is to have them at dinner. Then, they are of old in the habit of frequenting public places, and I suppose that the jealousy with which women were guarded in the past prevented any freedom in social life. There were only two classes of people, the high and the low, in many cities. This was true of Rome, which till recently never had a middle class.
The society in the high class was stiff, formal, stately, dull, limited almost to ceremonious visits and to occasional costly receptions and balls. Nothing could be more dull, not even the society of the old French régime in the St. Germain. And in some places it was as virtuous as it was dull. The society noble in Rome to-day, one hears, is virtuous to primness and severity. The ladies are models of propriety and do beautiful embroidery. They never read. Goodness and piety are the fashion in high circles, thanks to the sweet morality of the present Pope, and I fancy that the nobles would he virtuous at any price, just to be in opposition to the present court society.
No doubt Venetian upper society in purer now than it has ever been before, but I suspect it is dull and decayed. It is small also. There are very few noble families who have much left except their nobility: and there are no means for the old ostentation.
So far as I know, the only society here is that of the nobility. It alone has any form and tone, or would be recognized as society. It is not exclusive, like the Roman patrician clique, for I believe foreigners are admitted to it. Its vitality is displayed by punctilious exchange of formal visits and cards, and by weekly receptions at certain houses and by a few grand balls in the season. The Venetians, you know, turn night into day. I think all classes are night-birds more or less. The theatres and concerts never begin till nine o’clock in the evening, and are not out till twelve, and, of course, supper, at the restaurant, won’t be over before one or two o’clock. … By midnight you may feel like going down to Florian’s for a cup of coffee and a chat with friends. Florian’s is always open, night and day. For three hundred years it has not been closed: two sets of waiters keep its doors always ajar, its lamps trimmed and burning, and coffee hot. There are one or two ladies of very high rank and advanced year who have a habit of going to Florian’s, I am told, after midnight.
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, New York, NY, February 12, 1876
