I'm a Piedmontese myself, but I know the French well enough; I was with them at Solferino.

Yes, yes, whatever people may say, one can't forget old friendships.

Here, this way, please, to the right." Raising his eyes, Pierre had just perceived the line of cypresses edging the plateau of the Palatine on the side of the Tiber; and in the delicate blue atmosphere the intense greenery of these trees showed like a black fringe.

They alone attracted the eye; the slope, of a dusty, dirty grey, stretched out bare and devastated, dotted by a few bushes, among which peeped fragments of ancient walls.

All was instinct with the ravaged, leprous sadness of a spot handed over to excavation, and where only men of learning could wax enthusiastic.
"The palaces of Tiberius, Caligula, and the Flavians are up above," resumed the guide.