Twilight in Italy

The imperial road to Italy goes from Munich across the Tyrol, through Innsbruck and Bozen to Verona, over the mountains. Here the great processions passed as the emperors went South, or came home again from rosy Italy to their own Germany. And how much has that old imperial vanity clung to the Ger- man soul? Did not the German kings inherit the empire of by- gone Rome? It was not a very real empire, perhaps, but the sound was high and splendid.