:ElE)(l]>Fr .§ If. ® M 3D O M TO JM ii 3F ]L 3£ S . (ft MY W. £Mm JE . J?" S M IB IE W , ''^^hrf0^M Drawn tjr "W flrockcdon. F.nfraved'by £ lindtMi .^/?.^ a. 'iy^Ay:r/Aj^ J. ON D O.V. JftliW jaiUJRRAT. /JLJBEHI/L1K1,)E "STKEET. SOLD BY C TILT. FLEET. STREET, »■ KODWELL. JIEUT BOOT STKEET ROAD-BOOK FROM LONDON TO NAPLES. LONDON: PRINTED BV JAMES MOVES, Castle Street, Leicester Sijuare. ROAD-BOOK FROM LONDON TO NAPLES. BY WILLIAM BROCKEDON, F.R.S. MEMBER OF THE FLORENTINE AND ROMAN ACADEMIES OF THE FINE ART.-' AUTHOR OF '• THE PASSES OF THE ALPS," &c. ILLUSTRATED WITH TWENTY-FIVE VIEWS, JFtom Brattiings fig STANFIELD, PROUT, AND BROCKEDON, ■EngrabETJ te W. AND E. FINDEN. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. SOLD BY C. TILT. FLEET STREET; AND RODWELL, NEW BOND STREET. M.DCCC.X.XXV. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Directions and Arrangements for the Journey. Passports. Money. Modes of Conveyance. Posting. Malle Poste. Diligence. Luggage, &c Page 1 CHAPTER II. Departure. Passages from England. Calais. Routes in France. Post Stations, &c 23 CHAPTER III. Passports. Route. The Bourbonnais. Lyons. Frontiers of Savoy. Mont Cenis. Piedmont. Turin 41 CHAPTER IV. Passports. Route. Posts of Italj'. Diligences. Vetturini. Plains of the Tanaro. Appennines. Genoa 73 CHAPTER V. Eastern Riviera. The Bracco. Spezia. Carrara. Massa. Fron- tiers of Tuscany. Money. Posting. Lucca. Pisa. Leghorn. Val d'Arno. Florence. Palazzo Ducale. Royal Gallery. The Tribune. Palazzo Pitti. Museum of Natural History. Duomo. Santa Croce, S.S. Annunciata. S. M. Novelli. Chapel of the Medici. Laurentian Library. Environs.... 91 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. Lascia Passare for the Roman States. Routes to Rome. Camal- doli. Val de Chiana. Arezzo. Cortona. Frontier. Money. Lake of Thrasyraene. Beggars. Perugia. Foligno. Cly- tunuius. Spoleto. Terni. Val Nera. Campagna de Roma. Porta del Populo Page 121 CHAPTER VII. Rome. Castle of St. Angelo. St. Peter's. The Vatican. The Tajiestries. Gallery. Saloons of Raphael. Loggia. Michael Angelo. Capella Sistina. Museo Pio-Clementino. Apollo. Museum of the Capitol. Private Collections. Canova. Cara- pidoglia. The Forum. Views of Rome. Villas. Casino of Raphael. Monte Mario. German Painters. Promenade. Environs of Rome, &c 140 CHAPTER VIII. Routes. Departure from Rome, Brigands. Albano. Velletri. Pontine Marshes. Terracina. Frontier. Fondi. Mola di Gaeta. Cicero. Garigliano. Sessa. Capua. Naples. Museo Borbonico. Excursions. Baiee. Herculaneum and Pompeii 1G5 ILLUSTRATIONS. TO FACE PAGE PISA (Title Platb) FALLS OF TERNI (Title Vignette) MAP — CALAIS TO PARIS 23 DOVER 24 CALAIS 26 ABBEVILLE 32 BEAUVAIS 34 PARIS 37 MAP. — PARIS TO TURIN 41 LYONS 55 CHAMBERRY 61 LANSLEBOURG, FROM MONT CENIS 64 SUSA 69 TURIN 71 MAP.— TURIN TO FLORENCE 73 NOVI 81 GENOA 88 MASSA 97 FLORENCE 110 MAP.— FLORENCE TO ROME 121 LAKE OF THR.\SYMENE 127 VALLEY OF THE NAR 132 CIVITA CASTELLANA I35 ROME 159 Mj\P. — ROME TO NAPLES 165 VELLETRI 170 PONTINE MARSHES I73 TERRACINA I74 MOLA DI GAETA I77 NAPLES 183 ROAD-BOOK LONDON TO NAPLES. PART FIRST. LONDON TO PARIS. CHAPTER I. Directions and Arrangements for the Journey. Passports. Money. Modes of Conveyance. Posting. Malle Poste. Diligence. Luggage, &c. The principal objects of the following work are to furnish, in a compendious form, convenient for a traveller from London to Naples, such information as he may require for his journey, and to present highly- finished engravings of some of the most striking scenes on the route, which may lead him to antici- pate those points of view, and afterwards to assist his recollection of those places, which are inter- esting, from historical association or picturesque appearance. B 2 LONDON TO PARIS. The facility with which this journey may now be made, compared with its difficulties only thirty years ago, has arisen from the policy of Napoleon in con- structing, not only those celebrated routes across the Alps, by the Simplon and the Cenis, but in forming many others, and impronng and preser\'ing all that were under his control in France, Switzerland, Savoy, and Italy. His example has induced succeeding governments, particularly those of Sardinia and Swit- zerland, to open communications where none had before existed, or to render those available for com- mercial pm-poses which were previously tra^•ersed by mvdes only, or were known alone to the smuggler. The peace which has now happily continued for fifteen years — may it never again be broken! — has, diu-ing that time, enabled thousands to visit the classic land of Italy, which had been closed against the English traveller above twenty years. Since 1815, a stream of visitors, composed of the learned, the studious, the rich, and the idle, has flowed from London to Rome. This intercom'se has led to such improvements in travelling, and accommodations on the road, that a journey to Naples is now as easy of accomplishment as a tour of England. For a jom-ney on the continent, the first requisite is a permission fi'om the ambassador of each coun- try which the traveller intends to A-isit, to pass fi-eely tlu'ough it and without molestation, and to receive such assistance as he may require : these are the terms of the passports, granted, upon application, by the French ambassador or consuls^ and those of other states. LONDON TO PARIS. 3 An English passport may be obtained on applica- tion to the Foreign Office, upon paymg two guineas ; but a French passport is to be preferred, not only because it costs noth'tng, but the French language being more generally understood on the continent, it is examined with greater facihty. To obtain it, ap- plication must be made to the French Passport Office (at present. No. 61, Charlotte Street, Portland Place) from one to three o'clock : on the day before it can be had, the name and address of the traveller must be left, and on the following day the passport may be received, between the same hours. Early attend- ance to receive it is desirable, as the passports are delivered in the order of application. The polite- ness and attention of the persons at this office are remarkable, especially to the ladies, to whom gal- lantry is usually shewn by making them exceptions to the order in delivering the passports. The object of the delay of a day appears to be, to gain, if ne- cessary, some knowledge of the apphcant ; because well-known or distinguished individuals, as peers or members of parliament, may obtain their passports on a first application. If, however, the business of those who require French passports be pressing, they may be obtained at once, vipon paying ten shillings, as a fee, to the French consul, whose office is at present in Token House Yard. Such passports may also be obtained from the French consuls at the outposts, where chrect communication with France exists, as at Dover, Brighton, Southamp- ton, and Plymouth. These passports are in force 4 LONDON TO PARIS. for twelve months; and if a second journey be neces- sary within the year, the same passport will serve in every country of which the ambassador's or consul's signature has been obtained. It is sometimes con- sidered desirable to procure the signatures of the Austrian and other ambassadors in England, in order to save time and prevent delay in Paris ; but this can only be obtained from the ambassadors in London, to the passport from the English Foreign Office : a fee of ten shillings, however, will procure to the French passport the signature of the Austrian consul, Mr. Rothschild, which is as good as that of the Am- bassador of Austria ; but as the signatures, in Paris, of the ministers of the interior and of foreign affairs must be obtained in order to proceed through France to Italy, little time Avill be saved. Some modes of preventing delay, however, will be pointed out to the traveller, on his leaving Paris for Turin. That any passport at all should be required, is generally a sovu-ce of annoyance to an Englishman ; for at home, no man has a right to question him on his business or motives for travelling, unless he be found breaking the laws : but when it happens to be a law of the country which he is about to \isit, that tra^■ellers should have this permission to journey in their possession ; he ought to submit with good temper to the conditions upon which he is allowed to travel, and which he knows before he starts. The facility with which bad characters might enter or escape from the continental frontiers, which can only be guarded at certain points, has led to the LONDON TO PARIS. 5 adoption of passports in those countries. Here, where access can only be had by sea, this precautionary pohcy is unnecessary. The next consideration is, the safest and most efficient mode of caiTying or receiving money to meet the expenses of the journey. The result of the author's experience has been, the con\action that no means are so convenient, safe, and independent, as Herries and Co.'s bills of exchange. Letters of credit never procured for the author half the atten- tion, the readiness to oblige, and fairness in pecu- niary transactions, that he has received fi-om the correspondents of Herries and Co. Their circular letter is addressed to above a hunch-ed and sixty correspondents, in various towns and cities ; of these, above forty are in France, and upwards of twenty in Italy ; so that the traveller, by taking these bills of exchange, in amount fi"om 20/. upwards, may be certain of being able to receive cash for them as fre- quently as he may require it. For these bills he obtains, according to the latest tariff, the amount in the currency of the coimtry in which he is journeying, without any deduction, unless he choose to receive it in gold coin instead of silver, when a small, but regular, agio is usually paid. To the traveller in his carriage this is unnecessary, as the five-franc pieces, which he will generally receive in exchange in France and Italy, are the most convenient for papng the postihons and other travelling expenses : the w^eight of these pieces is certainly inconvenient to those who travel by dihgence, or who ramble in occasional pedes- 6 LONDON TO PARIS. trian excursions ; to wliom the pa)Tnent of the agio is a small consideration for the convenience of carrying four of those five-franc pieces in the form of a gold Napoleon ; and it generally happens that the money which has been paid by the traveller for the gold is allowed to him again by those to whom it is paid away, as more than twenty francs is often reckoned for a Napoleon in paying an accomit at an inn. But there is another and an important consideration in estimating the value of the bills and circular letter of Herries and Co. : not only is it the best means for obtaining a supply of cash in travelling, but those to whom their letter is addressed are always ready to assist the traveller who bears it, Avith advice and every coiirtesy, even if he do not need their assistance in a pecuniary way ; and travellers are often placed in situations of dispute and difficulty, where a friend at hand, or a reference of respectability, is of most essential service. The author had often, with letters of credit, received little coiutesy with his money from the parties to whom they were addressed ; but with Herries's circular letter it only once happened to him that inattention led to delay ; it was fi-om their corre- spondents, the Frhres Nigra, at Turin. He wrote immediately, to inform the house in London of their conduct. A letter of remonstrance was at once sent to Turin, and an apology was received from them by the author, soon after his return to England. This is mentioned to mark the attention of Herries and Co. to the interests of those who travel with their circular letter and bills of exchange. LONDON TO PARIS. 7 The next consideration is, the means of convej'- ance. To those who intend to have their own car- riage, it is desirable to take it from England. They can better rely upon the skill and integrity of the person they employ to furnish it, than if they had bought it abroad : it may be ordered and arranged before they start, and thus save the time which, in Paris, or elsewhere on the journey, must be de- voted to procuring one, or waiting its arrangement to the traveller's wish. Smart-looking carriages may be procured on the continent ; but, too often, putty and paint conceal defects, and disguise incon- venience ; and there is no economy in thus getting them cheaper. Excellent carriages are made and may be obtained abroad, but they are rarely to be had immediately upon application. The best way, as soon as the journey is determined upon, is to order a carriage in England, proportioned to the party in- tending to travel, to be ready by the time of starting. The author procured a carriage fi'om Mr. Savage, in Great Queen Street, Long Acre, whose experience in fitting up travelhng carriages for the continent ren- dered it most commodious and convenient for the jom-ney. But the sort of carriage ordered should be governed by economy as well as convenience ; for on the continent, and in France particularly, the form of the carriage, as well as the nmnber of persons, regidate the expense of posting. This will be understood by the following statement : — In the French Tar'if de la Poste aiix Chevaitx there are three classes of carriages. 8 LONDON TO PARIS. First. Two-wheeled carriages, such as cabriolets and chaises, carrying one or two persons, must have two horses. With a third person a third horse must be taken ; and one franc and a hah" is paid per post for each horse. But if four persons are taken by such a carriage, though three horses only can be demanded, two francs are charged for each horse per post. Small caleches with a pole are charged three fi-ancs for two horses, when there is one or two per- sons ; but if there be three persons, then the charge for two horses is four fi-ancs ; and if more than three persons, the caleche is considered as a berline, and charged as below. Second. Limonieres, a class of four-wheeled car- riages, such as chariots, but drawn without a pole by three horses, may take one, two, or three persons, at the visual rate of one fi'anc and a half per horse per post ; but if four persons travel in it, two fi'ancs per horse must be paid, without any obligation upon the postmaster to place more than three horses, though there may be more than four persons : in this case, however, each person above four, pays one franc and a half per post extra ; but such a carriage ha\ang a pole is charged as a berline. Third. Berhnes — carnages ha%ing double and equal seats, or caleches with double seats, and dravra by a pole, must take four horses, with either one, two, three, or four persons ; or six horses, with five or six persons, paying for each horse one fi"anc and a half per post. For each person exceeding the number of six, one franc and a half is paid for each post ; but LONDON TO PARIS. 9 not more than six horses are ever permitted to be put to a berhne. One child under seven years is not charged or reckoned ; but two children mider seven years are charged as one person ; above seven years the child is charged as an adult. Two or three horses are driven by one postihon, whose pay, by the tarif, is only fifteen sous per post ; but though more cannot be demanded, they usually receive one and a half franc per post, and from the English expect to get two francs, — an expectation which has grown out of the folly of English travellers. The half franc may occasionally, however, be promised to excite, or given to reward, the exertions of the postilion. A Livre de Poste of the current year should be bought of the postmaster at Calais, or wherever else the traveller may first arrive in France. To those who travel by post it is essential, as it contains a post map, and all the laws and latest regulations of post- ing in France : these abovmd so much in detail, that without the authority of the post-book, travellers will often be exposed to imposition and vexation. The above classes of carriages have been described here, so that those who are about to take a carriage from England may be enabled to order that which will be most convenient for the number who intend to travel together. Custom has introduced some infringements of the above regulations of the number of horses for the classes of carriages ; and if the traveller arranges with the postmaster, before he sets out from Calais, he may, by paying for five horses and taking four, with which he will travel just as fast, save the 10 LONDON TO PARIS. expense of one horse ; and the traveller who, by law, would require four horses, may arrange and take three, by which he also saves the expense of one postilion ; but as these are driven abreast, the pole must be removed (it is usually lashed below the perch), and shafts substituted. Thus, including the expenses of horses and postilions, two persons may, in their own carriage, travel by post in France at 9d. per English mile, three persons at 1*., four per- sons at 1*. 3d., and six persons at 1^. 8d. per mile, — the French post being about five English miles. But a carriage like an English post-chaise is un- known in France ; the postmaster, however, is required to furnish a carriage, if demanded ; but nothing can sink below the execrable turn-out which is exhibited upon such a requisition. It is necessary to state, that, upon an English carriage entering France, a duty of one-third, ad va- lorem, is deposited ; of which two-thirds are returned, iqjon demand, on repassing the fi'ontier within two years. An Enghsh-built carriage pvu'chased abroad of any other than an EngUsh traveller, is liable, on aniving in England, to the same duty as a foreign carriage, 30 per cent on its value. The policy of this is questionable, its injustice obAious. Those who do not take a carriage from England may purchase one at Calais, or hire one for the whole journey, or only for Paris ; the latter is the better plan, because, in Paris, the traveller has an opportunity of selecting from a greater choice, and si\nn2: more time to its examination. A caleche may be hired from Dessin's, and other hotels at LONDON TO PARIS. 11 Calais, for a journey to Paris, for about 51. English. If the party intend to go no farther than Paris, to make a short stay there, and then return again by Calais, this is a desirable plan, as the caleche will be a great convenience to them in the capital. For prosecuting the journey into Italy, such a carriage may be bovight in Paris for about 40/. or 50/., and other vehicles in proportion. To those who purpose travelling by dihgence, it will be well not to take places for Paris in Lon- don, but to wait until their arrival in Calais ; and, as soon as they land, if they wish to proceed with- out delay, to send the commissioner to the coach- office and secm-e such places as they may want. In the French diligence there are four sorts of places : the first is in the coupe, the front compart- ment of the dihgence, which is like an English post- chaise; it contains three places; the price of each place, from Calais to Paris, is about 30 francs; of the interior, this is the pleasantest part : — the next is the middle portion, the berline, which contains six places ; the price is usually 25 francs : — the hinder part is called the rotonde, where six persons may be stuffed in, at 20 francs each person, where the worst company is usually found ; and it is to avoid this receptacle of dust, dirt, and bad company, that the caution is given, not to take places in London, as, when the coupe and the berline of the dihgence are filled by people fi-om Calais, those who have booked for the interior are sent forward in the rotonde. The banquette, or imperial, which is on the top over the 12 LONDON TO PARIS. coupe, holds three persons ; one of these is always the conductor. The English, from their habit of travel- ling outside their own diligences, prefer these places, — they are also the cheapest, generally 15 francs each place ; but lately, as the English are found to prefer the outside, they have often been charged 5 francs more. The prices of places occasionally vary, but at present they are about the sums named. Frenchmen, as companions within a diligence, greatly annoy En- glish travellers by the pertinacity with which they insist upon the windows being kept closed during the night, and often also during the day, however crowded the interior may be. On the banquette the traveller has the opportunity of seeing the country, of enjoying the fresh air, keeping his legs stretched, which is of no trifling importance on a long journey ; and as the banquette of the French diligence has generally now a covering like a cabriolet, he is kept dry and warm there, if he require it ; and the conducteur, who is always one of his companions, is the pleasantest that an English traveller can enjoy upon the road. The expense inside to Paris from London, including the passage, 10s. 6(J., is about three guineas, and little more than half that sum outside. To those to whom despatch is important, more than one-third of the usual time employed by the diligence may be saved by going by the malle-poste. But this mode has its inconveniences : in the interior, where three persons are usually put, there is not more than fair accommodation for two ; and in the single place, by the conducteur, in the cabriolet, the LONDON TO PARIS. 13 traveller is annoyed at every post-town through which he passes by his companion's horn, in his efforts to rouse the post-masters, and by his bustle in the delivery and receipt of packets : these he stuffs into an immense pocket inside the apron of the cabri- olet, and which, resting upon the legs of the un- lucky traveller, inflicts upon him at each jerk the tortm-e of the boots. There is one advantage, how- ever, in travelling by the malle-post, and in some degree in the diligence, over the English public con- veyances, — the traveller pays a fair proportion for any part of the journey that he chooses to make : thus, if he hire a place for the first da/s journey, or any part of it, and chooses to rest, instead of pro- ceeding through that night, he only pays one franc and a half for each post that he actually travels, which includes conductors and postihons. In France all places in the malle-postes and diligences are numbered, and the persons taking places must occupy those only which bear the num- ber which they have taken. In England it is " first come, first served," When the travellers meet to take their departure, in France, they are called upon by their number, and take their seats accordingly. The next consideration to the traveller, and it is a veiy important one, is the quantity of luggage which he may require to take with him. In some measure this must be governed by the object of the party in travelling. Many conveniences will be ne- cessary for invahds, which to those who travel for pleasure will be encumbrances ; and even for the 14 LONDON TO PARIS. former, the number of things usually recommended will be found unnecessary, as they may generally be had wherever they are required. Some persons are advised to take horse-hair mattrasses, leather sheets, musquito curtains, English flannels, &c. ; but as some of these are contraband, the traveller is subjected to the risk of having them taken from him, or, where pemiitted to have them upon paying the duty, of be- ing detained at the custom-house whilst the fonns of examination are being gone throvigh, and the duties paid that are required. There are many things, however, which an Englishman would feel to be requisite to his comforts in travelling; these he should provide where he can obtain them, and never leave to the chance of procuring in one place what may certainly be had in another. Let him buy what he wants and can get in London ; what he cannot obtain there, search for in Paris ; and what he fails to procure there, ask for in Lyons or Geneva. Medi- cine, for example, it is very desirable to procm-e where its genuineness may be relied upon ; and the tra- veller should not fail to take with him James's pow- ders, calomel, and sulphate of quinine : a light aperient preparation also, such as Laming's carbonated effer- vescing salts, which may be conveniently carried and readily taken. For security, the traveller should not be without pistols — detonators are safest and best ; and in Italy, where doors fit ill, and locks are no security, he should not be without a pocket door- bolt, which may be easily attached to all doors, and will guard against intrusion. Those who sketch LONDON TO PARIS. 15 should provide books made of English paper — it is infinitely preferable, as drawing paper, to any foreign ; and the superior excellence of our black-lead pencils should induce the traveller to take a supply from England. The best that are now made are pre- pared by S. Mordan and Co., of Castle Street, Fins- bury Square, the piu'e lead of whose sliding points has attained so deserved a celebrity, that M. and Co. have lately employed the same material in cedar pencils, which surpass all others for the use of the draftsman.* Of clothes a large quantity should not be taken, as every sort may be procured as good and cheap in France and Italy as in England ; and all lug- gage which may be unnecessary during the journey, had better be forwarded to the travellers, wherever they propose to stay for any time, in Italy ; it is also well to know how to return luggage and packages to England. Those families who require more luggage than can be taken with them, may have it safely forwarded to any part of the continent, by Mr. J. F. Chinnery, agent of the Custom House, London ; through whom, also, any article they may require fi"om London, dm-ing their stay abroad, may be procured. * The aulhoi' would suggest one means of enjoyment to those who do not sketch : — it is, to provide a couple of books, one for the drying, and the other for the preserving, of flowers, leaves, and plants, gathered in remarkable situations : placed in order, they will become a souvenir of scenes and events, and will well repay the trouble of collecting them. 16 LONDON TO PARIS. Persons proceeding to Italy, to stay for some time, should forward, by sea, to Leghorn or Naples, all that part of their baggage which is intended for use there, as the conveyance is certain, and the ex- pense moderate. Mr. Chinneiy has correspondents in most of the principal towns of the continent, to whom he consigns packages for transmission to the owners, or to be held till their arrival, viz. : — Calais — Isaac Vital and Son. Paris — Mr. William Walker, agent to the British Embassy, Marche St. Honore, 26. Rome — Mr. F. de Sanctis. Florence — Mr. S. Lowe. Leghorn -^Messrs,. P. Senn & Co., or Mr. H. Dunn. Nice — Mr. P. Natta. Genoa — Mr. A. G. Barchi. To these persons, also, travellers should confide such packages as they may wish to send to England, instructing them to consign the property to Mr. Chinnery, who will see it safely passed at the Custom House, and hold it for the proprietors. Every package sent to England should be coti- signed to an agent at the Custom House ; for no private property can be passed without the aid of one ; and by having the packages directly consigned to a respectable man, all anxiety is avoided as to their falling into improper hands, or being damaged or lost, which sometimes happens in other cases. The agent's charge is not increased by such consignment, as his trouble is the same, although a gi'eat advantage is secured to the consigner. LONDON TO PARIS. 17 An English agency office is established in Paris, Marche St. Honore, 26, managed by Mr. W. Walker, Custom House, and general agent to the British embassy, under whose care goods of all kinds are safely packed and forwarded to England ; and parcels, however small, are despatched at a proportionate expense. Through Mr. Walker, permissions are obtained for the admission of such articles, for the use of travellers, as are generally prohibited enter- ing France. Mr. Walker undertakes every descrip- tion of agency connected with the convenience of travellers and residents in France. The author has long employed Mr. Chinnery (who is authorised by the commissioners of customs, under bond of 1000/., for the security of the goods consigned to him), and he can confidently recom- mend him for care, experience, and moderate charges. And any infonnation that may be required respect- ing duties, or customs' regulations, may be had, on application to Mr. Chinnery, personally, or by letter, at the Custom House, from eleven to three ; and at .31, Charlotte Street, Portland Place, before ten, and after six. Those who would travel with comfort should be particularly on their guard against rendering them- selves liable to detention, or penalty, at the foreign custom-houses. They should avoid taking any thing which is contraband, either for themselves or for their friends ; for it too often happens that travellers on the Continent are meanly solicited to take those things for their friends who are abroad, which they c 18 LONDON TO PARiS. dare not send by the public conveyance, thus render- ing their traveUing friends liable to penalty and punishment. This is more strikingly the case where they are requested to take letters, for -which public conveyances are provided : in this case, they suffer their friends to run a great risk for the sake of saving the postage. Such conduct is most unpardonable. It is especially desirable that letters to ambassadors and consuls, and persons of rank, talent, and im- portance, should be obtained, to gain access to the best society. Such lettei-s of credit and introduc- tion, which require personal delivery, are permit- ted to be taken, but they should be unsealed. With respect to servants, those who have never before travelled on the continent, and can afford to risk the chance of being cheated by a cornier, will find the service of such an attendant add gi-eatly to their ease, by leaving in his hands all the business of the route : he will precede them on their journey, and make arrangements for their reception at the inns ; he will find a hvmdred little means of adding comforts to the travellers, and relieving them from embarrassments. But the faults of many of the couriers who offer their services to travellers are numerous and serious : though the usual wages of ten or twelve Napoleons a month, to find themselves, be paid them, they live at the cost of the traveller, that is, they pay nothing at the inns ; but if this Avere all, it would be luiimportaut ; the fact is, that they regularly sell their families to certain innkeepers, to whom they are known on the road. LONDON TO PARIS. 19 and demand a gratuity proportioned to the num- ber and stay of their party : this is recharged in some form upon the traveller. On the road, if a dis- honest cornier pay the postilions, he pockets some- thing at each relay, generally from their remunera- tion, which in the course of a long journey be- comes of a serious amount. The author, after having long submitted to systematic and customary pecula- tion, until it passed endurance, found, fi'om the hour that he parted with his cornier, that the bills at the inns fell above twenty per cent, without previous arrangement ; and that the postilions were gi'atefid and pleased for less than the cornier said he had paid for their services, when they were dissatisfied. Upon the author's remarking on the chfFerence in the amount of the bills at the inns, when he had a cou- rier, and when he travelled with his family without one, — he was assured, by the innkeeper at Mayence, where the difference was first observed, that he hated and feared the couriers as a body, and infinitely pre- ferred receiving a family without one ; for, after pay- ing the couriei-'s usual demand for bringing a family to his hotel, he was obliged to charge it in the amount of the bill, which often proved unsatisfactory to tra- vellers : that if he refused to comply with such demands of the couriers, as they always preceded the arrival of the families they travelled with, they took them to other hotels, and reported to the association of couriers which exists in Paris and other cities, the innkeeper Avho had refused compliance with their demands, and they punish him, by uniformly avoid- 20 LONDON TO PARIS. ing to recommend his house, or take there the families with whom they travel. However well a courier may know a city or town, he never acts as valet de place, unless his family make purchases, when he never fails to be in attendance, to receive, after- wards, from the tradesman, a per centage, which he claims as agent, and which is charged indirectly in the bill. It will scarcely occur once in the coui'se of a week's jom'ney that the pecuhar service of a courier will be felt, that of obtaining relays of horses to be in readiness at the post station by the time the family arrives, which could not otherwise be had, and thus secure the progress of his employers, by anticipating other travellers ; and when he does, it is by no means an uncommon thing for him to take a bribe to forego his claim to the horses which he has ordered. It is notorious also that couriers are often smugglers, who conceal contraband articles about the carriage, and thus risk the property and liberty of their employers. There are, however, honest couriers ; and when their services can be obtained they are truly valuable, especially to those who have never travelled before. An active intelligent English man-servant, who understands the management of a carriage, and parti- cularly if he understand French and Italian, will be found more useful and satisfactory than any other. But of female attendants, French are to be preferred to English ones; these latter are generally useless, be- cause helpless, and only encmiiber a travelling party : the mistress usually finds, that instead of receiving LONDON TO PARIS. 21 assistance, she has to give it to her attendant. A French girl will obtain a hundred accommodations whilst an English one is only thinking of their im- practicability. The last, though not the least important of the requisites for a traveller, is the temper in which he should undertake to perfonn his jom-ney. It is not suffi- cient for a pleasant excursion on the Continent that he has money enough to meet his expenses. The comfort with which an Englishman — who understands the word better than any other — is likely to enjoy an excursion in lands where the language, manners, and customs, are so different from his own, will greatly depend upon his carrying with him a ready stock of good temper and forbearance, which have a more cer- tain currency than gold in the purchase of ci\'ilities and efforts to please. A man will see more, enjoy more, and learn more, by carrying with him his head and heart in good travelling trim, tlian can be obtained by having his pockets full of letters of credit, with- out this necessary state of mind and feelings. It is a fact deeply to be regretted, that many vulgar and half-witted Englishmen think, if they leave home with money, they can command any thing ; that it is mean to be civil, and beneath them to feel gratefid for any efforts to oblige them made by those for whose services they pay. The presumption of our countrjnnen is proverbial on the Continent ; for- tunately, the exceptions are numerous, and we are spoken of as an unaccountable people, when some men of unquestionable character and fortune dis- 22 LONDON TO PARIS. play examples of suavity and true gentility which cannot be surpassed on earth : the foreigner is thus puzzled to know how to estimate our national cha- racter. It is a \ailgar prejudice, that all foreigners cheat the English, and that caution is necessary to guard against the constant attempts to overreach them. That some such characters are met with, cannot be denied ; but those whose rapacity is thus made to characterise a class, have been often cre- ated by the meanness and prejudices and thought- less extravagance of the travellers themselves. It is a bad feehng to set out wath, that you must be always on your guard. Custom has established certain charges, and any deviation from them is soon detected ; but it too often happens that things are demanded by the traveller which are very ex- pensive, or difficult to prociu-e : the charge for these is protested against as extravagant, thovigh the in- justice is entirely on the side of the gruml^ler. Firmness in not paying more than what is cus- tomary, unless such extraordinary trouble has been given, will always succeed ; and good humour will lower a bill more readily than violence. KiiAll hllOk IlillM I.OXDDN TO NAfl.r. MAJ' OK THT. M <>\TV, rHOST lOIUSOZS' TO PAKIS . /-v/.r,/( /J,/./y..A,i/ /.| ./,.Aj, itari\n..1ll:-)n.ifU.\tr.v*.'i-JJ'«-Jj.^i..\n,jl.t,JStrJ.sM LONDON TO PARIS. 23 CHAPTER II. Departure. Passages from England. Calais. Routes in France. Post Stations, &c. Those who can endiu'e the inconvenience of being fifteen hours in a steam-boat instead of three hours, will prefer the direct voyage from London to Calais, and take their departvu'e from the Tower, whence packets for France go to Calais and Boulogne. To them the animated and beautiful scenes of the river Thames v\'ill be sources of high enjoyment, which are as sealed letters to those unhappy travellers whose time is employed to suppress feelings, not indulge any. To them it may not be amiss to advise, as a preventive of sea sickness, to pass a broad belt round the body, and place \vithin it, on the region of the stomach, a pad stuffed with wool or horse-hair ; this, tightly braced, has been recommended, and often found usefril, as it in a gi-eat measiu'e restrains the involuntary motion of the stomach occasioned by the lurching of the vessel. Diu'ing sickness, very weak cold brandy and water will be found the best means of allaying the heat and irritation which sickness occasions. The difference of expense in reaching France fi'om London is very little, whether the traveller depart 24 LONDON TO PARIS. from the Tower or go by Dover ; for the greater expense of the fi-eight of a carriage and the fares of the party are nearly equal to the expenses of posting. Compared with the expense by diligence to Dover, and thence to France, the cost is rather less by water, from the Tower, all the way to Calais, and rather more to Boulogne. The certainty of a good and safe passage is, however, much gi-eater from Dover ; it is generally accomplished in three hours, and the pas- sengers fi'om Dover are usually in Calais or Boulogne before those fi-om London have reached the Nore ; and it has often occiured that, after starting in a fine morning fi'om London, the steam-boats have not reached Calais in thirty hom's. The distance to Dover is seventy-one miles, and the posting upon the road is excellent : the smartness of the postilions and the gaiety of the turn-out are generally sources of surprise to foreigners who enter England by that road. The thligences do not reahse the reports, abroad, of the rapichty of travelHng in England ; the fact is, that the chstance from London to Dover happens to be a day's or a night's journey, and as the packets never start until the night coaches are all arrived, there is no inducement to more rapid tra- velling. To those who have not been by land from London to Dover, the pleasure of a jom-ney byday on this road, which is very beautiful, A\'ill compensate for the purgatory of sleeping at Dover, where, however, there are some excellent inns ; among them the Ship (Wright's Hotel) has long been distinguished. It is the advice of the old sailors at Dover, always .ll*SH«^B^i LONDON TO PARIS. 25 to enter France fi'om Dover by Calais ; and in returning to England, to cross fi-om Bovdogne to Dover : the reason is, that the flood-tide, of which they must avail themselves for entering either of the three ports, makes a current up the channel so strong, on leaving Dover, as to retard the passage to Bou- logne, and assist the passage /row it; and the voyage fi-om Boulogne is generally made in less time than fi"om Calais. There is one important advantage, however, in a direct communication between Dover and Boulogne, — it saves above twenty miles of tedious road fi-om Calais to Boulogne, and the time and expense of this part of the jom'ney. Before departure from Dover, carriages are regis- tered, but trunks are no longer examined. It is too common a feeling, that every shilling paid is an extortion ; but many of the claims made by porters are regidar, and the trifling fee for the accommoda- tion-ladder is regidated by the authorities of the port : if any extra service indeed be required, for which there is no regulation as to pay, the boatmen of Dover will not fail to convince any traveller that their bad name has been deservedly obtained. There is little at Calais to interest the traveller beyond the novelties of a strange costmne and a different language ; these never fail to strike per- sons who visit a foreign country for the first time. On the approach to the pier of Calais, all is bustle and excitement ; as the vessel enters the harbour, the column which commemorates the return of Louis XVIII. and the gate which Hogarth has im- 26 LONDON TO PARIS. mortalised, are objects of interest ; and in the views of Calais which are taken fi'om the southern shore, these are remarkable features. It is necessary, before landing in Calais, to decide upon the hotel at which the traveller intends to put up ; and, upon arriving in France, to stop the clamour and yells of the commissioners of the different inns, by naming it ; the servant of that inn will immediately step forward and take charge of him and his party, and he is spared the farther solicitations of the hai-^iies by whom the undecided are still assailed. As trunks are not pennitted to be taken out of the vessel with the traveller, though a sac-de-nuit may be, it is advisable to put such things as will be immediately wanted into one ; this the commissioner takes on shore to the Custom House, where often a severe, but generally civil, search is made on the person : pa- tience in submitting to this annoying ceremony is the best mode of shortening it, and of having it slightly inflicted. The passports are then left to go through the police-office, the night -sack is examined and passed, and the traveller finds himself at liberty to proceed to the inn he has chosen. The best Enghsh inn, or rather the best that is kept by an English- man, is Roberts's, the Royal Hotel, Rue de la Toile, where the accommodations are excellent. Of the French hotels, Dessein's, in the Rue Royale ; Quilhac's, in the Rue Neuve ; and Hotel Bourbon, Rue Eustache St. Pierre, are the best ; the atten- tion paid to travellers at the latter cannot be ex- ceeded. Calais abounds with low and inferior inns, LONDON TO PARIS. 27 whose commissioners attend the arrival of the pack- ets, and are more clamorous than those of the best. As the same customer wll never go twice to such houses, dearness, dirt, and discomfort, forbidding it, they make the most of their opportunity to fleece and disgust him. If the traveller wish to proceed by the malle-post, on the evening of his arrival he must exert himself to get his luggage passed in time : this is difficult if there be many passengers, unless — which is always desirable — he has little luggage. The commissioner should be immediately sent to secure such places as are w^anted by the diligence in the morning ; a neglect of this sometimes leads to serious detention. If the traveller proceed with post horses, he can start at any hour ; the necessary arrangements will be made by the commissioner ; and if a courier be required, the safest guarantee for his fitness and character will be the recommendation of the master of the hotel where the traveller puts up when he engages such a servant. Before describing the route Avhich it is proposed to illustrate, that fi-om Calais to Paris by Abbe- ville and Beauvais, it may be well to advert to the other roads by which the traveller can reach Paris from England, and also that which, avoiding the capital, proceeds througli Rheims and Dijon to Italy, by a route which is shorter by 3| posts ; the route from Calais by St. Omer's, Peronne, Rheims, Chalons-sur-Marne, and Troyes, to Dijon, being 66^ posts, and by Paris to Dijon, 70^ posts ; but so in- ferior in condition and accommodation is the shorter 28 LONDON TO PARIS. route, that fatigue and delay will leave the traveller who pursues it a loser in time and money. Of the roads from England to Paris, two have other points of communication with the coast of France besides those of Calais and Boulogne; as Brighton with Dieppe, and Southampton with Ha\Te ; and travellers to whom a longer voyage is not disagreeable, may reach Paris by either of these through Normandy, and by a road which ascends nearly the whole way the course of the Seine to Paris, through scenery of great beauty. From Havre to Rouen a steam-boat affords daily means of communication : above Rouen the Seine is not con- veniently navigable for large boats, though there is a tedious intercourse by water with the capital. Two or three roads lead from Rouen to Paris, one is by Magny and Pontoise, 15^ posts ; but that by Lomiers and Meulan, though 2 posts further, is the road which, continued near the banks of the Seine, abounds in more beautiftil scenery than any other approach to Paris. Those who wish to travel this road, and yet avoid a longer voyage than from Dover to Calais, may reach Rouen in 11^ posts from Abbeville, through Neufchatel. The fine situation of Rouen and its beau- tiftil Gothic structures are well worthy of a visit, and, seen fi-om Mont Ste. Catherine, few cities can vie with the magnificence of its panorama presented there. From Calais the two principal roads to Paris are, one by St. Omer's and Amiens, 31:| posts ; the other by Boulogne-sur-Mer, Abbeville, and Beauvais, 32^ posts : we have adopted the latter, as it is the general line of communication. LONDON TO PARIS. 29 On leaving Calais, the road passes through a sandy open conntry, for a short distance ; it then becomes hilly, and preserves this character nearly the whole way to Boulogne. The appearance of the country is strikingly contrasted with the road fi'om London to Dover : the want of hedges and the scarceness of trees gives a sterile air to the scenery; yet, from some of the elevations, the country in the interior is pictiu'esque, and fi-equent \iews are caught of the white cliffs of England, from which we are receding, as the road ascends to Haut-Buisson, 1^ post,* a solitary post-house on the highest part of the road between Calais and Boulogne. Thence to the next station. Marquise, 1 post, from Calais, 2^ posts, the road is less dreary. This is a little village, where more of nationahty is seen than at Calais. The deep valleys beyond it present some pretty ^^llage scenes, particularly the last before arriving at Bou- logne, Wimille : here a monument is seen, close to the road, which records the fate of poor Pilatre de Rosier and his friend Romain, who, in attempting to pass in a balloon from Calais to England, on the 15th of June, 1785, fell fi-om a height of 1500 feet, in * An extra half-post is paid on leaving Calais. In the 47th page of the " Livre de Poste," certain places are indicated where a post or half-post is charged extra, by regulation. ;30 LONDON TO PARIS. consequence of the balloon taking fire, and were killed. Before reaching Boulogne, a column appears on the right, in a commanding situation. It was begun by Napoleon to commemorate the conquest of England ! but it was left incomplete, and the army, formed here for the invasion, passed away in a series of misfortunes and defeats. Every other work begun by Napoleon, whether for the glory or for the servdce of France, was neglected or destroyed by the Bourbons ; his name erased from tablets, or in some places changed, led his silly successors to hope that his services to France would be forgotten : but this column of Bou- logne — an obvious act of folly — they completed, as they said, to perpetuate the return of the Bourbons. Now it records the folly of both. Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1| post, from Calais, 4^ posts. Half of the inhabitants of this town appear to be English ; but few that are respectable stay here, for it is almost colonised by persons who live thus near enough to have daily intercourse with England, fi-om which they have fled or been driven. Bankrupts and black-legs form too large a portion of the English society at Boulogne for the honest and the honourable to sojourn long among them. In travelling through Boulogne the upper town is seldom visited, as a road from Calais, which passes beneath the walls, leaves it on the left, and, descend- ing a steep hill, enters the lower town, or port of Boulogne. Here all the best hotels are situated ; of these, the Hotel de Londres is the most fi-equented. LONDON TO PARIS. 31 From Boulogne to Samer, 2 posts, from Calais, 6^ posts. At first the route skirts the little valley of the Liane, and the scenery is pleasing; but it soon be- comes dull and uninteresting, and the road very hilly. Shortly after leaving Samer, the road, by a steep ascent, winds round a high hill, whence, on looking back upon the village, a very extensive view is pre- sented. Thence the road continues without interest until the approach to Cormont, 1 post, from Calais, 11 posts. Montreuil, ]J.do. do. 8| do. This town, situated on a hill in a command- ing situation, is fortified, and has a striking ap- pearance from the Calais side, where the approach is over a long chaussee, in a marshy valley : the ascent from the suburbs, by a very steep street, is usually made on foot, whilst the carriage or diligence makes a detour to attain the post station in the town. In 1815, the inhabitants had spirit enough to refuse entrance to the Enghsh troops, on their march to Paris. Nampont, 1| post, from Calais, \0\ posts. Bernay, 1 do. do. 11 ^ do. Nouvion, 1 do. do. \2\ do. The road fi-om the latter place lies through part of the forest of Cressy : the village of Cressy, which 32 LONDON TO PARIS. gave its name to the \ictory won in 1346, and of which the Enghsh are so justly proud, hes out of tlie route, on the left : the portion of its forest through which the road passes \\ill recall to the English traveller the remembrance of Edward III. and the Black Prince. The allusion to the battle of Cressy in the French Itineraire is ingenious : — " Les champs de Crecy, celebres par la bataille ou les Anglais se servirent pour la premiere fois de canons." They have omitted with what success, and who were the victors. Abbeville, 1^ post, from Calais, 13| posts. The approach to this city is very beautiful as it is seen from the hill, lying in a richly wooded plain ; and it cannot fail to strike the traveller who arrives at Abbeville by daylight. It is situated on the Somme, and the tide rises here six feet : vessels of 150 tons can come up the river. Communication by water extends also from Abbeville to Amiens ; and the manufacturing establishments of these cities, which are among the oldest in France, owe their importance to the commercial advantages of their situation on the Somme. The cathedral of Abbe- ville is deserving of attention ; its facade is decorated with colossal statues, and its Gothic towers are striking features in any view of the city. A few miles below Abbeville is the port of St. Valery, whence William the Conqueror sailed with 1100 vessels and 100,000 men for the invasion of England. There are some good inns at Abbeville, but they are ip LONDON TO PARIS. 33 in disci'edit with travellers, for the extravagance of their charges. Airaines, 2| posts, from Calais, 16 posts. From Abbeville to Airaines the road is still un- interesting, though part of it lies near the banks of the Somme. The general character of the route through Picardy, fi-om Calais to Paris, is its openness, and the scarcity of towns, villages, and inhabitants ; and there are few travellers who have not expressed their surprise at the excellent state of agriculture, without the appearance of a proportionate popu- lation for its labom's : single cottages are rarely seen, and often, on the high grounds, an extensive panorama is presented without a village spire to break its horizon. Near this place is a mound, which bears the name of the Camp of Ca?sar ; Roman coins and other antiquities have been found there, and intrench- ments may be traced, which lead to the belief that it was a military station. Camps, 1^ post, from Calais, 17 J posts, Poix, 14 do. do. m do. Grandvilliers, 1^ do. do. 20i do. Marseilles, n do. do. 211 do Beauvais, 2i do. do. 24 do. The scenery from Poix to Marseilles is perhaps the most dull and uninteresting on the route ; but from Marseilles to Beauvais the road skirts a beau- tiful little valley, and the traveller looks down on rich pasturages, villages, and chateaux : one of these, D 34 LONDON TO PARIS. at Achy, belongs to the family of Clermont tie Tonnere. Beauvais presents little of that appear- ance which would induce the belief that it could ever have withstood a siege of 80,000 Burgundians, in 1472, and that it could be raised by the exertions and example of a woman ; yet the tale of Jeanne Ha- chette is now a part of history, and the women still precede the men in the procession on the 10th of July, commemorative of the defeat of the Duke of Burgundy. Beauvais is celebrated for its manufac- tures of silk and cotton, and for its tapestries. Among the good inns at Beauvais are the Ecu de France, Hotel d'Angleterre, and Aux Trois Piliers : from the latter of these, which owes its name to three orna- mented columns in the Grande Place, a fine interior view of Beauvais with its abbey is seen. Noailles, 1| post, from Calais, 25 j posts, Puiseau, I5 do. do. 27J do. Beaumont-sur-Oise, IJ do. do. 283 do. Beaumont is beautifully situated on the left bank of the Oise. Moisselles, 1^ post, from Calais, 30 posts, St. Denis, IJ do. do. 31^ do. Much of the road fi'om Beamnont to St. Denis is hilly, and in bad condition. The approach to Paris is perceptible long before reaching St. Denis: greater population, more numerous villages, and many villas, mark the neighbourhood of a great city; pasturage, vineyards, and gardens, instead of V LONDON TO PARIS. 35 cornfields, are every where observed ; and the well- wooded parks of the royal demesnes enrich the scenery. Paris, 1 post, from Calais, 32^ posts. St. Denis, only five miles from Paris, has nearly all the bustle of the capital. The cathedral here, the resting-place of the kings of France, is worth an examination. From St. Denis the road continues through avenues of trees ; and, leaving jNIontmartre and its windmills on the right, enters the metropolis by the barrier of St. Denis, where carriages of all classes, from the gay chariot to the (hligence and the dray, are searched for brandy, which pays a duty upon entrance. An officer from the barrier always accompanies the diligences to the places of their des- tination in Paris, where every traveller is obliged to unlock his trunks, &c. for the inspection of this exorciser of illegal spirits. The traveller is now in the capital of France ; and if he have been recommended to Meurice's, or any other hotel, and he travel by post, he orders the postihons to drive there from the barrier. If he have arrived by diligence, he will be met at the Bureau, where it puts up, by a legion like that which assailed him on his arrival in Calais. The same precaution as that used on landing in France is necessary, to name an hotel, when its commissioner will immedi- ately relieve him from further importunity. The Hotel de Lille, Rue St. Thomas dvi Louvi'e, has for a long time been a favourite with diligence travellers ; 36 LONDON TO PARIS. and its convenient situation near the Palais Royal makes it a desirable residence to those who intend to remain only a short time in the capital. Within twenty-four hours of his arrival in Paris, the traveller is called upon by the master of the hotel where he happens to stay, to furnish him with his passport, in order that his name, quality, &c. may be registered, according to the regulations of the police. However disagreeable this may be to Englishmen, a ready compliance with all the ordonnances of the police (especially as they relate to passports) should be shewn : these arrangements, carefully regarded, will not only relieve the stranger from difficulty, but often facilitate his access to objects and places worth his attention. A day or two after the arrival of an English ti'aveller in Paris, it is desirable that he should go to the Prefecture of Police, Quai des Orfevi'es, and reclaim the passport with which he had arrived in Calais, or elsewhere on the frontier; for that with which he travels to Paris is not the one obtained in England, but a passport provisoire, the original being kept to be forwarded by the malle-post to the Minister of the Interior. This change of pass- ports, however, often embarrasses the traveller who wishes to proceed immediately to Italy ; for the original passport is sometimes delayed upon the road, or detained at the office of the ^linister of the Interior for several days. When haste is necessary, this cause of delay may be avoided, upon a proper representation of the fact to the authorities at Calais, where a fee will obtain the restoration of the first ^ CE TO liOMTE , PART FOURTH. FLORENCE TO ROME. CHAPTER VI. Lascia Passare for the Roman States. Routes to Rome. Camal- doli. Val de Chiana. Arezzo. Cortona. Frontier. Money. Lake of Thrasymene. Beggars. Perugia. Foligno. Cly- tumnus. Spoleto. Terni. Val Nera. Campagna de Roma. Porta del Populo. Before leaving Florence, or if the stay there is likely to be too short, even before amving there, the traveller should send to Torlonia, or any other banker to whom he is accredited at Rome, to desire that a Lascia Passare may be forwarded to the frontier by which he intends entering the Papal States ; if by the Sienna road, at Ponte Centino ; and if by Perugia, at the Monte Spelonca ; and also another to be left at the Porta del Populo on enter- ing Rome : it will save delay and examination of luggage, particularly in Rome, where a visit to the Dogana de Terra, to be searched, instead of going N 122 FLORENCE TO ROME. to the hotel at once, is an annoyance which should be avoided. Pontassieve, li posts. from Florence, li posts. Incisa, li do. do. 3 do. San Giovanni, 1 do. do. 4 do. Levane, I do. do. 5 do. Ponteciuo, 1 do. do. 6 do. Arezzo, 1 do. do. 7 do. There are two roads from Florence to Rome ; that by Sienna is the shortest by 4i posts, but it is the least interesting. It is usual to go to Rome from Florence by one road, and return by the other ; in going, that by Perugia is generally prefen-ed ; this ascends the upper Val d' Amo by a fine road on the right bank of the river, and follows the course of a considerable detour of the Arno to Incisa, where it crosses the river and falls mto another road that leads direct from Florence to Incisa, through San Do- nato, which, though it is the shortest, is not so much followed, as it avoids the Val d' Arno until it reach Incisa ; it is also more hilly. The drive by Pontas- sieve is very beautiful : the mountains which boimd the valley approach nearer : the wooded hills round Vallombrosa, and the mountain-ridge which separates the traveller from Camaldoli, are rich and beautiful features in the landscapes of the valley, wliich is highly cultivated, and abounds in neat villas and villages. The Arno is crossed at Incisa, a little town, where the patrimonial property of the family of FLORENCE TO ROME. 123 Petrarch gives to the town an importance in the eyes of its inhabitants of which they rarely fail to boast. The road thence continues on the left bank of the Arno through Figline, San Giovanni, and Montevarchi, amidst scenes of great richness, and a luxuiiance of vegetation scarcely surpassed elsewhere in Italy. The mountain-slopes produce some of the finest wines ; and the proprietors appear to be opulent and independent. These are seen to advantage on the market-days, especially at Montevarchi, the largest of these bourgs, or, as they are here called, j)aesi. The road then traverses Lavane, and gradu- ally leaves the Arno on the left. A basin in the Appennines, formed between the great chain and the Monte Prato-Magno, in which lies the source of the Arno, encloses in its deep and secluded recesses the famous Convents of Camaldoli and La Verna; places of pilgrimage to the lovers of wild and picturesque scenery, but too far removed and difficult of access for common-place sight-hunters. Vallombrosa, situated on the steep slopes of the Monte Prato-Magno, towards Florence, and distant from the city only about eighteen miles, is frequently visited. The singular beauty of the scenery within its precincts, and of the views from it, especially from the Her- mitage of Paradisino, richly repay the visitor for the trouble of going there. The course of the Arno, fi'om its source, is at first towards the south-east ; afterwards, flanking the mountain, it passes round its base, and for a long way, from Levane to Pon- tassieve, follows a course generally north-west. 124 FLORENCE TO ROME. At Prataiitico, near Arezzo, the road crosses the Canal Maestro della Chiana, which descends to the Arno through the beautiful Val Chiana, now the most fertile land in Tuscany, though before the formation of the canal it was a pestilential marsh ; it was thus drained by order of Pope Clement VII. Shortly after the traveller reaches Arezzo, a town of great antiquity, famed as the birth-place of many dis- tinguished men, — MjBcenas, Petrarch, Vasari, Leo- nardo Arentino, the historian, Guido, the inventor of musical notation ; and of worthless great, a still longer list. The pride of the Aretins in the names associated with their country, is strangely displayed by honorary tablets, seen in almost every street, upon houses, inscribed with the names of those who were born, or had lived there. One is to a " Marchese Borro, il terrore del Turchi ;" another, " Qiii Melpomene educd V incomparibile Sgricci." The Loggia, in which is the custom-house, and the Church of St. Maria della Pieve, are the works of Vasari. In a vast chapel adjoining the cathedral are two immense pictures : one by Sabatelli, Abigail meeting David ; and the other, the finest work of modern art in Italy, Judith shewing the head of Holofernes, by Benvenuto.* The neighbourhood of Arezzo produces a rich * Of these pictures the flippant Lady M. remarks, " Its walls are decorated by some of the disciples of the modern school of Lom- bardy ! and depicted with tempting Abigails and tempted Davids, with too much fidelity to the frailty of both for the walls of a church." — " Of all the cants that are canted in this canting world," &c. &c. from Florence, 8i posts do. 9i do. do. 10| do. do. 11^ do. do. 13| do. FLORENCE TO ROME. 125 and delicious wine, the Aliatico, which is obtained from the half dried grape, yet is sold for two or three crazie (a penny or three half-pence) a bottle. Castiglione Firentino, 1^ post, Caiiiuscia, | do. Casa del Piano, li do. La Magione, 1 do. Perugia, H do. The same rich and beautiful character of scenery accompanies the traveller as he advances to Camu- scia. The ancient Etruscan town of Cortona, which is seen perched high above him on the left, on a hill enriched with forest trees, is worth a visit, if it be only to examine its Cyclopean walls, and enjoy the view from them, which extends even to the Mediter- ranean : the ascent, however, is difficult, and occasions so much delay, that few are gratified by going there ; but all who can accomplish it will be rewarded. From Camuscia, a road branches off to the right, which leads to Chiusi, formerly Clusium, an Etrus- can city, the residence of Porsenna ; and to Mon- tepulciano, where " // re del vino " is grown. When obtained in perfection, this wine is the finest in the world. Soon after leaving Camuscia, the last village of Tuscany, Ossaja, is passed, and the road ascends the Monte Spelonca, where there is the custom- house, on the frontiers of the Papal States. Here the Lascia Passare is necessary to avoid a search, though his Holiness's officers take bribes as readily as those of other states. 126 FLORENCE TO ROME. On arriving in the Roman States, the money again varies ; and, 10 Baiocchi equal to 1 Paul. 10 Pauls do. 1 Scudo, or Dollai 32 do. do. 1 Dojipia. 44 do. do. 1 Old Louis d'Or. 37 do. do. 1 Napoleon. 44 do. do. 1 Pound Sterling. The regulations for posting are the same as in Tuscany, except that the postilions are allowed by tarif three and a half pauls per post. The views from the descent are heightened by the waters of the Lake of Thrasymene. Beyond it lies the range of Montipulciano, and on the left the snowy mountains of Sibilla. The whole character of the objects arovmd are of surpassing beauty ; and, as associated with the eventful advance upon Rome by Hannibal, and the victory of Thrasymene, of in- tense interest. Ossaja, said to be the burial place of thousands of the slain, and the little stream of Sanguinetta transmitting the horrors of that event- ful battle in its name to posterity, are looked upon as will be, in some future time, the field of Water- loo. The note on the battle of Thrasymene to Childe Harold, canto iv., admirably describes its localities. These associations with the history of Rome in misfortune, which accompany the first steps made in her now limited territory, accord with the de- gradation in which her people are in the present FLORENCE TO ROME. 127 day found. The squalid wretches who infest the traveller with the display of loathsome diseases to excite compassion and obtain charity, no sooner receive the poor pittance than a filthy monk extorts a part from the miserable wretch who has obtained it. Already the beggars have become worse than in Tuscany ; and the traveller has left behind him the appearance of independence in any of the people. Passing through some lovely scenes in descend- ing to the lake, the road continues along its shores, and through the miserable little villages of Passig- nano and Torricella ; it then ascends to the post- house of La Magione. The views from the ascent, looking back, are very beautiful : the broad ex- panse of the lake below, the rich woods on the mountain -slopes, and the distant hills which the traveller has skirted, form a charming landscape. From La Magione, the road descends steeply to the valley of the Caina, which it traverses ; it then, rising towards Perugia, whose massive fortress seems to threaten all who approach, the city is entered by a road so steep, that bullocks are always employed to aid the post-horses in reaching the gates. From its commanding situation the views looking out upon the surrounding valleys are enchanting. It is placed on the ridge of a mountain that divides the Val de Caina from the Valley of the Tiller, which is first seen here. La Posta is the only good inn at Perugia. The Hotel de Ville is a curious specimen of archi- tecture of the fifteenth century. The Cathedral is handsome, but without any important picture by the 128 FLORENCE TO ROME. native painter, Pietro Perugino ; who, though he has great inti'insic merit, owes a large share of his fame to his having been the master of Raphael. In the Gam- bia, or exchange of the town, there are some frescos of great merit, by Pietro : the finest of them is a picture of the Prophets and Sibyls : in this there is a portrait of Raphael, a handsome boy, as the Prophet Daniel. Of the merits of Pietro as a painter, a strange dif- ference of opinion exists : the modern Germans make him their model, and consider that Raphael became worse and worse as a painter from the moment he threw off the trammels which the dry manner of his master had imposed upon him. Perugia was one of the ancient Etrurian cities : it became a Roman colony seven centuries before the Christian era. St. Maria degli 1 , . ^, . ,,. >1 post. from Florence 14J posts. Foligno, 1 do. La Vene, 1 do. do. 15i do. do. 16| do. do. 174 do. Spoleto, 1 do. The descent from Perugia towards the Vale of the Tiber is as steep as on the side towards Fohgno. Having traversed the valley, the road crosses the Chiascia, and ascends by the Valley of the Topino, tributaries to the Tiber, towards the hamlet, and the Church of St. Maria degli Angelh. The latter, one of the finest works of Vignola, from which the hamlet takes its name, was destroyed by the earthquake of 1831, and its interior is now a fearful mass of ruins. FLORENCE TO ROME. 129 On the left of the road is seen Assisi, the birth-place of St. Francis and of Metastasio : its convents and monasteries have a grand and imposing appearance ; and to travellers not pressed for time, a visit to it will afford gratification, especially to antiquaries, as there are the fine remains of a Temple of Minerva, now the Church of San Filippini. Before arriving at Foligno, the route passes by the town of Spello, the ancient Hispellum, to which the Emperor Constan- tino, in the year 324, at the request of the in- habitants, gave the name of Flavia Constans. On one side of the gate is an inscription, " Porta Consularia Colonia Julia." Foligno has nothing within it to detain the traveller : the celebrated picture by Raphael, which was formerly here, has been removed to the Gallery of the Vatican. Evidence of the injuries to the buildings occasioned by the recent earthquake, within its range, is seen in the numerous temporary props against the walls. In Fohgno, these precautions had still in 1833 an alarming appearance. From Fohgno the road enters the Vale of the Clitumnus, through which that bright and beautiful stream meanders. Such milk-white cattle are still seen as were here formerly reared for sacrifices. Shortly before arriving at the post-house of La Vene, the exquisite little temple of white marble, dedicated to the river-god Clitumnus, is seen on the right hand side of the road which passes at the back of the temple, and it is very possible to go by without noticing it, as the portico is towards the o 130 FLORENCE TO ROME. valley, and above the little stream of Clitumnus. It has been used as a chapel, which, since the period of its consecration, has greatly tended to preserve it. It is an architectural gem, placed in the midst of a scene so tranquil and beautiful, that it might seem to be a dream of Paradise, but that the subjects of his Holiness destroy the illusion ; and the observer, who has indulged in a delightful reverie, is roused by the piteous clamours of a herd of miserable wretches, more starved, filthy, diseased, and deformed, than are to be found in any other country under heaven. The approach to Spoleto offers a rich promise of enjoyment to the picturesque traveller, in its towers, castles, and forest back-ground ; and few places afford so many grand and beautiful objects for the sketch- book—its old fortress, and its vast aqueduct, one of the loftiest known, spanning a ravine in which it is a singularly fine object when seen fi'om the various heights, make up with the beautiful country around them some of the finest landscapes in nature. Spoleto (Spoletium) was colonised by the Romans above 500 years before Christ. Its citizens boast much of their ancestors having repulsed Hannibal after the battle of Thrasymene. A gate is still preserved called the Porta Fuga, and an inscription records the event. The accounts, however, have this dis- crepancy : history says he was repulsed, and could not enter; the Spoletines say he was driven out, and that the name of this gate proves it. La Posta is a good inn at Spoleto. FLORENCE TO ROME. 131 Stettura, 1 post, from Florence, 18^ posts. Tenii, 1 do. do. 19i do. Soon after leaving Spoleto the road winds up the Monte Somma,* a tedious ascent, with its never- faihng accompaniment, a swarm of beggars. When the " tantafame /" and " Caritajjer la grazia di Dio .'" fail, flattery, amusingly applied, often succeeds. A set of unsuccessful young beggars, having once failed here, with the usual cant and cry, to obtain a baioccho from the ladies in an English carriage, suddenly stopped, and one of them, gazing with rapt admira- tion, exclaimed, " Che belli occlij ! Ah ! come sono belle queste donne Inglesi ! " This capital bit of per- formance provoked a hearty laugh, and loosened the purse-strings. The descent towards Terni is much wilder than on the other side of the mountain ; and the route, nearly the whole way to Terni, is through a savage, but picturesque glen. Few pass through it without thinking of its fitness for the haunts of banditti ; and not a face or figure is to be met in the journey through it, that removes the impression. There are several good inns at Terni : the Europa is excellent. The moment the traveller arrives, he is surrounded by applicants offering their cars and mules for an excursion to the Caduta del Marmore, the celebrated cataract, about four or five miles distant. The charge at the inn for a light carriage, to take four persons, is thirty-five pauls ; for the * The elevation of this pass is, on the authority of Sir George Shuckburgh, 3738 English feet above the sea. 132 FLORENCE TO ROME. driver six ; and if asses be taken to continue the excursion beyond where the carriage can be driven, four pauls each, which includes buono mano ; a cicerone for the party, who considers his services indispensable, seven pauls : to these are to be added fifty beggars, whose attendance must be bought off. The drive to the falls is very fine, especially near the village of Perpigno, which is perched on a rock in a striking situation ; but, from the mean and un- glazed windows, it seems to be inhabited only by the poor, the wretched, and, from the appearance of its inhabitants, the chshonest. On the left of the road, a point commands a fine view of the Valley of the Nera, or Nar, which is very picturesque. Beyond the village the road ascends the hill, passing some large old olive trees, and attains the top of the falls, where the scene is strikingly impressive. The vast mass of water gushing from its channel into the gulf below — the roar — the spray, wreathing and reeking up from the awful cauldron, are most appalling. If the visitor has sufiicient firmness of foot and stcacU- ness of head, and the demands are not serious upon either, he can descend, by a path which winds down among the tufo rocks, formed by the deposit of the waters of the Velino, to a building which has been erected opposite to the fall, and about one hundred feet below its summit, upon a jutting rock that over- hangs the abyss hundreds of feet, into which the water falls below. There is nothinsr more fearful to contemplate than the roar and the foaming of the waters as they pass the windows of this house FLORENCE TO ROME. 133 in their descent. It is " horribly beautiful." The first epithet applies to the cataract; the second to the Iris, which, whenever the sun shines, plays over this gulf of terror. An eternal verdure is spread over the rocks, promoted by the spray which con- stantly falls around. From the building a path leads down to the valley, which can be crossed by a bridge incrusted with calcareous deposit. From below, the view of the whole cataract is magnificent. The carriage, when the party leaves it to go to the top of the fall, is usually directed to be driven down into the valley, where it waits to take back the visitors through the grounds of the Villa Graziani to Terni. The whole scenery of the beautiful Valley of the Nera above the town is highly picturesque, each successive point giving some new and beautiful landscape to the traveller. This excursion, which occupies three or four hours, has no parallel in the grandeur and beauty of the class of objects which it commands ; and in describing them, even the pen of Lord Byron must be said to have failed. Narni, 1 post, from Florence, 20i posts. Otricoli, 1 do. do. 2]i do. Borghetto, | do. do. 22 do. Civita Castellana, | do. do. 22| do. The ruins of the colossal bridge of Augustus at Narni, which consisted of three large arches, is a fine example of such a Roman structure : one vast and lofty arch remains nearly perfect. The 134 FLORENCE TO ROME. scenery around Narni, and especially near this bridge, is very beautiful. The steep hills on each side of the river are richly wooded ; and down the stream, seen through the noble arch that remains, the Hermitage of St. Casciano rising among the woods, is an object of singular beauty. Narni is finely situated on a hill commanding an extensive Aiew of the Valley of the Nera, bounded in the distance by the Apennines. Near the town the river passes through a deep fissure in the rock, the sides of which, in many places, have been excavated, and the cells thus formed are inhabited. The old towers and walls of Narni are highly picturesque, and come admirably into view on leaving it to proceed towards Otricoli. The route now varies in character ; the prospect is extensive towards the south ; the oHve grounds are more numerous ; and from some high ground before reaching Otricoli, the Tiber is seen winding its course towards Rome. The prospect has a vast extent ; the old town is seen on a hill with a few towers and religious houses, and here the first \iew of Mont Soracte, rising above the Campagna, is obtained. Beyond Otricoli the scenes, though often beautiful, are less rich than on the confines of Tuscany. Before reaching Borghetto, the Tiber is crossed over a fine bridge built by Augustus, whose numerous structures of this class certainly entitled him to the distinction of Pontifex Maximus, which was assumed, and is still borne, by the priest-sovereigns of the " eternal city :" but, though a pope cannot boast of building this bridge, he does most pompously FLORENCE TO ROME. 135 of repairing it ; and many inscriptions indicate that Sixtus V. restored this fine work. Borghetto is a wretched place — an epithet that will apply with justice to nearly all the towns and villages in his Holiness's territory. Situated amidst the finest scenes, the heart sickens in looking upon the degraded state of man under the curse of a government which paralyses his energies. On approaching Civita Castellana, the deep ravine is observed through which a tributary to the Tiber flows. This gorge is crossed by a stupendous bridge, which Simond states is raised 250 feet above the stream. The effect of entering this place over the fearful depths of the ravine, and under the dark walls of the town, is impressive, and excites emotions of which description would fail to give the least idea. The sketch-books of travel- lers in Italy teem with the materials for landscape furnished at Civita Castellana. Its towers, convents, and fortress, the palace raised by Pope Alexander VI., now a state prison, its wall and aqueduct, the precipices overhanging its deep ravines, the Cam- pagna, and proximate Mont Soracte, afford endless combinations ; and the inns. La Posta and the Croce Bianca, may be endured for the pleasure of a short stay in so picturesque a spot. Nepi, 1 post. from Florence 23| posts Monterosi, ^ do. do. 24i do. Baccario, 1 do. do. 25i do. La Storta, 1 do. do. 26J do. Rome, li do. do. 27| do. 136 FLORENCE TO ROME. From Civita Castellana to Nepi and Monterosi, the road lies through the site of the ancient Ciminian forest ; and tliough the horrors of its darkness have ceased with its ahnost entire extirpation, still in many places the road has been cleared even of brushwood for about two or three hundred yards on each side, to destroy the means of concealment to brigands : but robberies are now of less frequent occurrence than formerly in the States of the Church. From Civita Castellana, the Flaminian Way con- tinues its course to the Milvian Bridge near Rome, passing through Rignano and Prima Porta. Until within these sixty years, it was the chief road to Rome from Civita Castellana; about that time the new branch to join the road from Viterbo to Rome, now generally followed, was made by order of Pius VI. Nepi is a miserable, though a picturesque, place ; but its dark walls, towers, and fort, overhanging a deep ravine, across which there is an ancient aqueduct, which still conveys water to the town, shew that its former importance must have been considerable. Though much of the country now passed through is uncultivated, it varies in hill and dell, rocks and underwood ; and is often beautiftil for the colours, as well as the forms, of its objects. Mont Soracte is a striking feature here, from its proximity to the route as it rises magnificently above the intervening Campagna. This character of the country continues to Monterosi, near to which the two roads from Florence to Rome, by Sienna and by Perugia, unite. FLORENCE TO ROME. 137 If circumstances should oblige the traveller to rest at Monterosi or at Baccano, let him decide in favom' of the best of the bad, and stay at Monterosi : the accommodations at either are what Colman calls " much of a muchness ; " but Monterosi has the advantage in point of salubrity. Baccano is situated in a hollow, near a little, foul, sulphureous pool, whose fetid odours infest the spot, and curse it with malaria. Soon after leaving Baccano, from some high ground, Rome, in the distance, presents itself, and seems to every traveller who sees it for the first time, to have been the sole object of his journey. The intense anxiety with which this speck in the Campagna is sought for from this point, and the feelings to which its discovery give rise, belong to that class which cannot be suppressed or afiFected, but by those who do not deserve to enjoy them. But even the appearance of St. Peter's, and the excitement which it raises, cannot subdue the painful contemplation of the desolate Campagna: the eye stretches over a scene of varied undulation to the distant Alban hills. Of pines, ilexes, underwood, broom, and rank grass, there are enough to shew that the withering spirit of the Campagna does not extend to its vegetation. Even the herds of buffaloes do not appear to be cursed with the malaria ; it bhghts only the energies of man, and mark, as with an awful retribution, the successors of that empire which op- pressed, like an incubus, the world it conquered. Here and there remains of fortified houses, and castles of the middle ages, are seen ; but deserted and worthless, p 138 FLORENCE TO ROME. except for a place in the sketch-book of the artist. The appearance of individual and social misery has accompanied the traveller ever since his entry into the States of St. Peter; even through the beautiful valleys of the Topino, the Clitumnus, and the Nera. Nothing flourishes but the church, the convent, and the priest : these rear their heads proudly and un- feehngly amidst the social desolation and wretched- ness they have so much aided to produce ; and, with impious presumption, dare to tell their besotted adherents that the patrimony of St. Peter is under the immediate protection of Heaven ! Through this scene of desolation the road winds and undulates : about three miles from Rome some ruins are passed, among others those of an ancient tomb, vulgarly reported to be Nero's ; but an inscrip- tion can yet be traced, which shews it to have been the sepulchre of P. Vibius Marianus. At length the road reaches the yellow Tiber, which is crossed at Ponto Mole, or Milvio, where the gi'cat battle was fought between Constantine and Maxentius, in which the latter was drowned, and the former gained an empire. Thence the route approaches the city, passing by numerous deserted villas and houses, and between their walls and gardens, until it arrives at the Porta del Populo, where the passports are demanded; and unless a Lascia Passare, directed by the traveller to await his arrival, be found here, the carriage will be accompanied to the Dogano de Terra for search. On the frontiers of the States bribery may evade this annoyance, but here such a FLORENCE TO KOME 139 leave to pass is absolutely necessary to avoid deten- tion and delay. The Piazza del Populo is a striking entrance to Rome. Beyond the obelisk are three streets ; the central one, the Strada del Corso, con- tinues direct to the capitol ; that on the right, the Strada di Ripetta, leads to the Tiber ; and the third, on the left, is the Strada del Babuino, leading to the Piazza di Spagna ; and tovv^ards the Monte Quirinale. In front, the three streets are divided by the Churches of St. Maria de Montesanto, between the Babuino and the Corso, and St. Maria di Mira- coh, between the Corso and the Ripetta. On the left side of the Piazza del Populo are the terraces leading up to the pubhc gardens on the Monte Pincio. The best hotels are found in the Piazza di Spagna, where the Europa, or les Isles Britanniques, are usually resorted to, until appartments are hired in the Via Condotti, or some other salubrious situation. 140 ROME. CHAPTER VII. Rome. Castle of St. Angelo. St. Peter's. The Vatican. The Tapestries. Gallery. Saloons of Raphael. Loggia. Michael Angelo. Capella Sistina. Museo Pio-Clementiiio. Apollo. Museum of the Capitol. Private Collections. Canova. Cam- pidoglia. The Forum. Views of Rome. Villas. Casino of Raphael. Monte Mario. German Painters. Promenade. Environs of Rome. What is to be seen first in Rome ? This is a question difficult to answer. The antiquary will say the Capitol — the Formn — the ruins of all that made Rome great. The artist will advise that you should first visit those productions of art which have given immortality to Michael Angelo, and to Raphael ; for the fame of men not only outlives their works, but even the cities in which they were pro- duced. But the attraction of Rome is the fortuitous union in the same place of the ruins of that city which has filled the world with her history, and of those W'Orks to which Italy and Rome gave birth after the restoration of those arts which she fostered. For such details of information as the visitor may require, the latest edition of Vasis' guide-book should be consulted. This road-book pretends not to supersede the use of the local guides which are published in important cities on this route : but such ROME. 141 impressions as particular objects made upon the anthor in his journey, he will notice ; and some things not usually pointed out, will thus, in addition to the well-known objects and places of interest, have the attention of the traveller particularly directed to them. From the Piazza di Spagna, the Strada di Con- dotti and the Via della Fontanella lead, through some narrow and dirty streets of the modern city, to the Piazza del Ponte, an open space opposite to the Castle of St. Angelo, anciently the tomb of Hadrian, to Avhich the bridge of St. Angelo, formerly the Pons Elius, leads across the Tiber. From it vestiges of the Pons Triumphalis can be seen, lower down the river. On the Castle of St. Angelo, the citadel of Rome, a colossal bronze figure of an angel sheathing a sword, is placed. It commemorates a pretended vision (real to those who believe it), which it is re- corded appeared to Pope Gregory the Great, during a grand procession which he had commanded in order to allay a pestilence then raging in Rome. On the arrival of the mob at the bridge, the de- stroying angel appeared on the Castle of Hadrian, sheathing his instrument of slaughter, and the plague was stayed. A festival in honour of the success of this favourite remedy of the Cathohc church, is held on its anniversary ; and either Leslie's tests fail, or this miracle must be believed. Beyond the castle, a walk of a few minutes leads to the Piazza di S. Pietro ; and places the visitor in sight of St. Peter's, the stupendous temple 142 ROME. of the Christian world. But there are few who can feel its vastness at first sight : the immense circular colonnade encloses so large a space, and the form is so unfavourable for judging of the scale of the entire structure of the church itself, that the effect of its magnitude is even less striking than that of St. Paul's from Ludgate-hill ; yet within the area, two large fountains, and a lofty obelisk, which, to- gether with a pedestal, is one hundred and ten feet in height, and seven feet four inches square in the middle, are almost lost. But where the human figure, or objects of known magnitude can fairly be brought into comparion with the builchng, its vast- ness is evident. A similar unconsciousness of its im- mensity seems to attach itself to visitors within the church who have not been taught its magnitude. A story is told of an Englishman who made a journey to Rome, and hurried to St. Peter's. He entered, and after gazing about with a look of dissatisfaction and disappointment, exclaimed, " What a humbug ! " and turned his back upon the principal object of his journey. Another thus apostrophised St. Peter's in a sonnet : — I feel no awe, St. Peter's, as I roam Among thy marble columns. The wild eye Wanders on painted glass and gilded dome, And all the trash in thy menagerie Of giant cherub and of dancing saint. Of smiling martyr, and of sleeping beast ; Mosaic virgins, beauties without paint Or clothes — or some but lately clothed at least. I ROME. 143 Thou hast a climate of thine own, unlike The common breeze of heaven ; a perfum'd air And incens'd gales, which on the senses strike, And overpower them ere they are aware. I'd dance, but cannot worship, — so good bye. Thou boudoir of a dandy deity." With a thousand times more justness of feehng, and of power, the genius of Byron has recorded the impressions which he received on visiting this glorious structure ; neither disgusted by the tawdry ceremonies of the Cathohc ritual, nor disappointed by the effect of the magnitude of the church, though he also was evidently strvick with the first impression being inferior to his anticipations : he says, in canto iv. of Childe Harold, — " Enter : its grandeur overwhelms thee not ; And why ? it is not lessened ; but thy mind. Expanded by the genius of the spot. Has grown colossal, and can only find A fit abode wherein appear enshrined Thy hopes of immortality. * * * * * " Thou movest — but increasing with the advance, Like climbing some great Alp which still doth rise, Deceived by its gigantic elegance ; Vastness which grows — but grows to harmonise — All musical in its immensities ; Rich marbles — richer painting — shrines where flame The lamps of gold — and haughty dome which vies In air with Earth's chief structures, though their frame Sits on the firm-set ground — and this the clouds must claim. r 144 ROME. " Thou see'st not all ; but piecemeal thou must break To separate contemplation, the great whole ; And as the ocean many bays must make That ask the eye — so here condense thy soul To more immediate objects, and control Thy thoughts until thy mind hath got by heart In eloquent proportions, and unroll Its mighty graduations, part by part, The glory which at once upon thee did not dart, " Not by its fault- — but thine : Our outward sense Is but a gradual grasp — and as it is That which we have of feeling most intense, Outstrips our faint expression ; even so this Outshining and o'erwhelming edifice Fools our fond gaze, and greatest of the great Defies at first our nature's littleness, 'Till, growing with its growth, we thus dilate Our spirits to the size of that they contemplate. " Then pause, and be enlightened ; there is more In such a survey than the sating gaze Of wonder pleased, or awe which would adore The worship of the place, or the mere praise Of art and its great master's, who could raise What former time, nor skill, nor thought, could plan ; The fountain of sublimity displays Its depth, and thence may draw the mind of man Its golden sands, and learn what great conceptions can." The magnitude of St. Peter's is generally antici- pated fi-om accounts of its measurements, and the common mode of attempting to convey an idea of its size, by a print well known of its section, which entirely includes that of St. Paul's. But actual ob- servation renders it difficult to believe that this can ROME. 145 be true, so admirably has regard been paid to the beautiful and relative proportion of every part. The " giant cherubs" which support the basins that con- tain the holy water do not appear gigantic until the visitor sends his cicerone, or a friend, to stand by them, when the man dwindles to the size of an infant. On the spandrels of the arches which support the dome, the Evangelists are painted : the pen in the hand of one of these is said to be eighteen feet long ! but such is the proportion to the whole, that it does not appear colossal ; and the high altar of bronze which rises above the tomb of St. Peter, obtained by stripping the Pantheon, is one hundred and twenty feet in height ; a tower of metal which, without the building, would appear a wonder of art from its vastness,^ — within, strikes no one with an idea of its true elevation. The tombs of the popes, and some of the mosaic pictures, are in this immense pro- portion ; yet the copies thus placed, of the Trans- figuration by Raphael, and the Communion of St. Jerome, after Domenichino, do not appear at first sight to be enlarged even to those who may have had, within half an hour, an opportunity of seeing the originals. When, upon great festivals of the church, certain relics are shewn from an opening above the Evangelists, to the devotees crowded in the nave below, the observer may be told that it is the handkerchief of Sta. Veronica, impressed with the face of the Saviour! but it can no more be dis- tinguished at that height, than the incredulous finger of St. Thomas could be at the distance of fifty feet, Q 14G ROME. There is one anomalous object within the churcli, which, instead of increasing the effect of the vastness of the surrounding objects, merely suffers diminu- tion into a dark speck : this is an old bronze statue of Jupiter, converted by the dictum of some pope into a statue of St. Peter ; which is an object of ado- ration to the Cathohcs, who have worn away the toe by kisses, so frequent in their contemptible devotion, that it is said to have been many times renewed. Yet how splendid this temple for the gaudy ceremonies of a religion of display ! The festivals of the Catholic church are here most striking : the solemn effect of the music — the fragrance of the incense — the gorgeous pomp of the procession of cardinals and their attendants- — the presence of the pope, who alone seems to be the object of wor- ship, — and at Easter the illumination of the interior by a cross, sixty feet high, covered with lamps, and suspended from the ceiling at the end of the nave, can never be described so as to convey a correct idea of the effect of the scene and the ceremony. Among the tombs in St. Peter's, many are monuments of the popes and cardinals. That to the memory of the Cardinal York, the last of the Stuarts, is by Canova, who has enriched St. Peter's with many of his best works. One of these, the tomb of Pope Clement XIII., is very fine. The golden rays from the head of the figure of Religion are, perhaps, not in the sober keeping of monumental sculpture. The crouching lion at her feet is grand ; but the colossal kneeling figure of the pope is one of I ROME. 117 Canova's finest works. The monument of Paul III., by Delia Porta, displays the female form so luxuri- ously in the figure of Immortality, that bronze drapery has been added, since its erection, to con- ceal a part of her figure. The fat and vulgar works of Bernini too often here thrust themselves upon the observer, in monumental or decorative scidpture, in sprawling allegorical figures or flabby Brobdignag cherubs. But, in spite of these, the grandeur and richness of the whole of this stupendous edifice, will make the mind wonder at its reality ; yet, though it may astonish by its vastness and splendour, it will fail to produce the deep religious awe which arises from the contemplation of the sacred structures of Gothic architecture. The double and padded doors and curtains which close the entrances to St. Peter's, and other large chm'ches at Rome, and generally in Italy, keep the air in the interior at so equal a temperatm'e, that the variation for the whole year does not probably amount to 10°, whilst the variation without ranges through at least 80". This is adverted to merely to caution \'isitors against entering it in summer after having been heated outside, or leaving it in winter vdthout some extra covering, to guard against the cold. These violent changes are among the most frequent causes of dangerous illness in Rome. Leaving St. Peter's, we may enter the Palace of the Vatican close beside it, by a flight of stairs, the Scala Regia, the walls of which used formerly to be hung on the festival of Corpus Domini, with the 148 ROME. tapestries wrought after the cartoons of Raphael ; but when General Miollis and the French Vandals sacked Rome in 1798, these tapestries were sold to a Jew at Genoa, by whom they were bought upon specula- tion to biam, for all the bright lights in them are wrought with silver thread : the Jew had prudence enough to burn one only, and he found fi'om it that he had made a bad bargain. He then speculated upon the chance of the return of papal power to Rome, saved the remaining tapestries carefully, and upon the restoration of Pius VII. was handsomely rewarded by his Holiness for their preservation. The subject of the tapestry thus destroyed by the Jew was the Limbo — the descent into hell ; but the design is still preserved in the engraving by Ludovico Sommerau. These fine compositions are now placed in the Chambers of Pius V., in the Vatican, and amount to twenty -two subjects, by Raphael ; besides an allegorical group supporting the arms of Leo. X. by another artist. Few of the compositions of Raphael surpass some of these tapestries ; the Resurrection, in particular, is unrivalled ; and to judge of the varied expression of terror in the soldiers, as seen in the tapestry, in spite of the miserable copy which the material affords, the original cartoon must have been one of the finest of his works. The vulgar error, that there were only twelve originally made for tapestries, is contradicted by the fact, that there now remain twenty-one of the pieces which have been wrought in the loom from Raphael's cartoons ; the twenty-second was ROME. 149 the Limbo. This is the number stated in the most ancient account known of these tapestries. Of the originals, the cartoons from which they were ex- ecuted, a few pieces only exist besides the seven complete ones which we fortunately possess in England. The galleries in the order in which they are arranged will not be adverted to, but rather in the classes of art which they contain. Since the restora- tion to Rome of many of the fine pictures stolen by the French when they possessed Italy, a suite of rooms in the Vatican has been appropriated to them ; and here are to be found the Transfiguration, and the Madonna di Foligno by Raphael, and the Com- munion of St. Jerome by Domenichino : these alone would make an unrivalled collection ; but nearly every picture in this gallery has deserved celebrity, and forms, with the other works of art, the great attraction in this city which attracts the world. Days of contemplation may be given to the saloons of Raphael in the Vatican, and the study of his great works — the School of Athens, the Theo- logy, the Parnassus, the Hehodorus, the Attila, the Incendia del Borgo, and other celebrated pictures, in which the marvellous powers of this extraordinary painter are seen unrivalled in the greatest attain- ments in art, — expression, and character, — except by himself in some of his other works. Another display of his genius is to be found in the Loggia of the Vatican, the open arcade or gallery, where the columns, the pilasters, and the arches. 150 ROME. are enriched by the most elegant arabesques, teeming with exquisite fancies of figures, animals, flowers, fruit, and tracery ; a class of art which Raphael was led to adopt upon the discovery, in his day, of the remains of rich arabesques in the ruins of the baths of Titus. He also painted, in the square compart- ments in the domes, a series of sacred subjects, fifty-two in number, well known, from engra\ings, by the name of " Raphael's Bible." The exposure to the air, even in an Itahan climate, has unfortunately been destructive to many of these delicate designs : some are almost entirely obliterated. Mr. Nash lately employed artists to make copies of many portions of these beautiful arabesques : they were faithfully executed, and will probably preserve their remembrance when the originals are destroyed. Another part of the Vatican decorated by Raphael is the Hall of the Zodiac, in which the ceiUng is painted from his designs with astronomical gi'oups, figui'es, emblems, and arabesques. In every turn of the Vatican the visitor is re- minded of the master-mind which has charmed and delighted the observers within these walls during three centuries. Michael Angelo only divides with him the throne of art ; but his admirers are fewer than Raphael's, since those who prefer a smile to a shudder are more numerous. The works of M. Angelo produce a sublime effect, but no sympathy ; whilst the looker-on can associate in feeling with the expression of the beautiful creations of Raphael. The powers of neither the one nor the other of ROME. 151 these great men can be fairly appreciated out of Rome ; of M. Angelo, certainly not. Raphael, as a dramatic painter, may be estimated from the car- toons at Hampton Court ; but where shall we find the exquisite fancy which can rival his works in the Loggia, and the classical inventions and subhme characters seen in Rome, in the Psyche and the Galatea of the Farnesini, and the Prophets and Sibyls in the Church of the Pace ? The grand paintings by Michael Angelo in the Capella Sistina, rank among the highest productions of the human mind ; and inasmuch as emotions excited by the sublime are more impressive than those produced by the beautiful, these awful works have always been regarded as the most powerful creations of art. The Last Judgment, however, though springing from the mind and hand of M. Angelo, is shewn to be no fit subject for pictorial representation. The mind is so subdued in attempt- ing to reflect upon it as a fact, is so appalled by the subject, that, instead of this picture aiding the fearful emotions to which it gives rise, it rather appeases them. There are devils, and tormentors, and suffering ; but the selections for heaven are so partial, since none appear to be there without a Catholic passport, or who have been flayed, or grilled, or shot, that the fear of such companionship becomes a dread, and creates disgust. Great knowledge of the human form is dis- played in the figures, and in the invention of the groups, especially in the middle and lower part of 152 ROME. the picture ; and though the drawing verges upon excess of anatomical display, few pictures can be studied with more advantage to the painter. But the Prophets and Sibyls in the ceiling will raise the imagination of the observers to a perception of dig- nity in character which has rarely, if ever, been impressed without the aid of M. Angelo, especially in those grand conceptions of Joel, of Ezekiel, of Jeremiah, and of the Delphic Sibyl. The groups and figures in the lunettes and spandrels are also full of dignity and grandeur : and in the square compartments of the ceiling, if the attempt to portray the Almighty be pardoned, how sublime is the Creation ! and how beautiful is Adam, to whom life is imparted by the touch of his Maker! Nor are there wanting proofs of the perception of female loveliness. Eve, in the Temptation, is fidl of grace and beauty. In the Capella Paolina are two other pictures by Michael Angelo — the Conversion of St. Paul, and the Crucifixion of St. Peter : the latter is the best, but both are very inferior to his works in the Sistine Chapel. They are greatly injured by the smoke of the tapers burnt here on some of the solemn festivals of the church. Similar mischief has also been done to the frescos in the Sistina. The numerous galleries, porticos, halls, and saloons, conidors, museums, and libraries, filled with pictures, statues, and antiquities, which form the suite of pubHc rooms in the Palace of the Vatican, exceed all behef, and, it is asserted, extend in length above ROME. 153 a mile. The sculpture is not, like the productions of the sister art, due to Italian genius alone. Here, however, are some of the works of Canova ; and the Apollo itself is of qviestionable country, for the marble is Italian ; but this statue, together with the Laocoon, and other magnificent examples of Greek art, have given a fame to the galleries of sculpture in the Vatican which is unrivalled. The Apollo Belvidere is a wondrous production, one of the brightest sparks that genius ever struck from stone : its perfection is in the realised conception by the sculptor of what Apollo ought to be, the truth of which is universally felt. No other statue in existence displays in its action so much dignity and grace ; but it is not faultless, though critical rhapsody has pronounced its faults to be beauties. The rounded surface, without any indication of the swelling of the muscles, by which alone the action of the figure could have been produced or sustained, is a defect. Manly beauty has been the basis of its form ; and the power to move, as in man, should have been evident : but this beautiful conception is a fixture, and the observer is unable to understand that such a figure ever had the power of assuming its present attitude, or to imagine that it could be changed. Apollo is represented as a man ; there- fore, if the form of the statue does not represent his power to move, it must be a defect. Such in- dications of the power of motion might have been added to this beautiful conception, and increased the beauty with the truth of the statue. Yet, because R 154 ROME. no beautifully formed man could have the faults of the Apollo, these faults are said to have raised it above humanity. A ram.ble in the galleries among the busts and statues of departed greatness, is one of the most interesting visits that can be paid, — a sort of com- panionship with men vv^hose minds we have com- muned with in their history and their works. It is gratifying to Englishmen to notice that the bas-relief, Ulysses attacking the Suitors, over the entrance to the Museo Pio-Clementino, is copied, from the illustrations of the Odyssey, by our dis- tingixished countryman Flaxman. In the Museum of the Capitol is another col- lection, chiefly of sculpture ; which, raised from the ruins of the city, of the repubhc, and of the empire, displays to us, like the fragments of a column the scale of the temple to which it belonged, the riches of Rome in works of art in the days of her splendour. Here is the Etruscan bronze Wolf, suckling Romulus and Remus, called the Wolf of the Capitol : and in a series of crowded apartments, one is devoted to the busts and statues of the emperors, another to those of the philosophers ; one is named from a celebrated statue like that of the Fawn, another from a work better known — the Dying Gladiator. There is also in this musevun a collection of pic- tures, far inferior, however, to that of the Vatican. This museum is open only on Mondays and Thurs- days. But though the museums of the Capitol and ROME. 155 the Vatican may be said to contain the national collections of art, so profusely are works of the highest class dispersed about Rome, in the churches, palaces, and villas, that the whole may be considered as a vast museum. Among the collections of pictures not belonging to the government, that in the Palazzo Borghese is one of the finest. Among its chef- d'ceuvres are the Entombment, by Raphael ; and the Sports of Diana, by Domenichino : but the palaces of the Corsini, Sciarra, Doria, Colonna, Bracciano, Farnese, and Spada, contain, with much trash, many capital pictures. In the Farnesini are the fine frescos of Pysche, by Raphael, and his beautiful Triumph of Galatea. The Palazzo Falconieri con- tains a celebrated collection belonging to Cai'dinal Fesche, the vmcle of Napoleon : it possesses some beautiful pictures by Correggio, and one of the finest of Rembrandt's oil sketches — St. John Preaching. Many of the best pictures in Rome are dispersed in churches and villas, and must be separately sought. The Sibyls and Prophets by Raphael in the Church of Sta. Maria della Pace, are equal to any of his glorious productions ; and in the Chvu'ch of St. Agos- tino is his fine picture of the Prophet Isaiah. In the Church of San. Gregorio are two rival pictures by Domenichino and by Guido ; the Flagel- lation of St. Andrew by the former, and the Cruci- fixion of the same saint by the latter : they ai'e frescos, deservedly celebrated. There is also in the Villa Ludovisi, the Aurora, by Guercino ; and in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, the same subject by 156 KOME. Guido : the latter, one of his finest works, and far superior to that of his rival. A picture by Guido is preserved in the Church of the Capucins, the Arch- angel Michael enchaining Satan ; to which fashion, or critical cant, has given high reputation : it is a perfect representation of what Vestris or Albert would have performed in a hallet : whatever sublimities the imagination might give birth to by a description of the struggle, an idea of the ridiculous only is excited by the picture. Among the sculpture dispersed in Rome, the Moses, by Michael Angelo, part of the Tomb of Julius II. in the Church of St. Pietro in Vinculo, on the Esquiline Hill, is one of the grandest of his works : it is colossal, and full of energy ; but does not, according to a catechism, give the observer the least idea of the " meekest man." There is an example of sculpture by Raphael, interesting from the fact that it is his^ — a figure of Jonah, in the Church of Sta. Maria del Popolo. Many works by Canova exist in Rome : one of I the grandest of his heroic figures is in the Bracciano j Palace — Hercules throwing Lycus into the Sea. \ There has lately been introduced into England a small bronze, nearly a facsimile in design, either copied/ro/M the Hercules of Canova, or it has been copied by him : it is said, however, to be as old as M. Angelo, and is even attributed to him. Injustice has, perhaps, been done to the memory and talent of Canova in this case, as well as in the opinion held of his heroic works, which are not generally consi- ROME. 157 dered his finest : it has been a favourite designa- tion to call him " The Sculptor of the Graces." As a matter of fact he has made a group of these ladies, but it only represents the graces of the ballet resting themselves. The studio of Thorwalsden the sculptor should not be omitted by a visitor to Rome, nor that of our talented countryman, Gibson. To the antiquities of Rome the latest edition of Vasi is the best guide- book ; and if more antiquarian research, or at least higher critical authority be required, Nibby's work may be consulted. A visit to the Campidogho will bring nearly all the striking features and places of interest in ancient Rome at once under the eye of the observer. The tower on the Capitoline Hill overlooks the ancient Forum, now the Campo Vaciuo ; and there are few spots upon earth where an observer would so soon be- come intensely absorbed in reflections upon the objects around him. Ruins and buildings, resting on the seven hills upon which Rome stood, mark their places in the panorama. Some of the remains of ancient Rome are seen lingering amidst the churches of the modern Babylon ; but the focus of the most interesting view is in the direction of the Forum and the Via Sacra. There, immediately below the observer, are the temples of Fortune, of Jupiter Tonans, of Antoninus and Faustina, of Jupiter Sta- tor, (or, as antiquaries have lately conjectured, of the Comitium). The temples of Romulus and of Remus, now converted into the Churches of S.S. Cosmo and 158 ROME. It Damiano, and of Saint Theodore. The Temple of Peace, and the Temple of Venus and Rome ; the Arches of Septimius Severus, of Titus, and of Con- stantine. The Column of Phocas, and the Colosseum. The Baths of Titus, of Dioclesian, and of Caracalla. The Aventine, the Cfelian, the Esquiline, the Vimi- nal, and the Palatine Mounts ; the latter covered with the ruins of the palaces of Nero and of Au- gustus. The Basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Ma- ria Maggiore, San Sebastiano (where are the cata- combs of Rome), and Santa Croce, in Gerusalemme. The walls of the city also are seen, and numerous objects of antiquarian interest beyond them, such as the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, the Temple of Bacchus, and the Vale of Egeria; the immensely -lengthened aqueducts, which stretch their long lines across the solitary Campagna, and seem to connect the city with the beautiful ranges of the Alban hills, which are seen, from Palestrina to Albano, including the sites of Subiaco, Frascati, Tivoli, Grotto Ferrata, the Camp of Hannibal, and the Monte Cavo, and Castel- Gondolfo ; a list of objects, ranging themselves within an angle of 100 degrees, with which the history of twenty centuries is associated, and which throws back the mind upon events, within that period, which had their origin in the most debased or the noblest — the most heartless or the most tender — the most venial or the most patriotic im- pulses that ever prompted the mind or the power of man to evil or to good. Of the views of Rome there are many picturesque wi ROME. 159 points, whence the old or the modern city may be seen to advantage. From the Tower of the Capitol it is panoramic ; the view from the Monte Mario in- cludes the windings of the Tiber ; that from the Quirinal Hill is fine near the Pope's Palace, where the colossal statues of Castor and Pollux form a grand foreground to that part of the modern city which includes St. Peter's and the Vatican, and the distant Monte Mario. Many of the villas near the city are interesting to visit, either for their situation, or the works of art which they contain. That of the Borghese possesses a celebrated gallery of sculpture ; and its grounds, which have a circuit of nearly three miles, exhibit one of the finest examples, in the immediate neigh- bourhood of Rome, of what is called, in Italy, English gardening ! Within a short distance of the giounds of the Villa Borghese there is a spot sacred to art, — to which every lover of painting should make a pilgrim- age. It is the Casino of Raphael, his country- house. It consists chiefly of three rooms deco- rated by himself with elegant arabesques. One of these, said to be that in which he slept, is a delightful chamber, which looks out upon a little sheltered lawn. In this room Raphael's fancy has sported. Nothing can exceed the whimsical and beautiful gambols of the children that he has introduced, revelling in the tendrils and festoons of his arabesque scrolls and flowers ; which, light as gossamer, appear only strong enough to support and sustain such spiritual beings as form the court of Queen Mab. The cornice is 160 ROME. supported by Caryatides, in fresco ; the roof is coved, and contains four medallion portraits of his beloved Fornarina. There are also three subjects painted on the roof; on one side is the marriage of Alexander and Roxana, — a graceful composition. Opposite to it is the subject well known as " Archers shooting at Nature," and attributed oddly enough, in the engraving from it, to Michael Angelo. The chief picture in this apartment is in the centre, — a sacrifice to Flora ; it is a beautiful work, which the author believes is not known from any engraving. How delightful must have been the meetings here of the pupils and the friends of Raphael ! The Villa Madama, situated on the ascent to the Monte Mario, now nearly in ruins, was built after a design of Raphael ; and enough remains of the embellishments to shew how beautiful it has been. The view of Rome from the Villa is now the chief attraction to the spot. Among the recent paintings in Rome, the most distinguished are the productions of the German artists, whose works ought to be seen by every visitor there. Some fine examples are in the Villa Massimi, which has been painted in fresco with sub- jects drawn from the great poets of Italy : by Over- beck, from Tasso ; by Schnorr, from Ariosto ; and by Veite and Koch, from Dante. In the Casa Bar- tholdi is the History of Joseph, painted also in fresco : the picture of the " Seven Years of Famine," by Overbeck, is one of the finest works of art, of the highest class, that has been produced since the ROME. 161 days of Raphael. These Germans are encouraged by the states of Bavaria, of Prussia, and of Wirtemberg, to restore art to its true dignity ; for however well a bank of mud, a cottage, a cobbler's stall, or a vulgar head of one whose biography will never be known beyond the bounds of his own parish, may be painted, such productions add nothing to national honour, nor to individual reputation beyond the little day and circle of the painter himself; whilst the art, pursued as the Germans are now encouraged to paint for their country, the glory of the nation and the painter may form epochs in the history of the world, as they have already distinguished the ages of Pericles and of Leo X. The chief promenade of modern Rome is upon the Pincian Hill, and in the gardens upon it attached to the Villa Medici, now the French Academy. There the English generally walk ; and even in the cold, damp, winter days, when the sun shines, are tempted to go there by its warmth, which, to invalids, who ought not to be in Rome, is often fatally attractive ; for the variations of temperature observable within five hundred yards of the hill, and the interval of a few hours, sometimes exceeds twenty degrees. This vicissitude in the winter, and the fatal influence of the malaria, which in the summer and autumn spreads from the Campagna over parts of Rome, render it necessary, if it be visited by persons in dehcate health, that the situation of a residence be well chosen, and that precautions be used against the sudden and great changes of temperature to s 162 ROME. which it is occasionally liable. Those who desire to remain in this part of Italy during August and September, almost invariably spend those months in the Sabine mountains ; and retire to such lovely scenery as can scarcely elsewhere be found. Tivoli, with all its classical and local attractions, so near to Hadrian's Villa, to Tusculum, and to Vicovaro and Subiaco, in the vale of the Anio : but neither these, nor Frascati, Albano, or Aricia, can be justly described : no scenes are more beautiful for the land- scape painter, or are cherished by those who have visited them with more gratifying recollections. Travellers to Rome usually supply themselves with reminiscences of their visit there in the form of mosaics, shell cameos, sulphur casts, and other productions peculiar to the modern Romans, as well ^ as bronzes, terra cottas, and other relics of their ■, ancient state, and prints of ruins, views, and cos- tumes. G. Barberi's mosaics, and the casts and imi- tations from gems by Paoletti, are reputed the best. , Girometti is the most eminent engraver of cameos : in gems and on shells ; Vescovali keeps a collection ' of antiquities on sale ; and prints may be obtained ' of Scudalari. Pinelli's etchings of the costume and character of Rome and Southern Italy are the most spirited and accurate. It may be useful here to guard travellers against dishonest dealers in cameos, vases, terra cottas, and bronzes. Knaves make, and sell as genuine every day, such objects of virtu. They may be beau- tiful, and worth possessing; but not at the price ROME. 163 usually paid for them as antiques. Another set of fellows infest Rome — dealers in pictures by the old masters : bad copies and worthless trash are vamped up and sold under great names to dupes, who, in nineteen cases out of twenty, are English travellers. These dealers are the " demons" who whisper " Visto ! have a taste ! " They pour out their jargon about schools and styles, utter a few technical words and phrases, and make with the hand or the finger, a flourish of unmeaning mystery. These tricks too readily persuade their victims that the thickest part of their skulls is the organ of taste, instead of the developement of gulli- bility ; and the dealers' slang of their calling is taken for critical acumen upon the merits of a picture as a work of art. In literature thev manasfe these things better : the seller confines his remarks upon a rare book to its date — the printer — and its scarcity. He never presumes to become a critic upon the literary merits of a work he recommends : not that the ability to do so is incompatible with his attain- ments as an individual, but it is not necessarily connected with his trade or calling. But in regard to pictures, dealers have the conceit and impudence to believe and persuade their dupes that their cri- tical opinion is of more worth than the judgment of painters ; though the knowledge of the school or master, which may result from experience, is all the credit they ought to claim, and places them, when they are honest enough to be so classed, only on 164 ROME. a level with those ■who deal in- Elzevir and Aldine editions. Almost every article of English goods, which the Enghsh are desirous should be genuine, such as medicine, stationary, &c. may be obtained of Mr. W. Lowe, in the Piazza de Spagna ; and goods to be sent to England from Rome may be intrusted with perfect confidence to the care of Mr. J. del Bosco, at Torlonia and Go's. ► H w I 1=1 PART FIFTH. ROME TO NAPLES. CHAPTER VIII. Routes. Departure from Rome. Brigands. Albano. Velletri. Pontine Marshes. Terracina. Frontier. Fondi. Mola di Gaeta. Cicero. Garigliano. Sessa. Capua. Naples. Museo Borbonico. Excursions. Baiae. Herculaneum and Pompeii. There are now two carriage-roads from Rome to Naples : one, which has long been travelled by way of the Pontine Marshes ; the other, that which passes through Firentino and San Germano. The latter has recently been much improved ; and that portion of it which is within the Neapolitan States is admirable : it leaves Rome by the Porta Maggiore, enters the mountains between Frascati and Tivoli, passes near Palestrina, skirts the valley of the Sacco, a branch of the ancient Liris, and proceeds by Frosinone and San Germano to Capua. This route affords to the 166 HOME TO NAPLES. traveller an opportunity of visiting s6me Pelasgic re- mains of the highest antiquity, and of enjoying mag- nificent scenery in the mountains. But post-houses are not yet established ; nor, except at Frosinone, are there yet good inns : but these are in the course of construction ; and in a short time it will become the custom of travellers betw^een Rome and Naples, to go by one road and return by the other. Some years ago, when robberies on the fron- tiers of the Ecclesiastical and Neapolitan States were so very frequent that this journey was gene- rally undertaken with dread, travellers were cautious, even in drawing from their bankers the fimds neces- sary for the journey, to conceal their object ; they crept out of Rome as quietly as possible, frequently left their own carriages there, and hired vetturini, in the hope that less display might ensure a safer journey ; for it was generally believed that those who were robbed had been waited for by bi-igands, in consequence of information having been sent to them by their agents in Rome who knew of the in- tended departure of travellers. One piece of policy frequently adopted was, to start as soon as possible after having heard of a robbery, from the behef that it was then safer, as the soldiers and sbirri, in pursuit of the brigands, would, for a time, keep the road clear. These precautions are now unnecessary, as such outrages are of rare occurrence ; the brigands have disappeared, and the journey is deprived of the " dignity of danger." If it be made by post, an ROME TO NAPLES. 167 authority for post-horses from the post-master of the Pontifical States is necessary. Torre di Mezza Via, 1 1 posts, from Rome li posts. Albano, 1 do. do. 2| do. Gensano, | do. do. 3^ do. Velletri, 1 do. do. 41 do. On leaving Rome for Naples the traveller passes out by the Church of St. John Lateran, and issues from the Porta San Giovanni upon the Campagna, where desolation is almost immediately apparent. The magnificent ruins of the Claudian and other aqueducts, spanning the waste with innumerable arches — the ranges often broken in their course, but traceable until almost lost in the Alban Hills, — and the remains of several ancient tombs, which have, perhaps for thousands of years, " survived the names of those who reared them," increase the melancholy character of the Campagna. The scenery is, of its class, highly picturesque ; and evidence of the former greatness of the neigh- bourhood of the imperial city is found scattered over this plain, though it is now so rank, and poisonous, and deserted. Among the ruins passed on the road, are those of a small structure, said to have been the Temple of Fortuna Muhebris, and to mark the spot where the mother and wife of Coriolanus met him, and successfully pleaded their cause after he had joined the Volscians against Rome. 168 ROME TO NAPLES. The present road lo Albano does not join the Appian Way, until after lea^^ng the post-station of Torre di Mezza Via to ascend the hill which rises to Albano. On looking back, the view is as solemn as it is fine. The dreary Campagna, from which St. Peter's and the city of Rome appear to rise in solitary grandeur, fills a vast portion of the scene : the Mediterranean bounds the left of the picture; and on the right the richly wooded hills, studded with villages, villas, and convents, stretch their broken, varied, and picturesque forms, to Soracte, in the horizon beyond Rome. There is, perhaps, no other scenery that combines such rich and vivid colouring as that in which the Campagna, the sea, and the wooded Appennines, display their peculiar tints when the sun sets over them in his splendour. No traveller forgets the impression they make ; and few can recall the colour of any scene which does not suffer in comparison. The vicinity of Albano to the Alban Hills, and to many interesting objects in and about them, makes it well deserving of the devotion of a day or two to visit Castel - Gandolfo, Rocca di Papa, Monte Cava, and the Camp of Hannibal, the Lake of Albano and its extraordinary subterranean struc- ture, which still exists, the Emissario, formed by the Romans during the siege of Veii, at the dicta- tion of the Oracle of Delphos ! Just beyond the Gate of Albano, in the road, is an ancient tomb distinguished as that of the Cu- riatii ; but there is no satisfactory . evidence of this ROME TO NAPLES. 169 being true. It is of high antiquity, built of Piperino, and of a singular formation, which is said to re- semble the tomb of Porsenna at Clusium : a massive square base still supports two of five conical towers which formei'ly existed. Beyond the tomb the road descends into the valley of Aricia through picturesque grounds and amidst Ilex and other forest trees, which give to the sylvan scenery of this neighbourhood a character of surpassing beauty for the pencil. Aricia, on the commanding brow of a hill, vnth its domes, towers, and palaces, is a favourite resort of the landscape painters of all countries. Seen from the valley below, or from the high grounds above, which includes the Mediterra- nean, or from any point in which Aricia is a feature, it is almost unrivalled as a picturesque object. How very cUfRcult it is by language to convey the impressions which are made upon the traveller by the grand and beautiful scenery observed in this journey ! It is certainly unrivalled in Europe, even independent of the ruins strown among them, or the classical associations to which they give rise. Each scene that arrests his attention, w^iilst fresh upon the eye, appears to be more beautiful than a former : and, when stored in the memory, suffers in its turn when another beautiful view becomes the means of present enjoyment. It is thus that the traveller in Italy, who is ahve to such impres- sions, describes, or feels that he ought to describe, the last splendid scene as that which gave him most pleasure. T 170 ROME TO NAPLES. Two miles beyond Aricia is Gensano ; near it, in a deep volcanic hollow, is the tranquil little lake known by the name of the Mirror of Diana. A walk down to its margin from a villa situated at the end of an avenue of trees near the post-house, is rarely omitted by travellers : every object about it adds to the charming character of its beautiful scenery. The country is less pleasing between Gensano and "Velletri ; but every foot here traversed of the territory of the Volscians has been contested ground between these ancient people and their ultimate masters the Romans. Velletri was their capital, and in later times was the birth-place of Augustus ; at least this is the general behef; but nine-tenths of the localities associated with persons, structures, or events, are disputed by antiquaries. At Vel- letri the Albergo di Volsci is the best inn ; and it is necessary that it should be tolerable, for it is usually the first resting-place to travellers from Rome to Naples. The town is in a fine and commanding situation. The best view of it, and of the neigh- bouring country, is from a convent on a hill oppo- site to the gate which leads to Rome. From the convent the view commands the town, rising above the forest of Cisterna, the Pontine Marshes, bounded by mountains which sweep down to Terracina, the distant promontory of Circe, and the long line of the Mediterranean Sea. In Velletri the deserted Palazzo Lancelotti, with its open and neglected gal- leries, adds to the picturesque appearance of the y \> I do. 6s do. do. 7| do. do. H do. do. n do. do. lOi do. ROME TO NAPLES. 171 town. A superb staircase which remains in it, sometimes attracts the visit of the traveller. Cisterna, 1 post, from Rome, 5i posts. Torre-tre-Ponti, 1^ do. Bocca di Fiume, 1 do. Mesa, 1 do. Ponte Maggiore, 1 do. Terracina, 1 do. On leaving Velletri the road descends a steep hill towards the Forest of Cisterna, the scene of some of the exploits, about sixteen years ago, of the notorious Barboue the brigand, of whom a hun- dred romantic tales are still told. The forest, on each side of the high road, has been cleared for two or three hundred yards, to prevent any concealment for robbers. Between Velletri and Cisterna the town of Cora, and its Temple of Hercules, are seen amidst the wooded mountain-sides on the left of the road, distant about five or six miles. Torre-tre-Ponti is supposed to occupy the site of Forum Appii, mentioned by St. Paul in the 28th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Whether any relation exists between the three taverns mentioned also by him, and the tre-ponti, is left to Biblical antiquaries to determine. Here properly com- mence the Pontine Marshes, which stretch in a flat, unbroken line, to the promontory of Circe : on the left they extend, towards the mountains, two or three miles from the road ; on the right, the sea is distant from six to ten miles, and ter- 172 ROME TO NAPLES. minates by an indistinct line the flat marshes that extend to it. Though Appius Crecus seems to have been the first to attempt to drain the Pontine Marshes when the Via which bears his name was constructed, the great work was accomphshed by Augustus ; and the canal, which is nearly twenty miles in length, was made by his orders. On its banks, through a great part of its course, Trajan continued the celebrated Appian Way ; and succeeded so well in the forma- tion of the road and the drainage which made it habitable, that Bergier says, there were, between Forum Appii and Terracina, twenty-three towns ! — a town in nearly every mile ! ! So well constructed, however, was the road, even in a place of all others the most disadvantageous, that when, following up the efforts of his predecessors in the middle ages to drain this pestilential swamp, which, from neglect, had returned almost to its original state, Pius VI. formed his line upon the foundations of the ancient road, and constructed the present, whicli, under his successors, has been completed, and is now one of the finest in Europe. But though, except in the height of summer, the malaria, so much dreaded here, rarely afflicts travellers, they are generally cautious enough to smoke, or not to sleep, or travel after sunset, over these marshes. Wherever inhabitants are met with, as at the post-stations, they appear cadaverous, diseased, and wretched. The water passes slowly through the canals, tall weeds and rank gi-ass grow up luxuriantly, hundreds of buffaloes are I \i' ROME TO NAPLES. 173 seen grazing, and myriads of wild fowl darken the swampy places on which they congregate. Few persons are met with in this desert ; and some of these are dressed so like Pinelli's brigands, that they startle the traveller, until he has learned that they are the pontifical police — the Sbirri. The road throughout its course is planted with trees, forming, apparently, an endless avenue. It is perfectly straight for thirty miles ; and in the distance converges with the trees into an indistinct point, which, mile after mile, appears to undergo no change, or always seems to recede as the traveller advances. Under the branches of the trees, and from occasional openings, the eye catches, inland, many towns and villages on the flanks of the Volscian mountains; and towards the sea, the promontory of Circe is seen rising above an ill-defined horizon of the marshes and the Mediter- ranean. Near the post-house of Mesa formerly stood the Temple and Fountain of Feronia ; but, except for an occasional recollection of Horace, the dulness arising from the absence of all variety in the route, and its endless appearance, makes the arrival at Terracina most welcome. This post-station on the frontier of the states of the Church, towards Naples, was the ancient Anxur, which was taken from the Volscians, a.u.c. 352, during the siege of Veii. Some ruins of the old city are seen upon the hill above the post-house, supposed to be those of the palace of Theodoric ; but few travellers visit them, for the lawless and infamous character of the inhabitants on the frontier, and the 174 ROME TO NAPLES. fecility with which they can effect their escape into the Neapohtan state after robbery and murder, have made a visit to the ruins, though in sight of the town below, too dangerous an adventure. From the door of the post-house the town is seen placed on the steep slopes of a hill, crowned with a monas- tery, from which, a few years ago, some boys, who were there being educated, were forcibly taken away by bi'igands, who demanded a large ransom for them : there was some delay in raising the amount : they murdered two, and sent their heads on different days to Terracina, to hasten and enforce the de- mand, which was ultimately paid to save the lives of the remainder. Near the inn rises a vast mass of insulated, perpendicular rock, detached from the precipitous hill, upon which the ruins of the palace remain. This mass has a hermitage, stuck, like a swallow's nest, half way up its side, apparently in- accessible. Traces remain of the ancient port of Anxur. Near Terracina vegetation is luxuriant : the palm grows here ; and orange, lemon, and fig trees, aloes, vines, and the prickly pear, cover profusely the slopes of the hills. Fondi, 1^ posts, from Rome, 12i posts. Itri, 1 do. do. 13| do. Mola de Gaeta, 1 do. do. 14| do. After leaving Terracina, the portion of the road,, before reaching the station-house of the Neapolitan authorities, is that in which the greatest danger from ROME TO NAPLES. 175 banditti was usually apprehendecL Carabineri still offer their services to travellers, or can be demanded as guards, for a consideration, regulated by tarif : but they are not oft&n trusted ; for if an attack be made, they know that the brigands mark them first, and they usually scamper off. There is another ground for dechning their services ; they induce the sus- picion that the traveller has property enough to require this defence. The road winds at the bases of the mountains, through a country fit for the deeds which have given to it so infamous a celebrity, and leaves on the right hand the lake of Fondi — a piece of water in a swamp, rank with aquatic vege- tation. About half way between Terracina and Fondi, at the Torre del Epitafia, is the barrier of the Roman states, where the passports must be arranged ; and about half a mile beyond, at the Torre della Portella, the barrier of the kingdom of Naples, they are again examined and signed. The first Neapolitan town is Fondi, where the custom-house officer must be bribed, to avoid annoyance. The squalid, ragged, deformed, and villanous appearance of the people here, never fail to strike the traveller with disgust and horror. An expression is seen in every countenance of regret that they have not had the chance of robbing and cutting his throat. At Fondi there are some fine examples of that pecu- liar construction of walls called Cyclopean ; and the pavement of the principal street is the original Via Appia, formed of large blocks of lava, with their ir- regular angles fitted closely to each other, presenting 176 ROME TO NAPLES. such an horizontal appearance of arrangement as we see in the vertical structure of the walls. NeapoHtan money: — 10 Grani 1 Carliuo. 10 Carlini 1 Ducato. 47 Carlini 1 Napoleon. 56 Carlini 1 £ sterling. Exchanges are reckoned in grani ; but travellers' accomits are most conveniently kept in Carlini. The price of posting in the kingdom of Naples, as the length of the post is greater than in any other, is nearly the same as in other Italian states. For each horse, 6^ Carlini per post. Postillion, 11 do. Ostler, each jmir of horses, -J do. When post-masters furnish carriages they can demand for each carriage with two inside places, five Carlini per post ; and with four inside places, ten Carlini ; but it rarely occurs that these are required : the traveller either proceeds by a vetturino, or travels in his own carriage. From Fondi the road winds across a chain of hills, rugged, \\ild, and fit to be the abode of the heroes of Salvator : the little town of Itri, as miser- able and villanous as Fondi, stands nearly on its crest, yet in favourable situations groves of lemon- trees are planted. Thence the road descends towards Mola de Gaeta through scenery often beautiful, and particularly so as the bay of Gaeta opens to the view. \^ ROME TO NAPLES. 177 Here the first glimpse is caught of Vesu\ius and the island of Ischia ; and just before arriving at Mola, near the inn at which travellers usually rest (the Al- bergo di Cicerone), the Cenotaph of Cicero rises on the right hand side of the road : it is supposed to mark the spot where he was assassinated as he attempted to escape from the murderers sent after him by Anthony, 43 b. c. The cenotaph was raised to his memory by his friend Munatius Plancus, who had also been a friend of Anthony, but deserted him after the battle of Actium, and joined Octavius, who obtained for him the office of censor. This cenotaph is a round building upon a square base, and now bears the name of the Torre d'Orlando. The gardens and the orange-grounds of the Albergo lead down to the bay ; where, close to the shore, are the ruins of Cicero's Formian Villa ; and beneath the bright waters of the Mediterranean are clearly seen the foundations and substructures of this marine villa in which Cicero delighted. The view round the bay is terminated on the right by the promontory and fortress of Gaeta, which was some time in the possession of the Eng- lish during the wars of the Revolution. On the same promontory are the ruins of a tomb, said to be that of Gaeta, the nurse of Eneas. The fort well deserves a visit. The scenery is dehcious ; and interspersed with the orange, aloe, myrtle, pome- granate, laurel, jasmine, vine, and olive, which all grow profusely. The vine, particularly, is no where more beautiful : hane;insr in festoons from tree to tree, it delights the eye, and produces a wine famous u 178 ROME TO NAPLES. for gladdening the heart of man. The inn is an excellent one ; and some days of real enjoyment may be spent at the Villa di Cicerone. Garigliano, I post. from Rome 15J posts Sant 'Agata, I do. do. 16^ do. Sparanisi, I do. do. 17J do. Capua, I do. do. 184 do. Aversa, I do. do. 194 do. Naples, i do. do. 20^ do. From the Albergo di Cicerone the route passes through the town of Mola, where a maritime tower, and other objects on the coast, add to its pictu- resque character. The costume of the people of the Roman and Neapolitan states is as various and singular, but more elegant and beautiful, than that of the Swiss, or any other country remarkable for pro- vincial costume. The women at Albano, at Terra- cina, and at Mola, are very differently dressed ; but the last are the most elegant, especially in the deco- ration of their hair. These peculiarities and dis- tinctions in costume furnish rich materials for the sketch-book of the traveller. The road from Mola, passing along near the sea, reaches the marshes of Minturnfe, across which stretches the ruins of a long aqueduct, that, con- nected with the mountain, formerly conducted its streams to the ancient city of Minturnte ; of which the remains deserve examination. The ruins of its temples, amphitheatres, and public buildings, may be seen close to the GarigUano, anciently the ROME TO NAPLES. 179 Liris — a river associated with many historical events of ancient Rome, and of the middle ages. Here Marias was taken — Pietro di Medici was drowned — and Gonsalva di Cordova won from the Neapo- litans a decisive victory. Formerly, travellers crossed the Liris on a bridge of boats ; but a handsome sus- pension bridge, about two hundred and fifty feet long, has recently been erected, the towers or pyra- mids of which are of Egyptian architecture — a style peculiarly adapted to such structures. From Garig- liano the route continues towards Sant' Agata, through an abundant country. On the right is Mount Massicus, and around are the hills which were celebrated by Horace for their wines ; but either the wine has degenerated, or the taste of Horace is not to be trusted. Near Sant' Agata is the town of Sessa, the ancient Suessa Auruncorum, where, among the Roman remains, are those of a theatre, and an ancient bridge, still known by the name of the Ponte Aurunca. The walk is short from the post-house of Sant' Agata to Sessa; and the tra- veller will be well repaid who visits it, by the enjoy- ment of some interesting scenes, and, if it be market- day, by the appearance of the fine forms and elegant costumes of the female peasantry. From Sant' Agata to Capua the country is often picturesque ; sometimes presenting views into valleys, like the beautiful parts of Salvator's pictures ; sometimes of scenes which, over the flat and fertile country of the Campagna Fehce, are bounded on the left by the distant and snowy Appennines. 180 ROME TO NAPLES. The approach to Capua leads the traveller to expect, from its situation, more than he realises ; for within, it is neither handsome nor, in spite of the fortification which is reputed to be one of the finest works of Vauban, important. About two miles from it, on the road to Naples, are the remains of ancient Capua — the grave of the energies of the Carthagenians. The ruins of the amphitheatre are extensive, and from one point are highly pictu- resque. Hence to Naples, the road appears to pass through a vast garden ; the vines are festooned from tree to tree, almost without interruption the whole way, except where a village or town breaks in upon the sameness, as at Aversa, Avhich is a handsome place, and the last post station. The flatness of the land, and the height of the trees and vines, preclude all view of Naples, or the bay ; though sometimes, in rare glimpses, Vesuvius, or the heights of Capo de Monti, are seen. On reaching Naples, the drive is nearly through its longest direction to reach the quarter in which the best inns are situated. The Strada Toledo, the Santa Lucia, and the Chiaja ; the Albergo della Vittoria, and the Gran Bretagna, are the most fre- quented. For lodgings, the situation of the Quay of Santa Lucia is unrivalled ; the houses look out upon the bay and the shores beyond, from Vesuvius to the promontory of Sorrentum ; but the whole sweep of coast, from Castel-a-mare to the promontory of Misenum, is made up of scenes, of which, though ROME TO NAPLES. 181 associated with historical events, the celebrity can never equal the beauty. The chief objects of interest at Naples are those which belong to remote, yet historic thne — the ruins of the cities of the empire, Herculaneum and Pompeii, which have so recently been disinterred ; and those which belong to all time — its scenery. The paintings, since the restoration of art, at Naples, are few, and, compared with other objects, unimportant; but in the Museo Borbonico there are some fine pictures by Raphael, by Titian, and by Correggio, to which most of the others are only foils. The galleries of sculpture, however, are very fine, and contain many celebrated statues : but the great attraction of the museum is the collection of objects obtained from Herculaneum and Pompeii, in bronze, in marble, and in glass ; pictures, gems, and jewellery ; articles of luxury for the toilet, and implements in domestic economy. To see the latter is like visiting the shop of a fiirnishing ironmonger in the 50th year of the Christian era. How few of our conveniences are new ! How much we had degene- rated from the ancients in the elegant forms of the most common instruments and contrivances, before these things were discovered ! The Romans added the dulce to the utile ; and it would be exceedingly diffi- cult to suggest any alteration in these objects which would not be at the expense of one or the other. Things generally considered as recent inventions and improvements are here common and various. Glass bottles, for wine, and for essences — glass jugs and 182 ROME TO NAPLES. tumblers — metal and plate glass — ^jewellery, and per- sonal ornaments of infinite variety — instrmnents for weighing and measuring — instruments for the sur- geon, and implements for the painter and the writer — vases, Greek and Etruscan, of varied and unrivalled beauty, surpassing all other collections — gems, in cameo and intaglio, coins and medals — Roman and Greek paintings, almost the only unquestionable works of that art that have descended to us. These are very far inferior to the works of the ancients in sculpture ; but it must be considered that they are merely common house decorations, and that no pic- ture has reached us of which the ancients them- selves spoke in praise. An interesting collection of such ancient paintings is formed also at Resina, the royal palace above the ruins of Herculaneum. Not a step can be taken in Naples, nor a place visited, advantageously, without the assistance of Ferrari's Guide to Naples, or the little work of the Canonico D. A. de Jorio, which indicates the chief objects of interest in the city and its neigh- bourhood, to which excursions are almost endless. Naples is usually visited by the traveller in winter, in order that he may return to Rome in time for the ceremonies of the holy week ; and as at this season the weather is generally as mild and delicious as a favourable English spring, the whole day is en- joyable, without the loss of time which a summer excursion always demands ; for, during the great heats, the brightest hours are given to sleep or shelter. The neighbourhood of Naples is unrival- r' V ROME TO NAPLES. 183 led : the beauties of the scenery, which is so great an attraction now, was not less sought, and valued, and visited, by the ancients ; and their relics have thrown a classical charm over this country wherever public or domestic events relating to them have occurred, and amidst scenes of beauty unsurpassed. The ruins of a temple or a villa recalls the idea of Pliny, of Cicero, of Nero, and others, who have left a glorious or an infamous memory to associate with the scenes in which they lived or died. To the west of Naples are the promenades of the Villa Reale ; and thence, following the course of the bay, the route either passes by the famous grotto through the hill of Posilipo towards the Bay of Baiae, or continues by the magnificent road made by Murat, which passes round the Cape of Coruoglio, com- manding glorious views of the Bays of Naples and of Baife. A garden, through which a winding path ascends, leads to the tomb of Virgil, above the Grotto of Posilipo, and commands one of the finest views, on the western side, of Naples, whence the city is seen sloping down from the Fort of St. Elmo, to the Pizzofalcone, the promontory which terminates with the Castello dell' Ovo : beyond it, across the eastern bay, are the Appennines, the Campagna Fehce, Vesuvius, and the Cape of Sorrentum. Entering the Grotto of Posilipo, a subterranean road, above two thousand three hundred feet in length, twenty-two feet broad, and in some places, near the extremities, eighty feet high, the traveller emerges into the beautiful country which sweeps 184 ROME TO NAPLES. round the Bay of Baise. A road to the right leads to the Lago d'Agnano, the crater of an extinct volcano, now stinking with sulphureous exhala- tions : on its bank is the Grotto del Cane. The English idea of a grotto will not be reahsed here ; it is not larger than the entrance to a road-side well, to which it bears some resemblance. Its en- trance is closed by a small door, that experiments may not be tried by visitors on their own dogs — for tiothiiig. The poor dog, that is kept on pm-pose, is regularly thrust into the hole to die for the gi'a- tification of the visitors ten times a day, if required, whines and howls piteously when brought forward : he is forced inside, and the door closed until the carbonic acid gas deprives him apparently of life, when he is dragged out. In a few minutes he makes con^'ulsive struggles — recovers — staggers away, and the heartless exhibition ends. The direct road from the Grotto of Posilipo leads to the shore of the bay, and to Pozzuoli. Here the Temple of Jupiter Serapis, the Amphitheatre, the Bridge of Caligula, and the Solfaterra, will occupy some hours. If Cumae be visited, the road continues to the right of the Monte Nuovo, which was raised in thirty-six hours, by a volcanic eruption, in the year 1583. Hence the road ascends above the Lake of Avernus, which it overlooks, and commands mag- nificent prospects as it rises to the Arco Fehce, the Gate of Cum« ; whence, in clear weather, the view extends on the west to the promontory of Circe at Terracina. Cmnae was the most ancient city of ROME TO NAPLES. 185 Magna Graecia, and traces of its former greatness may still be fomid amidst the ruins on its site. Near it is the Lake of Fusaro, where the pleasure of the excursion, to some travellers, finishes with a feast of oysters, for which this lake is famous. It be- longs to a very distinguished oystermonger — the King of the two Sicilies — whose agents open the fish, and supply the visitors.* Turning on the left of the Monte Nuovo, the road leads to the Lake of Avernus, the Grotto of the Cumasan Sibyl, and the Baths of Nero, whence an excursion to the western coast of the Bay of Baise is generally made, in a boat hired at Pozzuoli : with four oars the cost is visually three ducats. All over this show-ground, ciceroni, each for his small district, press their services upon the stranger, as indispensable. The convenience of taking a boat enables the visitor to pass along the coast, and examine what points he pleases — tljie ruins of the tombs and temples on the shores of the bay, the promontory and Bay of Misenum, the Mare Morto — and, if he choose, extend his excursion to the Islands of Procida, and even to Ischia. Days may thus be dehghtfuUy de- voted to the shores on the west of Naples. But if these, for their unrivalled beauty, are so attractive, * They do strange things in this way in Italy. At Rome, the Cardinal Doria used to be the milkman to those who chose to send to his palace for this necessary article to the tea-drinking English ; and at Naples, the only good butterman is his Majesty; and those who wish to have this article genuine, send to court for it, whence it is issued impressed with the royal arms. His Majesty is also the chief, or only dealer in gunpowder, salt, tobacco, &c. &c. &c. X 186 ROME TO NAPLES. they have rivals in interest on the eastern side — in Vesuvius, and its victims, Herculaneum and Pompeii. If the traveller should have the good fortune to be at Naples during an eruption, let him not lose an hour before visiting Vesu\ius as closely as possible, and especially by night. Language can convey no idea of its splendour. The impressions left by such an event upon the recollections of those who have been fortunate enough to witness it, will survive all others of the journey. The author was present at the eruption which occurred in February 1822. He -sdsited the mountain before, during, and after the eruption. The scene, the excitement, cannot be described. The sun, which set in the sea during the author's ascent, painted, as he declined, on the volumes of white steam which issued from the vol- cano a thousand changes of tint. Darkness rapidly followed, and the deep murky red of the fire began to prevail within the vapour. Then the explosions ! each shaking the entire mountain under the tread of the visitors, thousands of whom crowded to the base of the highest cone. At the Hermitage was a confusion of tongues, which every language in Europe aided, calling and shouting for refreshment. All without, was impressive, splendid, and awful ; but no description can excite similar emotions. A visit to Hei'culaneum is unsatisfactory. The descent by torch-hght into the excavated wells and passages is limited, dark, and indistinct. The city, buried beneath lava, will never, in all probability, be cleared out ; but at Pompeii the removal of the pumice, sand, and ashes, exposes to the light of ROME TO NAPLES. 187 heaven a place which has been buried nearly eighteen centuries; and the effect produced by the steps and voices of the visitors, in this city of the dead, greatly heightens the impressive solitude of the scene, for there are none but such strangers within it ; and these are induced, by reflection and the striking novelty of their situation, to be un- usually silent. Excavations, and removal of pumice, still proceeding, and many of the things discovered, when not of great intrinsic value, are allowed to remain in situ: thus many pictures, mosaics, &c. are now left, and protected against the changes even of an Italian climate by sheds or awnings. But though Pompeii is the chief, there are many other places of interest to visit, in easy excursions, on the eastern side of the Bay of Naples ; Castel-a- mare, the site of ancient Stabiae, Sorrento, Amalfi, the Island of Capri, and the ruins of Paestum ; these are all so beautiful and so interesting, are so easy of access to visitors in fine weather, which rarely fails in this delightful country, that amidst the bright skies and lovely scenes of Italy where so much of enjoyment is to be found, no part of it rivals the attractions of the Bay of Naples. The residence of so many English in this city has led to the estabhshment of professional men, agents, and shops, as in Florence and Rome. Here they can consult English physicians, and obtain English medicines and goods : these may be pro- cured at the respectable house of Cotterel and Co., to whose care also things intended to be sent by sea to England may be confidently consigned. 188 ROME TO NAPLES. This Road-Book began with an enumeration of the requisites of travellers ; and among them, those important ones — good temper and forbearance. Be- fore the end of the journey, these probably have been largely drawn upon ; but it is to be hoped that enough remain to admit the truth of the follow- ing reflection of Tristram Shandy: — " Yet, notwithstanding all this, and a pistol tinder-box which was, moreover, filched from me at Sienna, and twice that I paid five pauls for two hard eggs, once at RacUcofani, and a second time at Capua, — I do not think a journey through France or Italy, provided a man keep his temper all the way, so bad a thing as some people would make you beheve. There must be ups and downs, or how the deuce should we get into valleys where natmre spreads so many tables of entertainment. It is nonsense to suppose they will lend you their voitures to be shaken to pieces for notlring; and unless you pay twelve sous for greasing your wheels, how should the poor peasant get butter for his bread? We really expect too much; and for the livre or two above par for your supper and bed, at the most they are but one shilling and ninepence halfpenny. Who would embroil their philosophy for it ? For Heaven's sake and your own, pay it — pay it with both hands open !" THE END. LONDON: — PRINTED BY JAMES MOY.ES, Cattle Street, Leicester Square. 189 TABLE OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. English dot. 112 Ihs. compared with Foreign Weights. Contents of Foreign 3Ieasiires of Length in English Inches. FRENCH. Killogrammes .... nearly 49i Metre 39i Aune 46 SARDINIAN. Libre 133A Rasi, or Braccia 23 Palmo 93. TUSCAN. Libre 145 | Braccia nearly 23 ROMAN. Libre 143f | Canna 764 NEAPOLITAN. Rottoli 361 I Canna 84 POSTS INCLUDED IN THIS .TOURNEY. Calais to Paris 321 Paris . . Turin 117^ Turin . . Florence 37 Florence . . Rome 27| Rome . . Naples 20g Calais .. Naples 255i Since the early Part of this Woric was published, some changes have taken place which render the following corrections neces- sary : — Page 3. — The French Passport Office in London is now at No. 6 Poland Street, Oxford Street. Page 16. — The Roman Agent in correspondence with Mr. Chinnery is Mr. S. Del Bosco, of Torlonia & Go's. Page 17. — The address of Mr. Chinnery (who is licensed to act as Agent by the Board of Customs) is Customs Chambers, Thames Street, London ; and Mr. W. Walker's address, in Paris, same page, changed to Mr. Walker, Agent to the British Embassy, Rue de la Pais, 17. ERRATUM. Page 101, line 8, for forest, chestnut, and olive trees, read forests of chestnut and olive trees. POSTSCRIPT. The delay which has occurred in the completion of this Work, has been a cause of sincere regret to the Proprietors. To prevent its recurrence, which might have arisen by proceeding with the publi- cation in Parts, the remaining three Numbers are now published together, and may be had, by Subscribers, at such a price as will give to them the full benefit of the reduction which the Proprietors propose maliing upon the Volume now completed. The Author has been favoured by the kindness of some friends with the latest information upon many points in this Work, and he liere particularly acknowledges his obligation to W. M. Tartt, Esq. of Liverpool. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PASSES OF THE ALPS. Containing Ninety-six Copperplate Engravings, of the most striking and beautiful Scenes in the Alps, and Thirteen Maps. 2 vols, boarded in cloth and lettered. Colombier 8vo. Ten Guineas ; royal 4to, French Proofs, Fifteen Guineas ; India Proofs, Twenty Guineas. A few Copies of this splendid Work may be had of the Author, No. 29 Devok- SHiEE Street, Queen Square, Bloomsbuky, or through the Booksellers. JOURNALS OF EXCURSIONS IN THE ALPS, Demy 8vo. with a Map. James Duncan, No. 37 Paternoster Row. Price 10s. 6d. FINDENS ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF LORD BYRON. With Original ami Selected In- formation on the Subjects of the Engravings. By W. Brockedon. 3 vols. Royal 8vo. John Murray, Albemarle Street; C. Tilt, Fleet Street. r I 1 i I 1 ', '