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DAYS NEAR ROME.
BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE,
AUTHOR OF "WA TKS IN ROME," "MEMORIALS OF A QUIET LIFE, ETC.
fit)  llIustratione.
TWO  VOL UMES.  I.
PHILADELPHIA:
PORTER  &  C ()ATES,
822 CHESTNUT STREET.
I875.








PREFACE.
IN submitting these volumes to the public, I would
earnestly apologize to my readers for their imperfections. The ground, in many instances, had been
almost untrodden; several of the places described are
difficult of access, and have never before been visited
by foreigners; and, in most cases, published descriptions either do not exist at all already, or are so
inaccurate and untrustworthy as to be only misguiding.  A great field for discovery still remains,
even within a day's journey of Rome; and if, in
opening the way to others, I lead them to enjoy half
the pleasure I have received from my own researches,
I shall be more than rewarded.
Some of the chapters of this book have already
appeared, in a condensed form, as Magazine Articles
in " Good Words."
The illustrations of buildings and scenery are




vi                  PREFA CE.
from my own sketches, taken on the spot; the figures
I owe to the kindness of friends; for their transference to wood I am  indebted to the skill of Mr. T.
Sulman. The subjects chosen are purposely selected
where verbal descriptions may fail to delineate the
character of the places visited.
AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE.
Holmhurst, Sept., 87 4.




CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION........ 9
CHAPTER I.
OSTIA AND CASTEL FUSANO..39
CHAPTER II.
ALBANO AND LARICCIA....50
CHAPTER III.
MONTE CAVO, NEMI, AND CIVITA LAVINIA.... 
CHAPTER IV.
FRASCATI, TUSCULUM, AND COLONNA.....97
CHAPTER V.
GROTTA FERRATA AND MARINO...123
CHAPTER VI.
VEII.......    131
CHAPTER VII.
GALERA AND BRACCIANO...43
CHAPTER VIII.
GABII AND ZAGAROLO..54




8                    CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
PAGE
CERVARA, LUNGHEZZA, AND COLLATIA...  62
CHAPTER X.
ANTEMNE AND FIDEN2E.....  67
CHAPTER XI.
MENTANA AND MONTE ROTONDO.....77
CHAPTER XII.
TIVOLI...........   I84
CHAPTER XIII.
LICENZA AND MONTE GENNARO..... 207
CHAPTER XIV.
VELLETRI.....220
CHAPTER XV.
THE VOLSCIAN HILLS-CORI, NORMA, NINFA, AND SEGNI.. 226
CHAPTER XVI.
THE HERNICAN HILLS-FERENTINO, ALATRI, AND ANAGNI. 248
CHAPTER XVII.
PALESTRINA.....268
CHAPTER XVIII.
GENAZZANO, PALIANO, AND OLEVANO.. 282
CHAPTER XIX.
SUBIACO......                   294




INTRODUCTORY.
O NLY about one traveller in five hundred of those who
cross the Alps ever sees Italy. Those who go to Milan,
Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples, and who stay at the
hotels of New  York, Washington, Brighton, Paris, or
Londres, dining daily on a well-cooked English or French
dinner, at hot tables d'hote amid a vociferous throng of
their own countrymen, attended by obsequious waiters who
talk bad English; visiting hackneyed sights, led in tow by
haughty couriers or ignorant ciceroni; driving out to meets
in the Campagna, making parties for illuminations in the
Coliseum, or devouring chickens and champagne on the
slopes at Veii:-these do not see Italy. They lead a
pleasant life and pass very agreeable days; but the life they
are leading is not Italian, the land which they allow to be
doled out for them, or dole out for themselves, is not Italy:
and as regards the real, true, un-Anglicized, un-Americanized
country, they might just as well, on their return home, have
been attending an admirable series of panoramas and
dioramas in Leicester Square.
In order, however, to enjoy the Eden of sights which
couriers guard with their two-edged swords, a very different




o               DA YS NEAR ROME.
line of conduct, a very different phase of character, must
be assumed by our countrymen, to those which they usually
indulge in. It is no use to look for French cookery in the
Abruzzi, or to hope to find tea and toast amid the sepulchral cities of Etruria, neither need any one expect to be
treated with great deference, to be placed on a mental
pedestal and regarded as a superior being, in these unconventional places.   Travellers will certainly meet with
nothing of the kind.  They will learn that the only way to
have what you like, is to like what you have; they will find
that they are treated with just as much courtesy and deference as they are willing to bestow; that if they regard the
natives as their equals, are genial, frank, modest, and unsuspicious, they will receive a boundless amount of small
kindnesses in return, and that if they are only open-hearted,
their being open-handed is a matter of comparative indifference. There is no greater mistake than that of supposing the Italian character to be extortionate and avaricious;
except in the old kingdom of Naples, it is neither. In the
beaten track, couriers have raised the prices, or travellers
have done it for themselves, to an English and American
standard, and the constant habit of bargaining recommended
in guide-books, has led to extortionate demands, and thus
become a necessity; but in Italian inns, any overcharge is
exceedingly unusual, and is only suggested by suspicion.
The more distant the place and the more difficult of attainment, the greater is usually the attention shown to strangers,
and the warmer a disinterested welcome.  Their wants
are sometimes little understood, often a cause of great
surprise and amusement, but every effort is made to supply
them, and little is expected from those whom some misfor



INTROD UCTOR Y.                     I
tune alone, it is supposed, can have driven from the delights
of the capital into such desolate places.  But if travellers
give themselves airs, if they are too exacting in their
demands, heedless of passing salutations, especially of the
Abruzzi peasant, who always meets you with, "May God
accompany you-may your return be happy:" above all, if
they always act in the inns as if they were being cheated,
and chatter in the churches during mass as if they were at a
London party, they must expect to be laughed at, despised,
insulted, and occasionally robbed.  "Non sono Cristiani,
come noi altri," is the national comment upon strangers
who do not know how to behave themselves, and they are
sure to be treated with contempt for they deserve nothing
better.
It is strange how wonderfully little the country around
Rome has been investigated, even by those who are not
usually daunted by little difficulties and discomforts. Such
attention as has not been expended upon the interest of the
capital, has been almost entirely devoted to the "Campagna " in its narrowest sense of the plain girdled in by the
hills which may be seen from the walls of Rome, but into,
and beyond those hills, travellers scarcely ever penetrate,
and they generally have not an idea of the glories which lie
concealed there. It is, therefore, as an invitation and a
companion into these unknown regions that these volumes
are intended.
" The country which is described by the name of the Roman Campagna, has a narrower or a wider circumference, in proportion as one
regards its geographical limits.  Taken in the narrower sense, the
Campagna is that grand and desolate district, which spreads around the
walls of Rome, and is enclosed by the Tiber and the Anio. Its circumference might be marked bh a series of well-known points: Civita




12                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
Vecchia, Tolfa, Ronciglione, Soracte, Tivoli, Palestrina, Albano, and
Ostia.  But in its wider sense the Campagna extends almost to the
former kingdom of Naples and its boundary is the Liris or Garigliano.
"The Campagna of Rome is nothing else than the land of Latium,
which is separated from Tuscany by the Tiber. From  the time of
Constantine the Great the name of Latium has fallen into disuse, and
that of Campania has been used in its place, and in the middle ages
this name indicated a great part of the so-called' Ducatus Romanus.'
" Since the middle ages this district has been divided into two parts,
the Campagna, which comprises the inland district, and the Maritima,
which extends along the sea-coast as far as Terracina.  Nature herself
has separated it by mountains and plains into distinct compartments.
It is divided into three plains; first, the Campagna around the city,
watered by the Tiber and the Anio, and hemmed in by the Alban and
Sabine mountains, the hills above Ronciglione, and the sea-coast:
secondly, the great plain in which the Pontine Marshes are situated,
bounded on one side by the Alban and Volscian Hills and on the other
by the sea; and lastly, the valley of the Sacco which runs between
the Volscian and the Equian and Hernican Hills, and falls into the Liris
near Isoletta below Ceprano."-Gregorovizs.
The more distant excursions described in these volumes
are perhaps the most interesting, but cannot generally be
recommended for aged  or delicate persons.  There are,
however, some even  of these which  may be undertaken
without the slightest inconvenience or discomfort, and which
form a delightful change from Rome in the Spring. The
most advisable of these easy tours is that by the southern
railway, making the excursions (separately) to Cori and
Ninfa from  Velletri, ascending  the valley  of the  Liris
from Rocca Secca to Sora, and, while there, visiting Arpino
and its neighbourhood, and staying at the inn at S. Germano
and thence seeing Aquino. Subiaco, Olevano, and Palestrina
may be comfortably visited from Rome in a carriage. Orvieto
is now easily accessible by railway. The neighbourhood of
the Pontine Marshes always presents a certain amount of
risk from fevers. The Abruzzi will only delight those who




INTRODUC TORY.                    13
can enjoy the savagest moods of nature. In the Ciminian
Hills, which, combined with Caprarola, afford in Spring
perhaps the most delightful of the excursions from Rome,
the accommodation is indifferent, though much may be seen
in drives from Viterbo, a central situation, where a week may
be passed most agreeably.
There is no town in the world whence such a variety of
excursions may be made as from  Rome. They are so
entirely different from  one another.  The phase of the
scenery, the architecture of the towns, the costume, the
habits, the songs (and this means so much to Italian
peasants), even the language, is changed, according to the
direction you take on leaving the capital. And whether
tourists confine themselves to the inner circle of sights
usually known to strangers and roughlyindicated in " Murray's
Handbook," which is hemmed in by the hills which encircle
the Campagna; or whether they are induced to penetrate
into the glorious heights of the Volscian and Hernican
Mountains, the deep recesses of the Sabina, or amid the lost
cities of Etruria, they will find that the small disagreeables
and the occasional difficulties, which must frequently be
endured at the time, weigh as nothing in the balance against
the store of beautiful mental pictures, of instructive recollections of people and character, and of heart-stirring
associations, which will be laid up for the rest of life. And
they will come to feel that it is just because there were not
good roads, not easy carriages, not comfortable inns, that it
was all so interesting, because thus, not only the places
themselves remained the same, but the simple poetical
character of the people was unspoilt.
The comparative stagnation of life under the Papal govern



14               DAYS NEAR ROME.
ment did even more to preserve the mediaeval character of
the distant towns in the Papal States than of Rome itself.
And in Rome now the ancient characteristics have entirely
perished, having been swept away in three years in a manner which sounds incredible, and which would have seemed
impossible beforehand. And, while acknowledging certain
beneficial changes introduced by the present Government, it
is not only the artist who will recognize that much of the
interest, and as much as possible of the beauty, of the
" Eternal City " has been destroyed. Not only has all trace
of costume perished, together with the mediaeval figures and
splendid dresses which belonged to the Papal Court, and
walked in the footsteps of crimson cardinals; but all the
gorgeous religious ceremonies, all the processions, and
benedictions, and sermons preached  by the shrines of
martyrs, have ceased to exist.  Even the time-honoured
Pifferari have been chased from  Rome by the present
Government as a public nuisance. The closing of so many
convents and the robbery of the dowries of so many nuns
(given on their entrance in the same sense in which a
marriage portion is given), has not only been an act of
crying injustice in itself, which even the strongest Protestant
must feel, but while it has flooded the streets with starving,
helpless, or infirm persons, who subsisted on the daily convent dole of coarse bread and soup, it has thrown thousands
of helpless ladies, who believed themselves provided for
during their lives (and by their own families), into a state of
utter destitution, for the relief of which the miserable and
irregularly paid pension of a few pence a day appointed by
the Government sounds merely like a mockery.  Many
famous antiquarian memorials have disappeared, together




INTRODUCTORY.                    15
with other well-known buildings, of which the interest was
confined to Papal times. The Agger of Servius Tullius and
the ruined Ponte Salara have been swept away. The incomparable view from the Ponte Rotto has been blocked
out, the trees on the Aventine and the woods of Monte
Mario have been cut down. The Villa Negroni-Massimo,
the most beautiful of Roman gardens, with the grandest of
old orange avenues, and glorious groves of cypresses amid
which Horace was buried,-a villa whose terraces dated
from the time when it belonged to Maecenas, and which was
replete with recollections of the romantic story of Vittoria
Accorambuoni, of Donna Camilla Perretti, and of Alfieri,. has been ruthlessly and utterly ploughed up, so that not a
trace of it is left. Even this, however, is as nothing compared with the entire destruction of the beauty and charm
of the grandest of the buildings which remain. The Baths
of Caracalla, stripped of all their verdure and shrubs, and
deprived alike of the tufted foliage amid which Shelley wrote,
and of the flowery carpet which so greatly enhanced their
lonely solemnity, are now a series of bare featureless walls
standing in a gravelly waste, and possess no more attraction
than the ruins of a London warehouse. The Coliseum, no
longer "a garlanded ring," is bereaved of everything which
made it so lovely and so picturesque, while botanists must
for ever deplore the incomparable and strangely unique
" Flora of the Coliseum," which Signor Rosa has caused to
be carefully annihilated, even the roots of the shrubs having
been extracted by the firemen, though, in pulling them out,
more of the building has come down than five hundred
years of time would have injured. In the Basilica
Constantine, the whole of the beautiful covering of shrub




i6              DA YS NEAR ROME.
with which Nature had protected the vast arches, has been
removed, and the rain, soaking into  the unprotected
upper surface, will soon bring them down. Nor has the
work of the destroyer been confined to the Pagan antiquities;
the early Christian porches of S. Prassede and S. Pudenziana,
with their valuable terra-cotta ornaments, have been so
smeared with paint and yellow-wash as to be irrecognisable;
many smaller but precious Christian antiquities, such as the
lion of the Santi Apostoli, have disappeared altogether. And
in return for these destructions and abductions, Rome has
been given.. what? Quantities of hideous false rock-work
painted brown in all the public gardens; a Swiss cottage and
a clock which goes by water forced in amid the statues and
sarcophagi of the Pincio; and the having the passages of the
Capitol painted all over with the most flaring scarlet and
blue, so as utterly to destroy the repose and splendour of
its ancient statues.
Should tkie present state of things continue much longer,
and especially should Signor Rosa remain in power, the
whole beauty of Rome will have disappeared, except that
which the Princes guard in their villas, and that which the
everlasting hills and the glowing Campagna can never fail to
display. It is to the environs that poets must turn for their
inspiration and artists for their pictures, and as the destroying hand advances, they must wander further away, for
though the Villa Adriana, which was like a historical Idyll
of Nature, has already fallen, and the amphitheatre of Sutri
is threatened, Cori and Ninfa, Alatri and Anagni, Aquino,
Subiaco, Narni, Soracte, and Caprarola must long remain
unspoilt.
On the immediate neighbourhood of Rome much has




INTROD UCTORY.                    17
already been written. Sir William Gell's " Topography of
Rome and its Vicinity " is a mine of antiquarian information.
Some slight sketches of different points of interest, especially
of the monasteries in the neighbourhood, may be found in
the different works of Hemans. The author would especially
express his constant debt of gratitude to " Cramer's Ancient
Italy," and to many of the wonderfully accurate articles in
"Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography."
Story's charming "Roba di Roma," and several admirable
novels, especially "The Marble Faun" (foolishly called
"Transformation" in England), "Barbara's History," and
more especially George Sand's " Daniella," abound  in
charming word-pictures of the Campagna and the nearer
places on the hills. But for more distant excursions, the
English books of reference are easily exhausted, with
one great exception,-" Dennis' Cities and Cemeteries of
Etruria." In studying this delightful work, and even in the
few extracts given in these volumes, the reader who knows
Rome will seem  to feel again the fresh breeze from the
Sabine and Alban hills sweeping over the Campagna, laden
with a scent of sweet basil and thyme, and he will enjoy
again in their remembrance that glow of enthusiasm which
the real scenes brought into them. The great volumes of
Dennis are too large to be companions on the excursions
themselves, but in preparation for them will be charming
fireside companions for Roman winter evenings. German
scholars will delight in the charming volumes of Gregorovius,
and especially in his " Lateinische Sommer," than which no
descriptive book is more pictorial or more interesting. The
best and most accurate Hand-books of Italy which have yet
been published are also in German-those of Dr. Th.
VOL. I.                                      2




18                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
Gsell-fels, assisted by admirable maps, and though they are
exceedingly unequal, as if the author had only visited in
person a portion of the district he describes, in some places
they are almost exhaustive.  The small Hand-books of
Baedeker are very convenient and practical, and are generally very carefully corrected.
It must necessarily be with the present work as with the
many which have preceded it. Some who follow in the paths
it indicates will think its descriptions exaggerated, others will
find them  not sufficiently glowing.  For Rome, more than
any other place, produces different impressions on different
minds.  The Campagna in its ruin and desolation will be
described as "dismal and monotonous," or "solemn and
beautiful," according to the feelings of those who traverse it.
Some will only be impressed with the dirt, the poverty, the
ruinousness of the mountain-towns; others with their picturesqueness and colour. It is necessary to real enjoyment
of these mountain places to cast out all the black motes
which too often obscure our vision.  When this is done,
what a store of sunny memories may be laid up.
" Yea, from the very soil of silent Rome
You shall grow wise; and walking, live again
The lives of buried peoples, and become
A child by right of that eternal home,
Cradle and grave of empires, on whose walls
The sun himself subdued to reverence falls." —7. A. S.
Rome is unlike other towns  in  having  scarcely any
suburbs  on nearly every side one is in the country almost
directly.
"St. John describes Rome, in the Apocalypse, as sitting upon her
seven hills in the wilderness. And a wilderness indeed it is. First, in
every direction that leads into the Campagna, you pass the inhabited
streets; then comes a belt of vineyards and villas, fading off into




INTRODUCTOR Y.                         I9
desolation as you proceed; then come the grand old walls, stretching
away, with their richly-coloured brickwork and flanking towers. You
pass out through a stately gate, through which legions have gone out and
in fifteen hundred years ago, and you are in the Campagna. There it is
before you, mile after mile, brownish green in the foreground, red in
the middle distance, melting away into purple and blue in the farther
distance, and bounded by a glorious bank of mountains, of colours not
to be attempted by pen or pencil. Hardly a human habitation is visible,
save where, on the Alban Hills to your right, the villages gleam out,
sprinkling their gorgeous sides with spots of pearl. Ancient towers and
tombs are cast at random about the waste. Flat it is not, but full of
the most picturesque undulations, and even lines of low cliffs and winding streams. Endless are its varieties of beauty, in outline, in grouping,
and above all, in colour. For miles and miles the ancient and modern
aqueducts bridge it with their countless arches-haunts of all the lovely
hues of the bow of heaven. Watch them in the yellow and orange of the
morning and noonday sun; watch them mellowing off as the westering
beam slopes on them, turning their gold to copper, then casting that
copper into the glow of the furnace, then cooling it down into the dull
iridescence of parting evening; watch them till the green grey of the
fading light has subdued them into the sober mass of undistinguished
plain and mountain; then wrap your cloak double round you, and stride
away through the chilled streets and the thronging Corso to your steep
open staircase, and your snug log fire, and meditate on as fair and
heavenly a sight as ever blessed a day on this varied earth.
" Rome itself is a place of never-dying and ever-varying interest; but
the Campagna of Rome is a pure source of unfailing delight."-Dean
A:ford.
Yet without its varied mountain distances, without the
glorious climate to illuminate it, it is almost impossible to
say how ugly the Campagna would be.  As it is it is perfectly beautiful.   For so vast an expanse there are few
marked features; only, here and there, the aqueducts, sometimes striding across the plain in mighty lines of arches
garlanded against the sky with ivy and smilax, sometimes
merely marked by a white line in the grass or a succession
of miniature round towers over their openings.  Between
the aqueducts, run the roads, often following the course of




20               DA YS NEAR ROME.
the ancient Roman highways, and, as in the case of the Via
Tiburtina, still paved with the blocks of black lava, laid down
two thousand years ago, over which the wine-carts rattle with
their revolving hoods (capote), shelters alike against sun and
shower,-often drawn by grand, meek-eyed oxen. Hard by,
the black  crosses, sprinkled  along the  dusty wayside
amongst the thistles, keep their dismal record of accidents
or murders; and refuges of hurdles, erected at intervals,
attest the ferocity of the Campagna buffaloes and the
necessity of escape from them.
In the winter the plain is crimson and gold with the
decaying vegetation; but, as spring advances, it changes so
rapidly to green, that it is as if it were suddenly touched
with phosphoric light; and, as summer advances, the growth
becomes coarse and rampagious to a degree-Virgins thistle,
breast-high; rank anchusas; hemlock; huge resedas; acres
covered with the tall and stately but poisonous asphodel,
here and there a low bush of hawthorn, and a band of green
osiers marking where the Anio meanders through a cleft.
Almost every building is mediaeval, except those which are
classical. The most conspicuous are the tall towers of brick
and stone, relics for the most part of Orsini and Colonna
feuds, and erected as a refuge for the shepherds of one of the
great proprietors, against the inroads of his neighbours.
Besides these, there are the huts built of reeds, such as
Virgil describes, and the rifled tombs, now used as houses,
in the doors of which we so often see the shepherd-wives,
with folded panni shading their withered faces, seated
spinning like the pictures of the Fates, while the shepherds
themselves, dressed in goat-skins, watch their flocks on the
neighbouring turfy hillocks.




INTR OD UCTO R Y.                          2
"Next to the picturesquely conspicuous towers the most frequent
landmarks are the conical shepherds' huts, usually on the higher grounds,
inhabited during about half the year by a race of men so cut off from
all social and civilizing influences that one might expect to find the
lowest brutality, and all the fiercest passions, in a moral soil thus neglected. The shepherd of these parts, in his broad-brimmed black hat,
long loose jacket and leggings, both alike of unshorn sheep or goatskin, might seem the original type whence an idealizing dream devised
the mythologic satyr.  His temporary dwelling is made of branches
of the yellow-flowering Spanish broom, and is open at the pointed apex
for the escape of smoke from the wood-fire lit in the middle, around
which are ranged beds, something like berths in a ship, and usually for
several people, as this hut is inhabited by many inmates, besides dogs
or pigs, and at times sheep or goats, also privileged to enjoy its warmth
and shelter. Here (it may be within sight of St. Peter's and the Lateran
basilica) does this rude servant of the soil spend the long seasons of his
monotonous existence, till the summer-sultriness obliges him to migrate
with his dogs and sheep. The usual food of these outcast-looking beings
is black bread and ricotta (ewe's-milk cheese). Yet, despite his wild
and savage aspect, this shepherd, on near approach, proves a harmless
creature; will sometimes beg in the humblest tone; and has the reputation of being consistently devout, his religion standing him in the stead
of knowledge and ideas. "-Heman's Story of Monuments in Rome.
" Vous apercevez qa et la quelques bouts de voies romaines dans des
lieux ou il n~ passe plus personne, quelques traces dessechees des torrents de lhiver, qui, vues de loin, ont elles-memes lair de chemins
battus et frequentes, et qui ne sont que le lit d'une onde orageuse, qui
s'est ecoulee comme le peuple romain.   A  peine decouvrez-vous
quelques arbres, mais vous voyez partout des ruines d'aqueducs et de
tombeaux qui semblent etre les forets et les plantes indigenes d'une
terre composee de la poussiere des morts et des debris des empires;
solvent, dans une grande plaine, j'ai cru voir de riches moissons; je
m'en approchais, et ce n'etaient que des herbes fltries qui avaient
trompe mon ceil.  Sous ces moissons arides, on distingue quelquefois
les traces d'une ancienne culture.  Point d'oiseaux, point de mugissements de troupeaux, point de villages; un petit nombre de fermes
delabrees se montrent sur la nudite des champs; les fenetres et les
portes en sont fermees, il n'en sort ni fumee, ni bruit, ni habitants. Une
espece de sauvage, presque nu, pale et mine par la fievre, garde seulement ces tristes chaumieres, comme ces spectres qui, dans nos histoires gothiques, dfeendent l'entree des chateaux abandonnees....




22                DA YS NEAR ROME.
Vous croiriez peut-etre, d'apres cette description, qu'il n'y a rien de plus
affreux que les cgmpagnes romaines; vous vous tromperiez beaucoup:
elles ont une inconcevable grandeur."-Chateaubriand.
In this vast undulating plain, generally occupying some
green knoll, washed by a brook at its base, are the sites of
many an ancient Latin town which was alternately the
enemy and the ally of Rome.  Sometimes, as in the case of
Ostia, a whole city, with its paved streets, its narrow shops,
and its equally miniature temples, has been laid bare.
Sometimes, as at Veii, Gabii, and Tusculum, only a fragment
of ruin, rising here and there above-ground, marks one of
the principal buildings-a theatre or a temple. Often, as
at Antemne, Fidenme, Crustumerium, and Collatia, only the
undulations of the turf attest where the city has been.
As we advance into the hills, where they were more
easily protected, the ancient cities are far more perfect;
at Tivoli are beautiful miniature temples of the ancient
Tibur; at Sutri is its wonderful rock-hewn amphitheatre  at
Aquino are noble remains both of arches and temples;
at Cori are the threefold walls which gird, and the rock
temples which crown, its hill top.
Further still from the capital, where the classical buildings
were always less magnificent, glorious mediaeval remains
attest the presence of Popes who made the hill-towns the
fortified residence of their troubled reigns.  The massive
remains of the Papal palaces of Anagni, Viterbo, and Orvieto,
with the glorious churches of those towns; the gothic
palace of Cardinal Vitelleschi at Corneto; the convents of
Monte Cassino, Subiaco, Farfa, Grotta Ferrata, Trisulti,
Casamari, and Fossanuova; the castles  and  towers of
Tivoli, Bracciano, Ostia, Celano, Avezzano, Borghetto, and




IN7TROD UCTOR Y.                        23
Bolsena; the walls of Civita Lavinia and Nepi,-attest the
love and knowledge of art and beauty which flourished in
those dark ages.
As we go further from Rome, too, new interests are suggested by the pelasgic and cyclopean remains at Palestrina,
Cori, Norba, Segni, Alatri, and Arpino, or by the marvellous
Etruscan discoveries of Cervetri, Corneto, Vulci, Norchia,
and Bieda.
"The excursions in the neighbourhood of Rome are charming, and
would be full of interest if it were only for the changing views they
afford of the wild Campagna.  But every inch of ground, in every
direction, is rich in associations, and in natural beauties. There is
Albano, with its lovely lake and wooded shore, and with its wine, that
certainly has not improved since the days of Horace, and in these times
hardly justifies his panegyric. There is squalid Tivoli, with the river
Anio, diverted from its course, and plunging down, headlong, some
eighty feet in search of it. With its picturesque Temple of the Sibyl,
perched high on a crag; its minor waterfalls glancing and sparkling in
the sun; and one good cavern yawning darkly, where the river takes
a fearful plunge and shoots on, low down under beetling rocks. There,
too, is the Villa d'Este, deserted and decaying among groves of melancholy pine and cypress trees, where it seems to lie in state. Then, there
is Frascati, and, on the steep above it, the ruins of Tusculum, where
Cicero lived, and wrote, and adorned his favourite house (some fragments
of it may yet be seen there), and where Cato was born. We saw its
ruined amphitheatre on a grey dull day, when a shrill March wind was
blowing, and when the scattered stones of the old city lay strewn about
the lonely eminence, as desolate and dead as the ashes of a long-extinguished fire. "-Dickens.
" Nothing can be more rich and varied, with every kind of beauty,
than the Campagna of Rome-sometimes, as around Ostia, flat as an
American prairie, with miles of canni and reeds rustling in the wind,
fields of exquisite feathery grasses waving to and fro, and forests of tall
golden-trunked stone-pines poising their spreading umbrellas of rich
green high in the air, and weaving a murmurous roof against the sun;
sometimes drear, mysterious, and melancholy, as in the desolate stretches
between Civita Vecchia and Rome, with lonely hollows and hills without
a habitation, where sheep and oxen feed, and the wind roams over
treeless and deserted slopes, and silence makes its home; sometimes




24                   DA YS NEAR ROME.
rolling like an inland sea whose waves have suddenly been checked and
stiffened, green with grass, golden with grain, and gracious with myriads
of wild flowers, where scarlet poppies blaze over acres and acres, and
pink-frilled daisies cover the vast meadows, and pendant vines shroud
the picturesque ruins of antique villas, aqueducts, and tombs, or droop
from mediaeval towers and fortresses.
"Such is the aspect of the Agro Romano, or southern portion of
the Campagna extending between Rome and Albano. It is a picture
wherever you go.  The land, which is of deep rich loam that repays
a hundred-fold the least toil of the farmer, does not wait for the help of'
man, but bursts into spontaneous vegetation and everywhere laughs
into flowers. Here is pasturage for millions of cattle, and grain fields
for a continent, that now in wild untutored beauty bask in the Italian
sun, crying shame on their neglectful owners. Over these long unfenced
slopes one may gallop on horseback for miles without let or hindrance,
through meadows of green smoothness on fire with scarlet poppiesover hills crowned with ruins that insist on being painted, so exquisite
are they in form and colour, with their background of purple mountains-down valleys of pastoral quiet, where great tufa caves open
into subterranean galleries leading beyond human ken; or one may
linger in lovely secluded groves of ilexes and pines, or track the
course of swift streams overhung by dipping willows, and swerving here
and there through broken arches of antique bridges smothered in green;
or wander through hedges heaped and toppling over with rich luxuriant
foliage, twined together by wild vetches, honeysuckles, morning-glories,
and every species of flowering vine; or sit beneath the sun-looped shadows
of ivy-covered aqueducts, listening to the song of hundreds of larks far
up in the air, and gazing through the lofty arches into wondrous deeps
of violet-hued distances, or lazily watching flocks of white sheep as they
cross the smooth slopes guarded by the faithful watch-dog. Everywhere
are deep brown banks of pozzolana earth which makes the strong Roman
cement, and quarries of tufa and travertine with unexplored galleries
and catacombs honey-combing for miles the whole Campagna.  Dead
generations lie under your feet wherever you tread. The place is haunted
by ghosts that outnumber by myriads the living, and the air is filled with
a tender sentiment and sadness which makes the beauty of the world
about you more touching. You pick up among the ruins on every slope
fragments of rich marbles that once encased the walls of luxurious villas.
The contadino or shepherd offers you an old worn coin, on which you
read the name of Caesar, or a scarabeus which once adorned the finger
of an Etruscan king, in whose dust he now grows his beans, or the
broken head of an ancient jar in marble or terra-cotta, or a lacrymatory




INTRODUCTORY.                            25
of a martyred Christian, or a vase with the Etrurian red that now is lost,
or an intaglio that perhaps has sealed a love-letter a thousand years
ago. "-Story's Roba di Roma, i. 313.
From   the  unenclosed  nature  of  the  Campagna  and
the paucity of inhabitants, all the ancient land-marks are
more easily traced here than in other parts of Italy.
"The hills of Rome are such as we rarely see in England, low in
height but with steep and rocky sides.  In early times the natural
wood still remained in patches amidst the buildings, as at this day
it still grows here and there on the green sides of the Monte Testaccio.
Across the Tiber the ground rises to a greater height than that of the
Roman hills, but its summit is a level unbroken line, while the heights,
which opposite to Rome itself rise immediately from the river, under
the names of Janiculus and Vaticanus, then sweep away to some distance
from it, and return in their highest and boldest form at the Monte
Mario, just above the Milvian bridge and the Flaminian road.  Thus to
the west the view is immediately bounded; but to the north and
north-east the eye ranges over the low ground of the Campagna to the
nearest line of Apennines, which closes up, as with a gigantic wall,
all the Sabine, Latin, and Volscian lowlands, while over it are still
distinctly to be seen the high summits of the central Apennines, covered
with snow, even at this day, for more than six months in the year.
South and south-west lies the wide plain of the Campagna; its level
line succeeded by the equally level line of the sea, which can only
be distinguished from it by the brighter light reflected from its waters.
Eastward, after ten miles of plain, the view is bounded by the Alban
Hills, a cluster of high bold points rising out of the Campagna, like
Arran from the sea, on the highest of which, at nearly the same height
with the summit of Helvellyn, stood the Temple of Jupiter Latiaris,
the scene of the common worship of all the people of the Latin name.
Immediately under this highest point lies the crater-like basin of the
Alban lake; and on its nearer rim might be seen the trees of the
grove of Ferentia, where the Latins held the great civil assemblies of
their nation.  Further to the north, on the edge of the Alban Hills
looking towards Rome, was the town and citadel of Tusculum; and
beyond this, a lower summit crowned with the walls and towers of
Labicum seems to connect the Alban hills with the line of the Apennines
just at the spot where the citadel of Proeneste, high up on the mountain
side, marks the opening into the country of the Hernicans, and into
the valleys of the streams that feed the Liris.




26                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
"Returning nearer to Rome, the lowland country of the Campagna
is broken by long green swelling ridges, the ground rising and falling,
as in the heath country of Surrey and Berkshire.  The streams are
dull and sluggish, but the hill-sides above them constantly break away
into little rocky cliffs, where on every ledge the wild fig now strikes
out its branches, and tufts of broom are clustering, but which in old
times formed the natural strength of the citadels of the numerous cities
of Latium. Except in these narrow dells, the present aspect of the
country is all bare and desolate, with no trees nor any human habitation.
But anciently, in the time of the early kings of Rome, it was full of
independent cities, and in its population and'the careful cultivation
of its little garden-like farms, must have resembled the most flourishing
parts of Normandy or the Netherlands."-Arnold's Hist. of Rome, vol.
i., ch. iii.
Excursions from Rome have hitherto been usually limited
to the Alban Hills and Tivoli, or at most Subiaco. Thus
foreigners have lost not only enjoyment of much that is
worth seeing, but the benefit of occasional draughts of pure
mountain air, which would do much to keep off the fevers
to which too many, who strictly confine themselves to the
city-sights, are apt to fall victims.
You enter the Campagna and "the ancient dust and mouldiness of
Rome, the dead atmosphere in which so many months are wasted,
the hard pavements, the smell of ruin and decaying generations, the
chill palaces, the convent bells, the heavy incense of altars, the life
led in the dark narrow streets, among priests, soldiers, nobles, artists,
and women; all the sense of these things rises from the consciousness
like a cloud which has imperceptibly darkened over it." —Hawthorne.
In the Campagna, taken in its narrower sense, the Malaria
is always sufficiently alarming to make it desirable to avoid
lingering on its damp grass, and especially to hesitate about
sketching in the sunset. Its growth is most mysterious, but
it is certainly in no way due, as is often stated, to the misgovernment of the Popes.
"' Latifundia perdidere Italiam' (large farms were the ruin of Italy)
is the expression of the elder Pliny; and in reference to this later period




INTROD UCTOR Y                         27
does Strabo paIticularize the sites on the Campagna notoriously
dangerous to inhabit:-Ardea, Seetia (now Sezza), Terracina, &c. In
reference to this does Cicero complain of the fevers prevailing in its
low districts; and Livy laments the fate of the retired soldiers doomed
to reside on this soil-' Se militando fessos in pestilenti atque arido,
circa urbem, solo luctari.' Horace also observes of the month of
August in the city'Adducit febres et testamenta resignat. " —emans'
Story of Monuments in Rome.
Even in the villas at Tivoli, as in those nearer Rome,
malaria is greatly to be feared towards sunset.
"' What the flaming sword was to the first Eden, such is the malaria
to these sweet gardens and groves. We may wander through them of
an afternoon, it is true, but they cannot be made a home and a reality,
and to sleep among them is death. They are but illusions, therefore,
like the show of gleaming waters and shadowy foliage in the desert."Transformation.
But malaria does not penetrate into the hills, and nothing
can be more healthy and invigorating than the air in the
more distant mountain towns.
The middle of winter should be devoted to the city, and
to the nearer Campagna drives, so as to leave many spring
days for the hill-excursions, which will then have a charm
none who have not felt them can realize.
"About your feet the myrtles will be set,
Grey rosemary, and thyme, and tender blue
Of love-pale labyrinthine violet;
Flame-born anemones will glitter through
Dark aisles of roofing pine-trees; and for you
The golden jonquil and starred asphodel
And hyacinth their speechless tales will tell.
The nightingales for you their tremulous song
Shall pour amid the snowy scented bloom
Of wild acacia bowers, and all night long
Through starlight-flooded spheres of purple gloom
Still lemon-boughs shall spread their faint perfume,
Soothing your sense with odours sweet as sleep,
While wind-stirred cypresses low music keep." —. A. S.




28                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
"The spring came; the languid, fragrant, joyous Italian spring, all
sunshine and perfume, and singing of birds and blossoming of flowers.
The Easter festivals were past, and the strangers dispersed and gone.
The snow had faded from the summit of Soracte. The Coliseum hung
out its banners of fresh green.  The Campagna glowed under the
midday sun, like a Persian carpet-one wilderness of poppies and
harebells, buttercups, daisies, wild convolvuli, and purple hyacinths.
Every crumbling ruin burst into blossom, like a garden.  Every
cultivated patch within the city walls ran over, as it were, spontaneously,
with the delicious products of the spring.  Every stall at the shady
corner of every quiet piazza was piled high with early fruits: and
the flower-girls sat all day long on the steps of the Trinita de' Monti.
Even the sullen pulses of the Tiber seemed stirred by a more genial
current, as they eddied round the broken piers of the Ponte Rotto.
Even the solemn sepulchres of the Appian Way put forth long feathery
grasses from each mouldering cranny, and the wild eglantine struck
root among the shattered urns of the roadside columbarium.  Now,
too, the transparent nights, all spangled with fire-flies, were even more
balmy than the days. And now the moon shone down on troops of
field-labourers encamped under the open sky against the city walls; and
the nightingales sang as if inspired, among the shadowy cypresses of the
Protestant burial-ground."-Barbara's History.
The spring in Italy is the time for active, the summer for
passive enjoyment.
" You know not yet the enchantment of an Italian summer amid
Italian hills! You know not what it is to breathe the perfume of the
orange-gardens-to lie at noon in the deep shadow of an ilex-grove,
listening to the ripple of a legendary spring, older than history-to
stroll among ruins in the purple twilight! Then up there, far from
the sultry city and the unhealthy plains, we have such sunrises and
sunsets as you, artists though you be, have never dreamt of-there,
where the cool airs linger longest, and the very moon and stars look
more golden than elsewhere."-Barbara's History.
In the mountain towns, living is exceedingly economical.
Even at the hotels there are few places where the charges
for pension including everything would be more than 4-, or
at most 5 francs a day, while in lodgings one may live quite
handsomely for 25 francs a week. All prices are proportion



INTRODUCTORY.                          29
ately small. For instance, in the Abruzzi a whole day's journey
by diligence seldom  costs more than  6 or 8 francs.  Of
course this tariff does not apply to Albano, where the price
of everything has been raised by foreign interference, but
rather to places which are not much frequented, or which
are resorted to by Italians of the lower-upper or mezzo-ceto
classes, who would simply laugh down any overcharge. In
some of these places there are charming, happy summer
colonies, which migrate to the fresher air like the swallows,
as regularly as the hot months come round. To L'Ariccia
especially the artists flock forth, and there and at Olevano
they make their summer societies, leading  an  innocent,
merry life enough, and, while rivals in their art, filled with
simple kindnesses for one another; the companionship and
good-fellowship of the Via Margutta being carried on in
these country villages.
" The life of the student in Rome should be one of unblended enjoyment. If he loves his work, or, what is the same, if he throws himself
conscientiously into it, it is sweetened to him as it can be nowhere else.
His very relaxations become at once subsidiary to it, yet most delightfully recreative. His daily walks may be through the field of art, his
resting-place in some seat of the muses, his wanderings along the stream
of time bordered by precious monuments.  He can never be alone; a
thousand memories, a thousand associations accompany him, rise up at
every step, bear him along. There is no real loneliness in Rome now
any more than of old, when a thoughtful man could say that' he was
never less alone than when alone.' "-Cardinal Wiseman.
He who lives long in one of these country places will
have an  experience  of Italian  character which no town
residence will give; and will be astonished at the amount of
quaint folk lore and historical tradition which is handed
down orally in a population which can seldom read, and is
utterly ignorant of the most notorious principles of modern




30                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
information. They seldom go beyond the limits of their own
castelli, except that all have probably paid one visit to
Rome in their lifetime, to receive the Easter Benediction
from  the Holy Father.  Their animals are generally like
friends to them, and are often trained in a wonderfully human
way-especially their pigs, which generally live in the houses,
and are the companions of their daily life. A pig at Subiaco
danced the tarantella like a human being. If an Italian
peasant were told that there was no future state for his
domestic animals he would be very incredulous.  "Sant'
Antonio  abbia pietk dell' anima sua," cried Madame de
Stael's Italian coachman, as his horse fell down dead; and
the Intendente of the Duke of Sermoneta, writing lately to
announce that a number of his pigs had died in the country,
said simply, " Sono andati in Paradiso."
The  men  are generally far more instructed  than  the
women, whose ideas are for the most part confined to what
they hear in the churches, and to the stories of their own
village or of the saints.
" Among us, and in many places, the contadina is neither more nor less
than the wife, the female of the contadino, as the hen is the female of
the cock; with which, except in sex, it has life, nourishment, habits,
all in common. This equality, on the contrary, in certain places becomes
destruction and loss to the poor woman. Here, for example, if a faggot
of wood and a bunch of chickens have to be carried down to the shore
from one of the villages half-way up the mountain, the labour is thus
distributed in the family; the wife loads herself with the faggot of wood
which weighs half a hundred-weight, and the husband will take the
chickens which weigh a mere nothing. In mountainous places it is
generally thus. It is curious to hear the contadini, when they are trying
to lift a weight, if they find it heavy, say, as they quickly put it down
again,'It is woman's work  "'-Massimo d'Azeglio.
" From a people so original and so ignorant we may expect many
quaint superstitions. Accordingly besides ghosts and haunted houses we
hear of the lupo-manar, a kind of were-wolf, most dangerous on rainy




INTROOD UCTOR Y.                        3I
nights; of witches whom you may keep out of the house by hanging a
broom at the window. The Roman witch seizes eagerly on her favourite
steed, and with the muttered charm,
Sopr' acqua e sopra vento
Portami alla noce di Benevento,'
she is off in a trice to join her Samnite sisters.  If a Roman housewife
has lost anything, she will repeat Psalm xci.,' Qui habitat,' quite sure
that at the words'from the snare of the hunter' (' e laqueo venantium'she reads it' acqua di Venanzio') the truant will re-appear.  Then she
has her famous' Riiedii Sirnpatici.' To cure a wart you must tie the
finger round with crimson silk ribbon: for a sty, pretend to sew it up
with needle and thread: for a boil, get a poor neighbour to beat a
frying-pan at your door. Their faith in the lottery and the libro delh'
arte is too well known for comment; a similar reverence is paid to
the weather-prophecies of the almanac. The book must be true, they
argue, for it has the Imprimatur."-Claude Delaval Cobham, "Essay
on Belli."
In spite of the richness of the land, and in spite of the
fact that most of the peasants are themselves land-owners
on a very small scale, the most terrible poverty frequently
prevails, but this is greater in the Hernican and Equian than
in the Alban Hills.
"Can we believe that amid the abundant produce of the land the
peasants are poor? Looking at the region, it appears to be an Eldorado
of happy inhabitants; but living with them in the paradise of Nature we
meet too often with starvation. All these fruits (twenty figs or twenty
walnuts may be bought here for one bajocco, and in good years a bottle
of wine for the same price) do not feed the peasant; he would starve if
he had not the meal of the Turkish corn, which is his only food. The
fault of this incongruity lies in the agrarian condition. To begin with,
you must know that the possessor of land here owes the fourth part of
the produce as rent to the lord of the soil. It is the old curse of the
latifundia to sink the people in poverty. There are indeed few peasants
who do not possess a small vineyard, but it is not sufficient to maintain
the family.  Usury is unlimited; even from the poorest ten per cent. is
taken. The smallest misfortune, or a bad harvest, brings him into debt.
If he borrows money or grain the interest burdens him; the avaricious
rich man watches for the time of want to wrest the land from the small
proprietor for a nominal price. Barons and monasteries grow rich, the




32                  DAYS NEAR ROME.
peasant-farmer becomes their vassal and vine-dresser. As a rule the
transaction takes place thus,-the debtor only sells the soil; the trees
(gh alberi, which includes the vines) remain his, he continues to cultivate the vineyard, and retains for himself half or three-quarters of the
produce.  Scarcely a year passes, and the same vine-owner appears
before the purchaser of his land and offers him the trees for sale. Now
he becomes farmer for his master, inhabits the vineyard with his family,
and continues to cultivate it, receiving a portion of the produce. This
may equal or even exceed that of the present proprietor, but yet he will
find himself more and more in debt, and have to make over to his master
no small proportion of his gains in advance."-Gregorovius.
The  simple religious faith  which  exists  amongst the
mountain peasantry is most touching and instructive. The
sound of the angelus bell will collect the whole population
of one of the small Abruzzi towns in its churches, and the
priests, unlike the spectres which haunt ultra-Protestant
story-books, are more frequently simple gentle fathers of
their people, consulted  by  them  in  every anxiety, and
trusted in every difficulty.   The open-air life in many ot
these villages, where all the spinning, lace-making, and
other avocations are carried on in the street, brings the
people wonderfully together, and unites their interests and
associations as those of one great family, and if a poor
person dies, it is not unusual to see the whole town attend
the funeral, while orphans who have been born in the place,
become regarded as universal property, and receive a share
of the attentions and care of all. On a summer's evening,
when crowds of the inhabitants of a mountain town are sitting out in the shady street at their work, it is not unusual for
one of them to take up one of the long melancholy neverending songs which are handed down here for generations,
and for the whole people to join in the choruses. These
songs are inexhaustible, varying from the -short lively catches




IATTRODUCTORY  33
in two lines called stornelli, to long ballads which sometimes succeed one another in more than a hundred verses.
A curious collection of the latter, giving their variations
according to the different towns and patois in which
they are sung, are being published, under the name of
"Canti e Racconti del Popolo Italiano," collected by D.
Comparetti and A. D'Ancona.  But no more complete
picture of the manners and characteristics of the lower
classes in Rome and its neighbourhood can be found than
that which is given in the two thousand three hundred sonnets
of Belli (179 —I863), who, himself one of "the people,"
wrote with the very essence of their feeling. There is a
charming volume on "The Folklore of Rome," by R. H. Busk.
Riding is the best means of seeing the Campagna immediately around Rome; indeed there are many interesting
places, such as Rustica on the Anio, which cannot be
reached in a carriage.  But for the longer excursions it is
far best to adopt whatever is the usual means of locomotion
in the district, generally some high-slung Baroccino.  In
the Abruzzi, diligences are universally used, and, where the
distances are so great between one town and another, they are
quite a necessity.  In some places these are of the most
primitive construction, and in mountainous districts are
always drawn by oxen placed in front of the horses, while
the harness of the latter, thickly adorned with bells, feathers,
and little brass figures of saints, is quite an artistic study.
Diligence life is a phase of Italian existence which no one
should omit trying at least once, or rather that of the public
carriages which ply slowly between the different surrounding
towns and the capital.  In a vehicle of this kind one
cannot fail to be thrown into the closest juxtaposition with
VOL. I.                                      3




34               DA YS 2NEAR ROMIE.
one's neighbours, and nowhere is the universal national
bonhommie and good fellowship more conspicuous. Suppose you are at Tivoli and wish to go to Rome.  The
diligence starts in the middle of the day.  You walk to it
from your inn, with a porter carrying your portmanteau.
You find it under a dark archway; a lumbering vehicle,
something like a heavy though very dilapidated fly, with
three lean unkempt horses attached to it by ropes. The
company is already assembled and greet you as if you were
an old acquaintance.  There is a fat monk in a brown
habit which does not smell very good, a woman in panzlo
and large gold ear-rings, a young office clerk, a girl of sixteen, and a little child of two. The young man sits by the
driver, all the rest go inside. There is endless delay in
starting, for when you are just going off, the rope-harness
gives way and has to be mended. You begin to feel impatient, but find nobody cares in the least, so you think it is not
worth while. You get in, and find the interior very mouldy,
with tattered sides, and dirty straw on the floor. The most
unimaginable baggage is being packed on the roof. The
gossippy condultore leans against the portico  smoking
cigarettes, and regaling Tivoli with the scandal of Rome.
An important stalliere in rags stands by and demands his
fee of one soldo. At last the company are desired to
mount. The diligence is moving: it is an immense excitement:
there is quite a rush of children down the street to see it.
The vehicle creaks and groans. Surely the ropes are going to
break again; but no, they actually hold firm this time and
the carriage starts, rocking from side to side of the rugged
pavement, amid the remonstrances of the woman in the earrings, whose daughter has not been able to embrace her,




INTROD UCTOR Y.                   3
and who shrieks out of the window, " Ma, Nlino, Nino, non
ho baciato la figlia mia."
You do not get far before the fleas become active and a
universal scratching begins. The child squeals. Then the
monk gives it a lollypop and begins a long story about an
image in his convent which winked twice-ringraziamo Dio
-actually twice, on the eve of Ascension Day.  You can
hardly hear, for you are going down a hill and the carriage
rocks so, and the bells make such a noise. Suddenly there
is a regular outcry, " Oh, Madonna Santissima! " the young
girl is taken worse....  "Oh, povera piccina! "  You
stop for a little while, and are glad to escape even for a
minute from the overwhelming smell of cheese and garlic
which rises from a basket your next neighbour has placed at
your feet. All is perfect good humour, the invalid recovers,
you mount once more, the driver sings stornelzi in a loud
ringing voice: the monk hands round his snuff-box: you
sneeze, and all the company say " Felicita "-and so on, till,
when you reach the walls of Rome, you are all the greatest
friends in the world, and you shake hands all round when
you part, amid a chorus of " a rivederla Signore! "
It is melancholy to think how many people are deterred
from the great enjoyment which is to be obtained from these
Italian mountain excursions by imaginary fears of brigands.
Of course it is just within the bounds of possibility that a
casualty might occur, but, except perhaps in the neighbourhood of Palestrina or the Pontine Marshes, the chances are
exceedingly remote, and as a general rule the more distant
places are the safest. Those who stay amongst the cordial,
frank, friendly people of most of the mountain towns, or wlho
visit the beautiful prosperous valley of the Liris, would smile




36               DAYS NEAR ROME.
at the very idea of an adventure; and, in the nearer Campagna, the buffaloes, and still more the shepherd dogs, are
far more to be dreaded by lonely pedestrians than the inhabitants. Tourists who are content to travel simply to live
with and like the people they are amongst, and especially
who can sign "piftore" to the description of their profession
required in strangers' books at the inns, are not only likely to
be unmolested, but cordially welcomed and kindly treated,
however savage the aspect of nature may be in the country
in which they are wandering.  The times are quite passed
when picturesque groups surrounded every carriage which
appeared in a remote place, and commanded its occupants
to "saltar fuora," as the expression was. The brigand
stories of the last century are preserved in English country
houses, and served up for the benefit of any member of the
family who may be travelling south, as if they were events of
to-day. But those who entertain these fears do not realize
how very small the proportion of robberies and murders is in
Italy compared to that of their own country-and do not
know that no well-authenticated case can be ascertained of
a foreigner having been either murdered or carried off by
brigands, north of the old Neapolitan states, since the time
of railways. Events which would curdle the blood of every
Italian throughout the country pass almost unnoticed in
England. For instance, what detail of old Italian brigandage
was ever half so horrible as the sentence which was appended
to the account of the dreadful railway accident at Merthyr
Tydvil (May, I874) in the Times:-" We regret to say that
the poor women most injured were robbed of their purses
even before they could be extricated from the ruins of the
carriages!" Or, what tale of Italian ferocity ever equalled




INTRODUCTO RY.                        37
that of the Liverpool " roughs " (August, 1874), who, when a
respectable citizen refused to give up his money, deliberately
kicked him to death, in the presence of his wife and brother,
who were themselves terribly injured in endeavouring to
defend him.  Even from  brigands, if they are Italian, a
woman would be almost certain to meet with nothing but
personal kindness and respect, and a suffering woman could
not be sufficiently commiserated or assisted.
An equally false impression  exists in  England  as to
middle and upper classes in Central Italy, who are generally
represented and believed to be little better than well-dressed
clowns, selfish, egotistical, frivolous, uneducated, ground
down by superstition, devoid of all the habits of cleanly and
civilized life. Such misconceptions will soon vanish from
the minds of those who are at the pains to furnish themselves
with introductions to the resident gentry on their mountain
excursions, and who enjoy the friendly cordial hospitality of
the many happy family homes, in which generation after
generation have lived honoured and beloved, while in the
sons and daughters of the country-houses, as well as in those
of many of the Roman palaces, the same cultivation and accomplishments will be found which exist in a similar class in
England, illuminated by that native grace and natural quickness and brilliancy which is seldom seen out of Italy.
"Any one who has been at the pains to seek a friendship, and has
been lucky enough to find one, among the sons of modern Rome, will
not be slow in doing justice to their charms; the faithfulness, warmth,
tact, good humour, the grace of manner, the courage and tenderness,
and that dignity of manhood which is so well reflected in the strong
straight limbs, bright skin, rippling hair, and sunny faces, so well
known to the loungers in the Corso, or on the Pincian hill. Let us not
judge the Roman harshly. His history has been strangely chequered,
and his energies may have varied with his fortunes. Sometimes, like




38                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
Rienzi, he may still mistake memories for hopes, idle visions of past
greatness for that inspiration which is the earnest of future glory:'At non omnia perdidit, neque omnes.'"
Clauzde Delaval Cobham.
With regard to the best seasons for the excursions from
Rome, those who reach Central Italy in October will find
that month far the best for a tour in the Abruzzi, before the
winter snows have set in.  Subiaco and its surroundings are
gloriously beautiful in November, and are greatly enhanced
by the tints of the decaying vegetation, the absence of
which  is much  felt in spring when  the valley between
Subiaco and Tivoli looks bare and colourless.
I)uring the winter months many of the shorter excursions
may be pleasantly made from  Rome in a carriage or on
horseback, and a tramontana, if not too severe, will be
found most agreeable by pedestrians in the valleys of Veii,
or on the heights of Tusculum.  The railway to Frascati
opens many delightful and short excursions, and may always
give a perfect country change of a few hours. In March,
Alatri, Anagni, Cori, and Segni may be visited, with many
other places in that district, but March is an uncertain
month because " Marzo e pazzo," for it is the time, say
Italians, "when men did kill God."
"A reverend meteorologist accounted for the cold in Lent, by saying
that it was a mortification peculiar to the holy season, and would continue till Easter, because it was cold when Peter sate at the High
Priest's fire on the eve of the Crucifixion."-Forsyth.
But April is the pleasantest month of all, and then
should  be made  the enchanting  excursion  to  Soracte,
Caprarola, and the Ciminian Hills-which may be extended
to Orvieto, whence those who do  not wish to return  to
Rome may continue their.journey northwards.




CHAPTER I.
OSTIA AND CASTEL FUSANO.
(This excursion can easily be managed in the day. Provisions must
be taken, as there is no inn at Ostia, and visitors to Castel Fusano must
provide themselves the day before with an order (given on presenting a
card with a request, at the Chigi Palace in the Corso) to put up their
horses there. Two hours suffice to see Ostia, but as much time as possible should be given to Castel Fusano.)
I T  was in the freshness of an early morning of most
brilliant sunshine, that we drove out of the old crumbling
Ostian gate now called Porta San Paolo, which Belisarius
built, and where Totila and Genseric entered Rome, and
passed beneath the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, which for
nineteen hundred years has cast its pointed shadow over
the turfy slopes, where foreign Christians, gathered from so
many distant lands, now  sleep in Christ.   This pyramid
St. Paul looked  upon  as he was led  out to execution
beyond the city walls, and it may be considered as " the
sole surviving witness of his martyrdom." A little further
and we pass the "Chapel of the Farewell," which marks
the site of his legendary leave-taking with St. Peter, and is
adorned with a bas-relief of the two aged martyrs embracing for the last time, and inscriptions of the words they
are reported to have spoken to one another.  Then we
reach the great basilica, once surrounded by the flourishing
fortified village of Joanopolis, but now standing alone in




40               DA YS NEAR ROME.
solitary abandonment, even the monks, who scantily occupy
its adjoining convent, being obliged to fly into the town
before the summer malaria.  Outside, the restored church
has no features of age or grandeur, but within, as the eye
passes down  its unbroken lines of grey columns, surmounted by a complete series of papal portraits, it may
rest upon the magnificent mosaics of the tribune, and
the grand triumphal arch of Galla Placidia, relics of the
venerable basilica which perished by fire on the night of
the T1th of July,. I823, on which Pius VII. lay dying,:who had long been a monk within its walls, and to whom
the watchers by his death-bed never ventured to tell the
great catastrophe with which the sky was red, though as
his last moments approached, he is believed to have seen it
in a troubled vision.
Beyond San Paolo, and indeed all the way from thence
to Ostia, the road was once bordered with villas, but now
there are only three cottages in the whole distance, which
is bare or solemn as the feelings of those who visit it. It
leads through the monotonous valley of the Tiber, where
buffaloes and grand slow-moving bovi feed amid the rank
pastures which are white with narcissus. Here and there a
bit of tufa rock crops up crested with ilex and laurestinus.
A small Roman bridge called Ponte della Refolta is passed.
At length, on mounting a slight hill, we come upon a wide
view over the pale-blue death-bearing marshes of the Maremma, here called Campo-morto, to the dazzling sea, and
almost immediately enter a forest of brushwood, chiefly
myrtle and phillyrea, from which we only emerge as we
reach the narrow singular causeway leading to Ostia itself.
It is a strange scene, not unlike the approach to Mantua




APPROACH TO OSTIA.                    4I
upon a small scale. On either side stretch the still waters
of the pestiferous lagoon, called the Stagno, waving with
tall reeds which rustle mournfully in the wind, and white
with floating ranunculus. To the left, a serrated outline of
huge pine-tops marks the forest of Fusano; to the right we
see the grey towers of Porto, the cathedral of Hippolytus,
and the tall campanile which watches over the Isola Sacra,
where, with a feeling fitting the mysterious sadness of the
place, Dante makes souls wait to be ferried over into purgatory. Large sea-birds swoop over the reedy expanse. In
front the mediaeval castle rises massive and grey against the
sky-line. As we approach, it increases in grandeur, and its
huge machicolations and massive bastions become visible.
The desolate causeway is now peopled with marble figures;
heroes standing armless by the wayside, ladies reposing
headless amid the luxuriant thistle-growth.   Across the
gleaming  water we see the  faint snowy peaks of the
Leonessa.  On each sandbank, rising above the Stagno, are
works connected with the salt mines founded by King Ancus
Martius, twenty-five centuries ago, and working still.  They
have always been important, as is evidenced by the name
of one of the gates of Rome, the Porta Salara, through
which the inhabitants of the Sabina passed with their purchases of Ostian salt.
Every artist will sketch the Castle of Ostia, and will
remember as he works, that Raphael sketched it long ago,
and that, from his sketch, Giovanni da Udine painted it in
the background of his grand fresco of the victory over the
Saracens, in the Stanza of the Incendio del Borgo in the
Vatican, for here the enemy who had totally destroyed the
ancient town in the fifth century, were as totally defeated in




42               DA YS NEAR ROME.
the reign of Leo IV. (A.D. 847-856).  Procopius in the
sixth century wrote of Ostia as " a city nearly overthrown."
The present town is but a fortified hamlet, built by Gregory
IV., and originally called by him Gregoriopolis. It was
strengthened by Nicholas I. in 858. In the fifteenth century Cardinal d'Estouteville employed Sangallo, who lived
here for two years, in building the castle, and Giuliano
della Rovere, afterwards Pope Julius II. and then cardinal
bishop of Ostia, continued the work. Here he took refuge
astle of Ostia.
Castle of Ostia.
for two years from  the persecution of Alexander VI.
Afterwards he imprisoned Caesar Borgia here in  5 I3, whose
escape was connived at by Cardinal Carbajal, to whose
care he was intrusted.  Nothing remains of the internal
decorations but some mouldering frescoes executed by
Baldassare Peruzzi and Cesare da Sesto for Cardinal della
Rovere, but the outer walls are so covered  with  the
escutcheons of their different papal owners as " to form a
veritable  chapter of pontifical heraldry."   Conspicuous
amongst these grand coats of arms are the oak-tree (Robur)
of the Della Rovere, and the wreathed column of the




OSTIA.                          43
Colonna.  On the battlements above, masses of the bluegreen wormwood, which is a lover of salt air and scanty
soil, wave in the wind. Artists will all regret the destruction of the tall pine, so well known till lately in pictures of
Ostia, which stood beside the tower, till it died in 1870.
The tiny town, huddled into the narrow  fortified space,
which forms as it were an outer bastion of the castle, contains the small semi-Gothic cathedral, a work of Baccio Pintelli, with a rose-window, but scarcely larger than a chapel,
and seeming out of keeping with the historical recollections
which we have of many mighty cardinal bishops. Some accounts state that this most ancient see was founded by the
apostles themselves; others consider that Pope Urban I.
(A.D. 222) was its founder, and announce St. Ciriacus as its
first bishop. It is the bishop of Ostia who has always been
called upon to ordain a pope who has not been in priests'
orders at the time of his election, and he bears the title of
" Dean of the Sacred College."`
A  quarter of a mile beyond  the mediaeval town we
enter upon the ancient city. It is like Pompeii. The long
entrance street, now quite unearthed, is paved with great
blocks of lava closely dovetailed into one another, and is
lined with the low ruins of small houses and shops, chiefly
built of brick, set in opus reticulatum. Here and there a tall
grey sarcophagus stands erect; but no building remains perfect in the whole of the great town, which once contained
eighty thousand inhabitants. Thistles flourish everywhere,
and snakes and lizards abound, and glide in and out of the
hot unshaded stones. After a time we turn into other and
* The towns of Ostia, Portus, Silva Candida, Sabina, Praeneste, Tusculum, and
Albanum, were the sees of seven suffragan bishops, afterwards called cardinal bishops,
of whom the Bishop of Rome was in a special sense the Metropolitan.




44               DA YS NEAR ROM/E.
sm-aller streets, in some of which there are evident remains
of pillared porticoes. A temple of Mithras, supposed to be
of the date of the Antonines, has been identified by the inscription on its pavement, " Soli Invict. Mit. D. D. L. Agrius
Calendio." Three statues of Mithraic priests were found
near its altar. Baths, richly decorated with mosaics, have
also been discovered.
In the streets, the marks, the deep ruts of the chariotwheels-obliged by the narrow space to run always in the
same groove, remain in the pavement.  The ground is
littered with pieces of coloured marble, and of ancient glass
tinted with all the hues of a peacock's tail by its long interment.  The banks are filled with fragments of pottery, and
here and there of human bones.  The whole scene is
melancholy and strange beyond description.  Emerging
from  the narrow, almost oppressive confinement of the
ruined streets, upon higher ground still unexcavated, which
stretches away in ashy reaches to the mouths of the Tiber
and the sea, we find a massive quadrangular building of
brick, which is more stately and perfect than anything else,
and is supposed to have been a temple of Jupiter. It contains its ancient altar.
Ancus Martius was the original founder of Ostia, which
then stood upon the sea-shore, and for hundreds of years it
was the place where the great Roman expeditions were embarked for the subjugation of the provinces. Chief among
these were the expedition of Scipio Africanus to Spain, and
that of Claudius to Britain. It was in the time of Claudius
that the town obtained its chief importance.  He dearly
loved his sea-port, often stayed here, and it was from hence
that he was summoned to Rome by the news of the




S. AUGUSTINE AT OSTIA.                    45
iniquities which led to the death of Messalina. In his time
the sand was already beginning to accumulate at the mouth
of the Tiber, and Ostia was soon after ruined, paling before
the prosperity of Porto. In consequence of the changes in
the mouth of the Tiber, which has no longer the graceful
course and the woody banks described by Virgil, it is diffi
cult to ascertain the site of the ancient harbour. It is even
disputed through how many channels the river entered the
sea; Dionysius, in his "Periegesis," declares that it had
only one; Ovid alludes to two.'; Ostia contigerat, qua se Tiberinus in altum
Dividit, et campo liberiore natat."-Fast. iv. 291.
" Fluminis ad flexum veniunt; Tiberina priores
Ostia dixerunt, unde sinister abit."-Fast. iv. 329.
But from these classical recollections the Christian pilgrim
will turn with enthusiasm to later memories, as precious and
beautiful as any that the Campagna of Rome can afford, and
he will see Augustine, with his holy mother, Monica, sitting,
as in Ary Scheffer's picture, at "a curtain window," discoursing alone, together, very sweetly, and, "forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forth to those things
which are before," inquiring in the presence of the Truth of
what sort the eternal life of the saints was to be, and " gasping with the mouths of their hearts" after the heavenly
streams of the fountain of life. Then, as the world and
all its delights become contemptible in the nearness into
which their converse draws them to the unseen, he will hear
the calm voice of Monica in the twilight telling her son that
her earthly hopes and mission are fulfilled, and that she is
only waiting to depart, "since that is accomplished for
which she had desired to linger awhile in this life, that she




46                DA YS NEAR ROME.
might see him a Catholic Christian before she died."  He
will remember that five days after this conversation, Monica
lay in Ostia upon her death-bed, and waking from a long
swoon, and looking fixedly on her two sons standing by her,
" with grief amazed," said to Augustine, "Here thou shalt
bury thy mother; " and that to those who asked whether
she was not afraid to leave her body so far from her own
city, she replied, " Nothing is far to God; nor is it to be
feared lest at the end of the world He should not recognize
whence to raise me up."  And here "on the ninth day of
her sickness, and the fifty-sixth year of her age, was that
religious and holy soul freed from the body." The bones of
Monica were moved afterwards to Rome, to the church
which was dedicated to her son's memory; but it is Ostia
which will always be connected with the last scenes of that
most holy life, and at Ostia that Augustine describes the
" mighty sorrow which flowed into his heart," the tears and
outcries of " the boy Adeodatus,"* as the beloved mother
sank into her last sleep; how Euodius calmed their grief
by taking up the Psalter, and how all the mourning household sang the psalm, " I will sing of mercy and judgment to
thee, 0 Lord," around the silent corpse; and lastly, how the
body was carried to the burial, and they "went and returned
without tears-for the bitterness of sorrow could not exude
out of the heart."
With these recollections in our minds, let us leave Ostia.
It is a curious and deeply interesting, but not a beautiful
place, and it is a strange contrast, when we have returned
once more to the old fortress, and, turning sharply round its
walls, traversed the two miles of desolate campagna between
* The son of Augustine.




APPOA CH TO CAS TEL FUSANO.               47
it and the pine-wood, to find in Castel Fusano an absolute
climax of poetical loveliness. The peasants do all their
field labour here in gangs, men and women together, and
most picturesque they look, for the costumes which are
dying out in Rome are universally worn here, and all the
women have their heads shaded by white jainni, and are
dressed in bright pink and blue petticoats and laced bodices.
Thiey have hard work to fight against the deep-rooted
asphodels, which overrun whole pastures and destroy the
grass, and they have also the constantly recurring malaria to
struggle against, borne up every night by the poisonous
vapours of the marsh, which renders Ostia almost uninhabitable even to the natives in summer, and death to the
stranger who attempts to pass the night there.
Approach to Castel Fusano.
A bridge, decorated with the arms of the Chigis, takes us
across the last arm of the Stagno, with a huge avenue of
pines ending or a green lawn, in the midst of which stands
the mysterious, desolate Chigi palace, occupying the site of
the beloved Laurentine villa of Pliny. No road, no path




Ws                DAYS NEAR ROMHE.
even, leads to its portal; but all around is green turf, and it
looks like the house where the enchanted princess went to
sleep with all her attendants for five hundred years, and
where she must be asleep still.  Round the house, at intervals, stand gigantic red vases, like Morgiana's oil-jars,
filled with yuccas and aloes. Over the parapet wall stone
figures look down, set there to scare away the Saracens, it is
said, but for centuries they have seen nothing but a few
stranger tourists or sportsmen, and the wains of beautiful
meek-eyed oxen drawing timber from the forest. All beyond
is a vast expanse of wood, huge pines stretching out their
immense green umbrellas over the lower trees; stupendous
ilexes contorted by time into a thousand strange vagaries;
bay-trees bowed with age, and cork-trees grey with lichenpatriarchs even in this patriarchal forest. And beneath these
greater potentates such a wealth of beautiful shrubs as is
almost indescribable-arbutus, lentisc, phillyrea; tall Mediterranean heath, waving vast plumes of white blossom far
overhead, sweet daphne, scenting all around with its pale
pink blossoms; myrtle growing in thickets of its own;
smilax and honeysuckle, leaping from  tree to tree, and
forming themselves into a thousand lovely wreaths, and,
beneath all, such a carpet of pink cyclamen, that the air is
heavy with its perfume, and we may sit down and fill our
hands and baskets with the flowers without moving from a
single spot. A road, a mile long, paved with blocks of lava
plundered from the Via Severiana, leads from the back of
the palace to the sea, and we must follow it, partly to see
the famous rosemary which Pliny describes, and which still
grows close to the shore in such abundance, and partly for
the sake of a glimpse of the grand Mediterranean itself (so




SHORE OF CASTEL FUSANO.                  49
refreshing after the close air of Roman streets), which rolls in
here with long waves upon a heavy sandy shore, where a
few fishermen have their huts, built of myrtle from the wood,
and bound together with the reeds of the Stagno. But all
the forest is delightful, and one cannot wander enough into
its deep recesses, where some giant of the wood is reflected
in a solitary pool, or where the trees reach overhead into
long aisles like a vast cathedral of Nature. If time can be
given, it is well worth while to follow on horseback the
heavy road which leads continuously through the forest to
Porto d'Anzio, by Ardea and Pratica; but in this case it will
be necessary to have permission to sleep at Castel Fusano.
Such an excursion will give leisure to dwell upon the
beauties which are generally seen so hurriedly.  Virgil
should be taken as a companion, who describes the very
pines, which cast such long shadows, in his " Eneid,"" Evertunt actas ad sidera pinus," *
and with the poet as a fellow-traveller, perhaps the very
desertion and solitude will act as a charm, and the intense
silence, only broken by the songs of the birds and the chirp
of the cicala.
* xi. 136.
VOL. r.                                    4




CHAPTER II.
ALBANO AND LARICCIA.
(The Hotel lie Paris (occupying an old palace) at Albano, is perhaps
the best, and is comfortable. The Albergo della Posta, belonging to
the same landlord, is an old-established inn in the Italian style, and has
a few pleasant rooms towards the Campagna. The Hotel de Rome, on
the other side of the street, nearer Lariccia and the country, is comfortable and well-furnished: the upper floor is very cold in winter. The
Hotel de Russie, near the Roman gate and the Villa Doria, is an oldfashioned inn, with less pretensions. At all the hotels at Albano the
charges are very high in comparison with other places near Rome, and
quite unreasonably so.  It is necessary on arriving to make a fixed bargain at all of them, and for everything.  The charges for carriages
are most extortionate and ought to be universally resisted.  If no
bargain is made at the railway-station, travellers are liable to a charge
of Io or even I5 francs for a carriage to take them to their hotel. Places
in the open omnibus, without luggage, cost one franc each. It is far more
economical as well as pleasanter for a party of people to take a carriage
from Rome to Albano (costing 20 francs), than to go by the railway and
be at the mercy of the Albano carriages on arriving. Those who stay
long in the place will find it much less expensive to walk across the viaduct to Lariccia and take a carriage from thence, or even to order one
from Genzano.  Donkeys cost four francs by the day, the donkeyman
four francs, and the guide seven francs: these prices include the whole
excursion by Monte Cavo and Nemi.)
L OOKING across the level reaches of the Campagna as
it is seen above the walls of the city from  the Porta
Maggiore to the Porta S. Paolo, the horizon is bounded by a
chain of hills, or rather very low mountains, so varied in out



7HE  ALB'AN HItLLS.                      51
line, so soft and beautiful in the tender hues of their everchanging colour, that the eye is always returning to rest upon
them, and they soon assume the aspect of loved and familiar
friends, equally charming in the sapphire and amethyst hues
of autumn, under the occasional snow-mantle of mid-winter,
or when bursting afresh into light and life, from the luxuriant
green of early spring. Where they break away from the plain,
the buttresses of the hills are clothed with woods of olives or
with fruit-trees, then great purple hollows vary their slopes,
and towns and villages on the projecting heights gleam and
glitter in the sun, towns, each with a name so historical as
to awaken a thousand associations.  And these centre most
of all round the white building on the highest and steepest
crest of the chain, which marks the summit of the Alban
Mount, and the site of the great temple of Jupiter Latiaris
-the famous-the beloved sanctuary of the Latin tribes.
"For those who have not been at Rome I will say, that on looking
south-east from the gate of S. John Lateran, after a slightly undulating
plain of eleven miles, unbroken by any tree, but only by tombs and
broken aqueducts, there rises in the mist of beautiful days, a line of blue
hills of noble forms, which, leaving the Sabine country, go leaping on in
various and graceful shapes, till they reach the highest point of all,
called the Monte Cavo.  Hence the chain descends afresh, and with
moderate declension, and a line long drawn out, reaches the plain, and
is lost there not very far from the sea."-Massimo d'Azeglio.
"Alba, thou findest me still, and, Alba, thou findest me ever,
Now from the Capitol steps, now over Titus's Arch,
Here from the large grassy spaces that spread from the Lateran portal,
Towering o'er aqueduct lines lost in perspective between,
Or from a Vatican window, or bridge, or the high Coliseum,
Clear by the garlanded line cut of the Flaviau ring.
Beautiful can I not call thee, and yet thou hast power to o'ermaster,
Power of mere beauty; in dreams, Alba, thou hauntest me still."
A. H. Clough.
Pedestrians will do well to take tne old Appian Way in




52                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
going to Albano (see  Walks in Rome, vol. i.), every step of
which is full of interest; but carriages will usually follow the
Via Appia Nuova, which emerges from the city walls by the
Porta S. Giovanni, and after crossing the Via Latina (Walks
in Rome, i. 124), runs between the stately arches of the
Claudian Aqueduct on the left, and the ruined tombs of the
Appian Way on the right.
Claudian Aqueduct.' L'aqueduc et la voie d'Appius marquent un moment d'une grande
importance dans la destinee de Rome, ils sont comme une magnifique
vignette entre le premier alinea de l'histoire de la republique et les
suivants."-A~mpere, Hist. Rom., iv. 49.
"Passing out by the San Giovanni gate, you enter upon those
broad wastes that lie to the south-east of the city. Going forward
thence, with the aqueducts to your left, and the old Appian Way, lined
with crumbling sepulchres, reaching for miles in one unswerving line on
your far right, you soon leave Rome behind. Faint patches of vegetation gleam here and there, like streaks of light; and nameless ruins lie
scattered broadcast over the bleak slopes of this most desolate region.
Sometimes you come upon a primitive bullock-waggon, or a peasant
driving an ass laden with green boughs; but these signs of life are rare.
Presently you pass the remains of a square temple, with Corinthian
pilasters-then a drove of shaggy ponies-then a little truck with a
tiny pent-house reared on one side of the seat, to keep the driver from
the sun-then a flock of rusty sheep-a stagnant pool-a clump of
stunted trees-a conical thatched hut-a round sepulchre, half buried in
the soil of ages-a fragment of broken arch; and so on, for miles and
miles across the barren plain. By and by you see a drove of buffaloes
scouring along towards the aqueducts, followed by a mounted herdsman, buskined and brown, with his lance in his hand, his blue cloak




LE FRA 7TOCCHIE.                        53
floating behind him, and his sombrero down upon his brow-the very
picture of a Mexican hunter."-Miss Edwards, Barbara's History.
Eleven miles from Rome the Via Appia Nova joins the
Via Appia Vecchia at Le Frattocchie. The view from hence,
looking  down  the avenue of mouldering  sepulchres, is
most desolate and striking. The use of the popular term
Strada del Diavolo, which we constantly meet with here as
applied to the Via Appia, will call to mind the name of the
Devil's Dyke as applied to a well-known Roman work in
England.
" One day we walked out, a little party of three, to Albano, fourteen
miles distant; possessed by a great desire to go there by the ancient
Appian Way, long since ruined and overgrown. We started at halfpast seven in the morning, and within an hour or so were out upon the
open Campagna.  For twelve miles we went climbing on, over an
unbroken succession of mounds, and heaps, and hills, of ruin. Tombs
and temples, overthrown and prostrate; small fragments of columns,
friezes, pediments; great blocks of granite and marble; mouldering
arches, grass-grown and decayed; ruin enough to build a spacious city
from. lay strewn about us. Sometimes loose walls, built up from these
fragments by the shepherds, came across our path; sometimes a ditch,
between two mounds of broken stones, obstructed our progress; sometimes the fragments themselves, rolling from beneath our feet, made it a
toilsome matter to advance; but it was always ruin. Now, we tracked
a piece of the old road above the ground; now traced it underneath a
grassy covering, as if that were its grave; but all the way was ruin. In
the distance, ruined aqueducts went stalking on their giant course along
the plain; and every breath of wind that swept towards us stirred early
flowers and grasses, springing up, spontaneously, on miles of ruin. The
unseen larks above us, who alone disturbed the awful silence, had their
nests in ruin; and the fierce herdsmen, clad in sheepskins, who now
and then scowled upon us from their sleeping nooks, were housed in
ruin. The aspect of the desolate Campagna in one direction, where it was
most level, reminded me of an American prairie; but what is the solitude
of a region where men have never dwelt, to that of a Desert where a
mighty race have left their foot-prints in the earth from which they have
vanished; where the resting-places of their Dead have fallen like their
Dead; and the broken hour-glass of Time is but a heap of idle dust!




54                     DA YS NEAR ROME.
Returning, by the road, at sunset; and looking, from  the distance, on
the course we had taken in the morning, I almost felt as if the sun would
never rise again, but look its last, that night, upon a ruined world."Dickens.
Le Frattocchie itself was the scene of the fatal meeting
(Jan. 20th, B.C. 52) between Clodius and Milo.
" Clodius etait alle a Aricia pour une affaire. Le lendemain, il s'etait
arrete dans sa villa, voisine du mont Albain, ou il devait coucher.  La
nouvelle de la mort de son architecte le fit partir assez tard. A peine
avait-il commence a suivre la voie Appienne, qu'il se croisa pres de
Boville avec Milon; Milon se rendait a Lanuvium, d'oui il etait originaire, pour y installer dans sa charge un pretre de la deesse du lieu,
Junon Sospita.
"Je crois que les deux ennemis ne s'attendaient pas a se rencontrer.
Milon etait en voiture avec sa femme; escorte par ses esclaves, parmi
lesquels se trouvaient deux gladiateurs renommes. Dans la situation oui
ii se trouvait vis-a-vis de Clodius, cette escorte n'avait rien d'extraordinaire.
"Clodius etait a cheval, suivi de trois amis, et d'une trentaine
d'esclaves.  Les deux ennemis s'etaient depasses sans se rien dire. Une
querelle s'engagea entre ceux qui formaient leur suite.
"Selon Ciceron, un grand nombre des gens de Clodius attaquerent
Milon d'un lieu qui dominait la route.  Son cocher fut tue.  Milon
sauta a terre pour se defendre; les gens de Clodius coururent vers la
voiture pour attaquer Milon, et commencerent a frapper ses esclaves a
coups d'epee. Ce fut alors que le gladiateur Birra, attaquant Clodius
par derriere, lui perga l'epaule.
" Les serviteurs de Clodius, beaucoup moins nombreux, s'enfuirent et
emporterent leur maitre dans une hotellerie; l'h6tellerie fut assiege par
les hommes de Milon, l'h6te tue.  Clodius, arrache de cet asile, fut
ramene sur la route, et la perce de coups.  Milon ne fit rien pour
l'empecher.  On dit plus tard qu'apres le meurtre il etait alle dans la
villa de son ennemi, qui etait tout proche, pour chercher son enfant et
l'egorger; que, ne le trouvant pas, il avait torture ses esclaves; mais ces
accusations n'ont aucune vraisemblance.
"La suite de Clodius s'etait dispersee.  Un senateur qui passait par
la trouva son corps gisant sur la route et le fit reporter dans sa maison
du Palatin."-Ampere, Hist. Rom., iv. 577.
Some ruins at a short distance to the left are supposed tc




BO VILLE.                          5 5
mark the site of the city of Appiola, destroyed by Tarquin,
who used its spoil to erect the Circus Maximus.
A little to the right are the ruins of Bovillce, whose
foundation is attributed to Latinus Silvius of Alba. The
remains consist of insignificant fragments of the circus and
theatre. Bovillae was the first station on the Appian Way:
"Et cum currere debeas Bovillas,
Interjungere quaeris ad Camcenas."
Martial. ii., Ep. 6.
The title of Suburbanae distinguished it from another town
of the same name:
" Orta suburbanis quaedam fuit Anna Bovillis,
Pauper, sed multze sedulitatis, anus."
Ovid. Fast. iii. 667.
"Quidve suburbane parva minus urbe Bovillae."
Piopertius, iv., Eleg. i.
Florus speaks of Boville as one of the first towns subdued
by the Romans: Plutarch tells how it was taken and plundered by Marcus Coriolanus. In the time of Cicero, who
speaks of it as a "municipium," it was already almost
deserted.* The Julian Gens had a chapel here, where their
images were preserved, and games were performed in their
honour.  Here the body of the Emperor Augustus rested
for a month as it was being brought from Nola, and here
the knights assembled  to conduct it to the city.  The
position of Boville receives an additional identification from
the description which Cicero gives of the circumstances
which led to the murder of Clodius, when he speaks of it
as " Pugna Bovillana."+
Beyond  Le Frattocchie  the Via Appia  ascends continuously.
* Orat. pro Plancio.       t Ad Atticum. v. 15.




56                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
"Now the Campagna is left behind, and Albano stands straight
before you, on the summit of a steep and weary hill. Low lines of
white-washed wall border the road on either side, enclosing fields of
fascine, orchards, olive-yards, and gloomy plantations of cypresses and
pines. Next come a range of sand-banks, with cavernous hollows and
deep under-shadows; next, an old cinque-cento gateway, crumbling
away by the road-side; then a little wooden cross on an overhanging
crag; then the sepulchre of Pompey; and then the gates of Albano,
through which you rattle into the town, and up to the entrance of the
Hotel de Russie."-Miss Edwards, Barbara's History.
Immediately before entering the town, we pass, on the
left, a lofty tomb, always known as the  Tomb of Pompey.
Plutarch mentions his sepulchre as being near his villa at
Albanum, though  according  to  the  epigram  of Varro
Atacinus, quoted  by  the  scholiast on  Persius ii. 36,
Pompey had no tomb:"Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet; at Cato parvo;
Pompeius nullo; quis putet esse Deus."
To those who receive their previous impressions of Albano
from  water-colour drawings and  from  the engravings of
Pinelli, the sight of the place will be full of disappointment.
The town consists, for the most part, of an ill-paved street a
mile in length, of shabby white-washed houses, without feature, and the inhabitants have little beauty and wear no distinctive costume. All the interest of the place is to be found
in the lovely scenery which surrounds it, and most lovely it is;
and for costumes and primitive habits of the peasantry we
must penetrate further, to the Volscian and Hernican hills.
Yet, except in the building of a few  better-class hotels,
Albano has made no progress in late years, and is ill-provided with all the comforts of civilized life: the few there
are being supplied to strangers at prices which are enormous
for Italy.




LIFE A T ALBANO.                        57
"Albano-a place of more than 6000 souls, the episcopal see of a
Cardinal who represented his sovereign in the spiritual government or
Rome-has not a bookseller's shop, no sort of library for public use, no
journal except sterile official papers, though a large Cathedral Chapter,
seminary, and public schools, the residence of a Gonfaloniere and a
governor, attest the importance-numerous hotels and rather gay caffes,
announce the fashionable-reputation of this town.  Under the old
government, twelve convents, in Albano and its vicinity, dispensed
charities, usually in the form of soup and bread, to all applicants, either
daily or on stated days.  Yet the town itself has always been swarming
with beggars, who usually appeal to compassion with promises of so
many Aves in return! The native youth of the place, seeming for the
most part artizans or labourers in tolerably good condition, spend their
evenings generally, as the visitor may perceive, at the caffrSs playing
cards."-Hemans' Catholic Italy.
But the beauty of the villas, and the variety of excursions
in the neighbourhood, make Albano the most enchanting of
summer residences for those who can bear the  heat of
Italian villeggiature.  Large airy apartments may be obtained
in many of the old palaces, where, in the great heat, the
scarcity of furniture is scarcely a disadvantage.  But those
who sojourn here, will do well to conform to Italian habitsto dine early and  then take  a  siesta, followed  by the
delicious Italian refection of lemonade, fruits, &c., which is
known as Merenda, and sallying out in the gorgeous beauty
of the evening to walk or drive in the "galleries" which
overhang the lake, or in the woods towards Nemi.
"Ah, dearest, you know not yet the enchantment of a summer amid
Italian hills, and you know not what it is to breathe the perfume of the
orange gardens-to lie at noon in the deep shadow of an ilex grove,
listening to the ripple of a legendary spring, older than history-to stroll
among ruins in the purple twilight! Then up here at Albano, far
from the sultry city and the unhealthy plain, we have such sunrises and
sunsets as you, artist though you be, have never dreamt of-here, where
the cool airs linger longest, and the very moon and stars look more
golden than elsewhere. "Barbara's History.
"When the sun draws down to the horizon the people flock forth




58                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
from their houses.  All the chairs and benches in front of the cajf are
filled-the streets are thronged with companies of promenaders-every
door-step has its little group-the dead town has become alive. Marching through the long green corridors of the "gallerie" that lead for
miles from Albano or Castel Gandolfo to Genzano, whole families may
be seen loitering together, and pausing now and then to look through
the trunks of the great trees at the purple flush that deepens every
moment over the Campagna. The cicale now renew their song as the
sun sets, and croak dryly in the trees their good-night. The contadini
come in from the vineyards and olive-orchards, bearing ozier-baskets
heaped with grapes, or great bundles of brush-wood on their heads.
There is a crowd around the fountain, where women are filling their
great copper vases with water, and pausing to chat before they march
evenly home under its weight like stout caryatides.  Broad-horned white
oxen drag home their creaking wains. In the distance you hear the
long monotonous wail of the peasant's song as he returns from his work,
interrupted now and then with a shrill scream to his cattle. Whitehaired goats come up the lanes in flocks, cropping as they go the overhanging bushes-and mounting up the bank to pluck at the flowers and
leaves, they stare at you with yellow glassy eyes, and wag their beards.
The sheep are huddled into their netted folds. Down the slopes of the
pavement jar along ringing files of wine-carts going towards Rome,
while the little Pomeranian dog who lives under the triangular hood in
front is running about on the piled wine-casks, and uttering volleys of
little sharp yelps and barks as the cars rattle through the streets. If you
watch the wine-carriers down into the valley you will see them pull up
at the wayside fountains, draw a good flask of red wine from one of the
casks, and then replace it with good fresh water.
"The grilli now begin to trill in the grass, and the hedges are alive with
fire-flies. From the ilex groves and the gardens nightingales sing until
the middle of July; and all summer long glow-worms show their green
emerald splendour on the grey walls, and from under the road-side vines.
In the distance you hear the laugh of girls, the song of wandering promenaders, and the burr of distant tambourines, where they are dancing
the saltarello. The civetta hoots from the old tombs, the barbigiano
answers from the crumbling ruins, and the plaintive, monotonous ciou
owls call to each other across the vales. The moonlight lies in great
still sheets of splendour in the piazza, and the shadows of the houses are
cut sharply out in it, like blocks of black marble. The polished leaves
of the laurel twinkle in its beams and rustle as the wind sifts through
them.  Above, the sky is soft and tender; great, near, palpitant stars
flash on you their changeful splendour of emerald, topaz, and ruby.




TOMB OF AR UNS.                        59
The Milky Way streams like a torn veil over the heavens. The villa
fronts whiten in the moonlight among the grey smoke-like olives that
crowd the slopes. Vines wave from the old towers and walls, and
from their shadow comes a song to the accompaniment of a guitar-it is
a tenor voice, singing'Non ti scordar, non ti scordar di me.'
"Nothing can be more exquisite than these summer nights in Italy.
The sky itself, so vast, tender, and delicate, is like no other sky. As
you stand on one of the old balconies or walls along the terraces of the
Frescati villas, looking down over the mysterious Campagna, and
listening to the continuous splash of fountains and the song of nightingales, you feel Italy-the Italy of Romeo and Juliet. Everything seems
enchanted in the tender splendour. The stars themselves burn with a
softer, more throbbing and impulsive light. The waves of the cool,
delicate air, passing over orange and myrtle groves, and breathing
delicately against the brow and cheeks, seem to blow open the inmost
leaves of the book on which youth painted its visionary pictures with
the colours of dreams. In a word, we say this is Italy-the Italy we
dreamed of-not the Italy of fleas, couriers, mendicants, and postilions,
but of romance, poetry, and passion. "-Story's Roba di Roma, i. 298.
As soon as the visitor is settled in his hotel he will probably
wander up to the end of the street, where he will at once
find himself amid the greatest attractions of the place. Just
below the road, upon the right, is the tomb of Aruns, son of
Porsenna. It is a huge square base with four cones rising
from it, and a central chamber, in which an urn with ashes
was discovered some years ago.  Aruns was killed by Aristodemus of Cumae before Ariccia, which his father had
sent him to besiege: his tomb is identified by the description
which Pliny gives of that of Porsenna, but it was long supposed to be the monument of the Horatii and Curiatii.
Below the tomb of Aruns, the old road to Ariccia winds
through the hollow, amid rocks and trees, which, alas, have
lately been pollarded. Still the glen must always be full of
beauty, and is the constant summer resort of landscapepainters.




60                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
"From Albano we had to go on foot for the short and beautiful remainder of the way through Ariccia. Reseda and golden cistus grew
wild by the road-side; the thick, juicy olive-trees cast a delicious shade.
I caught a glimpse of the distant sea; and upon the mountain-slopes by
the wayside, where a cross stood, merry girls skipped dancing past us,
yet never forgetting piously to kiss the holy cross. The lofty dome of
the church of Ariccia I imagined to be that of S. Peter, which the angels
had hung up in the blue air among the dark olive-trees."-Improvisatore.
H. C. Anaerlsent.
L'Ariccia.
The ravine is now called Vallericcia, and was once a sheet
of water called Lacus Aricinus. Near the road are some
small remains supposed to be those of a temple of Diana.
" The ceremonies of the temple of Aricia were, according to Strabo,
barbaric and Scythian, like those of the Tauric Diana. The priest (Rex
Nemorensis) was always a fugitive who had slain his predecessor, and
always had in his hand a drawn sword, to defend himself from a similar
fate. There was a tree near the temple, whence if a fugitive could approach and carry off a bough, he was entitled to the duel, or monomachia, with the Rex Nemorensis.
" A most curious basso-relievo was found in the neighbourhood some
years ago, * representing several personages, among whom is the priest,
lately in possession, lying prostrate, with his entrails issuing from a
* Now at Palma in Majorca.




ARICCIA                             6I
wound, inflicted by his successor, who stands over him with his sword;
there are also several females in long robes, in the Etruscan style, who
seem to invoke the gods. This basso-relievo and the passage of Strabo
seem to explain each other."-Sir W. Gell.
Hippolytus or Urbius, the legendary founder of Ariccia,
was joined with Diana in the worship of the inhabitants,
and is commemorated with her by many of the Latin poets.
"Jamque dies aderat; profugis cum regibus altum
Fumat Aricinum Trivioe Nemus, et face multa
Conscius Hippolyti splendet lacus."
Stat. Silv. iii. I.
"Ecce suburbane templum nemorale Dianae,
Partaque per gladios regna nocente manu."
Ovid. Art. Am. i. 259.
" Nympha, mone, Nemori stagnoque operata Dian-e;
Nympha, Numae conjux, ad tua festa veni.
Vallis Aricinae sylva prxecinctus opaca
Est lacus, antiqua religione sacer.
Hic jacet Hippolytus furiis direptus equorum," &c.
Ovid. Fast. iii. 261.
"Lucus eum, nemorisque tui Dictynna recessus
Celat: Aricino Virbius ille lacu est."
Ovid. Fast. vi. 755.
"..... nam conjux urbe relicta
Va!lis Aricinre densis latet abdita sylvis:
oacraque Oresteae gemitu questuque Dianae
Impedit.  Ah quoties Nymphae nemorisque lacusque,
Ne faceret, monuere."
Ovid. Metam. xv. 487.
" Ibat et Hippolyti proles pulcherrima bello,
Virbius; insignem quem mater Aricia misit,
Eductum Egeriae lucis, humentia circum
Littora, pinguis ubi et placabilis ara Dianae."
Virgil. 4En. vii. 761.
"At Trivia Hippolytum secretis alma recondit
Sedibus, et nymphae Egeriae nemorique relegat;
Solus ubi in silvis Italis ignobilis aevum
Exigeret, versoque ubi nomine Virbius esset."
Virgil. /n. vii. 774.




62                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
"Jam nemus Egerize, jam te ciet altus ab Alba
Jupiter, et soli non mitis Aricia regi."
VaL Flac. Arg. ii. 304
"'.... quos miserat altis
Egerioe genitos immitis Aricia lucis,
Etatis mentisque pares; at non dabat ultra
Clotho dura lacus aramque videre Dianse."
Sil. Ital. iv. 368.
The steep ascent from Vallericcia to the town is also commemorated by the poets.
"accedo Bovillas
Clivumque ad Virbi: praesto est mihi Manlius haeres."
Persius. Sat. vi. 56.
" Irus tuorum temporum sequebaris.
Migrare Clivum crederes Aricinum."
Martial. xii. Ep. 32.
The steepness of the hill from the earliest times afforded
great advantages to the beggars.
"Dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes,
Blandaque devexae jactaret basia rhedre."
7uvenal. Sat. iv. I 7.
The  rich  country  upon which we look  down was as
famous in ancient as in modem  times for the produce of its
vineyards.
"Est mihi nonum superantis annum
Plenus Albani cadus."
IHorace. Od. iv. II.
"Hic herus, Albanum, Maecenas, sive Falernum
Te magis appositis delectat; habemus utrumque."
Sat. ii. 8.
"Hoc de Caesareis mitis vindemia cellis
Misit, Iuleo que sibi monte placet."
Martial. xiii. Io6.
Aricia was also celebrated for its leeks:
"Bruttia quae tellus, et mater Aricia porri."
Colurn. R. Rust. x.




THE PALAZZO CHIC;.                         63
"Mittit precipuos nemoralis Aricia porros."
Martial. xiii. I6.
Some fragments of the ancient wall may be seen before
entering the gate of Aricia with its forked Guelfic battlements.  The city itself is of very ancient origin, being first
mentioned in the story of Tarquinius Superbus, when Turnus
Herdonius, its king, Was drowned in the Aqua Ferentina.
It was the birthplace of Atia, mother of Augustus, and as
such is extolled by Cicero in his third Philippic.
Aricia was a station on the Via Appia:"Nous arrivons avec Horace a Lariccia. La nous disons comme lui:'Egressum magna me excepit Aricia Roma'
(Sat. i., S. i.)
enchantes de ces delicieux aspects dont Horace, moins occupe que nous
ne le sommes du pittoresque, n'a point parle.  La ville moderne de
Lariccia s'est perchee, comme il arrive souvent, dans la citadelle de la
ville ancienne. M. Pierre Rosa, cet explorateur infatigable et sagace
de la campagne romaine, et qui excelle a decouvrir les ruines que son
aieul Salvator Rosa aimait a peindre, a cru retrouver les restes de la
petite auberge (Sat. i., S. i.) oui Horace a loge (hzospicio modico), et meme
des vases contenant l'orge destinee aux montures des voyageurs."Ampre, Emp. Rom. i. 365.
Lariccia is now chiefly remarkable for the huge Palace of
the Chigi family, built by Bernini for Alexander VII.  It is
noble and imposing in its proportions, as it rises on huge
buttresses from the depths of the ravine. In the interior are
some  interesting  rooms  hung  with  exceedingly  curious
stamped leather, and a chamber containing portraits of the
twelve nieces of Alexander VII., who were so enchanted at
the elevation of their uncle, that they all took the veil immediately to please him. Apartments are let here in the
summer months, and are very delightful.
Opposite the palace is the beautifully proportioned Church




64                   DA YS NEAR ROME
of the Assumption, also built (i664) by Bermini, with a dome
painted by Antonio Raggi, and a few very indifferent pictures.
A fountain covered with mimulus stands in front of the
portico. The palace and church form the beautiful group
of Lariccia so well known from pictures. Between them
the town is now entered from Albano by a grand viaduct,
700 feet long, whence the view is exquisitely lovely, on the
left over the Campagna, on the right looking into the depths
of the immemorial wood known as the Parco Chig/i.
"Le pont monumental remplit un profond ravin pour mettre de
plain-pied la route d'Aricia a Albano.  Il passe done par-dessus tout
un paysage vu en profondeur, et ce paysage est rempli par une foret
vierge jetee dans un abime.  Une foret vierge fermee de murs, c'est la
une de ces fantaisies que les princes peuvent seuls se passer.  II y a
cinquante ans que la main de l'homme n'a abattu une branche et que
son pied n'a trace un sentier dans le foret Chigi. Pourquoi? Chi
lo sa? vous disent les indigenes.
"Au reste, ce caprice-la, qui serait bien concevable de la part d'un proprietaire artiste, est une agreable surprise pour l'artiste qui passe.  Sur
les flancs du ravin s'echelonnent les tetes venerables des vieux chenes
soutenant dans leur robuste branchage les squelettes penches de leurs
voisins morts, qui tombent en poussiere sous une mousse dessechee
d'un blanc livide.  La lierre court sur ces ruines vegetales, et sous
l'impenetrable abri de ces reseaux de verdure vigoureuse et de pales
ossements, un pele-mele de ronces, d'herbes, et de rochers va se baigner
dans le ruisseau sans rivages practicables.  Si'on n'etait sur une
grande route, avec une ville derriere soi, on se croirait dans une foret
du nouveau monde."-George Sand, La Daniella.
"It had been wild weather when I left Rome, and all across the
Campagna the clouds were sweeping in sulphurous blue, with a clap of
thunder or two, and breaking gleams of sun along the Claudian aqueduct, lighting up the infinity of its arches like the bridge of chaos.
But as I climbed the long slope of the Alban Mount, the storm swept
finally to the north, and the noble outline of the domes of Albano, and
graceful darkness of its ilex grove, rose against pure streaks of alternate
blue and amber; the upper sky gradually flushing through the last fragments of rain-cloud in deep, palpitating azure, half oether and half dew
The noonday sun came slanting down the rocky slopes of La Riccia,




THE CAPPUCCINI CONVENT.                          65
and their masses of entangled and tall foliage, whose autumnal tints
were mixed with the wet verdure of a thousand evergreens, were penetrated with it as with rain. I cannot call it colour, it was conflagration.
Purple, and crimson, and scarlet, like the curtains of God's tabernacle,
the rejoicing trees sank into the valley in showers of light, every separate
leaf quivering with burning and buoyant life; each, as it turned to reflect or transmit the sunbeam, first a torch, and then an emerald. Far.
up into the recesses of the valley, the green vistas arched like the
hollows of mighty waves of some crystalline sea. with the arbutus flowers
dashed along their flanks for foam, and silver flakes of orange spray
tossed into the air around them, breaking over the gray walls of rock
into a thousand separate stars, fading and kindling alternately as the
weak wind lifted and let them fall. Every glade of grass burned like
the golden floor of heaven, opening in sudden gleams as the foliage
broke and closed above it, as sheet-lightning opens in a cloud at sunset;
the motionless masses of dark rock-dark though flushed with scarlet
lichen-casting their quiet shadows across its restless radiance, the fountain underneath them filling its marble hollow with blue mist and fitful
sound; and over all —the multitudinous bars of amber and rose, the
sacred clouds that have no darkness, and only exist to illumine, were
seen in fathomless intervals between the solemn and orbed repose of the
stone pines, passing to lose themselves in the last, white, blinding lustre
of the measureless line where the Campagna melted into the blaze of
the sea." —uskiz's Miodern Painters.
The most delightful lanes fringed with cyclamen and forget-me-not, lead under the arch at the back of the Chigi
palace and skirt the walls of the wood to the Convent of the
Cappucctni, from whose lovely ilex groves there are glorious
views in every direction.  The convent occupies the site of
part of the villa of Domitian, whither Juvenal describes the
saturnine emperor as summoning the imperial council from
Rome in the winter of A.D. 84.
"Anxiously they asked each other, What news?  What the purport
of their unexpected summons?  What foes of Rome had broken the
prince's slumbers,-the Chatti or the Sicambri, the Britons or the
Dacians? While they were yet waiting for admission, the menials of
the palace entered, bearing aloft a huge turbot, a present to the emperor,
which they had the mortification of seeing introduced into his presence,
VOL. I.                                             5




66                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
while the doors were still shut against themselves.  A humble fisherman
had found the monster stranded on the beach, beneath the fane of Venus
at Ancona, and had hurried to receive a reward for so rare an offering
to the imperial table. When at last the councillors were admitted, the
question reserved for their deliberations was no other than this, whether
the big fish should be cut in pieces, or served up whole on some enormous platter, constructed in its honour.  The cabinet was no doubt
sensibly persuaded that the question allowed at least of no delay, and
with due expressions of surprise and admiration voted the dish, and set
the potter's wheel in motion."-Merivale's Romans under  the Empire.
"Surgitur, et misso proceres exire jubentur
Consilio, quos Albanam dux magnus in arcem
Traxerat attonitos et festinare coactos."
Sat. iv. I45.
This palace of Domitian is frequently alluded to in the
poets:
"Hoc tibi Palladioe seu collibus uteris Albae,
Caesar, et hinc Triviam prospicis, inde Thetin;
Mittimus."
Martial, v. Ep. I.
"Sed quis ab excelsis Trojanae collibus Albae,
Unde sume juxta prospectat mcenia Romae,
Proximus ille Deus."
Statius, Silv. v. 2.
One of the best subjects for a picture is the view from
under the great ilex-trees in front of the convent gate
towards Albano and the sea. A door in the wall on the
right of the lane which leads down towards Albano, admits
one to the remains of the Roman Amp/hitheatre, now used as
folds for goats, who crowd the rugged recesses of its caverned
masonry, and group themselves picturesquely on its old
walls. This was the scene of some of the worst cruelties
of Domitian.  The other Roman remains in Albano are
insignificant, the ruins of the Pratorian  Camp near the
Church of S. Paolo, and some fragments of Roman orna



LAKE OF ALBANVO.                         67
mentation built into the Church of Sta. Maria della Rotonda
being the chief of them.
Turning the rocky corner beyond the Cappuccini we come
at once upon one of the loveliest scenes in this land of
beauty, and look down upon
"-the still glassy lake that sleeps
Beneath Aricia's trees." *
At the other end  of the  lake  stands, on  the  hill-side,
Castel Gandolfo, embossed against the delicate hues of the
distant Campagna.  Beneath us, buried in verdure, is the
famous Emissarium; on the opposite shore was the site of
Alba Longa; and on  the right, beyond  the convent of
Palazzuola, rise Rocca di Papa, and  the Alban Mount.
The lake itself, which  occupies the crater of an  extinct
volcano, is 6 miles in circuit, 21 miles long, and i3 miles
wide. Concerning its origin, a legend was related to one of
the translators of Niebuhr's History, by a peasant boy, who
guided him to Frescati, as follows:"' Where the lake now lies, there once stood a great city.  Here,
when Jesus Christ came into Italy, He begged alms. None took compassion on Him but an old woman, who gave Him two handfuls of meal.
He bade her leave the city: she obeyed: the city instantly sank; and
the lake rose in its place.'  To set the truth of the story beyond dispute,
the narrator added, Sta scritto nei 1ibri."-ANiebzthr's Hist. of Rome.
"The lakes of Alba and Nemi, like others in the neighbourhood of
Rome, are of a peculiar character.  In their elevation, lying nestled as
it were high up in the bosomi of the mountains, they resemble what in
Cumberland and Westmoreland are called tarns; but our tarns, like
ordinary lakes, have their visible feeders and outlets, their head which
receives the streams from the mountain-sides, and their foot by which
they discharge themselves, generally in a larger stream, into the valley
below. The lakes of Alba and Nemi lie each at the bottom of a perfect
basin, and the unbroken rim of this basin allows them no visible outlet.
* Macaulay's Lays.




63                    DA YS NEAR ROME.
Again, it sometimes happens that lakes so situated have their outlet
under-ground, and that the stream which drains them appears again to
the day after a certain distance, having made its way through the basin
of the lake by a tunnel provided for it by nature. This is the case particularly where the prevailing rock is the mountain or metalliferous limestone of Derbyshire, which is full of caverns and fissures; and an
instance of it may be seen in the small lake or tarn of Malham in Yorkshire, and another on a much larger scale in the lake of Copais in
Bceotia.  But the volcanic rocks, in which the lake of Alba lies, do not
afford such natural tunnels, or at least they are exceedingly small, and
unequal to the discharge of any large quantity of water; so that if any
unusual cause swells the lake, it can find no adequate outlet, and rises
necessarily to a higher level. The Roman tradition reported that such
a rise took place in the year 357; it was caused probably by some volcanic agency, and increased to such a height, that the water at last ran
over the basin of the hills at its lowest point, and poured down into the
Campagna.  Traces of such an outlet are said to be still visible; and it is
asserted that there are marks of artificial cutting through the rock, as it
to enlarge and deepen the passage. This would suppose the ordinary
le7el of the lake in remote times to have been about two hundred feet
higher than it is at present; and if this were so, the actual tunnel was
intended not to remedy a new evil, but to alter the old state of the lake
for the better, by reducing it for the time to come to a lower level.
Possibly the discharge over the edge of the basin became suddenly
greater, and so suggested the idea of diverting the water altogether by a
different channel. But the whole story of the tunnel, as we have it, is so
purely a part of the poetical account of the fall of Veii, that no part of
it can be relied on as historical...     Admitting that it was
wholly worked through the tufa, which is easily wrought, still the
labour and expense of such a tunnel must have been considerable; and
in the midst of an important war, how could either money or hands
have been spared for such a purpose? Again, was the work exclusively
a Roman one, or performed by the Romans jointly with the Latins, as
an object of common concern to the whole confederacy?  The Alban
lake can scarcely have been within the domain of Rome; nor can we
conceive that the Romans could have been entitled to divert its waters
at their pleasure without the consent of the neighbouring cities.  But if
it were a common work; if the Latins entered heartily into the struggle
of Rome with Veii, regarding it as a struggle between their race and
that of the Etruscans; if the overflow of the waters of their national
lake, the lake which bathed the foot of the Alban mountain, where their
national temple stood, and their national solemnities were held, excited




THE EMISSARIUM.                          69
an interest in every people of the Latin name, then we may understand
how their joint labour and joint contributions may have accomplished
the work even in the midst of war; and the Romans, as they disguised
on every occasion the true nature of their connexion with the Latins,
would not fail to represent it as exclusively their own."-Arnold's Hist.
of Rome, vol. I. ch. xxiii.
Following the beautiful avenue of ilexes, known as the
Galleria di Sopra, as far as the Convent of S. Francesco, we
shall find a little path winding down through thickets of
cistus and genista to the water's edge, where we may see the
remains of the famous Emissariuzm, constructed B.C. 394.
The extreme beauty of the spot is worthy of the romantic
story of its origin.
"For seven years and more the Romans had been besieging Veii.
Now the summer was far advanced, and all the springs and rivers were
very low; when on a sudden the waters of the Lake of Alba began to
rise; and they rose above its banks, and covered the fields and the
houses by the water-side; and still they rose higher and higher, till they
reached the top of the hills which surrounded the lake as with a wall,
and they overflowed where the hills were lowest; and behold the water
of the lake poured down in a mighty torrent into the plain beyond.
When the Romans found that the sacrifices which they offered to the
gods and powers of the place were of no avail, and their prophets knew
not what counsel to give them, and the lake still continued to overflow
the hills and to pour into the plain below, then they sent over the sea to
Delphi, to ask counsel of the oracle of Apollo, which was famous in
every land.
" So the messengers were sent to Delphi.  And, meanwhile, the
report of the overflowing of the lake was much talked of; so that the
people of Veii heard of it. Now there was an old Veientian, who was
skilled in the secrets of the Fates, and it chanced that he was talking
from the walls with a Roman centurion whom he had known before in
the days of peace; and the Roman spoke of the ruin that was coming
upon Veii, and was sorry for the old man his friend; but the old man
laughed and said:' Ah! ye think to take Veii; but ye shall not take it
till the waters of the Lake of Alba are all spent, and flow out into
the sea no more.' When the Roman heard this he was much moved
by it, for he knew that the old man was a prophet; and the next
day he came again to talk with the old man, and he enticed him to




70                   DA YS NEAR ROAIE.
come out of the city, and to go aside with him to a lonely place, saying
that he had a certain matter of his own concerning which he desired to
know the secrets of fate: and while they were talking together, he
seized the old man, and carried him off to the Roman camp, and brought
him before the generals; and the generals sent him to Rome to the
Senate. Then the old man declared all that was in the Fates concerning the overflow of the Lake of Alba; and he told the Senate what they
were to do with the water, that it might cease to flow into the sea:' If
the lake overflow, and its waters run out into the sea, woe unto Rome;
but if it be drawn off, and the waters reach the sea no longer, then it is
woe unto Veii.' But the Senate would not believe the old man's words,
till the messengers should come back from Delphi.
"After a time the messengers came back, and the answer of the god
agreed in all things with the words of the old man at Veii. For it said,' See that the waters be not confined within the bason of the lake; see
that they take not their own course and run into the sea..Thou shalt
let the water out of the lake, and thou shalt turn it to the watering of
thy fields, and thou shalt make courses for it till it be spent and come to
nothing.' Then the Romans believed the oracle, and they sent workmen, and began to bore through the side of the hills to make a passage
for the water. And the water flowed out through this passage underground; and it ceased to flow over the hills; and when it came out from
the passage into the plain below, it was received into many courses
which had been dug for it, and it watered the fields, and became
obedient to the Romans, and was all spent in doing them service, and
flowed to the sea no more.  And the Romans knew that it was the will
of the gods that they should conquer Veii."-Arnold's Hist. of Rome.
"L'emissaire fonctionne encore aujourd'hui; par lui les eaux du
lac arrosent la campagne romaine et vont se jeter non dans la mer mais
dans le Tibree: loracle a donc ete obei, aussi Veies a ete prise."Amperne, Hist. Rom. ii. 526.
The  opening  of the Emissariumn  is enclosed within  a
Nymphaeum  of imperial date, such as is beautifully described
in the lines of Virgil:"Fronte sub adversa scopulis pendentibus antrum;
Intus aqume dulces, vivoque sedilia saxo;
Nympharum domus.".En. i. I67.
A custode (who resides at Castel Gandolfo) is required to




THE  VILLA B A1.BE1e'II.,
open the grating.  Italians always set fire to little paper
boats, which they call " fates," and float them down through
the darkness, where they may be seen burning for an immense distance.  Near the Nymphaeum  are many ruins of
other Roman  buildings known by the country people as
Bagni di Diana, Grotte delle Ninfe, &c. All probably are
remains of the summer retreats of Domitian.
" Quand, par un beau jour de printemps, on contemple le lac endormi
dans une coupe de verdure et reflechissant les gracieuses ondulations de
ses bords, a la pensee de Domitien on voit apparaitre le bateau out Pline
le Jeune nous le montre trouble par du bruit des rames, dont chaque
coup le fait tressaillir. II fallait cesser de ramer et le remorquer.'Alors,' dit Pline,'immobile dans ce bateau muet, il semblait traine
comme a une expiation.' " —Ampre, L'Ernp. Rom. ii. 135.
Clambering up the hill again, we find the height crested
by the fine trees overhanging the wall of the Villa Barberi.i.
The beautiful grounds of this villa may always be visited by
strangers, and present an immense variety of lovely views,
from a foreground, half cultivated and half wild, ending in a
grand old avenue of umbrella-pines. The ruins, which we
see here in such abundance, are supposed to be remains of
the Villa of Pompey, or of the  "insane  structures," as
Cicero calls them, belonging to the villa of Clodius. As
we wander here we cannot but call to mind the whole grand
invocation of Cicero in his speech in behalf of Milo against
the owner of this villa.
"And you, hills and groves of Alba, you, I say, I entreat and implore, and you, the ruined shrines of the Albans, so closely knit with
all that is revered by the people of Rome, altars which this fellow in his
headlong madness had dared to strip and rob of their holy groves, and
bury beneath the insane piles of his own buildings. Then it was your
shrines, your rites that were honoured, your influence which prevailed,
which he had insulted with crime of every kind, and thou, from thy
lofty peak, great Jupiter Latiaris, whose lake and woods and fields he




72                 - DAYS NEAR  ROMIE.
had often defiled with every abominable wickedness and crime, at last
thou openedst thine eyes to punish him: to you, late though you might
deem it, his punishment was a just and due atonement. "
Words fail to paint the glories of Italian sunset as seen
from the Villa Barberini.
" Various as the Campagna is in outline it is quite as various in colour,
reflecting every aspect of the sky, and answering every touch of the
seasons. Day after day it shifts the slide of its wondrous panorama of
changeful pictures-now tender in the fresh green and flower-flush of
spring-now golden in the matured richness of summer-and now subdued and softened into purple-browns in the autumn and winter.
Silent and grand, with shifting opal hues of blue, violet, and rose, the
mountains look upon the plain. Light clouds hide and cling to their
airy crags, or drag along them their trailing shadows. Looking down
from the Alban Hill one sees in the summer noons wild thunder-storms,
with sloping spears of rain and flashing blades of lightning, charge over
the plain and burst here and there among the ruins, while all around the
full sunshine basks upon the Campagna, and trembles over the mountains. Towards twilight the landscape is transfigured in a blaze of
colour-the earth seems fused in a fire of sunset-the ruins are of beaten
gold-the meadows and hollows are as crucibles where delicate rainbows melt into every tone and gradation of colour-a hazy and misty
splendour floats over the shadows, and earth drinks in the glory of the
heavens.  Then softly a grey veil is drawn over the plain, the shadow
creeps up the mountain-side, the purples deepen, the fires of sunset fade
away into cold ashes-and sunset is gone almost while we speak. The
air grows chill, and in the hollows and along the river steal long white
snakes of mist-fires from the stubble begin to show here and there-the
sky's deep orange softens slowly into a glowing citron, with tinges of
green, then refines into paler yellows, and the great stars begin to look
out from the soft deep-blue above. Then the Campagna is swallowed
up in dark, and chilled with damp and creeping winds."-Story's Roba
di Roma, i. 324.
Close to the entrance of the villa, is the  town-gate of
Castel Gandolfo, the favourite summer residence of the popes
for the last two hundred and fifty years, and the only portion
of their property outside the Vatican walls, left untouched
since the Sardinian occupation.  The place was the fortress




C1ASTEL GANDOLFO.                   73
of the Gandolfi family in the i2th century, when Otho Gandolfi was senator of Rome.  In I218, it passed to the
Savelli, who held it for four hundred years, triumphantly
defying all attempts to wrest it from them. In 1596 it was
raised into a duchy for Bernardino Savelli by Sixtus V., but
poverty obliged him to sell the property to the government
for I5o,ooo scudi, an enormous sum in those days. Clement
VIII., by a decree of I604, incorporated it with the temporal
domain of the Holy See, and included it expressly in the
bull of Pius V. de non infeudandis bonis Ecclesic.  It was reserved for Urban VIII. in 1604 to adopt it as a residence,
and to build the palace from designs of Carlo Maderno,
Bartolomeo Breccioli, and Domenico Castelli. Urban came
every year to Castel Gandolfo, and a large number of his
bulls are dated from hence. The pontifical palace was enlarged by Alexander VII., and completed by Clement XIII.
The interior is furnished in the simplest manner and is little
worth visiting. Pius IX. spent part of each summer here,
before the invasion; and every afternoon saw him riding on
his white mule in the old avenues or on the terraced paths
above the lake, followed by his cardinals in their scarlet
robes-a most picturesque and mediaeval scene.
The Church of S. /Thomas of Vi1anuova, close to the
palace, was built i66i, by Bernini, for Alexander VII. Its
altar-piece is by Pietro da Cortona.
Not many tourists penetrate to the other side of the lake,
yet here, it is established with tolerable certainty, was the
Site of Alba Longa, the mother city of Rome. As the town
was entirely destroyed by Tullus Hostilius, who removed its
inhabitants to Rome, and established them on the Coelian, its
situation was long a disputed point with topographers, and




74                  DA YS NEAR  ROM E.
was generally asserted to be that now occupied by Palazzuola,
but Sir W. Gell discovered traces of an ancient road leading
up the hills from the plain to the further shore of the lake,
and suddenly terminating there at a turn of the precipice.
This caused an examination of the spot to which it led, and
resulted in the discovery of vast blocks of masonry and portions of columns buried beneath the underwood, probably
fragments of the temples of the gods which Strabo tells us
were spared by the Romans amid the general destruction.
A knoll to the north was also found to be covered with
ruins.
Alba was the metropolis of the cities of Latium before the
building of Rome.   Its foundation  is ascribed  by  the
Latin poets to Ascanius, and its name to the white sow of
Eneas, and her thirty little pigs.
"Ex quo ter denis urbem redeuntibus annis
Ascanius clari condet cognominis Albam."
ZEn. viii. 47.
"'Et stetit Alba potens, albe suis omine nata."
Piropert. iv. El. i.
*"...Turn gratus Iilo,
Atque novercali sedes praelata Lavino,
Conspicitur sublimis apex; cui candida nomen
Scrofa dedit."
iuv. Sat. xii. 70.
Lycophron however (Cassandra, v. I255) says that the
sow was black.
"La truie figure encore dans les armes de la petite ville d'Albano, et
un bas-relief qui la represente au milieu de sa famille, encastre dans le
mur d'une maison du-dessus d'une fontaine, a donne a une rue de Rome
le nom de rue de la Truie (Via della Scrofa); allusion bien moderne a un
bien antique souvenir. "- Amnpre, Hist. Rom. i. I96.
Since attention was first turned to this spot, every suc



ALBA LONGA.                           75
ceeding discovery has curiously confirmed the opinion that
it is the true site of Alba.
"The characteristics of the city of Alba, says Dionysius of Halicarnassus, were,'that it was so built, with regard to the mountain and
the lake, that it occupied a space between them, each seeming like a
wall of defence to the city.'... Livy (Lib. i. c. 3) has a passage, which is too descriptive of Alba Longa to be omitted:' Ascanius,
abundante Lavinii multitudine...novam ipse aliam sub Albano
monte condidit; quae ab situ porrectl in dorso urbis, Longa Alba
adpellata.' Dionysius also (Lib. i.) informs us that the name Longa was
added'on account of the shape (rob aXrXiaroT) of its ground plan;'
Varro, that it was called Longa,'propter loci naturam;' and Aurelius Victor,'eamque ex forma, quod ita in longum  porrecta est,
Longam cognominavit."
"There is a tradition, that the palace of the kings of Alba
stood on a rock, and so near the edge of the precipice, that when the
impiety of one of its monarchs provoked Jupiter to strike it with his
lightning, a part of the mass was precipitated into the lake, carrying
the impious king along with the ruins of his habitation. Now this tradition is apparently confirmed by a singular feature in a part of the remains of this city; for directly under the rock of the citadel towards the
lake, and where the palace, both for security and prospect, would have
been placed, is a cavern about fifty feet in depth, and more than one
hundred in width, a part of the roof of which has evidently fallen in, and
some of its blocks remain on the spot. This may be visited from below
without difficulty, by a small path used by goat-herds and wood-cutters,
leading across four deep ravines to Palazzuola."-Sir Wt. Gell.
It is a beautiful walk or drive back to Albano, through the
Galleria di Sotto, shaded by huge ilexes which were planted
by Urban VIII., or are even of older date. These gigantic
trees, acquainted for centuries, often lean together against
the walls as if in earnest conversation; often, faint from old,
age, are propped on stone pillars, supported by which, they
hang out towards the Campagna. At the end of the avenue
we come upon Pompey's Tomb, beneath which are some of
the Capanne or shepherds' huts of reeds, described by
Virgil. On the opposite side of the Via Appia stands the




76                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
Villa Altieri, consecrated now to the Italian heart as having
Galleria di Sotto, Albano.
been the residence of the noble and self-devoted cardinal,
who died a martyr to his self-sacrifice in the cholera of I867.
The disease appeared quite suddenly during the first week in August.
At that time Albano was especially crowded with visitors of high and
low degree, from the Royal Family of Naples and the principal members
of the Roman aristocracy, to the thrifty Jewish salesman from the Ghetto,
intent on combining a stroke of business with change of air.  On a
beautiful Monday afternoon various parties were given in the gardens of
the principal villas, and as Albano had always hitherto been exempt
from attacks of pestilence, no alarm was felt, though there were already
cases of cholera at Rome. Suddenly a cloud, bringing a strange chill,
seemed to rise out of the Campagna; cloaks and wraps were brought
out for those who were feasting in the gardens, but the chill passed
away as quickly as it had come, and was succeeded by great heat.
Almost immediately the pestilence began. People were attacked on the
garden-seats as they sat. Before morning there were 15 cases and 15
deaths.  All who could, fled to Rome and the neighbouring towns.
"The prevailing features of the scene were the processions of priests
with the consecrated host, litters conveying the sick to the hospital, and
carts conveying the dead to the cemetery. The usual agents in the latter
operation, being by no means adequate in number to the amount of
doleful work thus devolved upon them, were aided by the soldier of a
company of Zouaves, who had been sent to Albano for change of air
after recovery from fever, and who arrived opportunely on the very
morning when their aid was so much needed.  Telegraphic messages
were sent to Rome repeatedly in the course of the day, requesting




THE CHOLERA A 7 ALBANO.                         77
medical aid, instructions, and vehicles. Cardinal Altieri, being bishop
of Albano, came out from the capital to encourage the towns-people by
his presence, and take the direction of affairs.  In the course of the
afternoon many people arrived from Rome in a state of great anxiety
about their families or relatives, whom they had left at Albano, and
whom they were desirous of conveying elsewhere as soon as possible.
Means of transport to the capital by the high road became suddenly
scarce, and the drivers of omnibuses down to the station availed themself of the opportunity of exacting double fare from the panic-stricken
fugitives who surrounded the vehicles." At the entrance of the Olmata
of Genzano, a cordon was established, and no one was allowed to pass
without undergoing fumigation. On the same day the Royal Family of
Naples was attacked, some of the servants died, and one of the princes
was taken ill.
On the second morning "the dead-carts rolled drearily about the
town, stopping here and there to take up rude wooden boxes, rather
than coffins, for conveyance to the cemetery of the Madonna della Stella.
Many of the shops were shut up, their owners having either died or emigrated. Fruit-stalls were abolished."  All who could, endeavoured to
reach a purer air if possible, but it was already difficult, as "the authorities of Ariccia had placed guardiani with guns to prevent any one
crossing the great viaduct from Albano, and all the neighbouring towns,
except Rome, had drawn the same inextricable cordon."  The attacks
of the disease were so sudden that if a carriage containing five fugitives
took the way towards Rome, three were frequently dead before it reached
the walls of the city.
By the third morning 120 deaths from cholera had occurred in the
village of Albano. People fled in every direction.  "Along the road
were families migrating in all sorts of waggons and vehicles: the country
farm-houses were resorted to all round, though it was the fever season,
and it seemed as if there would soon be none left to kill in Albano. But
unfortunately most of the fugitives took away the germ of the malady
with them, and died wherever they might chance to have taken refuge."
On the evening of the 8th, the Queen-Dowager of Naples died, after an
illness of only four hours' duration, and on the same day the Princess
Colonna, having fled to Genzano to the palace of Duke Cesarini, to
whom  her eldest (aughter was engaged, was seized with cholera at
luncheon, and died in a few hours.
Meanwhile Cardinal Altieri was unremitting in his attentions to the
sick and dying, giving himself too little rest either by night or day, but
on the Friday he was himself seized with the malady, and died on Sunday
the I Ith.  On the same day Mr John Macdonald, brother of the wellknown sculptor, died soon after effecting his escape to Rome. Frightful




78                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
mortality began amongst the regiment of Zouaves who had so courageously devoted themselves to the dead, and almost all of them perished
-chiefly, it is said, because, owing to the rapid succession of deaths,
and the impossibility of finding grave-diggers, the corpses buried on the
first day in one large grave had to be packed to give more space!
On the I3th the cholera catastrophe at Albano had reached such a
degree that the most necessary relations of social existence might be said
to be annihilated.  W\ith the exception of the Gonfaloniere, who took
flight early, all the local authorities were either ill or dead, and the Pope
had sent out Monsignor Apolloni, as special commissary, to assume the
government of the town. The last of the bakers who had the courage
to remain in Albano and carry on his trade died on the 12th, so that to
prevent the surviving inhabitants from starving, bread and other provisions had to be sent out from Rome.
After the I4th the cholera began to abate, having carried off more
than one-tenth of the population.-From the Letters of the " Times
Correespondent."
The monument of Cardinal Altieri is the only object of
interest in the Cathedral, which stands in a small square
behind the principal street.  It is inscribed:
Ludovicus de Alteriis, Card. S.E.R. Episc. Albanus,
Pastor bonus cum in medium  gregem  dira smeviente lue
advolasset, praeclarum vitae cursurn morte magnanima consummavit sanctissime,
III Id. Aug. MDCCCLXVII. Vixit annos LXII.
Celebrated among the bishops of Albano was Pietro Aldobrandini (S. Pietro Igneo), who walked through fire at Settimo
in o067, to prove a charge of simony against Pietro di Pavia,
bishop of Florence.
The festa of S. Pancrazio-the patron of Albano-is kept
here with great solemnity.
"From  the cathedral issued, at an early hour, a procession whose
length almost corresponded to that of the town itself. There were little
girls in tinsel finery, with butterfly-wings, intended to represent angels,
and chubby little boys who toddled along in the disguise of Carmelite
friars, curiously contrasting with the gravity of friars full grown, bearded




CASTELLO SA VELLI.                          9
capuchins, venerable canons, and full-armed soldiers. There was the
Gonfaloniere with his two councillors; the local magistracy, in long
robes of black silk and velvet lined with silver tissue, with flat black caps,
looking not unlike some of Titian's portraits; and another conspicuous
group, very different, formed by young girls in long white satin dresses,
with veils covering not only the head but the lower part of the face,
each attended by a buxom matron in the gayest local costume-a brightcoloured bodice, white linen veil folded square over the brow, and ample
folds of muslin round the largely-developed bust, their full-blown charms
further set off by a profusion of gold ornaments chiselled in a style resembling those in Etruscan museums - precisely such figures as Pinelli
and many other artists have delighted to introduce in genre pictures illustrative of Italian life and scenery.  The younger females were those
selected to receive small dowries out of a fund appropriated to charity,
such donations being annually conferred at the religious seasons in
Albano.  Next to the female group came about a hundred members of
a lay fraternity in their peculiar costume with hoods, carrying large
crucifixes and banners painted on both sides with sacred figures life-size,
and, finally, the principal group of clergy, the first in dignity supporting
under a crimson canopy a bust of silver-gilt containing the skull of S.
Pancrazio. "-~Heezans' Catholic Italy.
On the right of the main street, on entering the Roman
gate, is the Villa Doria, whose grounds, abounding in ancient
ilex groves, and in fragments of ruin of imperial date, are of
the most extreme beauty.
About a mile below the town the ruins of the  Caslello
Sazelli crown a conical hill above the plain, and form a
pleasant object for a short excursion.   The great family
of the Savelli continued to be lords of Albano till the
middle of the sixteenth century, when tragical circumstances
led to their extinction. The young and handsome heir of
the house was betrothed to the daughter of the Marchese
del Vasto of Naples, who had a dowry of 8oo,ooo crowns.
But while waiting for his bride to attain her thirteenth year,
when the marriage was to be solemnized, he became passionately in love with a beautiful young girl of Albano, of
humble but respectable parentage.  Her father, fearing the




80               DA YS NEAR ROME.
addresses of his young lord, hastened her marriage with one
Cristoforo, a vassal of the Savelli. But the young count
continued to persecute her with his attentions, took a house
immediately opposite to the married pair, and wrote con-.
stantly in the hope of softening the object of his love. She
remained faithful to her husband, to whom she showed all
the letters of the count: but Cristoforo constantly mistrusted her, and was full of jealousies. One day he borrowed
her flounced petticoat (guardinfante) and other attire, and
forced her to write a letter to Savelli appointing an assignation, persuading her that he only intended to humiliate him
by a disappointment.
Savelli arrived at the rendezvous and was received by
Cristoforo in his wife's dress, who shot him through the
heart, cut his throat, and dragged the corpse to the front of
the Savelli palace, where he left it weltering in its blood. On
the discovery of the murder all the inhabitants of Albano
were shut up in their houses to prevent flight.  Cristoforo had made good his escape, but his innocent wife and
all her family were arrested and frequently put to the torture, in the hope of extorting the whereabouts of the fugitive,
of which they were really ignorant. After six months' imprisonment, the relatives were set at liberty, but the wife
was condemned to death, and was only saved by the intervention of the Duchess of Parma, who received her into her
service, from  whence she was transferred to that of the
Duchess of Modena.
The bereaved father never recovered the shock of his son's
murder, and died in a lunatic asylum, and the only survivor
of the Savelli having no heir, all the property of that ancient
race passed to the family of Chigi.




CHAPTER III.
MONTE CAVO, NEMI, AND CIVITA LAVINIA.
(Donkeys should be taken for the excursion from Albano to Monte
Cavo and Nemi, except by very good walkers-price, four francs each,
the donkey-man four francs, the guide seven francs, for the day.
Civita Lavinia will form a pleasant separate drive for the afternoon from
Albano-a carriage ought not to cost more than seven or eight francs.
Those who ascend Monte Cavo from  Rome, and return thither
in the same day, may take the morning train to Frascati, or, still better,
drive thither, and send on their carriages to the Hotel de Russie at
Albano (as being the hotel nearest to the "galleries" and the Roman
gate). They may then take donkeys at Frascati (price, five francs for the
day), and ascend Monte Cavo by Rocca di Papa. After passing some
time at the temple, they may descend by the Madonna del Tufo, Palazzuola, and skirting the Alban Lake, visit Castel Gandolfo, and ride
through the "galleries " to Albano. Good walkers may also see Nemi
the same day, but this is too great a hurry to be commended. The rest
is an easy day's work, and allows time for returning to Rome in the
evening from Albano, where the horses will have rested for many hours.
Those who do not bring a carriage from Rome, and intend returning by
the railway, must recollect that the Albano station is 2~ miles distant
from the town, and that fatigue and distance, as well as expense, are
thus greatly increased. )
A SCENDING the stony path which leads from Albano to
the Cappuccini, and reaching the corner whence we
overlook the glassy lake, sleeping in its deep wooded hollow,
let us turn to the right by the tempting path which winds
through the woods and rocks, between banks which in spring
are quite carpeted with cyclamen, violets, hepaticas, and every
VOL. I.                                         6




82                DAYS NEAR ROME.
shade of anemone, while higher up, amid the richly flowering
laurestinus and genista, patches of brilliant pink " honesty "
glow in the sunshine. At every turn the flowers become
lovelier, and the fore-grounds more as if they were waiting
for an artist to paint them, till, passing between some jagged
masses of rock, which have fallen down from the higher cliffs
long ago, but have been half buried for centuries under
luxuriant drapery of ferns and moss, we reach, above the
southern end  of the lake, the Franciscan monastery of
Palazzuola.
Here we may allow our donkeys to rest for a few minutes
on the little rounded platform which so beautifully overlooks the lake, and stop to examine a Consular Tomb cut in
the rock, which overhangs the garden of the convent, and
which resembles in style many of the tombs in Etruria.
It is attributed to Caius Cornelius Scipio Hispallus, consul
and pontifex-maximus, though he died at Cumae, on the
very slight ground that he was first attacked with his fatal
illness, paralysis, while on a pilgrimage to the temple of the
Alban Mount, in B.c. 176.
A path winding upwards through the woods leads from
hence to the little sanctuary of the Madonna del Tufo, much
frequented by the country people, whence a beautiful terrace
fringed with ilexes extends to the picturesque village of
Rocca di Papa, which occupies an isolated sugar-loaf rock
standing out from the rest of the mountain-side and crowned
by the ruins of a castle, which for two centuries was a stronghold of the Colonnas, but afterwards (1487) passed into the
hands of the Orsini.
"All know that, in those ages, the poor and weak had the chcice of
being assassinated in two ways, but they were obliged to choose; either




ROCCA DI PAPA.                               83
assassinated by casual wandering brigands, or by established brigands,
settled in the fortresses. Generally the preference was given to the second,
and thus around the fortresses was formed a trembling settlement of hovels
and huts of contadini, which were afterwards changed into villages,
towns, and cities, a preference which speaks to the praise of those poor
calumniated barons of the middle-ages." —~/1assitmo d'Azeglio.
"Rocca di Papa est un cone volcanique couvert de maisons superposees jusqu'au faite, qui se termine par un vieux fort ruine.  Ies caves
d'une zone d'habitations s'appuient sur les greniers de l'autre; les
maisons se tombent continuellement sur le dos; le moindre vent fait
pleuvoir des tuiles et craquer des supports.  Les rues, peu a pen verticales, finissent par des escaliers qui finissent eux-memes par des blocs de
lave supportant une ruine difficile a aborder, et flanquee d'un vieil arbre
qui se penche sur la ville, comme une banniere a. la pointe d'un clocher.
" Tout cela est vieux, crevasse, dejete et noir comme la lave dont est
sorti ce receptacle de misere et de malproprete.  Mais, vous savez, tout
cela est superbe pour un peintre. Le soleil et lombre se heurtent vivement sur des angles de rochers qui percent de toutes parts a travers les
maisons, sur des fayades qui se penchent l'une contre l'autre, et tout a
coup se tournent le dos pour obeir aux mouvements du sol, apre et
tourmente, qui les supporte, les presse et les separe. Comme dans les
faubourgs de Genes, des arceaux rampants relient de temps en temps
les deux c6tes de la ruelle etroite, et ces ponts servent eux-memes de
rues aux habitants du quartier superieur.
"Tout donc est precipice dans cette ville folle, refuge desespere des
temps de guerre, cherche dans le lieu le plus incommode et le plus impossible qui se puisse imaginer. Les confins de la steppe de Rome sont
bordes, en plusieurs endroits, de ces petits crateres pointus, qui ont tous
leur petit fort demantele et leur petite ville en pain de sucre, s'ecroulant
et se relevant sans cesse, grace a l'acharnement de'habitude et a l'amour
du clocher.
"Cette obstination s'explique par le bon air et la belle vue. Mais
cette'vue est achetee au prix d'un vertige perpetuel, et cet air est vicie
par l'exces de salete des habitations.  Femmes, enfants, vieillards,
cochons et poules grouillent pele-mele sur le fumier.   Cela fait des
groupes bien pittoresques, et ces pauvres enfants, nus au vent et au
soleil, sont souvent beaux comme des amours.  Mais cela serre le cceur
quand-meme.  Je crois d'ailleurs que je m'habituerais jamais a les voir
courir sur ces abimes. L'incurie des meres, qui laissent leurs petits,
a peine ages d'un an, marcher et rouler comme ils peuvent sur ces talus
effrayants, est quelque chose d'inoui qui m'a semble horrible. J'ai demande s'il n'arrivait pas souvent des accidents.




84                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
"' Oui,' m'a-t-on repondu avec tranquillite,' i se tue beaucoup d'enfants et meme de grandes personnes.  Que voulez-vous, la ville est
dangereuse!' "-George Sand, La Daniella.
Rocca di Papa is frequently used as a summer residence by
English who are detained all the year round in the neighbourhood of Rome: but it is not desirable, being so exposed
to the sun, with very little shade. The place derives its
present name from the residence here of the anti-pope John,
in A.D. II90.
By the steep path which scrambles up the rocks above the
house-tops of Rocca di Papa, we reach a wide grassy plain
known  as the  Campo di Annibale from  a tradition  that
Hannibal encamped there when marching against Rome.*
In spring it is covered with snow-drops, pan-di-neve the
Italians call them. Hence we enter the forest, and under
the green boughs and gnarled stems of the over-arching
trees, in the hollow way lined with violets and fumitory,
we find the great lava blocks of the pavement of the Via
Triumphalis still entire.
"Quaque iter est Latiis ad summam fascibus Albam:
Excelsa de rupe procul jam conspicit urbem."
Lucan. iii. 87.
The marks of chariot-wheels still remain. Pope Alexander
VII. was the last person who enjoyed a triumph here in the
footsteps of Julius Caesar, and he was drawn up in a carriage. The stones are frequently marked V. N., signifying
Via Numinis.
" Le lac d'Albano etait entoure d'une foret. Ovide est sur ce point
d'accord avec Tite Live (v. I5), et la tradition qui donne a plusieurs rois
fabuleux d'Alba le nom de Sylvius, Homme des bois, semble confirmer
par les temoignages les plus anciens la verit6 de ce double temoignage.
"Aujourd'hui, on ne trouve un bout de foret que plus laut, en
* See Livy, xxvi. cap. io.




SUMMIT OF MONTE CA VO.                       85
gravissant le Mont-Albain (Monte-Cavi), a l'endroit ou, sous les grands
chenes, apparaissent tout a coup, parmi les feuilles tombees, les dalles
de la voie Triomphale."-Ampere, Hist. Ron. i. 47.
" Up this same Alban Mount, to the temple of Jupiter Latiaris, which
was for Alba what the Capitol was for Rome, the dictators of Alba and
Latium undoubtedly led their legions when they returned in triumph.
This solemnity, in which the triumphant generals appeared in royal
robes, was unquestionably derived from the period of the monarchy:
nor would the Latin commanders deem  themselves inferior to the
Romans, or bear themselves less proudly, when they were not subject
to the imperium of the latter, or show less gratitude to the gods. Indeed
their triumph was preserved in that which the Roman generals solemnized
on the Alban Mount: for that the first who assumed this honour (C.
Papirius Maso) was renewing an earlier usage, is at least far more probable, than that he should have ventured to assume a distinction of his
own devising. He triumphed here, not properly as a Roman consul,
but as commander of the Latin cohorts, belonging partly to the towns
of ancient Latium, partly to the colonies which sprang out of that state
after it was broken up, and which represented it. At this distance from
Rome he was secured from interruption by his imperium: and the
honour was bestowed on him by the acclamation of the Latins, seconded
by that of the Italian allies, and perhaps expressing itself by the otherwise inexplicable salutation of imperator, given to generals after a
victory; a salutation which, at least after the Latins and their allies
had all received the freedom of the city, was used by the Roman legions;
as they may have joined in it previously, when its origin was forgotten.
In early times, if fortune was propitious, Latin triumphs might be celebrated, for wars conducted by Latin generals under their own auspices,
and even, by virtue of their equality in the league, with Latin legions
under their command."-Niebuhr's Hist. of Rome, ii. 36.
The top of the mount is a grassy platform, in the centre
of which is a Passionist Convent, built in I788 by Cardinal
York, who destroyed the ruins of the famous temple for the
purpose. The only remains are some massive fragments of
wall and the huge blocks of masonry which surround a grand
old wych-elm tree in front of the convent. The Latin Feriae
had been always celebrated on the Alban Mount; and there
Tarquin erected the temple of Jupiter Latiaris, probably




86                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
with the idea of doing something popular, in using a site
Remains of the Temple of Jupiter Latiaris, Monte Cavo.
once consecrated to the protecting god of the Latin confederation:
"Et residens celsa Latiaris Jupiter Alba.'
Lucan. Phars. i. I98.
Piranesi says that the temple was 240  ft. long  and  I20
wide-the having the width half the length being according
to Etruscan taste. Servius had already built a temple for the
Latins (that of Diana) upon the Aventine-but:
"Le Monte Albain, qui s'eleve i trois mille pieds au-dessus de la
mer et domine tout la Latium, allait mieux au Superbe, visant dans tous
ses monuments et dans tout son regne a la grandeur et a la magnificence,
que l'humble Aventin, l'un des sejours de le plebs latine favorisee par
Servius et meprisee par Tarquin."-Amzpre, Hist. Rom. i. 214.
Instead of sacrificing a bull on the Capitol, on the summit
of the Alban  Mount Crassus sacrificed a sheep-ovemhence ovation.




THE ALBAN MOUNT.                          87
"La route des Ovations est ceile qu'on suit aujourd'hui pour arriver
au sommet du Mont Albain.  Une partie, qui est tres-bien conservee,
frappe le voyageur quand elle lui apparait tout a coup au sein d'une foret
solitaire. I1 est encore imposant ce souvenir, meme du petit triomphe."
-Ampere, Hist. Rom. iv. 416.
On the Alban Mount, Juno, in the 1Eneid, stood to contemplate the country, in the same way that tourists do in
our days:"At Juno, e summo, qui nunc Albanus habetur,
Tur neque nomen erat, nec honos aut gloria monti,
Prospiciens tumulo, campum adspectabat, et ambas
Laurentum Troimque acies, urbemque Latini."
AEn. xii. I34.
And truly the view  is worthy of the eyes of a goddess,
though the heights of Monte Pila close it in towards the
south.
"From the summit of the Alban Mount, by the light of the setting
sun, the eye can reach Corsica and Sardinia; and the hill which still
bears the name of Circe looks like an island beneath the first rays of
her heavenly sire. The line of the long street of Alba, stretching
between the mountain and the lake, may still be made out distinctly.
Monte Cavo was the Capitoline hill of Alba; its summits required to
be fortified, to secure the town from above: and there is great probability
in the conjecture, that, as the citadel at Rome was distinct from the
Capitoline temple, the Rocca di Papa was the citadel of Albano."Niehbuhs Hist. of Rome, i. I99.
Hence, by the green lanes of La Fajola, once notorious
for their brigands, and by winding pathlets through delicious
woods, and narrow ways between green meadows (somewhat
difficult to find without a guide), passing a farm of the
Corsini, we descend upon the second lake of our pilgrimage.
"Lo, Nemi! navelled in the woody hills
So far, that the uprooting wind which tears
The oak from his foundation, and which spills
The ocean o'er his boundary, and bears
Its foam against the skies, reluctant spares




8a                   DA YS NEAR ROME.
The oval mirror of thy glassy lake;
And, calm as cherish'd hate, its surface wears
A deep cold settled aspect nought can shake,
All coiled into itself and round, as sleeps the snake."
Byron's Childe Harold.
"Ovide dit, en parlant du lac de Nemi:' La est un lac ceint d'une
epaisse foret.''..... Sylva precinctus opacl
Est lacus.' (Fast. iii. 263.)
Il y'avait donc en cet endroit une foret.  Cette foret etait assez considerable pour faire donner au sanctuaire de la Diane d'Aricie le nom de
Nemus.  Ce bois n'existe plus, mais il a laisse son nom au lac charmant
et au village pittoresque de Nemi. "-Ampere, Hist. Rom. i. 48.
Nemi.
The village of Nemi (far more worth visiting than Genzano) is beautifully situated on the edge of a steep cliff above
the lake, and is surmounted by a fine old castle which, after
passing through the hands of the Colonna, Borgia, Piccolomini, Cenci, Frangipani, and Braschi, is now the property
of Prince Rospigliosi.
"The water is surrounded in parts by rocks of the hardest basaltic
lava, in others by conglomerated cinders and scoriae, and in some places
by banks of tufa. Its circumference is about five miles, and the level of




LAKE OF NEMI.                          89
the water higher than that of the Alban lake. The story of the ship
discovered at the bottom of this lake, and said by some authors to have
belonged to the time of Tiberius, by others to that of Trajan, is well
known. Biondi, Leon Battista Alberti, and particularly Francesco
Marchi, a celebrated architect and military engineer of the sixteenth
century, who went down into the lake himself, have spoken of it. Fresh
investigations have been carried on of late, at which I was present, and
I assert that the pretended ship was nothing more than the wooden
piles and timbers used in the foundations of a building. The beams were
of fir and larch, and were joined by metal rails of various sizes. The
pavement, or at least the lowest stratum of the remains, was formed of
large tiles placed upon a kind of grating of iron, on which the name
Caisar in ancient letters was marked.
" The name Caisar seems to explain the history of the building. For
Suetonius, in his Lfe of yulius C&csar, as an illustration of the Dictator's
extravagance, asserts, that after having built a villa on the lake of Nemi
at an enormous expense, he had the whole destroyed because it did not
quite suit his taste. It is my belief that the pretended ship was nothing
else than the piles and wooden framework upon which this villa was
supported, and that after the upper part was destroyed the foundation
under the water still remained, partly covered by fragments of the
demolished building above."-Nibby.
Nemi occupies the site of the ancient town of Nemus.
"Albanus lacus, et socii Nemorensis ab unda."
Proyert. iii. El. 22.
"Nemus... glaciale Dianae."
Stat. Silv. iv. 4.
Diana must have had a grove and temple here as well as
at Ariccia. The fountain into which she is supposed to have
changed the nymph Egeria after the death of Numa is pointed
out on the way to Genzano.
"Non tamen Egerize luctus aliena levare
Damna valent; montisque jacens radicibus imis
Liquitur in lacrymas: donec pietate dolentis
Mota soror Phoebi gelidum de corpore fontem
Fecit, et aeternas artus tenuavit in undas."
Ovid. Metam. xv. 547.
Genzano, which forms so conspicuous a feature in the view




90                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
from Nemi, is reached by a circuitous walk along the ridges
of the hills. The slopes beneath the town are occupied by
the gardens of Duke Sforza-Cesarini (which an order or
even "a silver key" will generally open to visitors).  The
scenery of this beautiful hill-side is photographed in the description of H. Christian Andersen.
" The lake of Nemi.slept calmly in the great round crater, from which
at one time fire spouted up to heaven. We went down the amphitheatrelike, rocky slope, through the great beech wood and the thick groves of
plane trees, where the vines wreathed themselves amongst the treebranches. On the opposite steep lay the city of Nemi, which mirrored
itself in the blue lake. As we went along we bound garlands, entwining the dark green olive and fresh vine-leaves with the wild golden
cistus. Now the deep-lying blue lake and the bright heavens above
us were hidden by the thick branches and the vine-leaves, now they
gleamed forth again as if they were only one united infinite blue. Everything was new and glorious to me; my soul trembled for its great
joy. There are even still moments in which the remembrance of these
feelings comes forth again like the beautiful mosaic fragments of a
buried city.' The sun burned hotly, and it was not until we were by the water-side,
where the plane trees raise aloft their ancient trunks from the lake, and
bend down their branches, heavy with enwreathing vines, to the watery
mirror, that we found it cool enough to continue our work. Beautiful
water-plants nodded here as if they dreamed under the cool shadow, and
they too made part of our garlands. Presently, however, the sunbeams
no longer reached the lake, but only played upon the roofs of Nemi and
Genzano; and the gloom descended upon where we sate. I went a
little distance from the others, yet only a few paces, for my mother was
afraid that I should fall into the lake where it was deep and the banks
were steep. Not far from the small stone ruins of an old temple of
Diana there lay a huge fig-tree which the ivy had already begun to
bind fast to the earth; I climbed upon this, and wove a garland
whilst I sang:rom a canzonet,Ah, rossi, rossi fiori,
Un mazzo di viole!
Un gelsomin d'amore."
The Palazzo Cesarini contains nothing of interest, but is
associated with one of those dramas of real life which are




GENZA NO.                          91
seldom found out of Italy. A Duchess Cesarini dreamt before her confinement that she should give birth to twins, one
of whom would endanger the happiness of the other. Determined to obviate this misfortune, she bribed the midwife
to convey one of the children away as soon as it was born,
and bring it up as a peasant. This was done, and the young
Cesarini served as a shepherd, supposing himself to be a
shepherd's son, till after he came of age. Then his adopted
shepherd-mother happened to hear that the young Duke
Cesarini and  his father and  mother were dead and that
there was no heir to the fortunes and title, and going to the
palace with the midwife, she was able to produce indisputable proofs to the astonished heirs-at-law which established
the claims of the shepherd-boy, who was sent to Paris to be
educated and became the late Duke Cesarini.
Genzano is now chiefly celebrated for the festival of the
Infiorata, which takes place on the eighth day after Corpus
Domini, and is wonderfully appropriate to this land of flowers.
" I dreamed till the sun shone in at my window, and awoke me to the
beautiful feast of flowers.
" How shall I describe the first glance into the street-that bright
picture as I then saw it? The entire, long, gently-ascending street was
covered with flowers; the ground colour was blue; it looked as if they
had robbed all the gardens, all the fields, to collect flowers enough of
the same colour to cover the street; over these lay in long stripes, green,
composed of leaves, alternately with rose-colour, and at some distance
from this was a similar stripe, as it were a broad border to the whole
carpet.  The middle of this represented stars and suns, which were
formed by a close mass of yellow, round, and star-like flowers; more
labour still had been spent upon the formation of names-here flower
was laid upon flower, leaf upon leaf. The whole was a living flowercarpet, a mosaic floor, richer in pomp of colouring than anything which
Pompeii can show. Not a breath of air stirred-the flowers lay immoveable, as if they were heavy, firmly-set precious stones. From all
the windows were hung upon the walls large carpets, worked in leaves




92                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
and flowers, representing holy pictures. Here Joseph led the ass on
which sat the Madonna and the child; roses formed the faces, the feet,
and the arms, gilly-flowers and anemones their fluttering garments; and
crowns were made of white water-lilies, brought from  Lake Nemi.
Saint Michael fought with the dragon; the holy Rosalia showered down
roses upon the dark blue globe, wherever my eye fell flowers related to
me Biblical legends; and the people all round about were as joyful as
myself.  Rich foreigners, from beyond the mountains, clad in festal
garments, stood in the balconies, and by the side of the houses moved
along a vast crowd of people, all in full holiday costume, each in the
fashion of his country. The sun burnt hotly, all the bells rang, and the
procession moved along the beautiful flower-carpet; the most charming
music and singing announced its approach, choristers swung the censer
before the Host, the most beautiful girls in the country followed, with
garlands of flowers in their hands, and poor children, with wings to their
naked shoulders, sang hymns, as of angels, while awaiting the arrival of
the procession at the high altar. Young fellows wore fluttering ribands
around their pointed hats, upon which a picture of the Madonna was
fastened; silver and gold rings hung to a chain round their necks, and
handsome bright-coloured scarfs looked splendidly upon their black
velvet jackets. The girls of Albano and Frascati came, with their thin
veils elegantly thrown over their black, plaited hair, in which was stuck
the silver arrow; those of Velletri, on the contrary, wore garlands
around their hair, and the smart handkerchief, fastened so low down in
the dress as to leave visible the beautiful shoulder and the round bosom.
From Abruzzi, from the Marshes, from every other neighbouring district,
came all in their peculiar national costume, and produced altogether the
most brilliant effect. Cardinals, in their mantles woven with silver,
advanced under canopies adorned with flowers, then monks of various
orders, all bearing burning tapers. When the procession came out of
church, an immense crowd followed."- The Improvisatore.
We were at Genzano on Good Friday, when all the boys
of the place were busy, not only " grinding Judas's bones "
in the ordinary fashion, i.e. by rattling them together in a
box, but were banging large planks of wood and broad strips
of bark up and down upon the church steps, with almost
frantic fury, to show what good Christians they were.
We took a little carriage in the piazza of Genzano in which
we rattled merrily down the hill-side for about two miles to




CIVITA LA VINIA.                    93
Civita Lavinia, occupying the site of the ancient Lanuvium,,4/
i —~
Breaking Judas' bones. Genzano.
and remarkable as the birth-place of the Emperors Antoninus
Pius and Commodus, of T. Annius Milo the enemy of
Clodius, of Roscius the comedian, L. Muraena who was
defended by Cicero, and P. Sulpicius Quirinus who was
Cyrenius the Governor of Syria, mentioned in St. Luke's
Gospel.  Lanuvium was celebrated for the worship of Juno
Sospita, and when it took part with the other Latin cities
against Rome and was defeated, its inhabitants were not only
unpunished, but admitted to the rights of Roman citizens,
on condition that the temple of their goddess should be
common to the Romans also.
"Quos Castrum, Phrygibusque gravis quondam Ardea misit,
Quos celso devexa jugo Junonia sedes
Lanuvium."
Sil. Ital. viii. 361.
"Lanuvio generate, inquit, quem Sospita Juno
Dat nobis, Milo, Gradivi cape victor honorem."
xiii. 364.




94                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
"Inspice, quos habeat nemoralis Aricia Fastos
Et populus Laurens, Lanuviumque meum:
Est illic mensis Junonius."
Ovid. Fast. vi. 59.
"Livy mentions the Juno of Lanuvium more than once. Lib. xxi.
62, he says,'among other prodigies, it was affirmed that the spear of
Lanuvian Juno vibrated spontaneously, and that a raven flew into the
temple;' and again:'forty pounds of gold were sent to Lanuvium, as
an offering to the goddess.' In another place he says (xxiii. 31),'the
statues at Lanuvium in the temple of Juno Sospita, shed blood, and a
shower of stones fell round the temple;' and in Lib. xxiv. Io:'the
Liows built nests in the temple of Juno Sospita at Lanuvium.' Cicero
also, in Orat. pro Mur. ad fin., speaks of the sacrifices made by the
consuls to Juno Sospita, in connection with the' municipium honestissimum' of Lanuvium. In Propertius we read,'Lanuvium annosi vetus est tutela draconis.'
There were great treasures in the temple, which Augustus borrowed,
as well as those of the Capitol, of Antium, Nemus, and Tibur."
Sir W Gell.' 
From Civita Lavinia.
Civita Lavinia is approached by a terrace commanding a
grand view  across the  Pontine Marshes to the Circean
mount.  It stands on  the edge of the promontory and




MONTE GIO VE-CORIOLI.                     9
is surrounded by dark walls of peperino, in many places
apparently of great antiquity. At the western extremity is
a building which Gell imagines may be the cella of the
temple of Juno.  Curious old mediaeval houses are everywhere built upon the walls, and are highly picturesque, and
near the gateway is a very fine machicolated tower. In the
little piazza is a magnificent sarcophagus, now used as a
fountain.  Some remains of the theatre were found in 1831,
on the western slope below the town, and the ancient paved
road may still be traced in its descent towards the cities of
the plain.
(Standing out from the main line of hills, below Genzano
are two projecting spurs.  The higher is Monte Due Torre,
once crowned by two towers, of which only one is now standing, the other lying in ruins beside it. The lower, covered
with vineyards and fruit gardens, and only marked at the summit by a low tower and some farm  buildings, is now called
Monte Giove, but is almost universally allowed to have
been the famous Corioli, the great Volscian city, which gave
the title of Coriolanus to its captor, C. Marcius, and which
was once at the head of a confederation almost too strong
for Rome.
"There was a war between the Romans and the Volscians: and the
Romans attacked the city of Corioli. The citizens of Corioli opened
their gates, and made a sally, and drove the Romans back to their
camp. Then Caius ran forwards with a few brave men, and called
back the runaways, and he stayed the enemy and turned the tide of
battle, so that the Volscians fled back into the city. But Caius followed them, and when he saw the gates still open, for the Volscians
were flying into the city, then he called to the Romans, and said,' For
us are yonder gates set wide rather than for the Volscians; why are we
afraid to rush in?' He himself followed the fugitives into the town,
and the enemy fled before him; but when they saw that he was but
one man they turned against him; but Caius held his ground, for he




96                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
was strong of hand, and light of foot, and stout of heart, and he drove
the Volscians to the furthest side of the town, and all was clear behind
him, so that the Romans came in after him without any trouble and
took the city. Then all men said,' Caius and none else has won
Corioli,' and Cominius the general said,'Let him be called after the
name of the city.' So they called him Caius Marcius Coriolanus."Arnold's Hist. of Rome.
The farm-house on  Monte Giove now  stands desolate
amongst its vineyards, and there are no remains of the ancient city above-ground. It is supposed that the present
name of the hill commemorates a temple of Jupiter which
may have remained to later times, for the Romans usually
spared the temples of the cities they destroyed. In imperial
times the town had quite disappeared.
" There was a time when Tibur and Praeneste, our summer retreats,
were the objects of hostile vows in the Capitol, when we dreaded the
shades of the Arician groves, when we could triumph without a blush
over the nameless villages of the Sabines and Latins, and even Corioli
could afford a title not unworthy of a victorious general. "-Florus, temp.
Hadrian. )
In returning to Albano (from  Civita Iavinia) we pass
through the triple avenue of elms called the Olmata, planted
in 1643 by Giuliano Cesarini, as an approach to his palace
of Genzano.   Then, on the left, we pass the handsome
Church of La Madonna del Galloro, beneath which the substructions which raised the Via Appia above the level of the
plain, deserve observation.




CHAPTER IV.
FRASCATI, TUSCULUM, AND COLONNA.
(Trains leave Rome at 11.30 and 12.5, returning at 5.40 and 6. t8.
This gives time for a pleasant sight of Frascati, and for a ride or walk
to Tusculum  and the Villa Mondragone, or to Tusculum and Grotta
Ferrata. There is an excellent small inn at Frascati-the Albergo di
Londra-very clean and comfortable.  Donkeys cost 5 francs for the
whole day, or 21 francs for the half day; but a distinct agreement
must be made.)
IT  is only half-an-hour by rail to Frascati, and the change
is so complete and reviving, that it is strange more sojourners at Rome do not take advantage of it.  Only one
excursion to Frascati is generally made during a Roman
winter, which gives little time where there is so much to be
seen.
Even the railway journey is most delightful and characteristic. The train runs close to the aqueducts, the Paoline first, and then the ruined Claudian. As we pass outside the Porta Furba, the artificial sepulchral mound, called
Monte de Grano, is seen on the left, and then the vast ruins
called Sette Basse, belonging to a suburban villa of imperial
date,* and, as the light streams through their ruined windows,
* The carriage-road to Frascati passes close to both of these, and then by the
beautiful stone-pines on the farm of Torre Nuova belonging to Prince Borghese,
where archaeologists place Papinia, the villa of Attilius Regulus.
VOL. 1.                                          7




98                  DA YS NVEAR RO MLE.
forming a beautiful foreground to the delicate distances of
mountain and plain.
As we approach nearer, Colonna is seen on the left upon
its knoll, then Monte Porzio, and beneath it the site of the
Lake Regillus.  When the lights and shadows are favourable,
the difference between the two craters of this volcanic chain
of hills now becomes strikingly evident.
"The Alban hills form a totally distinct group, consisting of two
principal extinct volcanic craters, somewhat resembling in their relation
to each other the great Neapolitan craters of Vesuvius and Somma.
One of them lies within the embrace of the other, just as Vesuvius lies
half enclosed by Monte Somma.  The walls of the outer Alban crater
are of peperino, while those of the inner are basaltic.   Both are
broken away on the northern side towards Grotta Ferrata and Marino,
but on the southern side they are tolerably perfect.
"The outer crescent-shaped crater beginning from Frascati extends to
Monte Porzio and Rocca Priora, and then curves round by Monte Algido, Monte Ariano, and Monte Artemisio.  The inner crescent includes the height of Monte Cavo, and surrounds the flat meadows known
by the name of Campo d'Annibale.  Besides these two principal craters, the ages of which are probably as distinct as those of Vesuvius and
Somma, there are traces of at least four others to be found in the lakes
of Castel Gandolfo, commonly called the Alban lake, and of Nemi,
and in the two small cliff-encircled valleys of the Vallis Aricina and
Larghetto."-Burn, The Romanl Campagnla.
The effect of the Campagna here, as everywhere, is quite
different upon different minds.  The French almost always
find it as depressing as the English do captivating and exhilarating.
" Frascati est a six lieues de Rome, sur les monts Tusculans, petite
chaine volcanique qui fait partie du systeme des montagnes du Latium.
C'est encore la Campagne de Rome, mais c'est la fin de lhorrible desert
qui environne la capitale du monde catholique.  Ici la terre cesse d'etre
inculte et la fievre s'arrete.  I1 faut monter pendant une demi-heure, au
pas des chevaux, pour atteindre la ligne d'air pur qui circule au-dessus
de la region empestee de la plaine immense; mais cet air pur est moins
du a  l'levation du sol qu'i la culture de la terre et a l'ecoulement des




FRASCA TI.                          99
eaux, car Tivoli, plus haut perche du double que Frascati, n'est pas a
l'abri de l'influence maudite.
" Aux approches de ces petites montagnes, quand on a laisse derriere
soi les longs aqueducs ruines et trois ou quatre lieues de terrains oR
dules, sans caractere et sans etendue pour le regard, on traverse de nouveau une partie de la plaine dont le nivellement absolu presente enfin un
aspect particulier assez grandiose.  C'est un lac de pale verdure qui
s'etend sur la gauche jusqu'au pied du massif du mont Gennaro. Aut
baisser du soleil, quand lherbe fine et maigre de ce gigantesque paturage est un peu echauffee par l'or du couchant et nuancee par les ombres portees des montagnes, le sentiment de la grandeur se revele. Les
petits accidents perdus dans ce cadre immense, les troupeaux et les
chiens, seuls bergers qui, en de certaines parties de la steppe, osent braver
la malaria toute la journee, se dessinent et s'enlevent en couleur avec
une nettete comparable a celle des objets lointains sur la mer.  Au
fond de cette nappe de verdure, si unie que l'on a peine a se rendre
compte de son etendue, la base des montagnes semble nager dans une
brume mouvante, tandis que leurs sommets se dressent immobiles et nets
dans le ciel. "- George Sand, La Daniella.
Beyond Ciampino, the railroad ascends out of the Campagna into the land of corn and olives.  Masses of pink
nectarine and almond-trees bloom in spring amid the green.
On the right, we pass the great ruined castle of Borghetlo,
which belonged to the Savellis in the ioth century. At the
station, an open omnibus with awnings (fare, 50 centesimi),
and carriages, are waiting to save travellers the mile of steep
ascent to the town. Here, passing near the Villa Sora, once
the residence of Gregory XIII. (I752-85), and skirting the
wall of the Villa Torlonia, we are set down in the noisy little
piazza before the cathedral, and are at once surrounded by
donkey boys vociferating upon the merits of their respective
animals.
The cathedral (S. Pietro) only dates from I700, but we
must enter it to visit the monument (near the door), which
Cardinal York put up to his brother Prince Charles Edward,
who died Jan. 31, 1788. It is inscribed:



Too                 DA YS NEAR ROMIE.
" Hic situs est Carolus Odoardus cui Pater Jacobus III. Rex Angliae,
Scotiae, Franciae, Hibernike, Primus Natorum, paterni Juris et regise
dignitatis successor et haeres, qui domicilio sibi Romae delecto Comes
Albaniensis dictus est.
"Vixit Annos LVII. et mensem; decessit in pace, pridie Kal. Feb.
Anno MDCCLXXXVII."
There is an older cathedral, Duomo Vecchio, now  called
SS. Sebastiano e Rocco, chiefly of the I4th century, and near
it a fountain erected in I480 by Cardinal d'Estouteville, the
French Ambassador.  The streets are dirty and ugly; but
the little town is important as being the centre of the villas
which give  Frascati all its charm.   Most of these date
only from the 17th century, and, with the exception of the
Villa Mondragone, the buildings are seldom remarkable, but
they are situated amid glorious groves of old trees, often
relics of a natural forest, and amid these are grand old
fountains and water-falls, which, though artificial, have been
long since adopted by Nature as her own, while from  the
terraces the views over the Campagna are of ever-varying
loveliness. In many of these villas, far too large for any
single occupants, vast airy suites of apartments may be hired
for the summer villeggiatura, and, though scantily furnished,
are a delightful retreat during the hot season.
" At Frascati and Albano there are good lodgings to be had. Noble
old villas may be hired on the Alban slopes for a small rent, with
gardens going to ruin, but beautifully picturesque-old fountains and
water-works painted with moss, and decorated with maiden hair, vines,
and flowers-shady groves where nightingales sing all the day-avenues
of lopped ilexes that, standing on either side like great chandeliers,
weave together their branches overhead into a dense roof-and long
paths of tall, polished laurel, where you may walk in shadow at morning
and evening. The air here is not, however,'above suspicion;' and one
must be careful at night-fall lest the fever prowling round the damp
alleys seize you as its prey. The views from these villas are truly exquisite. Before you lies the undulating plain of the Campagna, with every




FRASCA T7.                             Ici
hue and changing tone of colour; far off against the horizon flashes the
level line of the Mediterranean; the grand Sabine hills rise all along on
the west, with Soracte lifting from  tje rolling inland sea at their base;
and in the distance swells the dome of St. Peter's. The splendours of
sunset as they stream over this landscape are indescribable, and in the
noon the sunshine seems to mesmerise it into a magic sleep."-Story's
Roba di Roma.
"Les collines Tusculanes ne sont, d'ici a leur point le plus eleve,
qu'un immense jardin partage entre quatre on cinq familles princieres.
Et quels jardins! celui de Piccolomini ne compte plus.  Vendu a des
bourgeois qui font argent de leur propriete, il n'a de beau que ce que
l'on n'a pu lui oter.  Mais la villa Falconieri, qui le borne a l'est, et la
villa Aldobrandini, qui le borne au couchant, la villa Conti, qui touche
a cette derniere; plus haut, la Ruffinella, et, en revenant vers l'est, la
Taverna et Mondragone, tout cela se tient et communique, si bien que
j'en aurais pour trois heures a vous decrire ces lieux enchantes, ces futaies
monstrueuses, ces fontaines, ces bosquets et ces escarpements semes de
ruines romaines et pelasgiques; ces ravins de lierre, de liseron, et de
vigne sauvage, ou pendent des restes de temples, et ou tombent des eaux
cristallines.  Je renonce au detail qui viendra peut-etre par le menu; je
ne peux que vous donner une notion de l'ensemble.
"Le caractere general est de deux sortes: celui de l'ancien gout
italien, et celui de la nature locale qui a repris le dessus, grace a l'indifference ou a la decadence pecuniaire des maitres de ces folles et magnifiques residences.   Si vous voulez une exacte description de ces
residences, telles qu'elles etaient encore il y a cent ans, vous la trouverez
dans les spirituelles lettres du president de Brosses, un des hommes
qui, malgre son apparente legerete, a le mieux vu l'ltalie de son temps.
I1 s'est beaucoup moque des jeux d'eaux et girandes, des statues gro.
tesques et des concerts hydrauliques de ces villegiatures de Frescati.  II
a eu raison. Lorsqu'il voyait depenser des sommes folles et des efforts
d'imagination puerile pour creer ces choses insensees, il s'indignait de
cette decadence du gouft dans le pays de l'art, et il riait au nez de tous
ces vilains faunes et de toutes ces grimaaantes naiades outrageusement
meles aux debris de la statuaire antique.  Il appelait cela gater l'art et
la nature a grands frais d'argent et de betise, et je m'imagine que, dans
ce temps-la, quand tous ces fetiches etaient encore frais, quand ces
eaux sifflaient dans ces flutes, que les arbres etaient tailles en poires, les
gazons bien tondus et les allees bien tracees, un homme de sens et de
liberte comme lui devait, i bon droit, s'indigner et se moquer.
"Mais s'il revenait ici, il y trouverait un grand et heureux clhangement: les Pans n'ont plus de flite, les nymphes n'ont plus de nez. A




102                   DA YS NEAR ROMlE.
beaucouF de dieux badins, il manque davantage encore, puisqu'il rien
reste qu'une jambe sur le socle.  Le reste git au fond des bassins.  Les
eaux ne soufflent plus dans des tuyaux d'orgue; elles bondissent encore
dans des conques de marbre et le long des grandes girandes; mais elles
y chantent de leur voix naturelle.  Les rocailles se sont tapissees de
vertes chevelures, qui les rendent a la verite.  Les arbres out repris leur
essor puissant sous un climat energique, et sont devenus des colosses
encore jeunes et pleins de sante.  Ceux qui sont morts ont derange la
symetrie des all6es; les parterres se sont remplis de folles herbes; les
fraises et les violettes ont trace des arabesques aux contours des tapis
verts; la mousse a mis du velours sur les mosaiques criardes: tout a
pris un air de revolte, un cachet d'abandon, un ton de ruine et un
chant de solitude.
"Et maintenant, ces grands parcs jetes aux flancs des montagnes
forment, dans leurs plis verdoyants, des vallees de Tempe, ou les ruines
rococo et les ruines antiques devorees par la meme vegetation parasite
donnent a la victoire de la nature un air de gaiete extraordinaire.
Comme en somme, les palais sont d'une coquetterie princiere ou d'un
gout charmant; que ces jardins, surcharges de details puerils, avaient
ete dessines avec beaucoup d'intelligence sur les ondulations gracieuses
du sol, et plantes avec un vrai sentiment de la beaute des sites; enfin,
comme les sources abondantes y ontete habilement dirigees pour assainir
et vivifier cette region bocagere, il ne serait pas rigoureusement vrai de
dire que la nature y a ete mutilee et insultee.  Les brimboriens fragiles
y tombenlt en poussiere; mais les longues terrasses d'ou l'on dominait
l'immense tableau de la plaine, des montagnes et de la mer; les gigantesques perrons de marbre et de lave qui soutiennent les ressauts du
terrain, de qui ont, certes, un grand caractere; les allees couvertes qui
rendent ces vieux Edens praticables en tout temps; enfin tout ce qui,
travail elegant, utile et solide, a survecu au caprice de la mode, ajoute
au charme de ces solitudes, et sert a conserver, comme dans des sanctuaires, les heureuses combinaisons de la nature et la monumentale beaute
des ombrages.  I1 suffit de voir, autour des collines de Frascati, l'aride
nudite des monts Tusculans, ou l'humidite malsaine des vallees, pour
reconnaitre que l'art est parfois bien necessaire a l'ceuvre de la creation."
-Geog e Sand, La Daniella.
Nothing can describe the charm of the villa life at Frascati,-the freshness of the never-ceasing fountains, the deep
shade of the thick  woods, the  splendour of the summer
fruits, and, above all, the changing glories of the view, which




VILLA  TORLONIA, FRASCA7I.                    o03
is unlike any other in the world, over the vast plain, in
which the world's capitol seems almost to be lost in the
immensity and luminousness of the pink haze.
Opposite to the gate of the town, opens that of the Villa
To-ronia —the Pincio of Frascati-and the great resort of
its inhabitants.  The villa itself is not worth visiting, but the
view from its terrace is most beautiful, and a grand waterfall tumbles down a steep behind the house, through the
magnificent ilex-groves.  This type of villa is well pourtrayed
by Miss Edwards.' We went down a broad walk, wide enough for a carriage drive, and
completely roofed in by thick trees. Weeds grew unheeded in the gravel,
and last year's leaves lay thick on the ground. Here and there, in
the green shade, stood a stone seat brown with mosses; or a broken urn;
or a tiny antique altar, rifled from a tomb -and presently we reached a
space somewhat more open than the rest, with a shapeless mass of reticulated brick-work and a low arch guarded by two grim lions, in the
midst. Here the leaves had drifted more deeply, and the weeds had
grown more rankly than elsewhere; and a faint oppressive perfume
sickened on the air. We pushed our way through the grass and brambles, and looked down into the darkness of that cavernous archway. A
clinging damp lay on the old marble lions, and on the leaves and
blossoms of the trailing shrubs that overgrew them. A green lizard
darted by on a fragment of broken wall. A squirrel ran up the shaft of
a stately stone pine that stood in the midst of the ruins.
" At length we emerged upon a terrace that bounded the gardens on
this side. The Campagna and the hills lay spread before us in the
burning sun-set, and a shining zone of sea bounded the horizon. Long
shadows streamed across the marble pavement, and patches of brilliant
light pierced through the carved interstices of the broken balcony. A
little fountain dripped wearily in the midst, surmounted by a headless
Triton, and choked with water-weeds; whilst all along the parapet,
with many a gap, the statues of the Czesars stood between us and the
sun. "-Barbara's History.
Below the Villa Torlonia, the  Villa Pallazicini, with an
ilex-crested terrace, projects over the plain. Above it, is the
Villa Aldobrandini, standing grandly upon a succession of




104                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
terraces, designed by Giacomo della Porta, and finished
Palazzo Aldobrandini, Frascati.
by Giovanni Fontana  for Cardinal Pietro  Aldobrandini,
nephew of Clement VIII.  The villa is adorned internally
with frescoes by Cav. d'Arpino. Behind it a succession of
waterfalls tumble through a glorious old ilex-grove, into a
circle of fantastic statues. The scene may once have been
ridiculous, but Nature has now made it most beautiful.
"At the Villa Aldobrandini, or Belvidere, we were introduced to
the most multifarious collection of monsters I ever hope to behold.
Giants, centaurs, fauns, cyclops, wild beasts, and gods, blew, bellowed,
and squeaked, without mercy or intermission; and horns, pan's-pipes,
organs, and trumpets, set up their combined notes in such a dissonant
chorus, that we were fain to fly before them; when the strains that
suddenly burst forth from Apollo and the Nine Muses, who were in a
place apart, compelled us to stop our ears, and face about again in the
opposite direction.
"When this horrible din was over, we were carried back to admire
the now silent Apollo and the Muses,-a set of painted wooden dolls,
seated on a little mossy Parnassus, in a summer-house, -a plaything we
should have been almost ashamed to have made even for the amusement
of children. All these creatures, in the mean time, were spouting out




VILLA RUFINELLA, FRASCA TI.                05
water. The lions and tigers, however, contrary to their usual habits, did
nothing else; and the'great globe itself,' which Atlas was bearing on
his shoulders, instead of'the solid earth,' proved a mere aqueous ball,
and was overwhelmed in a second deluge."-Eaton's Rome.
Those who are not good walkers, should engage donkeys
for the excursion to Tusculum, to which a steep ascent leads
from the piazza of the town, between the walls of the villas
Aldobrandini and Falconieri.  Just beyond the latter, an
inscription marks the humble retreat of the learned Cardinal
Baronius. A steep hill leads to the Convent of the Cappuccini, but our path passes through the shady and delightful
walks of the Villa Rufinella, which is now the property of
Prince Lancellotti, having formerly belonged to the Buonapartes. The casino was built by Vanvitelli. The chapel
contains monuments of the Buonaparte family.  During
the residence of Lucien Buonaparte here (Nov. I818),
this villa was the scene of one of the boldest acts of brigandage known in the Papal States.  A  party of robbers,
who had their rendezvous at Tusculum, first seized the
old  priest of the family as he was out walking, and
having plundered and stripped him, bound him  hand and
foot.  As they surmised, when  the dinner-hour arrived,
and the priest was missing, a servant was sent out in
search of him, and left the door open, through which
five bandits entered, and attacking the servants they met,
forced them to silence by threats of instant death. One
maid-servant, however, escaped, and gave warning to the
party in the dining-room, who all had time to hide themselves, except the Prince's secretary, who had already left
the room to discover the cause of the noise, and who was
carried off, together with the butler, and a facchzino.  The




106               DA YS NEAR ROI1ME.
old priest meanwhile contrived to escape and conceal himself in some straw.
The next day the facchilo was sent back to treat with
the Prince, and to say that unless he sent a ransom of 4000
crowns the prisoners'would be immediately put to death.
He sent 2000 and an order on his banker for the remainder.
The brigands, greatly irritated, returned the order torn up
with a demand for 4000 crowns more, and with this the
Prince was forced to comply in order to preserve the lives
of his attendants. The brigands escaped scot free!
A tomb which is passed at the entrance of Frascati towards
thle Villa Rufinella is said to be that of Lucullus, who is
known to have had a villa here. This stood near the Villa of
Cicero, who was accustomed to borrow books and fetch them
with his own hand (De Fin. iii. 2) from the library of his
friend.   The scholiast on Horace describes the Villa of
Cicero as being " ad latera superiora " of the hill, and its
site is generally believed to have been that now occupied by
the Villa Rufinella, and that the Casino stands on the site
of his Academica, which had shady walks like those of
P'lato's Garden —forefathers of the walks which we still see.
The Tusculan Disputations of Cicero take their name
from this beloved villa of his, which he bitterly complained
of the Roman consuls valuing at only " quingentis millibus "
-between ~4000 and  5000o.   A complete picture of the
villa may be derived from the many allusions to it in the
works of Cicero, thus:" We learn that it contained two gymnasia (Div. i. s.), an upper one
called the Lyceum, in which, like Aristotle, he was accustomed to walk
and dispute in the morning iTusc. Disp. ii. 3), and to which a library
was attached (Div. ii. 3); and a lower one called the Academy ( 7z5sc.
Disfp. ii. 3). Both were adorned with beautiful statues in marble and




TUSC UL 1UM.                       107
bronze (Ep. ad Att. i. 8, 9, io). The villa likewise contained a little
awrium (atriolum, lb. i. I0 ad Quint. Fr. iii. I), a small portico with
exedria (ad Fam. vii. 23), a bath (lb. xiv. 20), a covered promenade
(' tecta ambulatiuncula,' ad Att. xiii. 29), and a horologium (ad Flrn.
xvi. I8). The villa, like the town and neighbourhood, was supplied by
the Aqua Crabra (De Leg. Agr. iii. 31).'"-Smith's Diet. of Greek and
Rovman Gcograpzhy.
In his Essay on Old Age, Cicero describes the delights of
country life as enjoyed in a villa of this kind.
" Where the master of the house is a good and careful manager, his
wine-cellar, his oil-stores, his larder, are always well stocked; there is
a fulness throughout the whole establishment; pigs, kids, lambs,
poultry, milk, cheese, honey,-all are in abundance.  The produce of
the garden is always equal, as our country-folk say, to a second course.
And all these good things acquire a double relish from the voluntary
labours of fowling and the chase. What need to dwell upon the charm
of the green fields, the well-ordered plantations, the beauty of the vineyards and olive-groves? In short, nothing can be more luxuriant in produce, or more delightful to the eye, than a well-cultivated estate."Trans. by Lucas Collins.
Leaving the Villa Rufinella by shady avenues of laurel
and laurestinus, the path to Tusculum emerges on the hillside, where, between banks perfectly carpeted with anemones
and violets in spring, a street paved with polygonal blocks
has been laid bare.  On the left are remains of the small
AirnphiZheatre; all the seats have perished, and it is only
recognizable by its form. Beyond, also on the left, are the
ruins of a villa, called, without authority, Scuola di Cicerone.
The path leads directly up to the most important of the
ruins, the Theatre, which was excavated in I839 by Maria
Christina, Queen-dowager of Sardinia.  With the exception
of the walls of the scena, the lower walls are almost perfect,
and the fifteen rows of seats in the lower circle (cavea) remain intact, though the upper rows have perished.  The
spectators, facing the west, had a magnificent view over the




1o8                  DAYS NEAR ROME.
plains of Latium, with Rome in the distance. Close to the
Theatre of Tusculum.
Theatre are the remains of a piscina, and the fountain supplied from it.
" Je parvins au sommet de la montagne, en m'egarant dans de superbes bosquets. Puis, je me trouvai sur un long plateau dont le versant
est aussi nu et aussi desert que celui que l'on monte depuis Frascati est
ombrage et habite.  Devant moi se presentait une petite voie antique,
bordee d'arbres, qui, suivant a plat la crete douce de la montagne, devait me conduire a Tusculum.
"J'arrivai bientat en vue d'un petit cirque de fin gazon, borde de
vestiges de constructions romaines.  Un peu au-dessous, je penetrai, a
travers les ronces, dans la galerie souterraine par laquelle, au moyen de
trappes, les animaux feroces, destines aux combats, surgissaient tout a
coup dans l'arene, aux yeux des spectateurs impatients.  Ce cirque n'a
de remarquable que sa situation. Assis sur le roc, au bout le plus eleve
d'une etroite gorge en pente, qui s'en va rejoindre, en sauts gracieux et
verdoyants, les collines plus basses de Frascati et en suite la plaine, il
est la comme un beau siege de gazon, installe pour offrir au voyageur le
plaisir de contempler a l'aise cette triste vue de la Campagne de Rome,
qui devient magnifique, encadree ainsi. Le remplement de la colline
autour du cirque le preserve des vents maritimes. Ce serait un emplacement delicieux pour une villa d'hiver.
"J'y pris quelques moments de repos.  Pour la premiere fois depuis
que j'ai quitte Genes, il faisait un temps clair.  Les montagnes lointaines etaient d'un ton superbe, et Rome se voyait distinctement au fond
de la plaine. Je fus etonne de l'emplacement enorme qu'elle occupe,
et de l'importance du d6me de Saint-Pierre, qui, tout le monde vous l'a
dit, ne fait pas grand effet, vu de plus pres.
"En quittant cet amphitheatre, je suivis, dlans le desert, un chemin
jonche de mosaiques des marbres les plus precieux, de verroteries, de
tessons de vases etrusques et de gravats de platre encore revetus des tons
de la fresque antique.  Je ramassai un assez beau fragment de terre




TUSCUL UM.                            1o9
cuite, representant le combat d'un lion et d'un dragon. Je dedaignai de
remplir mes poches d'autres debris; il y en avait trop pour me tenter.
La colline n'est qu'un amas de ces debris, et la pluie qui lave les chemins en met chaque jour a nu de nouvelles couches. Ce sol, quoique
souvent fouille en divers endroits, doit cacher encore des richesses.
"Le plateau superieur est une vaste bruyere.  C'etait jadis, probablement, le beau quartier de la ville, car cette steppe est semee de dalles
ou de moellons de marbre blanc. Le chemin etait, sans doute, la belle
rue patricienne.  Des fondations de maisons des deux c6tes attestent
qu'elle etait etroite, comme toutes celles des villes antiques.  Au bout
de cette plaine, le chemin aboutit au theatre.  I1 est petit, mais d'une
jolie coupe romaine. L'orchestre, les degres de l'hemicycle sont entiers,
ainsi que la base des constructions de la scene et les marches laterales
pour y monter.  L'avant-scene et les voies de degagement necessaires a
l'action scenique sont sur place et suffisamment indiquees par leurs
bases, pour faire comprendre l'usage de ces theatres, la place des choeurs
et meme celle du decor.
" Derriere le theatre est une piscine parfaitement entiere sauf la voQte.
On est 1& en pleine ville romaine. On n'a plus qu'a atteindre le faite
de la montagne pour trouver la partie pelasgique, la ville de Telegone,
fils d'Ulysse et de Circe.
" L, ces ruines prennent un autre caractere, un autre interet.  C'est
la cite primitive, c'est-a-dire la citadelle escarpee; repaire d'une bande
d'aventuriers, berceau d'une societe future.  Les temples et les tombeaux des ancetres y etaient sous la protection du fort.  La montagne,
semee de bases de colonnes qui indiquent l'emplacement des edifices
sacres, et bordee de blocs bruts dont l'arrangement dessine encore des
ramparts, des poternes, et des portes, s'incline rapidement vers d'autres gorges bientot relevees en collines et en montagnes plus hautes. Ce
sont les monts Albains. Dans une de ces prairies humides ou paissent
les troupeaux, etait le lac Regille, on ne sait pas ou precisement.  Le
sort de la jeune Rome, aux prises avec celui des antiques nationalites du
Latium, a ete decide la, quelque part, dans ces agrestes solitudes.
Soixante-dix mille hommes ont combattu pour &tre ou n'tre pas, et le
destin de Rome, qui en ce terrible jour, ecrasa les forces de trente
cites latines, a passe sur l'Agro Tusculan comme l'orage, dont la trace
est vite effacee par l'herbe et les fleurs nouvelles."-George Sand,
La Daniella.
Behind  the theatre rises the steep  hill which was once
crowned by the Arx of Tusculum, which was of great strength
in early times.  It was besieged  by the  ~Equians in B.C.




I o                 DA YS NEAR ROMIE.
457, and only taken when the garrison were starved out.
In B.C. 374 it was successfully defended against the Latins.
Dionysius mentions the advantage it received from its lofty
position, which enabled its defenders to see a Roman army
as it issued from the Porta Latina. The view is indeed
most beautiful, over plain and mountains, the foreground
formed by the remains of
-" the white streets of Tusculum,
The proudest town of all," *
scattered sparsely amongst the furze and thorn-bushes, but
the ruins which now exist belong chiefly not to early times
but to the mediaeval fortress of the Dukes of Tusculum.
Including the Arx, the town of Tusculum  was about I~
mile in circuit. The Roman poets ascribe the foundation
of the city to Telegonus, the son of Circe and Ulysses.
"Inter Aricinos Albanaque tempora constant,
Factaque Telegoni moenia celsa manu."
Ovid. Fast. iii. 91.
"Et jam Telegoni, jam moenia Tiburis udi
Stabant, Argolicae quod posuere manus."
Ozid. Fast. iv. 71.
" At Cato, tur prima sparsus lanugine malas,
Quod peperere decus Circaeo Tuscula dorso
Mcenia, Lairte quondam regnata nepoti,
Cunctantem impellebat equum."
Sil. Ital. vii. 69I.
"Linquens Telegoni pulsatos ariete muros,
Haud dignam inter tanta moram."
Sil. Ital. xii. 535.Tusculum was remarkable for the steadiness of its friendship for Rome, which was only interrupted in B.C. 379, when
in consequence of a number of Tus-ulans having been
* Macaulay, Lays ofAncient Rome.
t See also Horace, Epode i. 29, and Statius, Silv. i. 3, 83.




TUS CUL UM.                         II 
found amongst the prisoners made in the Volscian campaign, war was declared, and Camillus was sent against the
city.
" But the Tusculans would not accept this declaration of hostilities,
and opposed the Roman arms in a manner that has scarcely been paralleled before or since. When Camillus entered their territory he found
the peasants engaged in their usual avocations; provisions of all sorts
were offered to his army, the gates of the town were standing open; and
as the legions defiled through the streets in all the panoply of war, the
citizens within, like the countrymen without, were seen intent upon
their daily business, the schools resounded with the hum of pupils, and
not the slightest token of hostile preparation could be discerned.  Then
Camillus invited the Tusculan dictator to Rome.  When he appeared
be ore the senate in the Curia Hostilia, not only were the existing
treaties with Tusculum confirmed, but the Roman franchise was shortly
afterwards bestowed upon it, a privilege at that time rarely conferred."
-SSmith's Diet. of Greek and Roman Geography.
"In the times of the Latin League, from the fall of Alba to the battle
of the Lake Regillus, Tusculum was the most prominent town in Latium.
It suffered, like the other towns in Latium, a complete eclipse during
the late. Republic and the Imperial times; but in the ninth, tenth,
eleventh, and twelfth centuries, under the Counts of Tusculum, it became again a place of great importance and power, no less than sevea
popes of the house of Tusculum having sat in the chair of S. Peter.
The final destruction of the city is placed by Nibby, following the account given in the records of the Podesta of Reggio, in I I9, on the 1st
of April, in which year the city was given up to the Romans by the
Emperor Henry VI., and, after the withdrawal of the German garrison,
was sacked and razed to the ground.  Those of the inhabitants who
escaped collected round the Church of S. Sebastian, at the foot of the
hill, in the district called Frascati, whence the town of Frascati took
its origin and name. "-Burn, The Roman Campagna.
" We had wandered long among those hills,
Watching the white goats on precipitous heights,
Half-hid among the bushes, or their young
Tending new-yeaned: and we had paused to hear
The deep-toned music of the convent bells,
And wound through many a verdant forest path,
Gathering the crocus and anemone,
With that fresh gladness, which when flowers are new




112                 DA YS NEAR ROMIE.
In the first spring, they bring us, till at last
We issued out upon an eminence,
Commanding prospect large on every side;
But largest where the world's great city lay,
Whose features, undistinguishable now,
Allowed no recognition, save where the eye
Could mark the white front of the Lateran
Facing this way, or rested on the dome,
The broad stupendous dome, high over all.
And as a sea around an island's roots
Spreads, so the level champaign round the town
Stretched every way, a level plain, and green
With the new vegetation of the spring;
Nor by the summer ardours scorched as yet,
Which shot from southern suns, too soon dry up
The beauty and the freshness of the plains;
But to the right the ridge of Apennine,
Its higher farther summits all snow-crowned,
Rose, with white clouds above them, as might seem
Another range of more aerial hills.
These things were at a distance, but more near
And at our feet signs of the tide of life,
That once was here, and now had ebbed awayPavements entire, without one stone displaced,
Where yet there had not rolled a chariot-wheel.For many hundred years; rich cornices,
Elaborate friezes of rare workmanship,
And broken shafts of columns, that along
This highway side lay prone; vaults that were rooms,
And hollowed from the turf, and cased in stone,
Seats and gradations of a theatre,
Which emptied of its population now
Shall never be refilled: and all these things,
Memorials of the busy life of man,
Or of his ample means for pomp and pride,
Scattered among the solitary hills,
And lying open to the sun and showers,
And only visited at intervals
By wandering herds, or pilgrims like ourselves
From distant lands; with now no signs of life,
Save where the goldfinch built his shallow nest




CAMALDOL.                           13'Mid the low bushes, or where timidly
The rapid lizard glanced between the stonesAll saying that the fashion of this world
Passes away; that not Philosophy
Nor Eloquence can guard their dearest haunts
From the rude touch of desecrating Time.
\What marvel, when the very fanes of God,
The outward temples of the Holy One,
Claim no exemption from the general doom,
But lie in ruinous heaps; when nothing stands,
Nor may endure to the end, except alone
The spiritual temple built with living stones?"
Archzbishop  Trevncz.
Descending  from  the Arx, a  path  to  the right leads
through woods full of flowers to the Camnaldo/i, but nobody
can pass the cross at the foot of the hill on which the convent stands, upon pain of excommunication.  Here Cardinal
Passionei lived in retirement, and occupied himself by collecting eight hundred inscriptions found amongst the ruins
of Tusculum.
The whole of the inhabitants of the Camaldoli were carried off during an audacious outbreak of brigandage in the
reign of Pius VII., but escaped during a skirmish with th'e
Papal troops sent to their rescue.  Since then the buildings
have been surrounded with defensive walls with loopholes
for the discharge of fire-arms.   The aspect of the place
is beautifully described by Cardinal Wiseman.
"The English college possesses a country house, deliciously situated
in the village of Monte-Porzio.  Like most villages in the Tusculan
territory, this crowns a knoll, which in this instance looks as if it had
been kneaded up from the valleys beneath it, so round, so shapely, so
richly bosoming does it swell upwards; and so luxuriously clothed is it
with the three gifts whereby'men are multiplied' (Ps. iv. 8), that the
village and its church seem not to sit upon a rocky summit, but to be
half sunk into the lap of the olive, the vine, and the waving corn, that
reach the very houses.  While the entrance and front of this villa are
VOL. I.                                          8




I4                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
upon the regular streets of the little town, the garden side stands upon
the very verge of the hill-top; and the view, after plunging at once to
the depths of the valley, along which runs a shady road, rises up a gentle
acclivity, vine and olive clad, above which is clasped a belt of stately
chestnuts, the bread-tree of the Italian peasant, and thence springs a
round craggy mound, looking stern and defiant, like what it was-the
citadel of Tusculum.  Upon its rocky front the English students have
planted a huge cross.
" Such is the view which presents itself immediately opposite to the
spectator, if leaning over the low parapet of the English garden, Just
where the vineyards touch the woods, as if to adorn both, there lies
nestling what you would take to be a very neat and regular village. A
row of houses, equidistant and symmetrical, united by a continuous
dwarf wall, and a church with its towers in the midst, all of dazzling
whiteness, offer no other suggestion. The sight would certainly deceive one, but not so the ears. There is a bell that knows no sleeping.
The peasant hears it as he rises at day-break to proceed to his early
toil; the vine-dresser may direct every pause for refreshment by its unfailing regularity through the day; the horseman returning home at
evening uncovers himself as it rings forth the'Ave;' and the muleteer
singing on the first of his string of mules, carrying wine to Rome, at
midnight is glad to catch its solemn peal, as it mingles with the tinkle
of his own drowsy bells. Such an unceasing call to prayer and praise
can only be answered, not by monks nor by friars, but by anchorites.
" And to such does this sweet abode belong. A nearer approach does
not belie the distant aspect.  It is as neat, as regular, as clean, and
tranquil as it looks.  It is truly a village divided by streets, in each of
which are rows of houses exactly symmetrical. A small sitting-room, a
sleeping cell, a chapel completely fitted up, in case of illness, and a wood
and lumber room, compose the cottage. This is approached by a garden,
which the occupant tills, but only for flowers, assisted by his own fountain abundantly supplied.  While singing None in the choir, the day's
meal is deposited in a little locker within the door of the cell, for each
one's solitary refection.  On a few great festivals they dine together;
but not even the Pope, at his frequent visits, has meat placed before him.
Everything, as has been said, is scrupulously clean. The houses inside
and out, the well-furnished library, the stranger's apartments (for hospitality is freely given), and still more the church, are faultless in this
respect.  And so are the venerable men who stand in the choir, and
whose noble voices sustain the church's magnificent psalmody with unwavering slowness of intonation. They are clad in white from head to
foot, their thick woollen drapery falling in large folds; and the shaven




VILLA MONDRA GONE.                          I 5
head, but flowing beard, the calm features, the cast-down eyes, and
often venerable aspect, make every one a picture, as solemn as Zurbaran
ever painted, but without the sternness which he sometimes imparts to
his recluses. They pass out of the church, to return home, all silent and
unnoticing; but the guest-master will tell you who they are. I remember but a few. This is a native of Turin, who was a general in Napoleon's army, fought many battles, and has hung up his sword beside the
altar, to take down in its place the sword of the Spirit, and fight the
good fight within. The next is an eminent musician, who has discovered
the hollowness of human applause, and has unstrung his earthly harp,
and taken up the'lyre of the Levite,' to join his strains to those of angels.
Another comes'curved like a bridge's arch,' as Dante says, and leaning
on a younger arm, as he totters forward, one whose years are ninety, of
which seventy have been spent in seclusion, except a few of dispersion,
but in peace: for he refuses any relaxation from his duties. Then follows a fourth, belonging to one of the noblest Roman families, who yet
prefers his cottage and his lentil to the palace and the banquet. " —Life
of Pius VIl.
Below  the Camaldoli we reach  the  gates of the  Villa
Mondragone, the Queen of Frascati villas.  It belongs to the
family of Borghese, but is used as a Jesuit College. The
casino, built, from designs of Vansanzio, by Cardinal Altemps
in the reign of Gregory XIII., is exceedingly magnificent, but
still more so is the view from the vast and stately terrace in
front, adorned with a grand fountain and tall columns.
" Imaginez-vous un chateau qui a trois cent soixante quatorze fenetres, un chfteau complique comme ceux d'Anne Radcliffe, un monde
d'enigmes a debrouiller, un enchainement de surprises, un reve de
Piranese.
"Ce palais fut bati au seizieme siecle. On y entre par un vaste corps
de logis, sorte de caserne destinee a la suite armee.  Lorsque, plus
tard, le pape Paul V. en fit une simple zillegiature, il relia un des
cotes de ce corps de garde au palais par une longue galerie, de pleinpied avec la cour interieure, dont les arcades elegantes s'ouvraient, au
couchant, sur un escarpement assez considerable, et laissent aujourd'hui
passer le vent et la pluie.  Les voutes suintent, la fresque est devenue
ulle cro'te des stalactites bizarrees; des ronces et des orties poussent
dans le pave disjoint; les deux etages superposes au-dessus de cette
galerie s'ecroulent tranquillement.  I1 n'y a plus de toiture; les entable



116                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
ments du dernier etage se penchent et s'appaissent aux risques et perils
des passants, quand passants il y a, autour de cette thebaYde.
" Cependant, la villa Mondragone, restee dans la famille Borghese, a
laquelle appartenait Paul V., etait encore une demeure splendide, il y a
une cinquantaine d'annees, et elle revete aujourd'hui un caractere de desolation riante, tout a fait particulier a ces ruines prematurees.  C'est
durant nos guerres d'ltalie, au commencement du siecle, que les Autrichiens lont ravagee, bombardee, et pillee.  11 en est resulte ce qui arrive
toujours en ce pays-ci apres une secousse politique: le degout et labandon.  Pourtant la majeure partie du corps de logis principal, la jartenmedia, est assez saine pour qu'en supprimant les dependances inutiles,
on puisse encore trouver de quoi restaurer une delicieuse villcgiature."
-Geogt e SZand, La Dzniella.
Joining the grounds of the Mondragone are those of the
Villa Taverna, built in the I6th century, from  designs of
Girolamo  Rainaldi.  It was much used, until the change
of Government, as a summer residence by the Borgheses.
A beautiful road along the ridge of the hill-side leads back
to Frascati, or we may go on to the right towards Colonna,
about four miles distant.
Not far below the Villa Mondragone is the volcanic Lake
cf Cornufelle. There is no longer any water here, but its bed
is a crater about half a mile in diameter, and is evidently the
place  described  by Pliny, where  there  was  a  grove  of
beeches (probably horn-beams-carfini) dedicated to Diana,
one of which was so much admired by Passienus, the orator
and consul, that he used to embrace it, sleep under it, and
pour wine upon it. This is the spot described in Macaulay's
Lays, as that
"-where, by Lake Regillus,
Under the Porcian height,
All in the lands of Tusculum,
Was fought the glorious fight."
And Arnold says:"The lake of Regillus is now a small and weedy pool surrounded by




THE LAKE REGILLUS.                        117
crater-like banks, and with much lava or basalt about it, situated at
some height above the plain, on the right hand of the road as you descend from the high ground under La Colonna (Labicum), to the ordinary level of the Campagna, in going to Rome."-Hist. of Rome, i. 120.
"The Battle of the Lake Regillus, as described by Livy, is not an engagement between two armies: it is a conflict of heroes, like those in
the Iliad. All the leaders encounter hand to hand; and by them the
victory is thrown now into one scale, now into the other; while the
troops fight without any effect.  The dictator Postumius wounds King
Tarquinius, who at the first onset advances to meet him. T. NEbutius,
the master of the horse, wounds the Latin dictator: but he himself too
is disabled, and forced to quit the field.  Mamilius, only aroused by his
hurt, leads the cohort of the Roman emigrants to the charge, and breaks
the front lines of the enemy; this glory the Roman lays could not allow
to any but fellow-citizens, under whatever banner they might be fighting.  M. Valerius, surnamed Maximus, falls as he is checking their
progress. Publius and Marcus, the sons of Publicola, meet their death
in rescuing the body of their uncle, but the dictator with his cohort
avenges them all, repulses the emigrants, and puts them to flight. In
vain does Mamilius strive to retrieve the day: he is slain by T. Herminius, the comrade of Codes.  Herminius again is pierced through with
a javelin, while stripping the Latin general of his arms. At length the
Roman knights, fighting on foot before the standards, decided the
victory: then they mounted their horses, and routed the yielding foe.
During the battle the dictator had vowed a temple to the Dioscuri.
Two gigantic youths on white horses were seen fighting in the van:
and from its being said, immediately after the mention of the vow, that
the dictator promised rewards to the first two who should scale the wall
of the enemy's camp, I surmise that the poem related, nobody challenged
these prizes, because the way for the legions had been opened by the
Tyndarids.  The pursuit was not yet over, when the two deities appeared at Rome, covered with dust and blood. They washed themselves
and their arms in the fountain of Juturna beside the temple of Vesta,
and announced the events of the day to the people assembled in the
Comitium.  On the other side of the fountain the promised temple was
built. The print of a horse's hoof in the basalt on the field of battle
remained to attest the presence of the heavenly combatants. "-NiebuhAr's
Hist. of Rome, i. 5 5 7.
On the right is the hill of Monte Porzio, said to have derived its name from the Porcian Villa of Cato the younger.
It is crowned by a large village, built by Gregory XIII.




118               DA YS NEAR ROME.
(Buoncompagni), whose arms adorn  its gateway.  The
church was consecrated by Cardinal York in 1766.
Beyond this, on the right, is Monte Compatri, a large village, cresting another hill, and belonging to the Borgheses.
Further on is Rocca Priora, now identified with Corbio, the
first place attacked by the Latin confederates in behalf of
Tarquin, who, when they had expelled the garrison, hence
ravaged all the surrounding country.
Rocca Priora stands high up on the Monte Algido, the second
of the heights of which the Alban Hills are composed.  On
one of its peaks are remains which are referred to a temple
of Diana mentioned by Horace.
" Queque Aventinum tenet Algidumque,
Quindecim Diana preces virorum
Curet."
Carm. Sac. 69.
The plain which separated the Mons Algidus from  the
heights near Tusculum was frequently abattle-field. In B.c.
458 Cincinnatus gained  here his great victory over the
Aquians under Clcelius Gracchus; and here, in B.C. 428,
Postumius Tubertus conquered the combined armies of the,Equians and Volscians.
"Scilicet hic olim Volscos AEquosque fugatos
Viderat in campis, Algida terra, tuis."
Ovid. Fast. vi. 721.
Horace mentions the cold climate of Algidus: —
"Gelido prominet Algido."
Carm. i. 21.'Nivali pascitur Algido."
iii. 23.
And its black woods:
"Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido."
iv. 4.




COLONNA.                          I19
Silius Italicus, however, speaks of the pleasures of a residence here:
".. Nec ameena retentant
Algida."
xii. 536.
On the left we now reach an insulated hill crowned by the
picturesque little mediaeval town of Colonna, for seven
centuries the stronghold of the great family of that name,
but now belonging to Prince Rospigliosi.
Colonna occupies the site of Labicum, which, according
to Virgil, existed before the foundation of Rome, for he represents its warriors as joining the army of Turnus:
"Auruncaeque manus, Rutuli, veteresque Sicani,
Et Sacranae acies, et picti scuta Labici."
Enz. vii. 795.
Hannibal approached Rome from hence:"Jamque adeo est campos ingressus et arva Labici,
Linquens Telegoni pulsatos ariete muros."
Sil. Ital. xii. 534.
Silius alludes to the fertility of its lands:"... atque habiles ad aratra Labici."
viii. 368.
Through the Middle Ages, Colonna was the scene of endless sieges, and consequently perhaps suffered more than
any other town in the neighbourhood of Rome.
"The private story of the Colonna and Ursini is an essential part of
the annals of modern Rome. The name and arms of Colonna have
been the theme of much doubtful etymology; nor have the orators and
antiquarians overlooked either Trajan's Pillar, or the columns of Hercules, or the pillar of Christ's flagellation, or the luminous column
that guided the Israelites in the desert.  Their first historical
appearance in the year 1104, attests the power and antiquity, while
it explains the simple meaning, of the name. By the usurpation of
Cavi, the Colonna provoked the arms of Paschal II.; but they law



120                  DA YS NEAR RO~ME.
fully held, in the Campagna of Rome, the hereditary fiefs of Zagarolo
and Cololnna; and the latter of these towns was probably adorned with
some lofty pillar, the relic of a villa or temple. They likewise possessed
one moiety of the neighbouring city of Tusculum; a strong presumption
of their descent from the counts of Tusculum, who in the Ioth century
were the tyrants of the apostolic see.  According to their own and
the public opinion, the primitive and remote source was derived from
the banks of the Rhine; and the sovereigns of Germany were not
ashamed of a real or fabulous affinity with a noble race, which in the
revolutions of seven hundred years has been often illustrated by merit,
and always by fortune. About the end of the 13th century, the most
powerful branch was composed of an uncle and six brothers, all conspicuous in arms, or in the honours of the Church. Of these, Peter was
elected senator of Rome, introduced to the Capitol in a triumphant car,
and hailed in some vain acclamations with the title of Caesar; while
John and Stephen were declared Marquis of Ancona and Count of
Romagna by Nicholas IV., a patron so partial to their family, that
he has been delineated, in satirical portraits, imprisoned as it were
in a hollow pillar. After his decease, their haughty behaviour provoked the displeasure of the most implacable of mankind.  The two
cardinals, the uncle and the nephew, denied the election of Boniface
VIII.; and the Colonna were oppressed for a moment by his temporal
and spiritual arms.  He proclaimed a crusade against his personal
enemies; their estates were confiscated; their fortresses on either side
of the Tiber were besieged by the troops of S. Peter, and those of the
rival nobles; and after the ruin of Palestrina or Prxeneste, their principal seat, the ground was marked with a plough-share, the emblem of
perpetual desolation. Degraded, banished, proscribed, the six brothers,
in disguise and danger, wandered over Europe without renouncing the
hope of deliverance and revenge.  In this double hope, the French
court was their surest asylum; they prompted and directed the enterprise of Philip; and I should praise their magnanimity, had they respected the misfortune and courage of the captive tyrant.  His civil acts
were annulled by the Roman people, who restored the honours and possessions of the Colonna; and some estimate may be formed of their
wealth by their losses, of their losses by the damages of one hundred
thousand gold florins, which were granted them against the accomplices
and heirs of the deceased pope. All the spiritual censures and disqualifications were abolished by his prudent successors; and the fortune
of the house was more firmly established by this transient hurricane.
The boldness of Sciarra Colonna was signalized in the captivity of Boniace, and long afterwards in the coronation of Lewis of Bavaria; and by




FROMl FRASCA TI TO PALESTRINA.                   I21
the gratitude of the Emperor the pillar in their arms was encircled with
a royal crown. But the first of the family in fame and merit was the
elder Stephen, whom Petrarch loved and esteemed as a hero superior
to his own times, and not unworthy of ancient Rome.  Persecution and
exile displayed to the nations his abilities in peace and war; in his distress, he was an object, not of pity, but of reverence; the aspect of
danger provoked him to avow his name and country: and. hen he w-as
asked,' Where is now your fortress?' he laid his hand on his heart, and
answered,'Here.' lie supported with the same virtue the return of
prosperity: and, till the ruin of his declining age, the ancestors, the
character, and the children of Stephen Colonna, exalted his dignity in
the Roman republic and at the court of Avignon."-Gibbon's Romant
Emzpire, ch. lxix.
The ancient Via Labicana, now  the high road to Naples
by Valmontone, runs at the foot of the hill upon which
Colonna is situated.
An excellent new road leads from Frascati to Palestrina,
passing for the most part through the remains of the fine
old chestnut forest, with which these mountain slopes were
once covered.   The road ascends first to Monte Porzio,
which most picturesquely crowns an olive-clad hill with its
gaily painted houses. Hence, by a beautiful terrace, with
glorious views through the vineyards into the Sabina, we
climb up to Monte Compatri, above which stands the great
Colzvent of S. Silzestro.  We are now high above Colonna,
and Monte Porzio becomes very effective rising against the
faint distances of the vast plain in which Rome is asleep.
From  Monte Compatri the new road descends, and falls
into the high road from  Rome before reaching the Villa
Doria at S. Cesareo.  On the left, Zagarolo is seen, in a
striking position at the end of.a ravine.  We pass some
Roman tombs hewn in the rocks of the hollow  way; the




122              DAYS NEAR ROME.
Via Prenestina with its ancient paving-blocks appears by
the side of the road; and, passing a great Casino called II
Parco dei Barberini, we reach the foot of the hill, up which
Palestrina clambers, at the inn of S. Rocco.




CHAPTER V.
GROTTA FERRATA AND MARINO.
(This is a very pleasant excursion from Rome, and may be taken
between two trains from the Frascati station; or, both Grotta Ferrata
and Marino may be visited in driving from Frascati to Albano.)
T HE great castellated monastery of Grotta Ferrata is
only about two miles from Frascati on the slopes of
the Alban hills. It is the only Basilian monastery in the
Papal States, and its monks perform the service in Greek
according to the Greek ritual. The story of its foundation
is that of S. Nilus.
S. Nilus was a Calabrian Greek, born near Tarentum.
He did not embrace a religious life till his old age, when his
wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, was dead, and then
he became a Greek monk of the order of S. Basil, and soon
was elected abbot of his convent. Driven by the Saracens
from the east of Italy, he fled with his brotherhood to
Monte Cassino, where the abbot received them kindly, and
appointed them a residence in the neighbourhood. While
he was here, Aloare, widow of Pandolfo, Prince of Capua,
who had incited her two sons to the murder of their
cousin, came to S. Nilus to beseech absolution for her crime.
He refused, unless she would yield up one of her sons to




124              DA YS NEAR ROME.
the family of the murdered man, but she could not make up
her mind to the sacrifice, upon which S. Nilus denounced
her sin as unforgiven and foretold her punishment. Shortly
after, one of the princes was assassinated in a church by his
brother, who was himself put to death by order of Hugh
Capet, King of France.
S. Nilus next took up his abode at Rome in the convent
of S. Alexis, where he wrought many miracles, among others
the cure of an epileptic boy. Rome was at this time distracted with internal dissensions, and had been besieged
by the Emperor Otho III., who had persuaded Crescentius,
Consul of Rome, by his false promises, to deliver up S.
Angelo, and had there murdered him; and, putting out the
eyes of Pope John XVI., had set up Gregory V. in his
place. S. Nilus alone ventured to oppose the marauders,
rebuking them as the enemies of God, and writing to the
Emperor, " Because ye have broken faith, and because ye
have had no mercy for the vanquished, nor compassion for
those who had no longer the power to injure or resist,
know that God will avenge the cause of the oppressed, and
ye shall both seek for mercy and shall not find it." He
then fled to Gaeta, and afterwards to a cave at the spot
now called Grotta Ferrata.
Two years after, Gregory V. died miserably, and Otho,
on his knees at Grotta Ferrata, implored the intercession of
Nilus, promising a rich endowment for his convent. But his
offers were all sternly refused by the saint, who said with
solemnity, that he asked nothing from him but that he would
repent of his sins and save his own soul. A few weeks after,
Otho was obliged to fly from the people, and was poisoned
by the widow of Crescentius. Nilus had betaken himself in




STORY OF GROTTA FERRATA.                125
I004 to the solitudes of Grotta Ferrata because of the certainty
of canonization if he remained at Gaeta. Here, asleep in a
grotto, he had a dream of the Virgin, who commanded him
to build a church on that spot, placing a golden apple in the
ftundations, as a pledge of her protection. Nilus built the
church, but first placed in the grotto, where he had received
the mandate, a picture of the Virgin which he had brought
with him from Gaeta, and guarded it with an iron railing,
which gave it the name of Grotta Ferrata.  S. Nilus died in
the same year with Otho, commanding that his burial-place
should be concealed, in order that no undue honours might
be paid to his remains; but over the cavern where he had
lived, his friend and successor Bartolomeo began to raise
the church and castellated convent of Grotta Ferrata, in
which, in memory of the Greek Nilus, the rule of S. Basil
should always be followed, and mass celebrated in the
Greek language. The Count of Tusculum  protected the
work, which rose rapidly, and the church was consecrated by
John XIX., only twenty years after the death of its founder.
Several of the popes resided here, especially the boy Pope
Benedict IX. (nephew of the Count of Tusculum), who had
resigned the honours of the Papacy, of which he was most
unworthy, in 1033, at the entreaty of the first Abbot, S. Bartholomew. Pope Julius II. (Della Rovere) had been Abbot
here, and began the buildings on which the Rovere oak may
still be seen. He, the warlike Pope who commanded at the
siege of Mirandola, built, as Abbot, the picturesque fortifications of the monastery.  Benedict XIV. ordained that the
Abbot, Prior, and Fathers of Grotta Ferrata should always
celebrate in the Greek rite. The last Abbot Commendator
was Cardinal Gonsalvi, who renounced the baronial juris



126               DAYS NEAR ROME.
diction which had hitherto belonged to the abbots in i8i6.
Grotta Ferrata, at a distance, looks more like a castle than
a monastery. It is surrounded by walls with heavy machicolations and low bastion towers.  Within, the greater part of
the two courts have been modernized, but the church
retains its campanile of the tenth century. In the atrium is
a black cross supposed to mark the exact height of our
Saviour, and a model of the golden apple given by the
Virgin to S. Nilus and buried in the foundations of the
belfry. Over the western door (now enclosed) is the inscription:
oov Qov OEoi iXXovrTC EiL3ativetv 7rv\Xtv
EW yTvofltOe TrjC /iEOrq TWV Obpovri@wv'iv' EViEVwc fpoirsE TOV ICPoTr)v EgaW.
[Ye who would enter here the house of God
Cast out the leaven of pride and worldly thought
That kindly ye may find the Judge within.]
Above, is a very interesting mosaic of 0oo5, representing
the Saviour between the Virgin and S. J. Baptist, with a
small standing figure supposed to represent the Abbot S.
Bartholomew.  The doors are beautifully carved.  At the
end of the right aisle is a curious piece of perforated carving
found in the Campagna, and believed to have belonged
to a screen between the nave and choir through which the
voices of the monks could reach the congregation: it is
inscribed with the names ot the tnirteen first abbots. At
the end of the left aisle is the tomb of Pope Benedict IX.,
with the imperial eagle in mosaic, and above it two angels
with torches in their hands. In the middle of the floor is
an enormous dish of porphyry: it was broken by the French
in their attempts to remove it. Over the entrance of the
choir is a second mosaic, of the Twelve Apostles, with the




CHURCH OF GROTTA FERRATA.                    I27
Saviour, typified by the Lamb, represented below, not on the
throne.  The high altar, decorated with two angels of the
Bernini school, sustains a reliquary of bronze with agate
pillars, which was intended for S. Peter's, but,' being found
too small, was given to Grotta Ferrata by Cardinal Barberini.
From  the left aisle we enter the famous chapel of the
first Abbot, S. Bartholomew. It is a parallelogram with
a small dome over the east end.  The wall on the left is
occupied by the famous frescoes of S. Nilus praying before
the crucifix; the visit of Otho III. to S. Nilus; and, in the
choir, the healing of the demoniac by S. Nilus. The frescoes
on the right represent Nilus and Bartholomew, who by their
prayers avert a thunder-storm from the crops which husbandmen are gathering in; the building of the Monastery;
and, in the choir, the vision of the Madonna who gives the
golden apple.  At the sides of the altar are: S. Eustace,
because he was the protector of the Farnese family, and S.
Edward, because of the name of the Cardinal who built the
chapel.  In the dome, beneath the figure of the Almighty,
are the Roman saints, Agnese, Cecilia, and Francesca Ro.
mana.  All the frescoes are by Domenichino.  The altarpiece, representing Nilus and Bartholomew with the Virgin,
is by Ann. Caracci.  At the west end of the chapel is a
curious urn used as a baptismal font.
"About the year I6Io, when Cardinal Odoardo Farnese was Abbot
of Grotta Ferrata, he undertook to rebuild a defaced and ruined chapel,
which had in very ancient times been dedicated to the interesting Greek
saints S. Adrian and his wife S. Natalia. The chapel was accordingly
restored with great magnificence, rededicated to S. Nilus and his companion, S. Bartolomeo, who are regarded as the two first Abbots; and
Domenichino, then in his twenty-eighth year, was employed to represent




128                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
on the wall some of the most striking incidents connected with the
foundation of the monastery.
" The walls, in accordance with the architecture, are divided into compartments, varying in form and size. In the first large compartment,
he has represented the visit of Otho III. to S. Nilus; a most dramatic
composition, consisting of a vast number of figures. The Emperor has
just alighted from his charger, and advances in a humble attitude to
claim the benediction of the saint. The accessories in this grand picture are wonderful for splendour and variety, and painted with consummate skill. The whole strikes us like a well-got-up scene. The action
of a spirited horse, and the two trumpeters behind, are among the most
admired parts of the picture.  It has always been asserted that these
two trumpeters express, in the muscles of the face and throat, the quality
of the sounds they give forth.  This, when I read the description,
appeared to me a piece of fanciful exaggeration; but it is literally true.
If painting cannot imitate the power of sound, it has here suggested both
its power and kind, so that we seemn to hear. Among the figures is that
of a young page, who holds the Emperor's horse, and wears over his light
flowing hair a blue cap with a plume of white feathers; according to
tradition, this is a portrait of a beautiful girl, with whom Domenichino
fell violently in love while he was employed on the frescoes. Bellori
tells us that, not only was the young painter rejected by the parents oi
the damsel, but that when the picture was uncovered and exhibited,
and the face recognized as that of the young girl he had loved, he was
obliged to fly from the vengeance of her relatives.
" The great composition on the opposite wall represents the building
of the monastery after the death of S. Nilus by his disciple and coadjutor S. Bartolomeo. The master builder, or architect, presents the plan,
which S. Bartolomeo examines through his spectacles.  A number of
masons and workmen are busied in various operations, and an antique
sarcophagus, which was discovered in the foundation, and is now built
into the wall of the church, is seen in one corner; in the background,
is represented one of the legends of the locality.  It is related that when
the masons were raising a column, the ropes gave way, and the column
would have fallen on the heads of the assistants, had not one of the
monks, full of faith, sustained the column with his single strength.
"One of the lesser compartments represents another legend.  The
Madonna appears in a glorious vision to S. Nilus and S. Bartolomeo in
this very Grotta Ferrata, and presents to them a golden apple, in testimony of her desire that a chapel should rise on this spot. The golden
apple was reverently buried in the foundation of the belfry, as we now
bury coins and medals when laying the foundation of a public edifice.




THE FRESCOES OF DOMENICHINO.                     129
"Opposite is the fresco which ranks as one of the finest and most expressive of all Domenichino's compositions. A poor epileptic boy is
brought to S. Nilus to be healed; the saint, after beseeching the Divine
favour, dips his' finger into the oil of a lamp burning before the altar,
and with it anoints the mouth of the boy, who is instantly relieved
from his malady. The incident is simply and admirably told, and the
action of the boy, so painfully true, yet without distortion or exaggeration, has been, and I think with reason, preferred to the epileptic boy
in Raphael's Transfiguration.
" In a high, narrow compartment, Domenichino has represented S.
Nilus before a crucifix: the figure of our Saviour extends his arm in
benediction over the kneeling saint, who seems to feel, rather than perceive, the miracle. This also is beautiful.
" S. Nilus having been a Greek monk, and the convent connected with
the Greek order, we have the Greek fathers in their proper habitsvenerable figures pourtrayed in niches round the cornice. The Greek
saints, S. Adrian and S. Natalia; and the Roman saints, S. Agnes, S.
Cecilia, and S. Francesca, are painted in medallions.
" A glance back at the history of S. Nilus and the origin of the
chapel will show how significant, how appropriate, and how harmonious
is this scheme of decoration in all its parts. I know not if the credit of
the selection belongs to Domenichino; but, in point of vivacity of conception and brilliant execution, he never exceeded these frescoes in any
of his subsequent works; and every visitor to Rome should make this
famous chapel a part of his pilgrimage. "-Jameson's Monastic Orders,
P- 35.
Grotta Ferrata formerly possessed the finest Greek library
in Italy, but its treasures were removed, partly to the Vatican
by Sixtus V., and  partly to  the  Barberini collection by
Urban VIII.
In the Palace of the Abbots, in Jan. 1824, died Cardinal
Gonsalvi, the famous minister and friend of Pius VII.,
having survived his master only five months.  His body,
being  opened  after death, in consequence of unfounded
suspicions, proved  that he  died  from   entirely  natural
causes.
About 31 miles from  Grotta  Ferrata, on  the way to
VOL. I.                                         9




130              DA YS NEAR ROME.
Albano, is the very picturesque mediaeval town of Marino,
which has been identified, from inscriptions which have been
found there, as occupying the site of Castrimonium, a town
fortified by Sylla, and which continued to be a " municipium "
to the time of Antoninus Pius. As, in the Middle Ages,
Colonna was a principal fortress of the family of that name,
so Marino was the stronghold of the great rival family of the
Orsini, from whom, however, it was wrested in the I4th
century by the Colonnas, who built the walls which still
remain.
Beyond the town is the beautiful glen called Parco
Colonna, once the " Lucus Ferentinae," which was the meeting-place of the Latin league after the destruction of Alba.
A pleasant walk leads up the valley through the green wood
fresh with rushing streams and carpeted with flowers, to a
pool formed by several springs, with an old statue and
remains of x7th-century grottoes.  One of the small
springs on the right is pointed out as the " Caput Aquae
Ferentinae," where Turnus Herdonius of Aricia, who had
inveighed against the pride of Tarquinius Superbus and
warned his countrymen against placing any trust in him,
having been accused of plotting the death of the King and
condemned by the great council of the Latins, was drowned
in the shallow water, being held down by a hurdle, upon
which stones were piled.*
* Livy, i. 50-52.




CHAPTER VI.
VEII.
(An excursion should be made to Veii before the weather becomes
too hot for enjoyment in walking about its steep ravines. A sunny day
in February is the best time to choose.)
T is a drive of about an hour and a half from Rome
to Veii.  At first we follow the Via Cassia, one of the
three roads which led to Cisalpine Gaul, and which passed
through the centre of Etruria: Cicero  says-" Etruriam
discriminat Cassia."  It is now  one of the pleasantest
drives near the city, with its high upland views over
the wide plains of the Campagna to the towns which
sparkle in the sun under the rifted purple crags of the
Sabina, or down bosky glades studded with old cork-trees,
whose rich dark green forms a charming contrast to the
burnt grass and poetic silvery thistles. Three miles from
Rome, on a bank on the left of the road, is the fine
sarcophagus adorned with griffins in low relief, which is
popularly known  as Nero's tomb, and is really that of
Publius Vibius Marianus and his wife Reginia Maxima.
Beyond this, on the right, is the castellated farm-house of
Buon-Ricovero, picturesquely situated with pine trees upon a
grassy knoll.




132                DA YS NEAR ROME.
About io miles from  Rome we reach the dismal posthouse of La Storta, where, in vetturino days, horses were
changed for the last time before reaching the city. Just
beyond this the by-road to Veii turns off on the right. As
we wind along the hill-sides, we see below us the picturesque
little mediaeval town of Isola Farnese.
"From La Storta it is a mile and a half to Isola by the carriage
road; but the visitor, on horse or foot, may save half a mile by taking
a pathway across the downs. When Isola Farnese comes into sight, let
him halt awhile to admire the scene. A wide sweep of Campagna lies
before him, in this part broken into ravines or narrow glens, which, by
varying the lines of the landscape, redeem it from the monotony of a plain,
and by patches of wood relieve it of its usual nakedness and sterility.
On a steep cliff, about a mile distant, stands the village of Isola-a
village in fact, but in appearance a large chateau, with a few out-houses
around it. Behind it rises the long, swelling ground, which once bore
the walls, temples, and palaces of Veii, but is now a bare down, partly
fringed with wood, and without a single habitation on its surface. At
a few miles distance rises the conical tufted hill of Musino, the supposed
scene of ancient rites, the Eleusis, the Delphi, it may be, of Etruria.
The eye is then caught by a tree-crested mound or tumulus, standing in
the plain beyond the site of the city; then it stretches away to the triple
paps of the Monticelli, and to Tivoli, gleaming from the dark slopes
behind; and then it rises and scans the majestic chain of Apennines,
bounding the horizon with their dark-grey masses, and rests with delight
on La Leonessa and other well-known giants of the Sabine range, all
capt with snow.  Oh, the beauty of that range! From whatever part
of the Campagna you view it, it presents those long, sweeping outlines,
those grand, towering crests-not of Alpine abruptness, but consistently
with the character of the land, preserving, even when soaring highest,
the true Italian dignity and repose-the otium culn dignitate of Nature."
-Dennis' Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria.
The fortress, which clings more than half-dismantled to
the crumbling tufa-rock, was built by the barons of the
Middle Ages, was constantly taken  and  retaken  in  the
Orsini and Colonna feuds, and was eventually ruined  by
Caesar Borgia when he took it after a twelve days' siege.




ISOLA FARNESE.                  133
Here we must leave our carriage and find and engage the
Isola Farnese.
custode who opens the painted tomb. A deep lane between
high banks of tufa overhung by bay and ilex, leads into the
ravine, where a brook called Fosso de' due Fossi (from the
two little torrents, Storta and Pino, of which it is formed)
tumbles over a steep rock into the chasm near an old mill,
and rushes away down the glen to join the Crimera. The
craggy hill-side is covered with luxuriant foliage, and snowdrifted with laurestinus-bloom in spring; the ground is
carpeted with violets and blue and white wood-anemonies.
Beyond the mill, where we cross the brook upon steppingstones, a small gateway of mediaeval times, opening upon a
green lawn overhanging the chasm, with the castle of Isola
crowning the opposite cliff, forms a subject dear to artists,
and many are the picnics which meet on the turfy slope
under the shade of the old cork-trees.
From hence we may begin our explorations of the ancient
city, and if we are to visit all its principal remains, it is no
short or easy excursion which we are going to undertake.
The ruins are widely scattered, and the labyrinthine ravines
formed by the windings of the Crimera and the Fosso de'
due Fossi, which almost surround the city and meet beneath
it, are so bewildering, that a guide is necessary. At first it




134               DA YS NEAR ROME.
seems quite impossible that these woody valleys, which only
echo now to the song of a thousand nightingales, can really
have been Veii, the city which Dionysius underrates when
he describes it as being as large as Athens,* which Eutropius
(i. 20) writes of as " civitas antiquissima Italize atque ditissima," which was a flourishing State at the time of the foundation of Rome, and which once possessed so many attractions
that it became a question whether Rome itself should not
be abandoned for its sake.
"The city of Veii was not inferior to Rome itself in buildings, and
possessed a large and fruitful territory, partly mountainous, and partly
in the plain. The air was pure and healthy, the country being free
from the vicinity of marshes, which produce a heavy atmosphere, and
without any river which might render the morning air too rigid. Nevertheless there was abundance of water, not artificially conducted, but
rising from natural springs, and good to drink."-Dion. xii. frag. 21.
Gradually, as we push through the brushwood, traces of
the old walls may be discovered here and there, and of the
nine gates to which from local circumstances topographers
have assigned the imaginary names of Porta de' Sette Pagi,
Porta dell' Arce, Porta Campana, Porta Fidenate, Porta di
Pietra Pertusa, Porta dell' Are Muzie, Porta Capenate,
Porta del Columbario, and Porta Sutrina.
A  long walk through the woods leads to the Porta
Capenate, which might easily pass unobserved, so slight are
its remains. But beneath it is the most interesting spot in
the whole circuit of the city, the Ponte Sodo, where the
Crimera or Fosso di Formello, as it is called here, forces its
way for 240 yards through a natural(?) tunnel over-grown
with luxuriant bay and ilex. It is necessary to climb down
* The circuit of Veii was 43 stadia, that of Athens only 35.




VEIL.                          135
to the level of the stream to enjoy the view through the
dark recesses to the light beyond.
" It would be easy to pass the Ponte Sodo without observing it. It
is called a bridge; but is a mere mass of rock bored for the passage of
the stream. Whether wholly or but partly artificial may admit of dispute.
It is, however, in all probability, an Etruscan excavation-a tunnel in
the rock, two hundred and forty feet long, twelve or fifteen wide, and
nearly twenty high. From above it is scarcely visible. You must
view it from the banks of the stream. You at first suspect it to be of
natural formation, yet there is a squareness and regularity about it which
prove it artificial. The steep cliffs of tufa, yellow, grey, or white, overhung by ilex, ivy, and brushwood-the deep, dark-mouthed tunnel with
a ray of sunshine, it may be, gleaming beyond-the masses of lichenclad rock, which choke the stream, give it a charm apart from its
antiquity. "-Dennis' Cities of Etruria.
Near the  Ponte Sodo are remains of an aqueduct of
imperial times, confirming the opinion that Veii had a
temporary revival during the reign of Tiberius, whose statue,
with several inscriptions of his time, has been found here.'About a mile up the stream from this, passing the Roman
Ponte dell' Isola, Veii.
bridge called Ponte Formello, we reach the tall Etruscan
bridge Ponte delP Isota, which crosses the river with an arch
twenty-two feet wide.  About the same distance in the opposite direction, descending the river, the remains of a
ruined Columbarium are seen in the grey rock on the opposite




136              DA  YS NEAR ROME.
bank, and a little further, on the slope of the hill-side called
Poggio Reale, is the Painted Tomb.
Before the entrance of the tomb, which is sometimes
known as the Grotta Campana, are the almost shapeless
remains of the stone lions which once guarded it. The
custode opens a door in the rock and admits one with lights
to the interior of two low vaulted chambers hewn out of the
tufa, and they are well worth seeing. On either side of the
outer room are stone benches, on which, when the tomb was
first opened, skeletons were seen lying, but crumbled away in
a few minutes. With one of these, who had been a warrior,
lay his breast-plate, helmet, and spear's-head, which still
remain, and all around were the large earthen jars and vases
which yet stand here. The walls are covered with fantastic
paintings of figures, with horses, dogs, leopards, and other
animals, all of rude execution, but still fresh in form and
colour.  The inner-chamber is surrounded by a shelf still
laden with vases and curious little cinerary sarcophagi, and
in its centre stood the brazier in which perfumes were burnt
to purify the air.
These are the sights usually seen at Veii; but if possible
another two hours should be devoted to ascending the hill
of the Arx, called by the natives Piazza d'Armi, which
may be reached by a little path winding through the brushwood above the Columbarium.  Of late years this has been
decided to be the citadel of Veii, formerly supposed to have
occupied the rock of Isola Farnese, which was separated
from the rest of the city by a deep glen, so that, had it been
the citadel, Camillus by its capture would not, as Livy tells
us, have obtained immediate possession of the town.
These desolate heights, now overgrown with thorns and




SIEGE OF VEIL.                        137
thistles, amongst which fragments of precious marbles and
alabasters may still be found  in  abundance, formed  the
citadel whose fourteen wars are matters of history, and which,
having been successfully able to resist the whole forces of
Rome during an eight years' siege, was at last only taken (A.c.
393) by a stratagem.
"It was a time of truce round the walls of Veii; and many who
from living so near had known each other before the war, would often
fall into discourse. In this manner the inhabitants heard of the prodigy
of the (Alban) lake: and a soothsayer was impelled by destiny to
scoff at the efforts of the Romans, the futility of which was foretold in
the prophetic books. Some days after, a Roman centurion invited the
soothsayer to come into the plain between the walls and the Roman
trenches, to hear an account of a portent that had fallen out at his house,
and to teach him in what way to appease the gods: the aruspex was
seduced by the reward promised him, and incautiously let himself be
led near the Roman lines. On a sudden the stout centurion seized the
old man, and dragged him, an easy prey, into the camp. From hence
he was carried to Rome before the senate; where he was forced by
threats to speak the truth, and, loudly bewailing the destiny that had
infatuated him to betray the secret of his nation, confessed that the Veientine books of fate announced that, so long as the lake kept on overflowing, Veii could not be taken, and that if the waters were to reach the
sea, Rome would perish. Not long afterwards the ambassadors returned from Delphi, and brought an answer to a like effect: whereupon the
tunnel was begun, in order that the lake might cease to overflow, and
that the water drawn from it might be spread through the fields in
ditches. This work was carried on unremittingly; and the Veientines
learnt that the fatal consummation, on which their ruin hung, was at
hand. They sent an embassy to implore forbearance; but they found
no compassion. The chief of the envoys, before they quitted the
senate-house with the unrelenting answer, warned the Romans once
more of the penalty that would inevitably await them: for, as certainly
as Veii was now doomed to fall, so surely did the same oracles foretell,
that, soon after the fall of Veii, Rome would be taken by the Gauls.
Nobody listened to him.
" Camillus was already commanding as dictator before the city, and was
unsuspectedly executing the work which opened the way for its destruction. The Romans seemed to be standing quietly at their posts, as if




138                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
they were waiting the slow issue of a blockade which could not be
forced. But the army was divided into six bands; and these, relieving
one another every six hours, were labouring incessantly in digging a
mine, which was to lead into the citadel of Veii, and there to open into
the temple of Juno.
"Before the assault was made, the dictator inquired of the senate,
what was to be done with the spoil. Appius Claudius, the grandson of
the decemvir, advised selling it for the benefit of the treasury, that it
might supply pay for the army without need of a property-tax. This
was opposed by P. Licinius, the most eminent among the plebeian military tribunes: he even declared it would be unfair if none but the!
soldiers then on the spot were to have a share in the booty, for which
every citizen had made some sacrifice or other.  Notice, he said, ought,
to be given, for all who wished to partake in it to proceed to the camp.
This was decreed; and old and young flocked toward the devoted city.
Hereupon, as soon as the water was dispersed over the fields, and the
passage into the citadel finished, Camillus made a vow to Matuta, a
goddess highly revered on the adjacent Tyrrhenian coast, and addressed
prayers to Juno, whose temple covered the way destined to lead the
Romans into the city, with promises that she should receive higher honours than ever. Nor were his adjurations fruitless. To the Pythian
Apollo, whose oracle, when it encouraged the Romans to put faith in
the words of the aruspex, demanded an offering for Delphi, he vowed
a tenth of the spoil. Then, at the appointed hour, the passage was
filled with cohorts: Camillus himself led the way. Meanwhile the
horns blew the signal for the assault; and the countless host brought
scaling ladders, as if they meant to mount the walls from every side.
Here the citizens stood expecting the enemy, while their king was sacrificing in the temple of Juno. The aruspex, when he saw the victim,
declared that whoever brought the goddess her share of the slaughtered
animal would conquer.  This was heard by the Romans underground.
They burst forth and seized the flesh; and Camillus offered it up. From
the citadel they rushed irresistibly through the city, and opened the
nearest gates to the assailants.
" The incredible amount of the spoil even surpassed the expectations
of the conquerors. The whole was given to the army, except the captives who had been spared in the massacre, before the unarmed had
their lives granted to them, and who were sold on account of the state.
All objects of human property had already been removed from the empty
walls: the ornaments and statues of the gods alone were yet untouched.
Juno had accepted the vow of a temple on the Aventine.  But every
one trembled to touch her image; for, according to the Etruscan re



LA SCALETTA.                        139
ligion, none but a priest of a certain house might do so without fear of
death. A body of chosen knights, who took courage to venture upon
removing it from its place, proceeded to the temple in white robes, and
asked the goddess whether she consented to go to Rome. They heard
her voice pronounce her assent; and the statue of its own accord followed those who were leading it forth.
" While Camillus was looking down from this temple on the magnificence of the captured city, the immense wealth of which the spoilers
were amassing, he called to mind the threats of the Veientines, and that
the gods were wont to regard excessive prosperity with displeasure; and
he prayed to the mighty queen of heaven to let the calamity that was to
expiate it be such as the republic and he himself could support. When
after ending his prayer he turned round to the right, with his head
veiled according to custom, his foot stumbled, and he fell. It seemed as
if the goddess had graciously appeased destiny with this mishap: and
Camillus, forgetting the foreboding which had warned him, provoked
the angry powers by the unexampled pomp and pride of his triumph.
Jupiter and Sol saw him drive up with their own team of white horses
to the Capitol. For this arrogance he atoned by a sentence of con
demnation, Rome by her destruction. "-Niebuhrs Hist. of Rome, ii. 476.
From this time, with the exception of a brief revival under
the Empire, the site of Veii has been utterly desolate. In
I 17 Florus (in allusion to the Etruscan city) wrote, " Who
knows the situation of Veii'  It is only to be found in our
annals."... "Tarpeia sede perusta
Gallorum facibus,'Veiosque habitante Camillo,
Illic Roma fuit."
Lucan. v. 27... " Tune omne Latinum
Fabula nomen erit; Gabios, Veiosque, Coramque
Pulvere vix tecte poterunt monstrare ruinae."
Id. vii. 392.
There are many other points which may be visited in or
near the circle of the ancient city. Such is the Scaletta, a
staircase of uncemented blocks of masonry near the Porta
Fidenate, which attracted much attention twenty years ago,




140                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
but is now greatly mutilated; and most especially the Arco
di Pino, a very picturesque arch in the tufa, whether natural
or artificial is unknown, on the east of the city near the
large tumulus called La Vaccareccia.* Many other remains
are doubtless still waiting to be discovered, but the place
has never been fully investigated.  None  of the dangers
now await travellers which are described by Mrs Hamilton Gray.
" Isola is a sweet quiet-looking hamlet, but about three weeks after
our visit forty of the inhabitants were taken up as leagued banditti, and
brought to Rome. The master of the inn was one of their leaders, and
said at times to have given his guests human flesh to eat-detected by a
young surgeon, who found a finger in his plate." —Sepulchres of Etruria.
The rock of Isola itself is perforated with tombs, and was
probably the necropolis of the city.
"Such, then, is Veii-once the most powerful, the most wealthy city of
Etruria, renowned for its beauty, its arts, and refinement, which in size
equalled Athens and Rome, in military force was not inferior to the
latter, and which for its size, strong by nature and almost impregnable
by art, and for the magnificence of its buildings and the superior extent
and fertility of its territory, was preferred by the Romans to the Eternal
City itself, even before the destruction of the latter by the Gauls,-now
void and desolate, without one house or inhabitant, its temples and
palaces level with the dust, and nothing beyond a few fragments of
walls, and some empty sepulchres, remaining to tell the traveller that
here Veii was. The plough passes over its bosom, and the shepherd
pastures his flock on the waste within it. Such must it have been in
the earlier years of Augustus, for Propertius pictures a similar scene of
decay and desolation.'Et Veii veteres, et vos tur regna fuistis;
Et vestro posita est aurea sella foro;
Nunc intra muros pastoris buccina lenti
Cantat, et in vestris ossibus arva metunt.'
Those who ride may visit this on the way to or from Rome.




MONTE MUSINO.                         14I
"Veii, thou hadst a royal crown of old,
And in thy forum stood a throne of gold!Thy walls now echo but the shepherd's horn,
And o'er thine ashes waves the summer corn.'
How are we to account for this neglect? The city was certainly not destroyed by Camillus, for the superior magnificence of its public and
private buildings were temptations to the Romans to desert the Seven
Hills. But after the destruction of Rome by the Gauls Veii was abandoned, in consequence of the decree of the senate threatening with the
severest punishment the Roman citizens who should remain within its
walls; and Niebuhr's conjecture is not perhaps incorrect, that it was demolished to supply materials for the rebuilding of Rome, though the
distance would preclude the transport of more than the architectural
ornaments. Its desolation must have been owing either to the policy of
Rome which proscribed its habitation, or to malaia; otherwise a city
which presented so many advantages as almost to have tempted the
Romans to desert the hearths and the sepulchres of their fathers would
scarcely have been suffered to fall into utter decay, and remain so for
nearly four centuries. "-Dennis.
A leading feature in all the views from Veii, is the conical
hill called Monte Musino, six miles distant.  This curious
place may be reached by following the Via Cassia as far as
the posthouse of Baccano, the ancient " Ad Baccanas," 18
miles from Rome.  It is situated in the crater of a volcano,
afterwards a lake, which was drained in very early times.
Two miles further north lies Campagnano, a village with a
few insignificant Etruscan and Roman remains.  Hence a
path runs eastward for five miles to Scrofano, which has
many Etruscan tombs and lies at the foot of Monte Musino, which is most easily ascended from thence. The hill
is conical, and is cut into a series of artificial terraces whose
origin cannot be satisfactorily explained, unless this is the
" Oscum " mentioned by Festus, the sacred country retreat
of the Roman augurs.  Near the summit is a cave.  The
whole is crested by a wood which has been preserved intact




142             DA YS NEAR ROME.
by the superstition of the inhabitants of Scrofano, who believe that the felling of the trees would be followed by the
death of the head of each family. On the top of the hill a
treasure is supposed to be buried, and protected by demons,
who would arouse a tempest, were any attempt made to
discover it. The view is very striking.
Twenty-two miles from Rome on the Via Cassia is the
large inn of Le Sette Vene, near which there is a small Etruscan bridge in good preservation.




CHAPTER VII.
GALERA AND BRACCIANO.
(There is a public conveyance daily from Rome to Bracciano, which
toils along the road in five hours. Two good horses will take a light
carriage containing four persons thither in three hours. Though it is
said to be 26 miles distant, Bracciano is within an easy day's excursion
from Rome. There are two tolerably decent inns at Bracciano, which
has a population of above 2000ooo.)
STORMS were sweeping over the Janiculan, and occasionally shrouding S. Peter's in a white mist, while the
Campagna beyond the Aventine seemed blotted with ink,
but as we had settled to go to Bracciano, and an excursion
qf more than 20 miles is very difficult to re-arrange, we determined not to be deterred by weather, and, as usual in
such cases, things turned out better than we anticipated.
It was again the Via Cassia, which had led us to Veii; but,
beyond La Storta, the road to Bracciano turns to the left,
over a most'dreary thistle-grown part of the Campagna, with
here and there a deep cutting in the tufa, and banks covered
with violets and crowned with golden genista.  A  bridle
road, turning off on the right, one mile from La Storta, leads
to the picturesque and lonely convent of La Madonna del
Sorbo (about seven or eight miles distant), founded in 1400
by the Orsini.




144              LDAYS NEAR ROME.
On the main road there is little interest, till the tiny
rivulet Arrone, an outlet of the lake of Bracciano, crosses
the road, and tumbles in a waterfall over a cliff into one of
those  deep  glens which suggest the sites of so many
Etruscan cities, and which here encircles that of the forgotten Etruscan fortress of Galeria, afterwards occupied by
the mediaeval town of Galera.  Those who pass along the
high road catch glimpses of its tall tower and ivy-grown
walls, but they must cross the fields, and descend into its
ravine (leaving their carriage at the farm-house called Santa
Maria di Galera) to realize that the whole place is absolutely
deserted except by bats and serpents, and that it is one
of the most striking of " the lost cities of the Campagna."
The situation is wonderfully picturesque, the walls rising
from the very edge of a steep lava precipice, round which
Galera.
the beautiful Arrone circles and sparkles through the trees,
and unites itself to another little stream, the Fosso, just be



GALERA.                     145
low the citadel. In the eleventh century Galera belonged
to the Counts Tosco, troublesome barons of the Campagna,
against whom in Io58 Pope Benedict X. called in the assistance of the Normans, who were only too happy to ravage and
plunder the town. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
the place became an important stronghold of the Orsini,
who held it by tenure of an annual payment of three pounds
of wax to the Pope. Their arms are over the gateway, and
they built the tall handsome tower of the church, which was
dedicated to S. Nicholas; but they were unable to defend
the town against their deadly enemies the Colonnas, who
took it and utterly sacked it in July, I485. The last historical association of the place is that Charles V. slept there,
the day he left Rome, April i8, I536.
Only a short time ago Galera had ninety inhabitants. Now
Castle of Galera.
it has none. There is no one to live in the houses, no one
to pray in the church.  Malaria reigns triumphant here,
VOL. I.                                    IO




146              DA YS NEAR ROME
and keeps all human creatures at bay. Even the shepherd
who comes down in the day to watch the goats who are
scrambling about the broken walls, would pay with his life
for passing the night here. It is a bewitched solitude, with
the ghosts of the past in full possession. All is fast decaying: the town walls, some of which date from the eleventh
century, are sliding over into the thickets of brambles. Above
them rise the remains of the fine old Orsini castle, from
which there is an unspeakably desolate view, the effect of
the scene being enhanced by the knowledge that the strength
of Galera has fallen beneath no human foe, but that a more
powerful and invincible enemy has been found in the mysterious "scourge of the Campagna."  The only bright point
about the ruins is the old washing-place of the town in the
glen, where the waters of the Arrone, ever bright and sparkling, are drawn off into stone basons overhung with fern and
creepers.
Beyond Galera, leaving the Convent of Santa Maria
in Celsano to the east, the road to Bracciano enters a
more fertile district. On the left is passed a marsh, once
a lake, called the Lago Morto.  Green corn now covers the
hill-sides, and here and there is an olive garden. Soon,
upon the right, the beautiful Lake of Bracciano, 20 miles in
circumference, and six miles across in its widest part, is
seen sleeping in its still bason surrounded by green wooded
hills. Then the huge Castle of the Odescalchi, built of black
lava, and fringed by deeply-machicolated towers, rises before
us, crowning the yellow lichen-gilded roofs of the town. We
rattle into the ill-paved street, and, between the dull whitewashed houses, we see the huge towers frowning down
upon us. At last the carriage can go no further and stops




ASCENT TO BRACCIANO.                   147
in a little piazza. The steep ascent to the fortress can only
be surmounted on mule-back or on foot, and is cut out of
the solid rock. On and in this rock the castle was built by
the Orsini in the fifteenth century, just after their normal
enemies, the Colonnas, had destroyed a former fortress of
theirs. So they were determined to make it strong enough.
As we enter beneath the gateway surmounted by the arms
of the Orsini, we see that the rock still forms the pavement,
and reaches half-way up the walls around us. The rest of
these grim walls is of black lava, plundered, it is said, from
the paving-blocks of the Via Cassia.  Gloomy passages, also
cut out of the solid rocks, lead into profundities suggestive
Bracciano.
of the most romantic adventures and escapes.  One does
not wonder that Sir Walter Scott was more anxious to see
Bracciano than anything else in Italy, and set off thither
almost immediately after his arrival in Rome.
The inner court of the castle is much more cheerful. It




143              DAYS NEAR ROME.
has a gothic loggia and a curious outside staircase, at once
descending and ascending, and adorned with frescoes. As
we were sitting here to draw, the old housekeeper came out
to welcome us. She had been the German nurse of the
young Prince Odescalchi, to whom the castle now belongs;
we brought her a letter from the Princess-mother, and she
was delighted to have the break in the monotony of her life.
She had " told the Princess she wished for repose - she
wished to have time to think in her old age-and here she
found it, but sometinies the repose was almost too much.
The wind whistled through the long galleries louder than was
pleasant, when there was no voice to enliven it; and last
week in the earthquake-when the castle went crick-crack,
and the plaster fell from the walls, and the tiles rattled upon
the roof-oh, then it was roba da spaventare."
Castle Court. Bracciano.
Of the few mediaeval castles in Italy which are still inhabited Bracciano is one of the largest.  The Odescalchi




CASTLE OF BRACCIANO.                149
family still occasionally come here in summer, when the
vast chambers must be delightfully cool, and the views over
lake and town and mountains most enjoyable.  On the
upper floor is the Hall of Justice, where the Orsini barons,
who had the right of appointing magistrates, and being judges
in their own persons, used for several centuries to sit in
judgment upon their dependants.  The Great Hall on the
ground floor has some rapidly-vanishing frescoes of Zucchero, and looks like a place where ten thousand ghosts
might hold carnival, only perhaps their revels would be hindered by the tiny chapel which opens out of it. In the
living apartments are some fine old chairs and carved modern
furniture, splendid beds and wardrobes, and infinitesimal
washing-apparatus. One room has family portraits from old
times down to the present possessors. These are very proud
of their home, though they are not often here. Some years
ago, poverty obliged them to sell their castle, but they did
so with aching hearts, and when it was bought by Prince
Torlonia, a reservation was made, that if the wheel of their
fortunes should revolve within a limited space of years, they
should be allowed to buy it back again at the same price
which he had given. Torlonia felt secure, spent much time
and money at Bracciano, and was devoted to his new purchase. As the time was drawing to a conclusion, all doubt
as to the future vanished from his mind, but, just in time,
the fortune of the Princess-mother Odescalchi enabled the
family to redeem their pledge, and the former possessors
returned, to their own triumph and the delight of the
inhabitants. The Princess Odescalchi, whose fortune redeemed Bracciano, is almost a historical character in Rome.
She has been one of the strongest supporters of the Pope,




150                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
which is not unnatural, for in a great illness, the physicians
had given up her case as hopeless, and declared that nothing short of a miracle could save her. At this juncture,
when all her family were assembled to see her die, the
Pope, from the Vatican, sent her his absolution and blessing, and with it a very tiny loaf of bread-"panetella,"*
which he desired her to swallow, -  he had prayed over
it and blessed it, and perhaps it would save her life. She
did swallow it, recovered, and the next day went in person
to the Vatican to return thanks to the Holy Father!
But it was only in the last century that the Odescalchi
purchased Bracciano from the Orsini, who were then beginning to fall into decadence, after a splendid historical career
of more than six hundred years.  Pope Celestin III. (119I
-98) was an Orsini, and Pope Nicholas III. (1277-8  ),
whom  Dante sees in hell, among the Simonists.
"Sappi ch'io fui vestito del gran manto.
E veramente fui figliuol dell' Orsa
Cupido si per avanzar gli Orsatti,
Che su lavere, e qui me misi in borsa."
Inzferno, xix.
But having bestowed two popes upon the Church is the
least of the glories of the Orsini, and it is their ceaseless
contests with the Colonnas, in which they were alternately
victorious and defeated, which gives them  their chief historical consequence.
"Orsi, lupi, leone, aquile e serpi
Ad una gran marmorea Colon na
Fanno noja sovente e a se danno."
Petrarca, Canz. vi.
* "Panetelle di San Nicolo " are still eaten by the lower classes in and near Rome
on the festival of that popular saint-the Bishop of Myra-" per divozione," in remembrance of the little loaves of this kind which he used to distribute to the poor.




THE  ORSINZ.                         I5 
" The Ursini migrated from Spoleto: the sons of Ursus, as they are
styled in the twelfth century, from some eminent person, who is only
known as the father of their race. But they were soon distinguished
among the nobles of Rome, by the number and bravery of their kinsmen, the strength of their towers, the honours of the senate and sacred
college, and the elevation of two popes, Celestin III. and Nicholas III.,
of their name and lineage. Their riches may be accused as an early
abuse of nepotism; the estates of S. Peter were alienated in their favour
by the liberal Celestin; and Nicholas was ambitious for their sakes to
solicit the alliance of monarchs; to found new kingdoms in Lombardy
and Tuscany; and to invest them with the perpetual office of senators
of Rome.  All that has been observed of the greatness of the Colonna,
will likewise redound to the glory of the Ursini, their constant and equal
antagonists in the long hereditary feud, which distracted above two hundred and fifty years the ecclesiastical state. The jealousy of pre-eminence and power was the true ground of their quarrel; but as a specious
badge of distinction, the Colonna embraced the name of Ghibellines
and the party of the Empire; the Ursini espoused the title of Guelphs
and the cause of the Church. The eagle and the keys were displayed
in their adverse banners; and the two factions of Italy most furiously
raged when the origin and nature of the dispute were long since forgotten. After the retreat of the popes to Avignon, they disputed in arms
the vacant republic; and the mischiefs of discord were perpetuated by
the wretched compromise of electing each year two rival senators. By
their private hostilities, the city and country were desolated, and the
fluctuating balance inclined with their alternate success. But none of
either family had fallen by the sword, till the most renowned champion
of the Ursini was surprised and slain by the younger Stephen Colonna.
His triumph is stained with the reproach of violating the truce; their
defeat was basely avenged by the assassination, before the church door,
of an innocent boy and his two servants. Yet the victorious Colonna,
with an annual colleague, was declared senator of Rome during the term
of five years. And the muse of Petrarch inspired a wish, a hope, a
prediction, that the generous youth, the son of his venerable hero, would
restore Rome and Italy to their pristine glory; that his justice would
extirpate the wolves and lions, the serpents and bears, who laboured to
subvert the eternal basis of the marble Column."-Gibbon's Roman
Empire, ch. lxix.
-"genuit quem nobilis Ursae
Progenies, Romana domus, veterataque magnis
Fascibus in clero, pompasque experta senatus,
Bellorumque manu grandi stipata parentum




152               DA YS NEAR ROME.
Cardineos apices, necnon fastigia dudum
Papatus iterata tenens."
Cardinal St. George on Celestin V.
The broad terrace immediately under the castle looks
down upon the great Lake of Bracciano, which in ancient
times was called the Lacus Sabatinus, and is mentioned by
Festus. Near the site of Bracciano, says tradition, stood the
city of Sabate, which was overwhelmed by the lake long ago,
though its houses, its temples, and statues, may still be seen,
on a clear day, standing intact beneath the glassy waters.
The silvery expanse is backed by distant snow mountains,
and here and there a little feudal town crowns the hill-sides
or stands on the shore and is reflected in the lake.  Oriolo
has a villa of the Altieri, and its church-porch bears an inscription, which shows that it occupies the site of Pausilypon,
built by Metia, wife of Titus Metius Herdonius.  Vicarello
(from Vicus Aureliae) has the ruins of a Roman villa, and is
still celebrated for the baths so useful in cutaneous disorders,
which were well known in old times as Aquze Aurelize.
Many curious Roman coins and vases have been found there.
Beyond Vicarello is Trevignano, another Orsini stronghold,
picturesquely crowned by their old castle. Lastly we must
notice Anguillara, with a fine machicolated castle, bearing
the celebrated' crossed eels' of the famous Counts of Anguillara, of whom were Pandolfo d'Anguillara who built the
church of S. Francesco a Ripa at Rome, Everso d'Anguillara, celebrated as a robber chief of the fifteenth century,
and Orso d'Anguillara, the senator who crowned Petrarch
upon the Capitol, and lived in the old palace which still
remains in the Trastevere.  Their country castle, which
successfully withstood a siege from the Duke of Calabria in




LAKE OF BRACCIANO.                  153
1486, overhangs the quiet lake, which indeed at one time
bore its name, and the town, which is 20 miles from Rome,
is well worth visiting, by a road which turns off on the right
not far from Galera.
As we stood on the terrace, looking down upon all these
historical scenes, the violet sky suddenly opened, a rainbow
arched across the expanse of waters, and rays of light
flitting along the green encircling slopes, lit up one old
fortress after another, as with a golden glory, which lasted
for an instant, and faded again into the purple mist. It was
a beautiful effort of Nature, cheering the monotony of a
cloudy, misty day.




CHAPTER VIII.
GABII AND ZAGAROLO.
(Gabii, I  miles from Rome, is a pleasant short-day's excursion in a
carriage kwhich, with two horses, ought not to cost more than 15
francs). On horseback Gabii, Collatia, and Lunghezza, may be visited
in the same day.)
T HE road which leads to Gabii is the Via Pranestina,
sometimes called Via Gabina, which emerges from
the Porta Maggiore, and turns to the left (the central road of
three). On the left, about half a mile from the walls, we pass
a tomb said to be that of T. Quintus Atta, A.U.C. 678. Then,
crossing a small streamlet in a hollow, believed to be the
A4qua Bollicante, which marked the limits of ancient Rome,
where the Arvales sang their hymn, we reach the ruins of
the Torre degli Schiavi, the villa and temple of the Gordian
Emperors (see Walks in Rome, ii. 133), which, in their richness of colour, backed by the lovely mountains of the
Sabina, present one of the most beautiful scenes in the
whole Campagna.
At the foot of the little hill upon which the ruins stand,
the road to Lunghezza turns off on the left. The Campagna
now becomes excessively wild and open. Here and there a
tomb or a tower breaks the wide expanse. Far on the left
is the great castle of Cervaretto, and beyond it Cervara and




PONTENONA.                          I55
Rustica; further still is the Tor dei Pazzi. To the left the
valley is seen opening towards the Hernican and Volscian
hills, between  the  great historic  sites of Praeneste and
Colonna.  All is most beautiful, yet unutterably desolate:
"The very sepulchres lie tenantless
Of their heroic dwellers."
Now, on the left, rises, on a broad square basement, the fine
tower called Tor Tre Teste, from the three heads (from a tomb)
built into its walls. Beyond, also on the left, is the Tor
Sapienza.
The eighth mile from  Rome is interesting as the spot
where Roman legend, as narrated by Livy (v. 49), tells that
Camillus overtook the army of the Gauls laden with the
spoils of Rome, and defeated them so totally, that he left
not a single man alive to carry the news home to their
countrymen.
" Among the fictions attached to Roman history, this was one of the
first to be rejected."-Niebuhr.
"Such a falsification, scarcely to be paralleled in the annals of any
other people, justifies the strongest suspicion of all those accounts of
victories and triumphs which appears to rest in any degree on the
authority of the family memorials of the Roman aristocracy."  Arnold.
At the ninth mile the road passes over the magnificent
viaduct called Pontenona, consisting of seven arches, built
of the gloomy stone called "lapis gabinus."  The  pavement of the bridge, and  even part of the parapet, exist,
showing what it was when entire.
"C'est certainement a la plus belle epoque de l'architecture republicaine qu'appartient le pont de Nona, sur la voie Prenestine, probablement
a l'epoque du Tabularium, c'est a dire au temps de Sylla. II est bati en
peperin dont les blocs ont quelquefois dix ou douze pieds de longueur;
au-dessous des arches, qui ont de dix-huit a vingt-quatre pieds de
hauteur, est un pont beaucoup plus petit, qui a precede l'autre. Ce




56                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
petit pont primitif etait sans doute l'ceuvre des habitants du lieu et lour
suffisait; mais Rome est venue; elle a eleve le niveau du pont jusqu'au
niveau de la voute, a laquelle il etait lie, et a laisse subsister a ses pieds
son humble preddcesseur comme pour servir a mesurer sa grandeur par
le contraste. "-A mpre, iv. 7.
More and more desolate becomes the country, till at the
Osteria del Osa, i  miles from Rome, the road to Gabii,
now exceedingly rough for carriages, leaves the Via Prsenestina to the right, and, skirting the edge of the crater-lake of
Gabii, now  almost dried up, reaches the few  huts which
mark the site of the town, and a low massive ruin, which
might easily pass overlooked, but which is no less than a
fragment-the cella-of the famous Temple of yuno, celebrated by Virgil:"..... quique arva Gabinae
Junonis, gelidumque Anienem, et roscida rivis
Hernica saxa colunt."'En. vii. 682.
and by Silius Italicus;..... nec amcena retentant
Algida, nec juxta Junonis tecta Gabinoe."
xii. 5, 36.
"The temple (the cell of which remains almost entire, but rent in
certain parts apparently by lightning) is built of rectangular blocks of
peperino.  It has the same aspect as that of Diana at Aricia; that is,
the wall of the posticum is prolonged beyond the cella, to the width of
the portico on each side:'Columnis adjectis dextra et sinistra ad humeros pronai.'
Vitruvius.
The number of columns could scarcely be less than six in front; those
of the flanks have not been decided. The columns were fluted, and of
peperino, like the rest of the building; but it might perhaps be
hazardous to assign them to a very remote period. The pavement is a
mnosaic of large white tesserae."-Sir W. Gell.
"The form of this temple was almost identical with that at Aricia.
The interior of the cella was twenty-seven feet wide, and forty-five feet




REMAINS OF GABII.                      I57
long. It had columns of the Doric order in front and at the sides, but
none at the back. The surrounding area was about fifty-four feet at the
sides, but in front a space of only eight feet was left open, in consequence
of the position of the theatre, which abutted closely upon the temple.
On the eastern side of the cella are traces of the rooms in which the
priests in charge of the temple lived."-Burn, The Roman CamOpagna.
From the temple we look across the grey-green crater of
the lake-which has lately been drained by Prince Torlonia,
to whom it belongs, to the great destruction of its beauty,
and the improvement of his property-to the mediaeval
tower of Castiglione (which is mentioned in a deed of I225)
occupying the highest part of the ridge, and marking the
site of the citadel of Gabii. Slight remains of wall exist
near the tower, and small fragments of ruins with scattered
pieces of marble may be found all along the ridge. Near
the temple remains of semi-circular seats, perhaps indicating
a Theatre, have been discovered, and nearer the high-road it
has become possible to trace the plan of the Forum, a work
of imperial times, surrounded on three sides by porticoes,
and adorned with statues.
These fragments, ill-defined and scattered at long intervals
in the corn or rank weeds with which the Campagna is overgrown, are all that remains of Gabii.
Virgil and Dionysius say that Gabii was a Latin colony of
Alba. Solinus asserts that it was founded by two Siculian
brothers Galatios and Bios, from whose united names that
of the city was formed. Dionysius says that it was one of
the largest and most populous of Latin cities. It seems to
have been  the  university  of Latium, and Plutarch and
Strabo narrate that Romulus and Remus were sent there to
learn Greek and the use of arms.  In the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, Gabii gave refuge to exiles from Rome




158                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
and other cities of Latium, and so aroused the hostility of
the King.
Ultima Tarquinius Romanae gentis habebat
Regna; vir injustus, fortis ad arma tamen.
Ceperat hic alias, alias everterat urbes;
Et Gabios turpi fecerat arte suos."
Ovid. Fast. ii. 687.
"The primeval greatness of Gabii is still apparent in the walls of
the cell of the temple of Juno. Dionysius saw it yet more conspicuous
in the ruins of the extensive walls, by which the city, standing in the
plain, had been surrounded, and which had been demolished by a
destroying conqueror, as well as in those of several buildings. It was
one of the thirty Latin cities: but it scorned the determination of the
confederacy-in which cities far from equal in power were equal in
votes-to degrade themselves.  Hence it began an obstinate war with
Rome.  The contending cities were only twelve miles apart; and the
country betwixt them endured all the evils of military ravages for years,
no end of which was to be foreseen: for within their walls they were
invincible.
"But Sextus, the son of Tarquinius Superbus, pretended to rebel.
The king, whose anger appeared to have been provoked by his wanton
insolence, condemned him to a disgraceful punishment, as if he had
been the meanest of his subjects. He came to the Gabines under the
mask of a fugitive. The bloody marks of his stripes, and still more the
infatuation which comes over men doomed to perish, gained him belief
and goodwill.  At first he led a body of volunteers: then troops were
trusted to his charge.  Every enterprise succeeded; for booty and
soldiers were thrown in his way at certain appointed places; and the
deluded citizens raised the man, under whose command they promised
themselves the pleasures of a successful war, to the dictatorship.  The
last step of his treachery was yet to come. None of the troops being
hirelings, it was a hazardous venture to open a gate. Sextus sent to ask
his father in what way he should deliver Gabii into his hands.
Tarquinius was in his garden when he received the messenger: he
walked along in silence, striking off the heads of the tallest poppies
with his stick, and dismissed the man without an answer. On this hint,
Sextus put to death, or by means of false charges banished, such of the
Gabines as were able to oppose him. By distributing their fortunes he
purchased partisans among the lowest class; and, acquiring the uncontested rule, brought the city to submit to his father."-Niebuhr's Hist.
of Rome, i. 491.




STORY OF GABII.                       159
The treaty concluded at this time between Rome and
Gabii was preserved on a wooden shield in the temple of
Jupiter Fidius at Rome.  It is evidently  one of those
alluded to by Horace as the:" foedera regum
Cum Gabiis aut cum rigidis aequata Sabinis."*
After the expulsion of the kings, Sextus Tarquinius took
refuge at Gabii, where, according to Livy, he was murdered.
But Gabii was one of the cities which combined in behalf of
the Tarquins at the Lake Regillus.  After that battle it
became subject to Rome, and almost disappears from history
for several centuries, and was so reduced that:"... Gabios, Veiosque, Coramque
Pulvere vix tectse poterunt monstrare ruine."
Lucan. vii. 392.
"Scis Lebedus quam sit Gabiis desertior atque
Fidenis vicus."
Hor. i. Ep. II.
" Quippe suburbanae parva minus urbe Boville;
Et, qui nunc nulli, maxima turba Gabi."
Properlt. iv. El. I.
"Hujus qui trahitur proetextam sumere mavis;
An Fidenarum, Gabiorumque esse potestas?"
yuvenal. Sat. x. Ioo.
"Quis timet, aut timuit gelida Praeneste ruinam;
Aut positis nemorosa inter juga Volsiniis; aut
Simplicibus Gabiis."
7uvenal. Sat. iii. 189.
".... cum jam celebres notique po&et
Balneolum Gabiis, Romoe conducere furnos
Tentarent."
yuvenal. Sat. vii. 4.
Tlhe Gabini had a peculiar mode of girding the toga,
* See Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography.




60               DAYS NEAR ROME.
which gave more freedom to the limbs, and which was found
useful when hurrying to battle from  a sacrifice.  Virgil
alludes to it:
"Ipse, Quirinali trabea cinctuque Gabino
Insignis, reserat stridentia limina consul."
AEn. vii. 612.
Under Tiberius the town had a slight revival, which was
increased under Hadrian, who adorned it with handsome
public buildings, colleges, and an aqueduct. In the first
ages of Christianity it became the seat of a bishopric (a list
of its bishops from A.D. 465 to 879 is given in Ughelli's
It alia Scra), but it was finally ruined when Astolphus
ravaged the Campagna, at the head of 6000 Lombards.  It
is only a mile's walk or ride from the Osteria del Osa (turning left) to the Castello del Osa or Collatia, for which see
chapter ix.
Continuing along the Via Praenestina, much of the old
pavement is visible.   This is most perfect at Cavamonte
(seven miles beyond Gabii), where the road passes through
a deep cutting in the rocks which guard the valley of Gallicano.  The cliffs on either side of the road reach a height
of 70 feet, and are most picturesquely overhung with shrubs
and ivy.  The road, which is generally only 14 feet wide,
here has a width of 27 feet. After passing through Cavamonte, the Via Praenestina ascends towards Praeneste by the
Convent of the Buon Pastore.
On the left df the road ( 9 miles from Rome) is the village
of Gallicanzo, supposed to occupy the site of the ancient
Pedum, whose name is familiar to readers of Horace, from
the epistle to Albius Tibullus.




ZAGAROLA.                          16x
"Albi, nostrorum sermonum candide judex,
Quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana?"
i. Ep. iv.
The present name is derived from  Ovinius Gallicanus,
Prefect of Rome  in the  time of Constantine, who was
afterwards canonized for his charities, and in whose honour
the Hospital in the Trastevere was dedicated. The place
was formerly a fief of the Colonnas, and now gives a title to
the Rospigliosi.
"The towns of Scaptia, Ortona, and Querquetula lay somewhere
in this neighbourhood. Scaptia was one of the cities which conspired to
restore the Tarquins to the Roman throne. It gave a name to one of the
tribes at Rome, but in Pliny's time had fallen entirely into ruins. The
site of Passerano has been fixed upon as the representative of Scaptia
by most moder topographers.  But this opinion rests upon a false
reading in Festus, and must be rejected. Ortona lay on the frontier,
between the Latins and lEquians, but belonged to the Latins. It seems
to have been near Corbio, and on the further side of Mount Algidus.
The site of Querquetula is entirely unknown. Gell and Nibby place it
at Corcolo, arguing from the similarity of the name. Corcolo is four
miles from Gallicano, and six from Zagarolo, at a point where there is
all artificial dyke separating a small hill from the neighbouring plateau.
There are traces of ancient roads converging to this spot from Praeneste, Castellaccio, and Gallicano." —Burn, The Roman Camipagna.
Zagarola, 21 miles from Rome, will scarcely be made the
object of an especial excursion, but may be visited by those
who drive to Palestrina. It is a curious old mediaeval town
chiefly built by the Colonnas, in whose wars it was twice
sacked, first by Boniface VIII., and afterwards by Cardinal
Vitelleschi in the reign of Eugenius IV.  It now  gives a
ducal title to the Rospigliosi.   Many Roman antiquities
found in the neighbourhood are built up into the walls and
houses, and over the Roman gate is a seated statue of Jupiter. The commission for the revision of the Vulgate under
Gregory XIV. met in the palace of Zagarolo.
VOL. I.                                          II




CHAPTER IX.
CERVARA, LUNGHEZZA, AND  COLLATIA.
(It is a short and pleasant afternoon's drive to Cervara, but a day
must be given to Lunghezza and Collatia, though, if visited on horseback, they may be combined with the ruins of Gabii. )
A FTER passing the Torre degli Schiavi, the road to Lunghezza turns off to the left.  On the right is the Tor
Tre Teste, on the left we pass close to a fountain of the
Acqua Vergine.  On the left is now seen the great castellated farm of the Borgheses called Cervaretto, rising above
the low marshy ground.  The field-road which passes in
front of the further side of this castle, leads on a mile further
to another Campagna castle, Cervara, a most picturesque
red-brick tower with some farm buildings attached to it.
Close to this, are the famous Caves of Cerzvara, which are
said to have been formed when excavating the materials for
the Coliseum. It is a strange place. You are quite unconscious of any break in the wide grassy Campagna, till you
suddenly find yourself on the edge of a precipice, with deep,
narrow, miniature ravines yawning beneath you and winding
in all directions till they emerge on a meadow near the Anio.
And when you descend into these, openings in the rocks




CERVARA AND RUSTICA.                   I63
beneath lead into vast chambers opening one upon another,
their roof supported by huge pillars of natural rock, while
the floor is deep in sand, and long tresses of ivy, and
branches of flowering laurestinus, wave in upon the gloom,
whenever the light streams in through a rift overhead.  One
point is especially charming, where the Anio and the
hills beyond it are seen through a great arch of natural rock.
In May these solitudes are enlivened by the revels of the
Festa degli Artisti, which is well worth seeing.  Some historical scene, such as the triumph of Vitellius (as in I870), is
taken as the groundwork of a costumed procession,-tournaments are held in the meadow near the Anio, wonderful
cavalcades of Arabs in rich dresses ride waving their long
spears through  the Petra-like ravines, and a bellowing
Dragon vomiting forth fire and smoke emerges from the
caves, and is slain by an imaginary S. George in the rockgirt hollow.
- --- -------                          
Cervara.
About two miles beyond Cervara, the tall tower of Rustica
rises above the swellings of the Campagna. It stands on
the very edge of the Anio in a beautiful situation, and is
well worth visiting. It was once the property of Elius,
father of the Emperor Lucius Verus, who was adopted by
Hadrian as his successor. Rustica is most easily seen from




164                DA YS NEAR ROME.
the opposite side of the river, reached by the road to Tivoli,
turning off to the right beyond Ponte Mammolo.  Returning to the Via Collatina, a tolerable road leads us over an
uninhabited part of the Campagna for about five miles
further. Then it descends into the valley of the Anio,
which is here bordered with willows. The great castle or
rather fortified farm of Lunghezza is seen on the opposite
slope, backed by the purple peaks of the Sabina. This was
an ancient possession of the Strozzi family, but has lately
been sold to the Duke of Grazioli, one of the richest of the
modern Roman nobles.
" C'est le bon plaisir des souverains pontifes qui a fait entrer quelques
riches parvenus dans laristocratie romaine.
"Un boulanger du nom de Grazioli fait une grande fortune, et le
pape ordonne qu'il soit inscrit sur la liste du patriciat romain. II achete
une baronnie et le pape le fait baron. I1 achete un duche et le voila
duc Grazioli. Son fils epouse une Lante de la Rovere."-About.
There is little remarkable about Lunghezza, except its
situation, but some hours may be pleasantly spent in sketching on the river-bank lower down the valley.
A pleasant walk of about two miles up the stream of the
Osa (turning to the left in descending from the Castle)
leads along fields and  through  a wood, filled in spring
with the snow-drops which are sold in Rome in such abundance, to the ruined castle  called  Castellaccio or Castello
dell' Osa, which occupies a declivity of lava on the left of
the stream.
It is disputed whether Castel dell' Osa or Lunghezza is the
site of the famous Collatia.  Beneath the ruined castle near
the Osa some fragments of ancient wall, in regular blocks,
may be observed, but this is the only fact in favour of its
being the site of the home of Lucretia, while Sir W. Gell,




COLLA TIA.                       I65
in favour of Lunghezza, draws attention to the existence of
the Via Collatina (apparently leading direct to Lunghezza),
Castello dell' Osa.
which would have been unnecessary had Collatia occupied
a site such as Castel dell' Osa, which is only two miles from
Gabii, as a slight turning from the Via Gabina would have
led to it. Lunghezza accords much better than Castel dell'
Osa with the description of Virgil:"Collatinas imponent montibus arces."
-En. vi. 774.
Virgil and Dionysius notice Collatia as a colony of AlbaLonga. It was reduced into subjection to Rome in the reign
of Tarquinius Priscus, who established a garrison there, and
appointed his nephew Egerius as its governor, who forthwith
took, and transmitted to his descendants, the name of Collatinus. His daughter-in-law, Lucretia, was residing here
during the siege of Ardea, and thus Collatia became the
scene of the events which led to the overthrow of the Roman
monarchy.
"As the king's sons and their cousin L. Tarquinius were sitting over
their cups at Ardea, a dispute arose about the virtue of their wives.
This cousin, surnamed Collatinus, from Collatia, where he dwelt as an




166                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
independent prince, was the grandson of Aruns, the elder brother of the
first Tarquinius, after whose death Lucumo removed to Rome. Nothing
was doing in the field: so they straightway mounted their horses to
visit their homes by surprise. At Rome, the princesses were revelling
at a banquet, surrounded by flowers and wine. From thence the youths
hastened to Collatia, where at the late hour of the night Lucretia the
wife of Collatinus was spinning amid the circle of her handmaids.
"... The next day Sextus, the eldest of the king's sons, returned to
Collatia, and, according to the rights of gentle hospitality, was lodged
in his kinsman's house. At the dead of night he entered sword-in-hand
into the matron's chamber, and by threatening that he would lay a slave
with his throat cut beside her body, would pretend to have avenged her
husband's honour, and would make her memory for ever loathsome to
the object of her love, wrung from her what the fear of death could not
)btain.
"Who, after Livy, can tell of Lucretia's despair? She besought her
father and her husband to come to her, for that horrible things had
taken place. Lucretius came, accompanied by P. Valerius, who afterwards gained the name of Publicola; Collatinus with the outcast Brutus.
They found the disconsolate wife in the garb of mourning, sitting in a
trance of sorrow. They heard the tale of the crime, and swore to avenge
her. (Saying,' I am not guilty, yet must I too share the punishment, lest
any should think that they may be false to their husbands and live,'
Lucretia drew a knife from her bosom, and stabbed herself to the heart.)
()ver the body of Lucretia, as over a victim, the vows of vengeance were
renewed.  Her avengers carried the corpse into the market-place of
Collatia. The citizens renounced Tarquinius, and promised obedience
to the deliverers. Their young men attended the funeral procession to
Rome.  Here with one voice the decree of the citizens deposed the last
king from his throne, and pronounced sentence of banishment against
him and his family."-Niebuhr's Hist. of Rome.
Silius Italicus notices Collatia as the birth-place of the
elder Brutus:"... ualtrix casti Collatia Bruti."
viii. 363.
In the time of Strabo (v. 229) Collatia was little more than
a village. It is only two miles from the ruins to Gabii, up the
valley of the Osa.




CHAPTER X.
ANTEMNAE AND FIDENAE.
(This is a pleasant afternoon's drive. Pedestrians may vary the way
by going first to the Acqua Acetosa (see Walks in Rome, ii. 420), and
turning to the right across the hill of Antemnae to the Ponte Salara.)
L EAVING  the Porta Salara, by which Alaric entered
Rome (August 24, 410), the Via Salara runs between
the walls of half-deserted villas till it reaches the brow of the
hill above the Anio.  Here, on the left, about two miles
from the city, is the green hill-side, which was once the site
of the "Turrigerze Antemnae "* of Virgil, one of the most
ancient cities of Italy.
"Antemnaque prisco
Crustumio prior."
Silius Ital. viii. 367.
"Not a tree-not a shrub on its turf-grown surface-not a house-not
a ruin-not one stone upon another, to tell you the site had been
inhabited.  Yet here once stood Antemnae, the city of many towers.
Not a trace remains above-ground.  Even the broken pottery, that
infallible indicator of bygone civilization, which marks the site and
determines the limits of habitation on many a now desolate spot of
classic ground, is here so overgrown with herbage that the eye of an
antiquary would alone detect it. It is a site strong by nature, and well
adapted for a city, as cities then were; for it is scarcely larger than the
Palatine Hill, which, though at first it embraced the whole of Rome,
was afterwards too small for a single palace. It has a peculiar interest
as the site of one of the three cities of Sabina, whose daughters, ravished
* AEn. vii. 630.




i68                DAYS NEAR ROME.
by the followers of Romulus, became the mothers of the Roman
race." *-Dennis.
" It would seem that the high point nearest the road was the citadel;
and the descent of two roads, now scarcely perceptible, one toward
Fidenae and the bridge, and the other toward Rome, marks the site of
a gate. On the other side of the knoll of the citadel is a cave, with
signs of artificial cutting in the rock, being a sepulchre under the walls.
There was evidently a gate also in the hollow which runs from the
platform  of the city to the junction of the Aniene and the Tiber,
where there is now a little islet.  Probably there was another gate
toward the meadows, on the side of the Acqua Acetosa, and
another opposite; and from these two gates, which the nature of the
soil points out, one road must have run up a valley, tending in the
direction of the original Palatium of Rome; and the other must have
passed by a ferry toward Veii, up the valley near the present Torre di
Quinto. It is not uninteresting to observe how a city, destroyed at a
period previous to what is nosy called that of authentic history, should,
without even one stone remaining, preserve indications of its former
existence. From the height of Antemnae, is a fine view of the field of
battle between the Romans and the Fidenates, whence Tullus Hostilius
despatched M. Horatius to destroy the city of Alba Longa. The
isthmus, where the two roads from Palatium and Veii met, unites with
the city a higher eminence, which may have been another citadel. The
beauty of the situation is such, that it is impossible it should not have
been selected as the site of a villa in the flourishing times of Rome.
" The spot is frequently adverted to in the early periods of history.
Servius, Varro, and Festus, agree that Antemnae was so called,' quasi
ante amnem posita.' "-Gell.
Just below the site of Antemne the Via Salara crossed
the Anio by a fine old bridge built by Narses in the sixth
century upon the site of the famous Ponte Salara, where
Manlius fought with the Gaul.  The bridge was blown up
during the panic caused by the approach of Garibaldi and
the insurgents in 1867 (see Walks in Rome, ii. ig), and the
ruins, which were of the greatest interest, were destroyed by
the Government in I874.  Beyond the ugly modern bridge
* The other two were Csecina and Crustumium.




TORRE SALARA.                        169
is a great mediaeval tower, Torre Salara, built upon a Roman
tomb, which is itself used as an Osteria.
The road now runs for several miles through a plain called
the Prato Rotondo, the scene of the battle which led to the
destruction of Alba.
When the combat between the Horatii and Curiatii was agreed
upon, " the compact had been, that the nation whose champions should
be victorious, was to command the obedience and service of the other:
and the Albans fulfilled it. When Fidenae, however, having driven out
or overpowered the Roman colonists, was defending itself with the help
of the Veientines against Tullus and the Romans, in the battle that
ensued, the Romans stood against the Veientines: on the right, over
iagainst the Fidenates, were the Albans under their dictator Mettius
Fuffetius. Faithless, and yet irresolute, he drew them off from the
conflict to the hills. The Etruscans, seeing that he did not keep his
engagement, and suspecting that he meant to attack their flank, gave
way, and fled along his line; when the twofold traitor fell upon them in
their disorder, in the hope of cloaking his treachery. The Roman King
feigned himself deceived. On the following day the two armies were
summoned to receive their praises and rewards. The Albans came
without their arms, were surrounded by the Roman troops, and heard
the sentence of the inexorable King; that, as their dictator had broken
his faith both to Rome and to the Etruscans, he should in like manner
be torn in pieces by horses driven in opposite directions, while, as for
themselves and their city, they should be removed to Rome, and Alba
should be destroyed."-Niebuhr, i. 349.
"On the same field was fought many a bloody fight between the
Romans and Etruscans. Here, in the year of Rome 317, the Fidenates,
with their allies of Veii and Falerii, were again defeated, and Lars
Tolumnius, chief of the Veientines, was slain. And a few years later,
Mamilius.Emilius and Cornelius Cossus, the heroes of the former fight,
routed the same foes in the same plain, and captured the city of Fidence.
Here, too, Annibal seems to have pitched his camp when he marched
from Capua to surprise the City."-Dennis.
A low range of hills now skirts the road on the right, and
a few crumbling bits of wall near some old bay-trees are
pointed out as fragments of the Villa of Phaon, the freedman of Nero, where the emperor died.




170                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
"The Hundred Days of Nero were drawing rapidly to a close.  He
was no longer safe in the city... He would have thrown himself into
the Tiber, but his courage failed him. He must have time, he said,
and repose to collect his spirits for suicide, and his freedman Phaon at
last offered him his villa in the suburbs, four miles from the city. In
undress and bare-footed, throwing a rough cloak over his shoulders, and
a kerchief across his face, he glided through the doors, mounted a horse,
and, attended by Sporus and three others, passed the city gates with
the dawn of the summer morning.  The Nomentane road led him
beneath the wall of the praetorians, whom he might hear uttering curses
against him, and pledging vows to Galba; and the early travellers from
the country asked him as they met, What news of Nero? or remarked
to one another, These men are pursuing  the tyrant. Thunder and
lightning, and a shock of earthquake, added horror to the moment.
Nero's horse started at a dead body on the road-side, the kerchief fell
from his face, and a praetorian passing by recognized and saluted him.
At the fourth milestone the party quitted the highway, alighted from
their horses, and scrambled on foot through a corn-brake, laying their
own cloaks to tread on, to the rear of the promised villa. Phaon now
desired Nero to crouch in a sand-pit hard by, while he contrived to
open the drain from the bath-room, and so admit him unperceived; but
he vowed he would not go alive, as he said, under-ground, and remained
trembling beneath the wall. Taking water in his hand from a puddle,
This, he said, is the famous drink of Nero.  At last a hole was made,
through which he crept on all fours into a narrow chamber of the house,
and there threw himself on a pallet. The coarse bread that was offered
him he could not eat, but swallowed a little tepid water.  Still he
lingered, his companions urging him to seek refuge, without delay, from
the insults about to be heaped on him.  He ordered them to dig a
grave, and himself lay down to give the measure; he desired them to
collect bits of marble to decorate his sepulchre, and prepare water to
cleanse and wood to burn his corpse, sighing meanwhile, and muttering,
What an artist to perish! Presently a slave of Phaon's brought papers
from Rome, which Nero snatched from him, and read that the senate
had proclaimed him an enemy, and decreed his death, in the ancient
fashion.  He asked what that was? and was informed that the culprit
was stripped, his head placed in a fork, and his body smitten with a
stick till death. Terrified at this announcement, he took two daggers
from his bosom, tried their edge one after the other, and again laid them
down, alleging that the moment was not yet arrived. Then he called on
Sporus to commence his funeral lamentations; then he implored some
of the party to set him the example; once and again he reproached




DEA TH OF NERO.                               171
himself with his own timidity.  Fie! Nero, fie! he muttered in Greek,
Colurage, man I come, rouse thee! Suddenly was heard the trampling of
horsemen, sent to seize the culprit alive. Then at last, with a verse of
Homer hastily ejaculated, Sound of swift-footed steeds strikes on mzy ears,
he placed a weapon to his breast, and the slave Epaphroditus drove it
home.  The blow was scarcely struck, when the centurion rushed in,
and thrusting his cloak against the wound, pretended he was come to help
him.  The dying wretch could only murmur, Too late, and, Is this your
fidelity? and expired with a horrid stare on his countenance. He had
adjured his attendants to burn his body, and not let the foe bear off his
head; and this was now allowed him: the corpse was consumed with
haste and imperfectly, but at least without mutilation." —/Merivalc's
Hist. of Romans under the Empire, vii. 45.
" Neron vit que tout etait perdu.  Son esprit faux ne lui suggerait
que des idees grotesques: se revetir d'habits de deuil, aller haranguer le
peuple en cet accoutrement, employer toute sa puissance scenique pour
exciter la compassion, et obtenir ainsi le pardon du pass6, ou, faute de
mieux, la prefecture de l'Egypte. II ecrivit son discours; on lui fit
remarquer qu'avant d'arriver au forum, il serait mis en pieces.  I1 se
coucha: se reveillant au milieu de la nuit, il se trouva sans gardes;
on pillait deja sa chambre.  I1 sort, frappe a diverses portes, personne
ne repond.   II rentre, veut mourir, demande le mirmillon Spiculus,
brillant tueur, une des celebrites de l'amphitheatre.  Tout le monde
s'ecarte. II sort de nouveau, erre seul dans les rues, va pour se jeter
dans le Tibre, revient sur ses pas.  Le monde semblait faire le vide
autour de lui.   Phaon, son affranchi, lui offrit alors pour asile sa villa
situee entre la voie Salaria et la voie Nomentane, vers la quatrieme
borne milliare.  Le malheureux, a peine vetu, couvert d'un mechant
manteau, monte sur un cheval miserable, le visage enveloppe pour
n'etre pas reconnu, partit accompagne de trois ou quatre de ses affranchis, parmi lesquels etaient Pllaon, Sporus, Epaphrodite, son secretaire.
I1 ne faisait pas encore jour; en sortant par la porte Colline, il
entendit au camp des pretoriens, pres duquel il passait, les cris des
soldats qui le maudissaient et proclamaient Galba.  Un ecart de son
cheval, amene par la puanteur d'un cadavre jete sur le chemin, le fit
reconnaltre. II put cependant atteindre la villa de Phaon, en se glissant a plat ventre sous les broussailles et en se cachant derriere les
roseaux.
" Son esprit drolatique, son argot de gamin ne l'abandonnerent pas.
On voulut le blottir dans un trou h Pouzzolane comme on en voit
beaucoup en ces parages.  Ce fut pour lui loccasion d'un mot a effet!




172                   DA YS NEAR ROME.'Quelle destinee,' dit-il;'aller vivant sous terre!'  Ses reflexions
etaient comme un feu roulant de citations classiques, entremelees des
lourdes plaisanteries d'un bob&he aux abois.  II avait sur chaque
circonstance une reminiscence litteraire, une froide antithese:' Celui
qui autrefois etait fier de sa suite nombreuse n'a plus maintenant que
trois affranchis?' Par moments, le souvenir de ses victimes lui revenait,
mais n'aboutissait qu'a des figures de rhetorique, jamais a un acte
moral de repentir.  Le comedien survivait a tout.  Sa situation n'etait
pour lui qu'un drame de plus, un drame qu'il avait repete.  Se rappelant les roles oi il avait figure des parricides, des princes reduits a
l'etat de mendiants, il remarquit que maintenant il jouait tout cela pour
son compte, et chantonnait ce vers qu'un tragique avait mit dans la
bouche d'CEdipe:
Ma femme, ma mere, mon pere
Prononcent mon arret de mort.
Incapable d'une pensee serieuse, il voulut qu'on creusat sa fosse a la
taille de son corps, fit apporter des morceaux de marbre, de l'eau, du
bois pour ses funerailles; tout cela, pleurant et disant:'Quel artiste
va mourir?'
" Le courrier de Phaon, cependant, apporte une depeche; Neron la lui
arrache.  Ii lit que le senat la declare ennemi public et l'a condamne a
etre puni' selon la vieille coutume.'-' Quelle est cette coutume?' demande-t-il.  On lui repond que la tete du patient tout nue est engagee
dans une fourche, qu'alors on le frappe de verges jusqu'a ce que mort
s'ensuive, puis que le corps est traine par un croc et jete dans le Tibre. I1
fremit, prend deux poignards qu'il avait sur lui, en essaye la pointe, les
resserre, disant que l'heure fatale n'etait pas encore venu? II engageait
Sporus a commencer sa nenie funebre, essayait de nouveau de se tuer, ne
pouvait.  Sa gaucherie, cette espece de talent qu'il avait pour faire
vibrer faux toutes les fibres de l'ame, ce rire a la fois bete et infernal,
cette balourdise pretentieuse qui fait ressembler sa vie entiere aux
miaulements d'un sabbat grotesque, atteignaient au sublime de la
fadeur.  I1 ne pouvait reussir a se tuer.'N'y aura-t'il donc personne
ici, demanda-t-il, pour  me donner l'exemple?'  II redoublait de
citations, se parlait en grec, faisait des bouts de vers. Tout-a-coup on
entend le bruit du detachement de cavalerie qui vient pour le saisir
vivant.
"' Le pas des lourds chevaux me frappe les oreilles,' dit-il.  Epaphrodite alors pesa sur le poignard et le lui fit entrel dans la gorge.  Le
centurion  arrive presque au meme moment, veut arreter le sang,
cherche a faire croire qu'il vient le sauver.' Trop tard I' dit le mourant,




CASTEL GIUBELEO.                         173
dont les yeux sortaient de la tete et glagaient d'horreur.'Voila ou en
est la fidelite!' ajouta-t-il en expirant.  Ce fut son meilleur trait
comique.  Neron laissant tomber une plainte melancholique su; la
mechancete de son siecle, sur la disposition de la tonne foi et de la
vertu!.... Applaudissons. La drame est complet. Une seule fois,
nature aux mille visages, tu as su trouver un acteur digne d'un pareil
role."-Ernest Renan,'L'Antechrist.'
Castel Giubeleo.
On the left of the road now rises an almost isolated hill,
overlooking the valley of the Tiber, called Castel Giubeleo, from
the farm-buildings upon it, which were erected by Boniface
VIII. in the year of Jubilee. This hill is believed to have
been the arx of ancient Fidenae.  Towards the river it is
very steep, but it is united by a kind of isthmus to the high
table-land, where the rest of the city is supposed to have
stood.
"Dionysius, who is generally an excellent antiquary, says that
Fidenae was an Alban colony, founded at the same time with Nomentum
and Crustumerium, the eldest of three emigrant brothers building
Fidenae. But it is evident that the great mass of the original inhabitants
were Etruscans, for it appears, from Livy (lib. i. 27), that only a portion
of the inhabitants'(ut qui coloni additi Romanis essent) Latine




174                  DA I'S NEAR ROME.
sciebant.' The same author elsewhere relates, that when the Romans
wanted a spy upon the Fidenates, they were obliged to employ a person
who had been educated at Care, and had learned the language and
writing of Etruria: and in another place (lib. i. I5) he expressly says,'Fidenates quoque Etrusci fuerunt.' The Fidenates were the constant
allies of the Veientes, with whom they were probably connected by race.
"' The city,' says Dionysius,'was in its glory in the time of Romulus,
by whom it was taken and colonized; the Fidenates having seized
certain boats laden with corn by the Crustumerini for the use of the
Romans, as they passed down the Tiber under the walls of Fidenae.'
Livy (lib. iv. 22) calls Fidenme'urbs alta et munita;' and says,'neque
scalis capi poterat, neque in obsidione vis ulla erat. " —Gell.
"Making the circuit of Castel Giubeleo, you are led round till you
meet the road, where it issues from the hollow at the northern angle of
the city.  Besides the tombs which are found on both sides of the
southern promontory of the city, there is a cave, running far into the
rock, and branching off into several chambers and passages. Fidenoe,
like Veii, is said to have been taken by a mine; and this cave might
be supposed to indicate the spot, being subsequently enlarged into its
present form, had not Livy stated that the cuniculus was on the
opposite side of Fidenae, where the cliffs were loftiest, and that it was
carried into the Arx.
" The ruin of Fidenae is as complete as that of Antemnoe.  The hills
on which it stood are now bare and desolate: the shepherd tends his
flock on its slopes, or the plough furrows its bosom. Its walls have
utterly disappeared; not one stone remains on another, and the broken
pottery and the tombs around are the sole evidences of its existence.
Yet, as Nibby observes,'few ancient cities, of which few or no vestiges
remain, have had the good fortune to have their sites so well determined
as Fidenoe.' Its distance of forty stadia, or five miles, from Rome,
mentioned by Dionysius, and its position relative to Veii, to the Tiber,
and to the confluence of the Anio with that stream, as set forth by Livy,
leave not a doubt of its true site."-Dennzis.
"When we climb the promontory of Castel Giubeleo, and look
around, standing in the shelter of the old house, what a strange
prospect opens before us! Once how full of life and conflict!-now,
how entirely a prey to decay and solitude! At our feet the lordly
Tiber winds, with many a sweeping curve, away to Rome, which
bristles in the horizon with its domes and towers. It is hardly possible
to imagine that two hundred thousand human beings are living and
moving two leagues off. As we turn the eye northwards not a creature




FIDE~1V.E.                         175
is seen, not a single habitation of man. Still, how memory peoples the
waste! That stream, which, marking its devious valley with a line of
bare wintry trees, enters the Tiber opposite to the marshy meadow
under our feet, is the Crimera-name of fatal omen, and yet eloquent of
heroic daring. On that stream the race of the Fabii, who had undertaken on their own account the war with the people of Veil, perished,
all, to the number of 306, being cut off by an ambush of the enemy.
" Further to the right, another stream, more faintly marked, comes
into the Tiber on the other side. That is the Allia, a name of even
more fatal sound; for on its banks took place that great defeat by the
Gauls which issued in the taking of Rome.
"This scene surveyed, we descend again into the valley, and climb
the lower opposite hill, which was evidently the site of Fidenae. Here,
as in several other places in the Campagna, we find mysterious ranges
of rock-caverns communicating with one another, and opening into
vast halls, now the stalls of cattle. It would seem that this was Fidene.
Yet, how should these holes represent a city?  Whence issued the
legions that met the legions of Rome?  Where are the walls-where
the materials of the houses? One ruin only appears containing anything like masonry, and that apparently of the Middle Ages. Were
these caves, hewn in the tufa, the ancient city?  Then were the
inhabitants little more than savages; then were the narratives of the
historians impossible and self-contradicting.  The whole matter is
wrapped in impenetrable darkness."-~Deanz Alford.
Horace speaks of Fidenae as if it was almost deserted in
his time:
"Scis Lebedus quam sit Gabiis desertior atque
Fidenis vicus-"
I Epist. ii. 7.
but in the reign of Tiberius it appears to have been a
municipal town:"Hujus qui trahitur praetextam sumere mavis,
An Fidenarum, Gabiorumque esse potestas."'7uvezal, Sat. x. 99.
and that its population was considerable is attested by the
greatness of a public calamity which took place there.
"The retirement of Tiberius was followed by a succession of public




176                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
calamities.... A private speculator had undertaken, as a matter of
profit, one of the magnificent public works, which in better times it was
the privilege of the chief magistrates or candidates for the highest offices
to construct for the sake of glory or influence. In erecting a vast
wooden amphitheatre in the suburban city of Fidenze, he had omitted the
necessary precaution of securing a solid foundation; and when the
populace of Rome, unaccustomed, from the parsimony of Tiberius, to
their favourite spectacles at home, were invited to the diversions of the
opening day, which they attended in immense numbers, the mighty
mass gave way under the pressure, and covered them in its ruins. Fifty
thousand persons, or, according to a lower computation, not less than
twenty thousand, men and women of all ranks, were killed or injured
by this catastrophe."-Merivale's Hist. of the Romans, ch. xiv.




CHAPTER XI.
MENTANA AND MONTE ROTONDO.
(This is a delightful day's excursion from Rome, and comprises much of
interest. It may be easily made in a carriage with two horses. Monte
Rotondo may be visited between two trains on the Ancona line of railway.)
T    HE ancient road which led from Rome to Nomentum
was called the  Via Nomentana.  It issued from  the
city by the now closed gate of the Porta Collina, and separating from the Via Salaria, proceeded almost in a direct line to
its destination. The modern road nearly follows the Roman
Way.  It was on this side that the Italian troops approached
Rome, on the day which so many patriotic spirits regarded
as the dawn of freedom for Rome.
"The blind, and the people in prison,
Souls without hope, without home,
How glad were they all that heard!
When the winged white flame of the word
Passed over men's dust, and stirred
Death; for Italia was risen,
And risen her light upon Rome.
The light of her sword in the gateway
Shone, an unquenchable flame,
Bloodless, a sword to release,
A light from the eyes of peace,
To bid grief utterly cease,
And the wrong of the old world straightway
Pass from the face of her fame:
VOL. I.                                         12




178                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
Hers, whom we turn to and cry on,
Italy, mother of men:
From the sight of the face of her glory,
At the sound of the storm of her story,
That the sanguine shadows and hoary
Should flee from the foot of the lion,
Lion-like, forth of his den."
Swinburne, " The Halt before Rome."
Below  the basilica of S. Agnese  (see  Walks in  Rome,
ii. 26) we cross the Anio by the picturesque Ponte Nomentana or Lomentana, occupying the site of the ancient bridge,
but in itself mediaeval, with forked battlements. The green
slopes beyond the bridge are those of the Mons Sacer, where
the famous secession and encampment of the plebs, in B.C.
549, extorted from the patricians the concessions of tribunes
who were to represent the interests of the people.'' The spot on which this great deliverance had been achieved became
to the Romans what Runnymede is to Englishmen: the top of the hill
was left for ever unenclosed and consecrated, and an altar was built on
it, and sacrifices offered to Jupiter, who strikes men with terror and
again delivers them from their fear; because the commons had fled
thither in fear, and were now returning in safety. So the hill was known
for ever by the name of the Sacred Hill. "-Arnold's Hist. of Rome, i.
149.
Passing the Casale dei Pazzi, and the tomb known as
Torre Nomentana, we reach, on the right, the disinterred
Basilica of S. Alessandro (see Walks in Rome, ii. 32). A little
beyond this, after passing the farm called Cesarini, the road
divides. The turn to the right passes under the Montes
Corniculani, of which the nearest height is occupied by S.
Angelo in Cappoccia, considered by Nibby (quoted by Murray), without any authority, to occupy the site of the Latin
city Medullia.  It finally leads to Palombara, a town of the
Sabina, once a fortress of the Savelli, but now belonging to




FICULEA. MAENTANA.                     79
the Borghese, most beautifully situated at the foot of Monte
Gennaro.
Following (to the left) the Via Nomentana, where the ancient
pavement is now very perfect, we reach Casa Nuova, and,
about i  miles from  Rome (on the left) the fine mediaeval
tower called Torre Lupara, built of alternate courses of
brick and stone.  The next hill is called Monte Gentile, and
is the supposed site of the Latin city of Ficulea or Ficulnea,
which is frequently mentioned both by Livy and Dionysius
in the early history of Rome. Gell speaks of the ground
near Torre Lupara as " strewn with tiles and pottery-perhaps one of the surest indications of an ancient city." It
has been supposed, from an inscription found near the farm
Cesarini referring to a charitable institution of M. Aurelius
for " Pueri et Puelle Alimentarii Ficolensium," and from the
expression "Ficulea vetus " used by Livy (i. 38), and "Ficelias veteres" by Martial (vi. 27), that there may have been
a second town called Ficulea, built in later times nearer the
capital. Ficulea was the seat of an early bishopric. It is
said to derive its name from the wild figs, which are still
found in abundance on its supposed site.  In the acts of
Pope Caius and St. Lawrence the Martyr it is called " Civitas
Figlina extra Portam  Salariam." i The Via Nomentana is
sometimes spoken of as Via Ficulea.
Beyond Monte Gentile, the road passes through forests
of oaks, a great contrast to the bare Campagna, till, when it
first comes in sight of the village of Mentana, it reaches the
height which was the site of the battle, in which, Oct. 1867,
the Papal troops, assisted by the French, entirely defeated
the Italians under Garibaldi.
Some blocks of marble in the village street are the only




I80                 DA YS' NEAR ROME.
remains of the ancient Latin  city Nomentum, which  is
spoken of by Virgil (vi. 773) and Dionysius (ii. 53) as a
colony of Alba. It was one of the thirty cities of the Latin
league,i and continued to flourish in the times of the Empire, when Seneca had a country house-there,t and also
Martial, who frequently speaks of it in his poems, and contrasts its peaceful retirement with the vanities of Baiae and
more fashionable summer villeggiaure.
"Me Nomentani confirmant otia ruris,
Et casa jugeribus non onerosa suis,
Hic mihi Baiani soles, mollisque Lucrinus;
Hic vestrae mihi sunt, Castrice, divitiae.
Quondam laudatas quocunque libebat ad undas
Currere, nec longas pertimuisse vias:
Nunc urbi vicina juvant, facilesque recessus,
Et satis est, pigro si licet esse mihi."
vi. 43.
" Numre colles, et Nomentana relinques
Otia? nec retinent rusque focusque senem."
x. 44.
"Cur saepe sicci parva rura Nomenti,
Laremque villae sordidum petam, quaeris?
Nec cogitandi, Sparse, nec quiescendi:
In urbe locus est pauperi."
xii. 57.
Martial praises its wine, which is also extolled by Seneca
and Pliny.
"In Nomentanis, Ovidi, quod nascitur agris,
Accepit quoties tempora longa merum,
Exuit annosae mores nomenque senectre,
Et quidquid voluit, testa vocatur anus."
i. Io6.
In the Middle Ages the place was called Civitas Nomen
tana, and was the seat of a bishopric.  Here, in A.D. 800,
* Niebuhr, ii. 17.               t Sen. Ef. 104.




MONTE ROTONDO.                     181
Leo III. met Charlemagne, when he came to be crowned at
Rome, and here the great Consul Crescentius was born.
Mentana was granted by Nicholas III. (12 7 7-8 ) to his own
family, the Orsini, by whom it was sold to the Peretti, whose
arms still remain upon the walls of its  5th-century castle.
The place now belongs to the Borghese.
The Via Nomentana proceeds to join the Via Salara near
Correse, passing-three miles beyond Mentana-Grofta M-arozza, which is believed with much reason to occupy the site
of the Sabine Eretum, which, from its position on the frontier between the Latins and Sabines, was constantly the scene
of warfare between the two nations. It was never a place
of much importance.  Valerius Maximus speaks of it as
"Vicus Sabinae regionis."
It is two miles from Mentana to Mionte Rotondo, also the
site of a battle between the Papal troops and the Garibaldians.
Here is a fine old castle built by the Barberini, on the site of
a fortress of the Orsini: it is now the property of the Buoncompagni.  There is a wide and beautiful view from  its
summit.  A road of two miles leads to the railway station
in the valley, whence we may return to Rome by the Via
Salara.
One and a half mile from hence, near Fonte di Papa, the
road crosses an insignificant brook, which is decided to coincide more than any other with the description which Livy
(v. 37) gives of the fatal A4llia, a description so accurate as
to show that the place was not necessarily familiar to his
readers, viz.:
" AEgre ad undecimum lapidem occursum est, qua flumen Allia Crustuminis montibus praealto defluens alveo, baud multum infra viam Tiberino amni miscetur."




182               DA YS NEAR ROME.
Here, then, and in the upland hollows, which are watered
by the same brook, the Romans underwent their famous defeat by the Gauls under Brennus (B.c. 390), which led to the
capture of the city, on the  8th of July (A.D. XV. Kal. Sextiles)
called thenceforth Dies Alliensis, and regarded as so illomened, that no business was transacted upon it.
" Hec est in fastis cui dat gravis Allia nomen."
Ovid in Ibin. 221.
" Quosque secans infaustum interluit Allia nomen."
-En. vii. 717.
" Damnata diu Romanis Allia fastis."
Lucan. vii. 408.
At about nine miles from the city, we pass (on the left) beneath  the  extensive  farm-buildings  called  Marcigliana
Vecchia, which are usually believed to occupy the site of the
city of Crustumerium, though some place it at Sette Bagni,
the next large farm on the left of the road to Rome, where
there arc traces of ancient buildings; while others refer it to
Monte Rotondo.
Dionysius speaks of Crustumerium  as an Alban colony
sent out long before the building of Rome. The city was
taken by Romulus, again by Tarquinius Priscus, and again
during the Roman Republic, B.C. 499, after which it remained
subject to Rome. In B.C. 477 occurred the " Crustumerina
Secessio," when the army which was being led by the Decemvirs against the Sabines deserted, and retreated to Crustumerium.  Virgil * mentions the Crustumian pears, and
Servius says that they were red only on one side. It is interesting that wild pears of this kind still grow in abundance' Georgtcs, ii. 88.




CRUSTUMERIUM.                     183
over all these desolate uplands, amongst which Crustumerium
must certainly have been situated. Two miles further we
reach, on the right, Castel Giubileo, the site of Fidene, described in chapter x.




CHAPTER XII.
TIVOLI.
(This, I8 miles distant, is the most attractive of all the places in the
immediate neighbourhood of Rome, and the one excursion which no one
should omit, even if they are only at Rome for a week. A carriage with
two horses ought not to cost more than 25 francs for the day. The Villa
Adriana may be visited on the way: then the Temple of the Sibyl, the
Cascades, the view of the Cascatelle from the opposite side of the valley,
and last of all the Villa d'Este. Those who are not strong enough for
the whole should see the view of the Cascatelle and the Villa d'Este.
The round which Tivoli guides and donkey-men take strangers, through
the woods and underneath the waterfalls, is very long and fatiguing.
There are two hotels at Tivoli, la Regina (in the town), which is comfortable, clean, and well-furnished, but where it is necessary to come to
a very strict agreement as to prices on arriving, and La Sibylla, far
humbler, but not uncomfortable, and in the most glorious situation.
In the former, guests are received en pension at 8 francs; at the latter, at
6 francs a day. Those who stay long will find endless points of interest
both in the place itself and the excursions which may be made from it.
Visitors who are pressed for time may omit the Villa Adriana, but on
no account the Villa d'Este.)
T    HE road to Tivoli follows the ancient Via Tiburtina for
the greater part of its course, and leads through one of
the most desolate and least interesting parts of the Campagna.
Issuing from the Porta S. Lorenzo, we pass the great basilica
of the same name, and descending into the valley of the
Anio, cross the river by a modern bridge, near the ancient
Ponte Mammolo, which  took its name (Pons Mammaeus)
from  Mammaea, mother of Alexander Severus.




THE ANIO.                      1s5
The little river Teverone, or Anio, in which Silvia, the
mother of Romulus and Remus, exchanged her earthly life
for that of a goddess, adds greatly to the charm of the Campagna.-It rises near Treba in the Simbrivian hills, and
flows through the gorges of Subiaco and the country of the.Equians till it forms the glorious falls of Tivoli. After this
stormy beginning it assumes a most peaceful character, gliding gently between deep banks, and usually marked along
the brown reaches of the burnt-up Campagna by its fringe of
green willows. Silius calls it " sulphureus," from the sulphuretted hydrogen which is poured into it by the springs of
Albula.
" Sulphureus gelidus qua serpit leniter undis
Ad genitorem Anio labens sine murmure Tybrim."
Sil. Ital. xii. 539.
On its way through the plain a whole succession of historical brooks pour their waters into the Anio. Of these, the
most remarkable, as we ascend it, are (on the left) the torrent
Le Molette (the Ulmanus), the Magliano, the Tutia, and
the Albula; and (on the right) the Marrana, and the Osa
which flows beneath the walls of Collatia. Nibby says that
"anciently the Anio was navigable from the Ponte Lucano
to its mouth." Strabo mentions " that the blocks of travertine
from the quarries near Tibur, and of Lapis Gabina from
Gabii, were brought to Rome by means of it.  But in the
dark ages the channel was neglected, and the navigation interrupted and abandoned."
When we reach the dismal farm-buildings, which encircle
the Osteria del Fornaccio, the caves of Cervara and the
mediaeval towers of Rustica and Cervara are visible at
no great distance, rising above the Campagna on the opposite




I86               DA YS NEAR ROME.
bank of the Anio. Nothing more is to be seen, except, here
and there, the pavement of the ancient road, till we pass, on
the left, the ruins of the mediaeval Castel Arcione. Across
the Campagna, on the left, near the Sabine mountains, the picturesque little hills called Montes Corniculani may be seen,
their three summits occupied by the villages of St. Angelo,
Colle Cesi, and Monticelli; on the right we overlook the
distant sites of Collatia and Gabii, with many other cities of
the plain, whose exact positions are unknown. After crossing the brook Tuzia, the ancient Tutia on whose banks
Hannibal encamped,* and leaving to the left the now drained
Lago de' Tartari, a terrible smell of sulphur announces the
neighbourhood, about a mile distant on the left, of the lakes
of the Solfatara, the Aque Albulae, from which a canal, cut
in I 549 by Cardinal d'Este, to take the place of the ancient
Albula, carries their rushing milk-white waters under the
road towards the Anio.  Here, near " the hoary Albula," was
the hallowed grove of the Muses mentioned by Martial:"Itur ad Herculei gelidas qua Tiburis arces,
Canaque sulphureis Albula fumat aquis,
Rura, nemusque sacrum, dilectaque jugera musis
Signat vicina quartus ab urbe lapis."
I. Ep. 13.
There are now three lakes.  On the largest, the Lago delle
Isole Nalanti, are some floating islands formed by matted
weeds.  The ruins near it, called Bagni della Regina, are
supposed to have been the baths of Queen Zenobia during
her semi-captivity at Tibur. The two smaller lakes have
the names of Lago di S. Giovanni and Lago delle Colonelle.
There is no reason for supposing the temple of Faunus (AEn.
vii.), which is spoken of by Murray as if it were here, to
* Livy, xxvi. io.




PONTE LUCANO.                           187
have been in this neighbourhood. It was more probably at
La Solfatara in the great Laurentine wood sacred to Picus
and Faunus.  Thither, and not hither, the king of Laurenturn would naturally go to consult the oracle.*
"Sir Humphrey Davy made some curious experiments on the process
by which the water in these lakes continually adds to the rocks around,
by petrifaction or incrustation. IIe says, that the water taken from the
most tranquil part of the lake, even after being agitated and exposed to
the air, contained in solution more than its own volume of carbonic acid
gas, with a very small quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen. The temperature is 80 degrees of Fahrenheit.  It is peculiarly fitted to afford
nourishment to vegetable life. Its banks of Travertino are everywhere
covered with reeds, lichen, conferve, and various kinds of aquatic vegetables; and at the same time that the process of vegetable life is going
on, crystallizations of the calcareous matter are everywhere formed, in
consequence of the escape of the carbonic acid of the water.
" In the line between the bridge and the Solfatara, the rocky crust was
broken in on the left near the stream, in the year 1825, and a portion
of the water was lost; and another stream, called Acqua Acetosa, falls
into a hole on the right: these instances show that the crust is but thin
in some places. It probably covers an unfathomable abyss; for a stone
thrown into the lake, occasions in its descent so violent a discharge of
carbonic acid gas, and for so long a time, as to give the idea of an immense depth of water. The taste is acid, and the sulphureous smell so
strong, that when the wind assists, it has sometimes been perceived in
the higher parts of Rome."- Gel.
Two miles beyond  the canal is the Ponte Lucano, well
known by engravings from the beautiful picture by G. Poussin in the  Doria Palace.  Close beyond the bridge rises,
embattled into a tower by Pius II., the massive round tomb
of the Plautii, built by M. Plautius Silvanus in B.C. i, and
long used by his descendants. At Barco, near this, were the
principal quarries for the Travertino used in the buildings of
ancient Rome.
* But two inscriptions have been found which show that there was once a temple of
Cybele here, and that the waters themselves were honoured as "Aquae Albulae Sanctissimae."




188                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
About half a mile beyond the bridge a lane to  the left
leads to the gates of the Villa Adriana, which is said once
to have been from 8 to io miles in extent. It is believed
to have been ruined  during the siege of Tibur by Totila.
The chief interest of the ruins arises from their vast extent,
and from the lovely carpet of the shrubs and flowers, with
which Nature has surrounded them. In spring nothing can exceed the beauty of the violets and anemonies here. " Successive
generations of antiquaries have occupied themselves with the
nomenclature of the different masses of ruin, and they always
disagree: most travellers will consider such discussions of
little consequence, and, finding them exceedingly fatiguing,
will rest satisfied in the knowledge that the so-called villa
was once a most stupendous conglomeration of unnecessary
buildings, and in the joyful contemplation of its present
loveliness.
"I went down to Adrian's villa with exalted ideas of its extent,
variety, and magnificence. On approaching it, I saw ruins overgrown
with trees and bushes; I saw mixt-reticular walls stretching along the
side of a hill, in all the confusion of a demolished town; but I saw no
grandeur of elevation, no correspondence in the parts. I went on. The
extent and its variety opened before me-baths, academies, porticos, a
library, a palestra, a hiippodrome, a menagerie, a naumachia, an aqueduct,
theatres both Greek and Latin, temples for different rites, and every
appurtenance suitable to an imperial seat. But its magnificence is gone:
it is removed to the Vatican, it is scattered over Italy, it may be traced
in France.  Anywhere but at Tivoli you may look for the statues and
caryatides, the columns, the oriental marbles, and the mosaics, with
which the villa was once adorned, or supported, or wainscoted, or
floored. "-Forsyth.
"The drive was less beautiful than most of those which lie round
Rome.  Thus two hours and a half went by, dully; and I was not
sorry when, turning aside from the castellated tomb of the Plautii family,
* Since this account was written (1873) the destroying hand of Signor Rosa has
been here, the flowers are all rooted up, the ruins stripped of their creepers, and of
the fringes of lovely shrubs which gave them all their charm; and, for the present,
the Villa Adriana-a mass of bare walls in a naked country-is little worth visiting



VILLA ADRIANA.                          I89
we passed down a shady lane, and stopped at the gate of Hadrian's
Villa.  Alighting here, we passed  into that wide and wondrous
wilderness of ruin, through avenues dark with cypress, and steep banks
purple with violets.  The air was heavy with perfume.  The glades
were carpeted with daisies, wild periwinkle, and white and yellow
crocus-blooms.  We stepped aside into a grassy arena which was once
the Greek theatre, and sate upon a fallen cornice. There was the narrow
shelf of stage on which the agonies of CEdipus and Prometheus were
once rehearsed; there was the tiny altar which stood between the
audience and the actors, and consecrated the play; there, row above
row, were the seats of the spectators. Now, the very stage was a mere
thicket of brambles; and a little thrush lighted on the altar, while we
were sitting by, and filled all the silent space with song.
"Passing hence, we came next upon open fields, partly cultivated,
and partly cumbered with shapeless mounds of fallen masonry. Here,
in the shadow of a gigantic stone pine, we found a sheet of mosaic pavement, glowing with all its marbles in the sun; and close by, half buried
in deep grass, a shattered column of the richest porphyry. Then came
an olive plantation; another theatre; the fragments of a temple; and
a long line of vaulted cells, some of which contained the remains of
baths and conduits, and were tapestried within with masses of the delicate maiden-hair fern.  Separated from these by a wide space of grass,
amid which a herd of goats waded and fed at their pleasure, rose a pile
of reticulated wall, with part of a vast hall yet standing, upon the vaulted
roof of which, sharp and perfect, as if moulded yesterday, were encrusted delicate bas-reliefs of white stucco, representing groups of
Cupids, musical instruments, and figures reclining at table. Near this
spot, on a rising ground formed all of ruins, overgrown with grass and
underwood, we sate down to rest, and contemplate the view.
" A deep romantic valley opened before us, closed in on either side
by hanging woods of olive and ilex, with here and there a group of
dusky junipers, or a solitary pine, rising like a dark green parasol above
all its neighbours.  Interspersed among these, and scattered about the
foreground, were mountainous heaps of buttressed wall, arch, vault, and
gallery, all more or less shattered out of form, or green with ivy.  At
the bottom of the valley, forming, as it were, the extreme boundary of
the middle distance, rose two steep volcanic hills, each crowned with a
little white town, that seemed to wink and glitter in the sun; while
beyond these again, undulating, melancholy, stretching mysteriously
away for miles and miles in the blue distance, lay the wastes of the
Campagna. "-Barbara's History.
"Autour de moi, a travers les arcades des ruines, s'ouvraient des




190                   DA YS NEAR ROME.
points de vue sur la campagne romaine: des buissons de sureau remplissaient les salles desertes, ot venaient se refugier quelques merles
solitaires; les fraagments de magonnerie etaient tapisses de feuilles de
scolopendre, dont la verdure satin6e se dessinait comme un travail en
mosaique sur la blancheur des marbres.  Ca et la de hauts cypres
remplagaient les colonnes tombees dans ces palais de la mort. L'acanthe
sauvage rampait a leurs pieds sur des debris, comme si la nature s'etait
plu a reproduire sur ces chefs d'oeuvre inutiles de l'architecture l'ornement
de leur beaute passee; les salles diverses, et les sommites des ruines,
ressemblaient a des corbeilles et a des bouquets de verdure; le vent en
agitait les guirlandes humides, et les plantes s'inclinaient sous la pluie
du ciel. "- Chateaubriand. *
The villa formed part of a large estate purchased by Pius
VI.   It is now  the property of his representative, Duke
Braschi.
On Monte Affliano, which rises behind the Villa Adriana,
to the south of Tivoli, most authorities place the site of the
Latin city _Esula. The mountain of Tivoli is divided into
three positions: Ripoli, towards the town; Spaccato, in the
centre; and  Monte Affliano, at the  southern  extremity.
Porphyrion has accurately described the position of AEsula as
on this southern extremity of the centre of Tibur.
" Udum Tibur propter aquarum  copiam....       sula, nomen urbis,
alterius in latere montis constitutse."
There are remains of a city having stood here.
"' Esula declive contempleris arvum."
Horace, iii. Ode 29.
It was probably deserted on account of its inconvenient
situation, and the temple of Bona Dea or Ops was its representative, in later times.t
A winding road, constructed by the Braschi, winds up the
* The powerful description of Chateaubriand cannot be realized now, but is inserted,
in the hope that when the reign of Signor Rosa is over, Nature will be permitted to
restore the ruins of the Villa Adriana to their former beauty.
t See Gell's "Topography of Rome and its Vicinity."




ASCENT TO TIVOLI.                       191
hill to Tivoli, through magnificent olive-groves, the silvery
trunks of the old trees caverned, loop-holed, and twisted in
every possible contortion.
"It is well to have felt and seen the olive-tree; to have loved it feo
Christ's sake, partly also for the helmed Wisdom's sake which was to
the heathen in some sort as that nobler Wisdom which stood at God's
right hand, when he founded the earth and established the heavens: to
have loved it, even to the hoary dimness of its delicate foliage, subdued
and faint of hue, as if the ashes of the Gethsemane agony had been cast
upon it for ever; and to have traced, line by line, the gnarled writhing
of its intricate branches, and the pointed petals of its light and narrow
leaves, inlaid on the blue field of the sky, and the small rosy-white stars
of its spring blossoming, and the beads of sable fruit scattered by autumn
along its topmost boughs-the right, in Israel, of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,-and, more than all, the softness of the mantle,
silver grey, and tender like the down on a bird's breast, with which,
far away, it veils the undulation of the mountains. "-Ruskin, Stones oj
Venice, iii. 176.
As we drive slowly up the ascent it may be pleasant to
consider the history of Tibur, which claims to go back much
further than that of Rome.   Dionysius says that it was a
city of the Siculi, and called Siculetum or Sicilis, and that
the original inhabitants were expelled by Tiburtus, Corax, and
Catillus, the three grandsons of Amphiaraus, the king and
prophet of Thebes, who flourished a century before the
Trojan war.   Tibur was named  after the  eldest of the
brothers.
"Tum gemini fratres Tiburtia meenia linquunt,
Fratris Tiburti dictam cognomine gentem,
Catillusque, acerque Coras, Argiva juventus.".En. vii. 670.
"Jam mcenia Tiburis udi
Stabant, Argolicze quod'posuere manus."
Ovid. Fast. iv. 71.
"Nullam, Vare, sacra vite prius severis arborem
Circa mite solum Tiburis, et mcenia Catili."
Horace, Od. 1. xviii. 1.




192                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
"Hic tua Tiburtes Faunos chelys et juvat ipsum
Alciden dictumque lyra majore Catillum."
Statius, Silv. I. 3.
The inhabitants of Tibur frequently incurred the anger of
Rome by assistance they gave to the Gauls upon their inroads into Latium, and they were completely subdued by
Camillus in B.C. 335. Ovid narrates how when they were
requested to send back the Roman pipers, "tibicines," who
had seceded to Tibur from offence which they had taken
at an edict of the censors, they made them drunk, and took
them thus in carts to Rome.
"Exilio mutant urbem, Tiburque recedunt!
-Exilium quodam tempore Tibur erat!Quaeritur in scena cava tibia, qu-eritur aris,
Ducit supremos naenia nulla choros.
Alliciunt somnos tempus, motusque, merumque,
Potaque se Tibur turba redire putat.
Jamque per Esquilias Romanam intraverat urbem;
Et mane in medio plaustra fuere foro."
Fasti, vi. 665.
The second  line of this passage expresses the fact that
Tibur was an asylum  for Roman fugitives, a result of its
never having been admitted to the Roman franchise.
In his Pontic Epistles, also, Ovid says:"Quid referam veteres Romanae gentis, apud quos
Exilium tellus ultima Tibur erat? "
Pont. I. El. 3.
Brutus and Cassius are said to have fled thither after the
murder of Caesar.  Under the earlier emperors, Tibur was
the favourite retreat of the wealthy Romans,-the Richmond
of Rome-and, as such, it was celebrated by the poets.  It
was also the scene of the nominal imprisonment of Zenobia,




BEAUTY OF TIV7OL.                       I93
the brave and accomplished Queen of Palmyra, who lived
here like a Roman matron, after having appeared in the
triumph of Aurelian. She was presented with a beautiful
villa by the Emperor. " Here the Syrian queen insensibly
sunk into a Roman matron, her daughters married into noble
families, and her race was not yet extinct in the fifth century." *
In an earlier age, Syphax, king of Numidia, died here B.C.
20I, having been brought from Africa to adorn the triumph of
Scipio.  The town was surrendered by the Isaurian garrisons,
which  Belisarius had  placed there, to the  Goths under
Totila, who both burnt and rebuilt it. In the eighth century
the name was changed  to'Tivoli.  In  the wars of the
Guelphs and Ghibellines it bore a prominent part and was
generally on the imperial side.
The climate of Tivoli was esteemed remarkably healthy,
and was considered to have the property of blanching ivory.
"Quale micat, semperque novum est, quod Tiburis aura
Pascit, ebur."
SiL ~tal. xii. 229.
"Lilia tu vincis, nec adhuc delapsa ligustra,
Et Tiburtino monte quod albet ebur."
Martial, viii. 28.
But since the existence of malaria, modern poetry has told a
different tale:"Tivoli di mal conforto,
O piove, o tira vento, o suona a morte."
As we ascend the hill, its wonderful beauty becomes more
striking at every turn.
"The hill of Tivoli is all over picture.  The town, the villas, the
ruins, the rocks, the cascades, in the foreground; the Sabine hills, the
three Monticelli, Soracte, Frascati, the Campagna, and Rome in the
* Gibbon, ch. xi.
VOL. 1.                                           13




194                 DA YS NEAR ROM.E.
distance; these form a succession of landscapes superior, in the delight
produced, to the richest cabinet of Claude's.  Tivoli cannot be described: no true portrait of it exists: all views alter and embellish it:
they are poetical translations of the matchless original. Indeed, when
you come to detail the hill, some defect of harmony will ever be found in
the foreground or distance, something in the swell of channelling of its
sides, something in the growth or the grouping of its trees, which painters, referring every object to its effect on canvas, will often condemn
as bad Nature. In fact, the beauties of the landscape are all accidental.
Nature, intent on more important ends, does nothing exclusively to
please the eye. No stream flows exactly as the artist would wish it: he
wants mountains where he finds only hills: he wants hills where he
finds a plain. Nature gives him but scattered elements, the composition
is his own."-Forsyth.
Close to  the gate  of the  town, on  the right, is the
picturesque five-towered Castle, built by Pius II. (1458-64).
A street, full of mediaeval fragments, leads to the Regina
and on to the Sibylla, which all artists will prefer, and which
has never merited the description of George Sand:"L'affreuse auberge de la Sibylle, un vrai coupe-gorge de lOperaComique."
It stands on the very edge of the precipice:
"The green steep whence Anio leaps
In floods of snow-white foam."
Mlacaulay.
This is an almost isolated quarter of the town, occupying
a distinct point of rock, called Castro Vetere, which is
supposed to have been the arx or citadel of ancient Tibur
-the Sicelion of Dionysius.  Here, on the verge of the
abyss, with coloured cloths hanging out over its parapetwall, as we have so often seen it in pictures, stands the
beautiful-the  most beautiful-little building, which  has
been known for ages as the Temple of the Sibyl.  It was
once encircled by I8 Corinthian columns, and of these io




TEMPLES OF TIVOLI.                    195
still remain. In its delicate form and its rich orange colour,
standing out against the opposite heights of Monte Peschiavatore, it is impossible to conceive anything more picturesque,
and the situation is sublime, perched on the very edge
of the cliff, overhung with masses of clematis and ivy,
through which portions of the ruined arch of a bridge are
just visible, while below the river foams and roars. Close
behind the circular temple is another little oblong temple
of travertine, with Ionic columns, now turned into the Church
of S. Giorgio. Those who contend that the circular temple
was dedicated to Vesta, or to Hercules Saxonus, call this the
Temple of the Sibyl: others * say it is the Temple of Tiburtus, the founder of the city; others, that it was built in honour
of Drusilla, sister of Caligula. We know from Varro that the
ioth and last of the Sibyls, whose name was Albunea, was
worshipped at Tivoli, and her temple seems to be coupled by
the poets with the shrine of Tiburtus above the Anio.
" Illis ipse antris Anienus fonte relicto,
Nocte sub arcana glaucos exutus amictus,
Huc illuc fragili prosternit pectora musco:
Aut ingens in stagna cadit, vitreasque natatu
Plaudit aquas: illa recubat Tiburnus in umbra,
Illic sulphureos cupit Albula mergere crines."
Statius, Silv. I. 3.
Close to the temples a gate will admit visitors into the
beautiful walks begun by General Miollis, and finished under
the Papal government.  Those who are not equal to a long
round, should not enter upon these, and in taking a local
guide it should be recollected that there is scarcely the
slightest ground for anything they say, and that the names
they give to villas and temples are generally the merest conjecture.
* Nibby. Dintorni, iii. 205.




196                  DAYS NEAP ROMIE.
The walks, however, are charming, and lead by a gradual
descent to the caves called the  Grottoes of Neptune and the
Sirens, into the chasm beneath which the Anio fell magnificently till I826,* when an inundation which carried away a
church and twenty-six houses led the Papal government to
divert the course of the river in order to prevent the temples
from being carried away also, and to open the new artificial
cascade, 320 feet high, in I834. The Anio at Tivoli, as the
Velino at Terni, has extraordinary petrifying properties,
and the mass of stalactites and petrified vegetation hanging
everywhere  from   the  rocks  adds  greatly  to  their wild
picturesqueness.
" Puisque vous me dites que vous avez sous les yeux tous les guides
et itineraires de l'Italie pour suivre mon humble peregrination, je dois
vous prevenir que, dans aucun vous ne trouverez une description exacte
le ces grottes, par la raison que les eboulements, les tremblements de
terre, et les travaux indispensables a la securite de la ville, menacee de
s'ecrouler aussi, ou d'etre emportee par l'Anio, ont souvent change leur
aspect.  Je vais tacher de vous donner succinctement une idee exacte;
car, en depit des nouveaux itineraires qui pretendent que ces lieux ont
perdu leur principal interet, ils sont encore une des plus ravissantes merveilles de la terre.
"4e vous ai parle d'un puits de verdure; c'est ce bocage, d'environ
un mille de tour a son sommet, que l'on a arrange dans lentonnoir d'un
ancien cratere. L'abime est donc tapisse de plantations vigoureuses, bien
libres et bien sauvrages, descendant sur les flancs de montagne presque a
pic, au moyen des zig-zags d'un sentier doux aux pieds, tout borde
d'herbes et de fleurs rustiques, soutenu par les terrasses naturelles du roc
pittoresque, et se degageant a chaque instant des bosquets qui l'ombragent
pour vous laisser regarder le torrent sous vos pieds, le rocher perpendiculaire a votre droite, etle joli temple de la Sibylle au-dessus de votre
tete.  C'est a la fois d'une grace et d'une majeste, d'une aprete et d'une
fiaiche.ur qui resument bien les caracteres de la nature italienne.  I1 me
semble qu'il n'y a' ici rien d'austere et de terrible qui ne soit tout a coup
tempere on dissimule par des voluptes souriantes.
* This fall, though natural, was itself the result of an inundation in A.D. o05, which
is recorded by Pliny the Younger. (Ep. viii. 17.)




FALLS OF THE ANILO.                        I97
" Quand on a descendu environ les deux tiers du sentier, il vous conduit a l'entree d'une grotte laterale completement inaperque jusque-la.
Cette grotte est un couloir, une galerie naturelle que le torrent a rencontree dans la roche, et qui semble avoir ete une des bouches du cratere
dont le puits de verdure tout entier aurait ete le foyer principal.
" De quelles scenes effroyables, de quelles devorantes ejaculations, de
quels craquements, de quels rugissements, de quels bouillonnements
affreux cette ravissante cavite de Tivoli a dut etre le theatre! Il me
semblait qu'elle devait son charme actuel a la pensee, j'allais presque
dire au souvenir evoque en moi, des tenebreuses horreurs de sa formation
premiere.  C'est la une ruine du passe autrement imposante que les
debris des temples et des aqueducs; mais les ruines de la nature ont
encore sur celles de nos oeuvres cette superiorite que le temps batit sur
elles, comme des monuments nouveaux, les merveilles de la vegetation,
les frais edifices de la forme et de la couleur, les veritables temples de
la vie.
" Par cette caverne, un bras d'Anio se precipite et roule, avec un
bruit magnifique, sur des lames de rocher qu'il s'est charge d'aplanir et
de creuser a son usage.  A deux cents pieds plus haut, il traverse tranquillement la ville et met en mouvement plusieurs usines; mais, tout au
beau milieu desmaisons et des jardins, il rencontre cette couleevolcanique,
s'y engouffre, et vient se briser au bas du grand rocher, sur les debris
de son couronnement d6tache, qui gisent la dans un desordre grandiose."
-George Sann, La Daniella.
"Above the cold deep dell into which you dive to see the mysteries
of Anio's urn, raised high on a pedestal of sharply-cut rock and seated
as on a throne of velvet verdure, towers, like a pinnacle projected on
the deep blue sky, the graceful temple of the Sibyl, that most exquisite
specimen of art crowning nature, in perfect harmony of beauties."Cardinal Wiseman.
The small ruins of two Roman bridges were rendered
visible when the course of the river was changed. Ascending again the upper road beyond the falls, guides, on no
authority whatever, point out some ruins as those of the Villa
of Vopiscus, a poet of the time of Domitian. That he had a
property at Tibur, we know from the verses of Statius, who
has left a pleasant account of the villa of his friend: his
grounds appear to have extended on both sides of the river.




I98                DA YS NEAR ROME.
"Cernere facundi Tibur glaciale Vopisci
Si quis et inserto geminos Aniene penates,
Aut potuit socize commercia noscere ripae.
Ingenium quam mite solo! quoe forma beatis
Arte manus concessa locis! Non largius usquam
Indulsit natura sibi. Nemora alta citatis
Incubuere vadis; fallax responsat imago
Frondibus, et longes eadem fugit unda per umbras.
Ipse Anien-miranda fides-infraque superque
Saxeus, hic tumidam rabiem spumosaque ponit
Murmura, ceu placidi veritus turbare Vopisci
Pieriosque dies et habentes carmina somnos.
I itus utrumque domi, nec te mitissimus amnis
I)ividit. Alternas servant prretoria ripas
Non externa sibi, fluviumve obstare queruntur.
Hic oeterna quies, nullis hic jura procellis,
Nusquam fervor aquis. Datur hic transmittere visus
Et voces, et paene manus."
Si/v. i. 3.
We now turn round the base of Monte Catillo to that of
Monte Peschiavatore and the point opposite the Cascatelle,
which is known to have borne the name of Quintiliolo in the
ioth century, and where a little church is still called La
2azdonna di Quintiliolo.  It is possible this name may be
derived from Quintilius Varus, and that his villa, mentioned
by Horace (ode i. i8) as near the town, may have been in
this neighbourhood.  Remains of a sumptuous villa with
inlaid pavements and statues-especially two Fauns now in
the Vatican-have certainly been found here.
Nothing can exceed the loveliness of the views from the
road which leads from Tivoli by the chapel of S. Antonia
to the Madonna di Quintiliolo.  On the opposite height
rises the town with its temples, its old houses and churches,
clinging to the edge of the cliffs, which are overhung with




THE CASCA TELLE.                     199
such a wealth of luxuriant vegetation as is almost indescribable; and beyond, beneath the huge piles of building known
Tivoli.
as the Villa of Maecenas, the thousand noisy cataracts of the
Cascatelle'leap forth beneath the old masonry, and sparkle
and dance and foam through the green-and all this is only
the foreground to vast distances of dreamy campagna, seen
through the gnarled hoary stems of grand old olive-treesrainbow-hued  with every  delicate tint of emerald  and
amethyst, and melting into sapphire, where the solitary dome
of S. Peter's rises, invincible by distance, over the level line
of the horizon.
And the beauty is not confined to the views alone. Each
turn of the winding road is a picture; deep ravines of solemn
dark-green olives which waken into silver light as the wind
shakes their leaves,-old convents and chapels buried in




200               DA IS NEAR ROME.
shady nooks on the mountain-side,-thickets of laurestinus,
roses, genista, and jessamine,-banks of lilies and hyacinths,
anemonies and  violets,-grand masses of grey rock, up
which white-bearded  goats are scrambling to nibble the
myrtle and rosemary, and knocking down showers of the red
tufa on their way;-and a road, with stone seats and parapets, twisting along the edge of the hill through a constant
diorama of loveliness, and peopled by groups of peasants in
their gay dresses returning from their work, singing in parts
wild canzonetti  which  echo amid the silent hills, or by
women washing at the wayside fountains, or returning with
brazen conche, poised upon their heads, like stately statues
of water-goddesses wakened into life.
"The pencil only can describe Tivoli; and though unlike other
scenes, the beauty of which is generally exaggerated in pictures, no representation has done justice to it, it is yet impossible that some part
of its peculiar charms should not be transferred upon the canvas. It
almost seems as if Nature herself had turned painter when she formed
this beautiful and perfect composition."-Eaton's Rome.
Deep below Quintiliolo, reached by a winding path through
grand old olive-woods, is the Ponte dell' Acquoria —"the
bridge of the golden water," so called from a beautiful
spring which rises near it.  It is a fine single arch of travertine, crossed by the Via Tiburtina.
Passengers now cross the Anio by a wooden bridge, and
ascend the Clivus Tiburtinus on the other side. Much of
the ancient pavement remains.   On the right of the road is
the curious circular-domed building, somewhat resembling
the temple of Minerva-Medica at Rome, and called by local
antiquaries II Tempio della  Tosse, or "The Temple of
Cough."  The fact being, that it was probably the sepulchre
of the Turcia family, one of the members of which, Lucius




VILLA  OF MA CENAS.                      201
Arterius Turcius, is shown by an inscription to have repaired
the neighbouring road in the time of Constans. In the interior are some remains  of I3th-century frescoes, which
indicate that this was then used as a Christian church.
The Via Constantina, which leads into the town from the
Ponte Lucano, falls into the Via Tiburtina near this.
On the brow of the hill, we may now visit the immense
ruins called The Villa of Mecenas, though there is no reason
whatever to suppose that it was his villa, or even that he
had a villa at Tibur at all.
"It is an immense quadrilateral edifice, 637Y2 feet long, and 450
broad, surrounded on three sides by sumptuous porticoes. The fourth
side, or that which looks towards Rome, which is one of the long sides,'had a theatre in the middle of it, with a hall or saloon on each side.
The porticoes are arched, and adorned on the side towards the area with
half-columns of the Doric order. Behind is a series of chambers. An
oblong tumulus now marks the site of the house, or, according to
Nibby, who regards it as the temple of Hercules, of the Cella.  The
pillars were of travertine, and of a beautiful Ionic order. One of them
existed on the ruins as late as 1812. This immense building intercepted
the ancient road, for which, as appears from an inscription preserved in
the Vatican, a vault or tunnel was constructed, part of which is still
extant.  Hence it gave name to the Porta Scura or Obscura, mentioned
in the Bull of Benedict, which it continued to bear at least as late as
the 15th century. "-Smith's Diet. of Greek and Roman Geography.
These ruins are the only remains in Tivoli which at all correspond with the  allusions in  the  poets to the  famous
Heracleum, or Temple of Hercules, which was of such a
size as to be quoted, with the waterfall, by Strabo as characteristics of Tivoli, just as the great temple of Fortune was
the  distinguishing  feature of Praeneste.   It contained a
library, and had an oracle, which answered by sortes like
that of Praeneste. Augustus, when at Tibur, frequently administered justice in the porticoes of the temple of Hercules.




202                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
To trace all the poetical allusions to it would be endless:
here are a few of them.
"Curve te in Herculeum deportant esseda Tibur.'
Propertius, I I. 32.
" Tibur in Herculeum migravit nigra Lycoris."
Martial, iv. 62.
"Venit in Herculeos colles: quid Tiburis alti
Aura valet?"
Mart. vii. 12.
"Nec mihi plus Nemee, priscumve habitabitur Argos,
Nec Tiburna domus, solisque cubilia Gades."
Stat. Silv. iii. I. I82.
"Quosque sub Herculeis taciturno flumine muris
Pomifera arva creant Anienicolae Catilli."
Si. Ital. iv. 224.
We re-enter the town by a gate with Ghibelline battlements, near which  are two curious mediaeval houses, one
with a beautiful outside loggia.   Passing through the dirty
streets almost to the Porta Santa Croce, by which we entered
Tivoli, a narrow  alley on  the right leads us to a little
square, one side of which is occupied by the Cathedral of
S. Francesco, a picturesque little building, with a good rosewindow.  Behind the church is a cella of the age of Augustus, which some antiquaries have referred to the temple
of Hercules.
"But it would be difficult to regard these vestiges as forming part of
a temple I50 feet in circumference, nor was it usual to erect the principal Christian church on the foundations of a heathen temple. It is pretty
certain, however, that the Forum of Tibur was near the cathedral, and
occupied the site of the present Piazza dell' Ormo and its environs, as
appears from a Bull of Pope Benedict VII., in the year 978. The round
temple at the cathedral belonged therefore to the Forum, as well as
the crypto-porticus, now called Porto di Ercole in the street del Poggio.
The exterior of this presents ten closed arches about 200 feet in length,




VILLA D'ESTE.                      203
which still retain traces of the red plaster with which they were covered.
Each arch has three loop-holes to serve as windows. The interior is
divided into two apartments or halls, by a row of 28 slender pillars.
Traces of arabesque painting on a black ground may still be seen. The
mode of building shows it to be of the same period as the circular
remains."-Smilh's Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography.
Close to the Cathedral is the door of the famous Villa
d'Este, where we are admitted on ringing a bell, and crossing a court-yard, and descending a long vaulted passage, are
allowed unaccompanied to enter and wander about in one of
the grandest and wildest and most impressive gardens in
the world.  The villa itself, built in 1549, by Pirro Ligorio,
for Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, son of Alfonso II., Duke of
Ferrara, is stately and imposing in its vast forms, bold
outlines, and deeply-projecting cornices. Beneath it runs a
broad terrace (rather too much grown up now), ending in an
archway, which none but the most consummate artist would
have placed where it stands, in glorious relief against the
soft distances of the many-hued Campagna.  Beneath the
twisted staircases which lead down from this terrace, fountains
send up jets of silvery spray on every succeeding  level
against the dark green of the gigantic cypresses, which line the
main avenue of the garden, and which also, interspersed with
the richer verdure of Acacias and Judas trees, snowy or crimson with flowers in spring, stand in groups on the hill-side,
with the old churches of Tivoli and the heights of Monte
Catillo seen between them.  The fountains at the sides of
the garden are colossal, like everything else here, and overgrown with maiden-hair fern, and water glitters everywhere
in stone channels through the dark arcades of thick foliage.
Flowers there are few, except the masses of roses, guelder
roses, and lilacs, which grow and blossom where they will.




204                DAYS NEAR ROME.
The villa now belongs to the Duke of. Modena, the direct
descendant of its founder.
(Those who return to Rome the same evening will do well
to order their carriages to wait for them at the entrance of
the Villa d'Este.)
Outside the Porta Santa Croce are the old Jesuits' College,
with its charming terrace called La Veduta, and the Villa
Braschi, in whose cellar the aqueduct of the Anio Novus
may be seen.  Some disappointment will doubtless be felt
at the uncertainty which hangs over the different homes of
the poets at Tivoli, especially over that of Horace, which
was near the grove of Tiburnus; * but then, though the actual
ruins pointed out to us may not have belonged to them,
there is so much of which they tell us that remains unchanged, the luxuriant woods, the resounding Anio, the
thymy uplands, that the very atmosphere is alive with their
verses; and amid such soul-inspiring loveliness, one cannot
wonder that Tibur was beloved by them.
" Mihi jam non regia Roma,
Sed vacuum Tibur placet."
Horace, I Ep. 7.
"Vester, Camcenme, vester in arduos
Tollor Sabinos: seu mihi frigidum
Praeneste, seu Tibur supinum,
Seu liquidoe placuere Baize."
iii. Od. 4.
"... Ego, apis Matine
More modoque
Grata carpentis thyma per laborem
Plurimum, circa nemus uvidique
Tiburis ripas, operosa parvus
Canrina fingo."
iv. Od. 2.
* Suet. Vii. Hor.




HOMES OF THE POETS.                         205
" Sed que Tibur aquae fertile praefluunt,
Et spisse nemorum comae,
Fingent,Eolio carmine nobilem."
iv. Od. 3.
"Que de vers charmants dans Horace, consacres a peindre ce Tibur
tant aime, ce delicieux Tivoli dont il est si doux de gouter apres lui,
je dirai presque avec lui, les imperissables enchantements! Comment
ne pas y murmurer cette ode ravissante dans laquelle, apres avoir
enumere les beaux lieux qu'il avait admires dans son voyage de Grece,
revenant a son cher Tibur, il s'ecrie, comme d'autres pourraient le faire
aussi:'Rien ne m'a frappe autant que la demeure retentissante
d'Albunee, l'Anio qui tombe, le bois sacre de Tiburnus, et les vergers
qu'arrosent les eaux vagabondes!''Quam domus Albuneee resonantis,
Et prneceps Anio, ac Tiburni lucus, et uda
Mobilibus pomaria rivis.'
Carm. i. 7, 12.
Est-il rien de plus gracieux, de plus sonore, et de plus frais? Malheureusement il ne reste d'Horace a Tivoli que les cascatelles, dont le murmure semble un echo de ses vers. Les ruines qu'on montre au voyageur,
comme celles de la maison d'Horace, ne lui ont jamais appartenu.
bien que deja du temps de Suetone a Tibur on fit voir au curieux la
maison du poete."-Ampere, Emp. Rom. I. 360.
Catullus had a villa here on the boundary between the
Sabine and Tiburtine territories, but which he chose to
consider in the latter, while his friends, if they wished to
tease him, said it was Sabine:"O funde noster, seu Sabine, seu Tiburs
(Nam te esse Tiburtem autumant, quibus non est
Cordi Catullum laedere: at quibus cordist,
Quovis Sabinum pignore esse contendunt),
Sed seu Sabine sive verius Tiburs,
Fui libenter in tua suburbana
Villa, malamque pectore expuli tussim."
Carm. 44.
Here also lived' Cynthia," whose real name was Hostia,
the beloved of Propertius, who did not hesitate to test his




lo6                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
devotion by summoning him to face the dangers of the road
from Rome to Tibur at midnight.
"Nox media, et dominme mihi venit epistola nostrae,
Tibure me missa jussit adesse mora,
Candida qua geminas ostendunt culmina turres,
Et cadit in patulos lympha Aniena lacus."
iii. El. i6.
And here she died and was buried, and her spirit, appearing
to her lover, besought him to take care of her grave.
" Pelle hederam tumulo, mihi quae pugnante corymbo
Mollia contortis alligat ossa comis.
Pomosis Anio qua spumifer incubat arvis,
Et nunquam Herculeo numine pallet ebur.
Hic carmen media dignum me scribe columna,
Sed breve, quod currens vector ab urbe legat,
Hic Tiburtina jacet aurea Cynthia terra:
Accessit ripae laus, Aniene, tuxe."
v. 7.
Beyond the Porta Santa Croce is the suburb Carciano, a
corruption from Cassianum, its name in the ioth century
from the villa of the gens Cassia, of which there are considerable remains beneath the Greek College.  From  the
excavations made here in the reign of Pius VI. many of the
finest statues in the Vatican were obtained, especially those
in the Hall of the Muses.
Painters, and all who stay long enough at Tivoli, should
not fail to visit the picturesque ruins of the Marcian and
Claudian aqueducts beyond the Porta S. Giovanni. Delightful excursions may also be made to Subiaco, to S. Cosimato
and Licenza, to Monte Gennaro, and to Montecelli.  A
pleasant road leads by the old castle of Passerano and
Zagarolo to Palestrina.




CHAPTER XIII.
LICENZA AND MONTE GENNARO.
(This is one of the most interesting of the excursions from Tivoli.
A carriage may be taken from Tivoli to the farm of Horace itself, or
good walkers may take the morning diligence to Subiaco as far as S.
Cosimato, and walk from thence to Licenza, returning to meet the diligence in the evening. For the excursion to Monte Gennaro, horses
must be ordered beforehand.)
SOON  after leaving Tivoli some magnificent arches of
the Claudian Aqueduct are seen crossing a ravine on
the left, through which a road leads to Ampiglione (probably
the ancient Empulum), where some of the ancient walls remain.  Then, also on the left, rises the most picturesque
village of Castel Madama crowning a ridge of hill.  Then
the road passes close to some ruins supposed to be those of
the tomb of C. Maenius Bassus of the time of Caligula.
Seven miles from Tivoli we reach Vicovaro, the Varia of
Horace.  Some of the ancient walls remain, of huge blocks
of travertine. The place now belongs to Count Bolognetti
Cenci, who has a dismal palace here.  At one end of a
piazza facing the principal church in the upper town, is the
beautiful Chapel of S. Giacomo, built for one of the Orsini,
Count of Tagliacozzo, by Simone, a pupil of Brunelleschi,
who (says Vasari) died when he was employed upon it. It
is octagonal, with a dome  crowned by the figure of a




208                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
saint.  The  Italian-gothic  is  very  peculiar.   The  principal door is richly adorned with saints: above are angels
floating over the Virgin and Child, their attitude of adoration
very beautiful. Santa Severa is buried here, as well as
at Anagni!  Pope Pius II. in his "Commentaria" (LVI.)
speaks of this church as "nobile sacellum ex marmore candidissimo," and as adorned with " statuis egregiis."  Of late
years it has become important as a place of pilgrimage from' the miraculous picture " which it contains.
" Outside the church was a stall, at which I bought a copy of a hymn
addressed by the inhabitants of the town,'to their miraculous picture
of the most Holy Mary our advocate, which on July 22, I868, began to
move its eyes miraculously.' Then follows the hymn, which is poor
enough.  Inside the church, over the high altar, surrounded with
decorations and with lights, is placed the picture, a beautiful one, full
of feeling and pathos. The hands are united as in prayer, and the face
is turned upwards, the eyes being large and lustrous, and in the very
act of beginning to weep. It is a work of the school of Guido, and
might be by the master himself.
"Before the altar were kneeling a group of contadini, or country people,
on their way from the Easter services at Rome. The priest was kneeling
at the altar, singing the Litany of the Virgin, in which she is addressed
in direct prayer,' Mother of mercy, have mercy on us:'' Mother of
grace, have mercy upon us,' &c.: the contadini repeating the'Miserere
nobis' after each title of invocation had been given out by the priest.
This being ended, the worshippers all bent down and kissed the pavement, and then went backwards out of the church, bowing repeatedly
as they passed down the nave.
" Meantime we were invited into the sacristy to see the book of testimonials to the fact of the miracle. The witnesses were many, of all
nations. The purport of their testimony was mainly this: that at such
a time the deposer had seen the left, or the right eye, or both, move or
enlarge, or fill with tears; or the expression of the face change, or the
throat become agitated. Many of the depositions were accompanied
with fervent expressions of thankfulness and joy.
" Now as to the account to be given of the phenomena thus deposed to.
It is well known that certain arrangements of lines and of colours cause
the appearance, when long contemplated, of unsteadiness and of motion




LUCRE TILIS.                       209
in a picture: especially if combined with the representation of an expression of countenance itself emotioned, and, if I may thus use the
word, transitional.  Now this last is eminently the case at Vicovaro.  I
am convinced, that were I a devotee kneeling before that picture, I
could in ten minutes imagine it to undergo any such change as those
recorded in the book. All is engaging, lustrous, suggestive."-Dean
Alford, i865.
A short distance beyond Vicovaro, almost opposite the
convent of S. Cosimato (see ch. xix.), a road to the left
turns  up  the valley  of Licenza.   On  the right is the
castle of the Marchese del Gallo. About two miles up the
valley, on the left, the castle of Rocca Giovane is seen rising
above its little town. Here was a temple of Vacuna, the
Victoria of the Sabines.
The scenery is now classical, for:-' where yon bar
Of girdling mountains intercepts the sight
The Sabine farm was till'd, the weary bard's delight."
Childe Haroid.
The village upon the right, Bardella, is Mandela.   Between us and it flows the brook Licenza, the Digentia of
Horace; the hill in  front, Monte Libretti, is the famous
Mons Lucretilis.
"Me quoties reficit gelidus Digentia rivus,
Quem Mandela bibit, rugosus frigore pagus;
Quid sentire putas? quid credis, amice, precari?
Sit mihi quod nunc est."
i. Epist. xviii. 104.
Velox amcenum saepe Lucretilem
Mutat Lycoeo Faunus, et igneam
Defendit aestatem capellis
Usque meis pluviosque ventos.       d
i: Ode 17.
"Le veritable pelerinage a la demeure champetre d'Horace, c'est
celui qu'on peut faire a sa villa de la Sabine, dont lemplacement a ete
VOL. I.                                           14




210                   DA YS NEAR ROME.
si bien determine, pres de Rocca Giovane, par M. Rosa.  S'il ne reste
de la maison que des briques et des pierres enfouies a l'endroit oit une
esplanade en  fait connaitre  aujourd'hui  l'emplacement, les lieux
d'alentour portent des noms dans lesquels on a pu retrouver les anciens
noms.  Varia (Ep. i. I4, 3) est Vico Varo; la village de Mandela (Ep.
i. I8, I05), dont Horace etait voisin, s'appelle Bardella; la Digentia
(Ep. i. I8, o04) est devenue la Licenza.  Il y a aussi la fontaine
d'Oratini, et, tout pres des debris de l'habitation, la colline du poete,
colle del Poetello. On a reconnu encore le mont Lucretile, qui protegeait
les chevres d'Horace contre l'ardeur de l'ete et les vents pluvieux (Carm.
i. 13, I-4).
" Cette villa est celle que Mecene avait donnee B Horace. C'etait'ce
champ modeste qu'il avait reve, avec un jardin, aupres d'une eau
toujours vive' (Sat. ii. 6, 2, et Ep. iii. i6, I2)-celle qui s'appelle
encore fonte d' Oratini, -et un peu de forets au-dessus.' La vegetation a
ete changee par la culture, mais les grands traits du paysage subsistent.
L'on voit toujours la chaine des montagnes qui est coupee par une
vallee profonde, celle of coule la Licenza; et l'on peut remarquer la
justesse de tous les details de cette description, que le poete semble
s'excuser de faire si longue, loquaciter, et qui est renfermee dans quelques
vers charmants et precis:' Continui montes nisi dissocientur opaca
Valle; sed ut veniens dextrum latus aspiciet sol,
Loevum decedens curru fugiente vaporet.'-Ep. i. i6, 5."
Ampre, Emp1. Rom. i. 363.
The Sabine farm was presented to Horace by Maecenas, c
B. C. 33.
" To the munificence of Maecenas we owe that peculiar charm of the
HIoratian poetry, that it represents both the town and country life of the
Romans of that age; the country life, not only in the rich and luxurious
villa of the wealthy at Tivoli, or at Baize; but in the secluded retreat
and among the simple manners of the peasantry. It might seem as if
the wholesome air which the poet breathed, during his retirement on his
farm, re-invigorated his natural manliness of mind. There, notwithstanding his love of convivial enjoyment in the palace of Maecenas and
other wealthy friends, he delighted to revert to his own sober and frugal
way of living. "-Minan.
The road comes to an end on the margin of the clear




LICENZA.                          211
brook Digentia, which is here sometimes swollen into  a
broad river by the winter rains. On the further side of the
wide stony bed it has made for itself, rises Licenza, cresting, v -<X~-.~.~                  -:.>.-~
Licenza.
a high hill and approached by a steep rocky path through
the olives. Further up the valley is the " Fonte Blandusino,"
still pointed out as the spring of Horace. Just where the
read ends, a steep bank covered with chestnuts rises on the
left. Passing through the wood (only a few steps from the
road) to a garden, we find a contadino, who shovels up the
rich loam with his spade, exposes a bit of tesselated pavement, and says " Ecco la villa d'Orazio."
"The Sabine farm was situated in the valley of Ustica, thirty miles
from Rome, and twelve miles from Tivoli. It possessed the attraction,
no small one to Horace, of being very secluded-Varia (Vico Varo), the
nearest town, being four miles off-yet, at the same time, within an
easy distance of Rome. When his spirits wanted the stimulus of society
or the bustle of the capital, which they often did, his ambling mule
could speedily convey him thither; and when jaded, on the other hand,
by the noise and racket and dissipations of Rome, he could, in the same




212                  DAYS NEAR ROME.
homely way, bury himself within a few hours among the hills, and
there, under the shadow of his favourite Lucretilis, or by the banks of the
clear-flowing and ice-cold Digentia, either stretch himself to dream upon
the grass, lulled by the murmurs of the stream, or do a little farming in
the way of clearing his fields of stones, or turning over a furrow here
and there with the hoe.  There was a rough wildness in the scenery
and a sharpness in the air, both of which Horace liked, although, as
years advanced and his health grew more delicate, he had to leave it in
the colder months for Tivoli or Baice.  He built a villa upon it, or
added to one already there, the traces of which still exist. The farm
gave employment to five families of free coloni, who were under the
superintendence of a bailiff; and the poet's domestic establishment was
composed of eight slaves. The site of the farm is at the present day a
favourite resort of travellers, of Englishmen especially, who visit it in
such numbers, and trace its features with such enthusiasm, that the
resident peasantry,'who cannot conceive of any other source of interest
in one so long dead and unsainted than that of co-patriotism or consanguinity,' believe Horace to have been an Englishman.* What aspect it
presented in Horace's time we gather from one of his Epistles "(i. I6):
"About my farm, dear Quinctius: You would know
What sort of produce for its lord'twill grow;
Plough-land is it, or meadow-land, or soil
For apples, vine-clad elms, or olive-oil?
So (but you'll think me garrulous) I'll write
A full description of its form and site.
In long continuous lines the mountains run,
Cleft by a valley, which twice feels the sunOnce on the right, when first he lifts his beams;
Once on the left, when he descends in streams.
You'd praise the climate well, and what d'ye say
To sloes and cornels hanging from the spray?
What to the oak and ilex, that afford
Fruit to the cattle, shelter to their lord?
What, but that rich Tarentum must have been
Transplanted nearer Rome, with all its green?
Then there's a fountain, of sufficient size
To name the river that takes thence its riseNot Tlracian Hebrus colder or more pure,
Of power the head's and stomach's ills to cure.
* Letter by Mr Dennis: Milman's " Horace," London, I849, p. xIQ.




fORACE'S FARM.                            213
This sweet retirement-nay,'tis more than sweetInsures my health even in September's heat." (C.)
Here is what a recent tourist found it: *" Following a path along the brink of the torrent Digentia, we passed
a towering rock, on which once stood Vacuna's shrine, and entered a
pastoral region of well-watered meadow-lands, enamelled with flowers
and studded with chestnut and fruit trees. Beneath their sheltering
shade peasants were whiling away the noontide hours.  Here sat
Daphnis piping sweet witching melodies on a reed to his rustic Phidyle,
whilst Lydia and she wove wreaths of wild flowers, and Lyce sped
down to the edge of the stream and brought us cooling drink in a bulging
conca borne on her head. Its waters were as deliciously refreshing as
they could have been when the poet himself gratefully recorded how
often they revived his strength; and one longed to think, and hence
half believed, that our homely Hebe, like her fellows, was sprung from
the coloni who tilled his fields and dwelt in the five homesteads of
which he sings.... Near the little village of Licenza, standing like
its loftier neighbour, Civitella, on a steep hill at the foot of Lucretilis,
we turned off the path, crossed a thickly-wooded knoll, and came to an
orchard in which two young labourers were at work. We asked where
the remains of Horace's farm were.'A pie tui!' answered the nearest
of them in a dialect more like Latin than Italian. So saying, he began
with a shovel to uncover a massive floor in very fair preservation; a
little farther on was another, crumbling to pieces. Chaupy has luckily
saved one all doubt as to the site of the farm, establishing to our minds
convincingly that it could scarcely have stood on ground other than
that on which at this moment we were.  As the shovel was clearing the
floors, we thought how applicable to Horace himself were the lines he
addressed to Fuscus Aristius,-' Naturam expelles,' etc.'Drive Nature forth by force, she'll turn and rout
The false refinements that would keep her out,' (C.)
for here was just enough of his house left to show how Nature, creeping
on step by step, had overwhelmed his handiwork and re-asserted her
sway.  Again, pure and Augustan in design as was the pavement
before us, how little could it vie with the hues and odours of the grasses
that bloomed around it!-' Deterius Lybicis,' etc.'Is springing grass less sweet to nose and eyes
Than Libyan marble's tesselated dyes?' (C.)
* " Pall Mall Gazette," August i6, x860.




214                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
" Indeed, so striking were these coincidences that we were as nearly
as possible going off on the wrong tack, and singing'Io Paean' to
Dame Nature herself at the expense of the bard; but we were soon
brought back to our allegiance by a sense of the way in which all we
saw tallied with the description of him who sang of Nature so surpassingly well, who challenges posterity in charmed accents, and could shape
the sternest and most concise of tongues into those melodious cadences,
that invest his undying verse with all the magic of music and all
the freshness of youth.  For this was clearly the'Angulus iste,' the
nook which'restored him to himself'-this the lovely spot which
his steward longed to exchange for the slums of Rome. Below lay the
green sward by the river, where it was sweet to recline in slumber.
Here grew the vine, still trained, like his own, on the trunks and
branches of trees. Yonder the brook which the rain would swell till it
overflowed its margin, and his lazy steward and slaves were fain to bank
it up; and above, among a wild jumble of hills, lay the woods where,
on the Calends of March, Faunus interposed to save him from the attack
of the wolf as he strolled along unarmed, singing of the soft voice and
sweet smiles of his Lalage! The brook is now nearly dammed up; a
wall of close-fitting rough-hewn stones gathers its waters into a still,
dark pool; its overflow gushes out in a tiny rill that rushed down beside
our path, mingling its murmur with the hum of myriads of insects that
swarmed in the air."-Horace, by Theo. Martin in "Classicsfor English Readers."
Visitors to Licenza will be glad further to beguile the long
drive with the following extract: —
" Entering the valley which opens to the north. On a height which
rises to the right stand two villages, Cantalupo and Bardela; the latter
is supposed to be the Mandela, which the poet describes as rugosus
fi-igorepagus; and, certes, it stands in an airy position, at the point of
junction of the two valleys. You soon come to a small stream, of no
remarkable character, but it is the Digentia, the gelidus rivus, at which
the poet was wont to slake his thirst —me quoties reficit-and which
flows away through the meadows to the foot of the said hill of Bardela
-quem  Mandela bibit. You are now in the Sabine valley, so fondly
loved and highly prized.'Cur valle permutem Sabina
Divitias operosiores?'
"A long lofty ridge forms the left-hand barrier of the valley.  It is
Lucretilis.  It has no striking features to attract the eye-with its easy




HORA CE'S FARM.                         215
swells, undulating outline, and slopes covered with wood, it well merits
the title of amaenus, though that was doubtless due to its grateful shade,
rather than to its appearance. Ere long you espy, high up beneath the
brow of the mountain, a village pushed on a precipitous grey cliff. It
is Rocca Giovane, now occupying the site of the ruined temple of
Vacuna.
" On a conical height in this valley stands the town of Licenza; while
other loftier heights tower behind, from which the village of Civitella,
apparently inaccessible, looks down on the valley like an eagle from its
eyrie. In the foreground a knoll crested with chestnuts, rising some
eighty or hundred feet above the stream, marks the site of the muchsung farm.
"This knoll stands at a bend of the stream, or rather at the point
where several rivulets unite to form the Digentia. Behind the knoll
stood the Farm. Its mosaic pavement, still shown, is black and white,
in very simple geometrical figures, and, with the other remains, is
quite in harmony with an abode where'Non ebur neque aureum
Meai renidet in domo lacunar;
Non trabes Hymettize
Premunt columnas ultima recisas
Africa.'
"From the poet's description, we learn that his land was little cultivated:'Quid, si rubicunda lenique
Coma vepres et pruna ferunt? si quercus et ilex
Multa fruge pecus, multa dominum juvat umbra?'
You may remember, too, that he says of the neighbourhood:-' Angulus iste feret piper et thus ocyus uva.'
" Tempora mutantur, and soils may change also-the cultivation of
nineteen centuries has rendered this more fertile; for vines hang in festoons from tree to tree over the site of his abode; the cornels and sloes
have in great measure given way to the olive and fig; and the walnut
and Spanish chestnut have taken the place of the oak and ilex. Nevertheless the poet's description still holds good of the uncultivated spots
in the neighbourhood, which are overrun with brambles and are fragrant
with odoriferous herbs; and until late years the ground was covered
with wood-with cere and quercie, different kinds of oak, and with
scarlet-holm and Spanish chestnut.
" The Farm is situated on a rising ground, which sinks with a gentle




216                   DA YS NEAR ROME.
slope to the stream, leaving a level intervening strip, yellow in the
harvest. In this I recognized the pratum apricum which was in danger
of being overflowed.  The aprica rura were probably then, as now,
sown with corn,-pure rivus aque, et segetis lecta fides mer.  Here it
must have been that the poet was wont to repose after his meal: prope
ri7rum som/nus in herb2; and here his personal efforts, perhaps, to dam
out the stream, provoked his neighbours to a smile-' Rident vicini glebas et saxa moventem.'"
FIvm a Letter by G. Dennis-" De Villa Horatii, "-given in Mihnan's
" Works of Quintus Horatius Flaccus."
Those who are able to encounter rather a rough walk
will not be satisfied without trying to reach  the  spring,
which is supposed to be the Fons Blandusiae.
"The spring now commonly called the' Fonte Blandusia' rises at
the head of a narrow glen, which opens into the broader valley of the
Digentia just beyond the Farm, and stretches up for two or three miles
into the heart of the mountains, dividing Lucretilis from Ustica. This
is evidently the reducta vallis, to which Tyndaris was invited; and is
known by the peasants as the'Valle Rustica,' than which no name
could be more appropriate; though it probably was not conferred with
reference to the scenery, but as a corruption of'Ustica.' Whether
Ustica cubans were a mountain or a valley, or both, as hath been opined,
I leave to the critics to determine; but the mountain on the right of the
glen, which contrasts its recumbent form with the steep-browed Lucretilis, is still called' Ustica,' and sometimes' Rustica,' by the peasantry.
The penultimate, however, is now pronounced short. The streamlet is
called'Le Chiuse;' it is the same which flows beneath the villa, and
threatens the'pratum apricum.' I ascended its course from the Farm,
by the path which Horace must have taken to the fountain.  It flows
over a rocky bed, here overshadowed by dwarf-willows, there by widespreading fig-trees, and is flanked by vineyards for some distance.
Then all cultivation ceases-the scenery becomes wilder-the path
steeper-the valley contracts to a ravine-a bare grey and red rock rises
on the right, schistose, rugged, and stern; another similar cliff rises opposite, crested with ilex, and overtopt by the dark head of Lucretilis.
As I approached the fountain I came to an open grassy spot, where
cattle and goats were feeding.'Tu frigus amabile
Fessis vomere tauris
Praebes, et pecori vago.'




FONS BLANDUSIE.                             217
The spot is exquisitely Arcadian; no wonder it captivated the poet's
fancy. It is now just as it must have met his eye. During the noontide heat, the vast Lucretilis thi ows his grateful shade across the glen,' et igneam
Defendit oestatem capellis.'
Goats still wander among the underwood, cropping arbutos et thyma
which cover the ground in profusion, or frisking amongst the rocks as
smooth-faced —levia saxa-as when they reechoed the notes of the poet's
pipe.
" Crossing the stream by the huge rocks which almost choke its bed,
I climbed through brambles and sloes to the fountain. It is a most
picturesque spot. Large masses of moss-clad rock lie piled up in the
cleft between the hills, and among them the streamlet works its way,
overshadowed by hanging woods of ilex, beech, horn-beam, maple,
chestnut, nut, and walnut,-which throw so dense a shade, that scarcely
a ray of the all-glaring sun can play on the turf below.' Te flagrantis atrox hora Caniculae
Nescit tangere: tu frigus amabile
Proebes.'
The water springs from  three small holes at the top of a shelving
rock of no great height, and glides down into a sandy basin, which it
overflows, trickling in a slender thread over the rocks into a small pool,
and thence sinking in a mimic cascade into the rugged channel which
bears it down the glen. From the rocks which separate the upper from
the lower basin of the fountain, springs a moss-grown walnut tree,
which stretches its giant limbs over the whole. The water itself merits
all that has been said or sung of it; it is verily splendidior vitro.
Nothing-not even the Thracian Hebrus-can exceed it in purity, coolness, and sweetness.
"Hae latebrae dulces, et jam (si credis) amoenae!'
Well might the poet choose this as a retreat from the fierce noon-tide
heat.  Here he could lie the live-long day on the soft turf and sing'ruris amoeni
Rivos, et musco circumlita saxa, nemusque,'
while his goats strayed around, cropping the cyclamen which decks the
brink of the fountain, or the wild strawberries and sweet herbs which
scent the air around. Here, while all nature below was fainting with the
heat, might lie enjoy the grateful shade of Lucretilis. Or here might he




2I8                  DA YS NEAR ROMIE.
well sing the praises of the fountain itself, as he listened to its'babbling
waters,' and feasted his eye on the rich union of wood and rock around
it.'Me dicente cavis impositam ilicem
Saxis, unde loquaces
Lymphae desiliunt tuWe.'
" Just as it was then, so is it now,-even to the very ilices overhanging
the hollow rocks whence it springs. And so exactly, in every particular,
does this fountain answer to the celebrated Fons, that my faith in its
identity is firm and steadfast."-G. Dennis.
" On this farm lovers of Horace have been fain to place the fountain
of Bandusia, which the poet loved so well, and to which he prophesied,
and truly, as the issue has proved, immortality from his song (Ode iii.
13). Charming as the poem is, there could be no stronger proof of the
poet's hold upon the hearts of men of all ages than the enthusiasm with
which the very site of the spring has been contested.'Bandusia's fount in clearness crystalline
O worthy of the wine, the flowers we vow!
To-morrow shall be thine
A kid, whose crescent brow'Is sprouting, all for love and victory
In vain; his warm red blood, so early stirred,
Thy gelid stream shall dye,
Child of the wanton herd.'Thee the fierce Sirian star, to madness fired,
Forbears to touch; sweet cool thy waters yield
To ox with ploughing tired
And flocks that range afield.'Thou too one day shall win proud eminence,'Mid honoured founts, while I the ilex sing
Crowning the cavern, whence
Thy babbling wavelets spring.' (C)."
Horace, by Theo. Mlartin.
The ascent of Monte Gennaro may be made from Licenza,
but it is better to make it from Tivoli itself, whence a carriage  may be  taken to Polo, and  horses  ordered  there.
Hence it is a constant ascent over ridges of hill till we reach




MONTE GENNAARO.                    219
the long upland valley called Val del Paradiso, which is exceedingly beautiful, covered in spring with primroses, crocuses,
heartsease, and many of the mountain flowers of Switzerland.
Here herds of cattle feed under the shade of the ilexes.
The last part of the ascent is very steep and entirely over
rock.  The view from the top, 3,965 feet above the sea, is
magnificent, though many will doubt whether it is sufficiently
finer than that from Monte Cavo, to repay the fatigue of an
excursion which is certainly very long and tiring, though it
is exaggerated by the hotel-keepers at Tivoli, and though the
start at 3 A.M., which is urged by them, is altogether unnecessary: 6 or 7 A.M. being quite early enough.
It is best to descend by the almost perpendicular staircase called La Scarpellata, but the steps are very rugged and
of course can only be traversed on foot. There is a pleasant
ride through meadows from S. Francesco, ascending afterwards by the olive-woods, and coming up to Tivoli by
the Madonna del Quintiliolo. We leave a little to the right
the low isolated hills called Montes Corniculani (which may
be made the object of a separate excursion from  Tivoli).
Their southern height is occupied by the village of Monticelli,
the next by Colle Cesi, the northern by S. Angelo in
Cappoccio. All the villages are ruinous, but contain many picturesque bits.  S. Angelo is supposed to occupy the site of
Corniculum, which was burnt by Tarquin. The widow of its
slain chieftain, Ocrisia, was taken, after the siege, to Rome,
where she was delivered of a boy, who was educated in the
house of Tarquin, and became King Servius Tullius. Some
ancient walls of Cyclopean masonry remain: the interstices
between the large stones are filled in with smaller ones.




CHAPTER XIV.
VELLETRI.
(Velletri is a station on the Naples line of railway, one hour and
20 minutes from Rome. The Locanda del Gallo is a comfortable
and reasonable hotel. The vetturino Roberto Tasselli,  16 Strada
Vittorio Emmanuele, is an honest man, and lets out capital carriages for
excursions. A carriage for the day to Cora costs 25 francs, to Ninfa 22
francs, but the price must be settled beforehand.)
V     ELLETRI is in many respects a much better centre
for excursions than Albano, being situated on the railway itself, so that tourists are saved the long drive down to
the station, which makes excursions from the latter town so
fatiguing. Its streets are wide and clean, and the air healthy
and invigorating. Like Albano, it has no costumes of its
own, but on festas the people flock in from the neighbouring villages, and  enliven it with their white panni and
brilliant red and blue bodices. Of the old Volscian city of
Velitrae, which once occupied this site and which was so
long at war with Rome, there are many scattered traces,
and vestiges may be discovered of the vallum and fosse with
which the place was surrounded by Coriolanus.  But the
inhabitants of the Volscian city were removed to Rome,
where they became the forefathers of the Trasteverini, and
though in imperial times the place had again a certain importance, and though Augustus himself is declared by the




PALAZZO LANCELLOTTI.                  221
natives to have been born there (in contradiction to the
account of Suetonius, who expressly states that he was born
at Rome, at the sign of the Ox-heads, in the Palatium), the
principal existing remains are all medieval.
From  the station a gradual ascent leads into the town,
fringed with trees, and with beautiful views of the Volscian
range, over the hill-side slopes so rich in the vines which
produce the famous wine of Velletri.  The extraordinary
folly which has affected almost every town in Italy since the
change of government, has changed all the old historical
appellations of the streets to  the meaningless "Corso
Cavour, Via Vittorio  Emmanuele, Via Garibaldi," &c.
One whole side of the principal square is occupied by the
facade of the Palazzo Lancellotti, built by Martino Longhi.
The exterior gives no idea of the extreme beauty of the interior, which is one of the most remarkable in Italy. On
the first floor is an open gallery of immense length, the
arcades divided by pillars richly decorated with caryatides.
A marble staircase, with open loggias on every landing,
ascends to the top of the palace, whence there is a glorious
view, and beneath are beautiful gardens extending to the
open country.  Near the top of the staircase is a very fine
statue of Minerva Pudicitia (with its own head, that at the
Vatican being an addition) found at Velletri. The palace
is now inhabited by Prince Gianetti, who kindly allows it
to be shown to strangers, and it is well worth visiting.
Opposite the palace rises the beautiful tall detached campanile of Santa Maria in Trivio, raised to commemorate
the deliverance of the city from the plague in 1348, whilst it
was being besieged by Nicola Gaetani, Lord of Fondi.
Other old palaces of impoverished nobles abound in the




222               DA YS NEAR ROME.
smaller streets, the most remarkable being the Palazzo Filippi,
S. Maria in Trivio, Velletri
S. Mrlaria in Trivio, Velletri.
which is really magnificent, in spite of its desertion and decay.
The old palace of the popes, now called Palazzo Communale, built by Giacomo della Porta, occupies the highest part of
the town, the citadel of old Velitrae, and beside it stands the
palace of the Cardinal-Archbishop, with a bas-relief on its front
commemorating the opening of the Via Appia Nuova by Pius
IX., and an inscription rather inconsistent with present ideas
-" Papalis et imperialis est mihi libertas." Close to these
palaces are two little churches, San Michaele and 11 Santissimi
Sangue. Over the door of the latter is an ancient sun-dial" Horologium Beronianum "-found in the neighbouringruins.
In the interior is an inscription recording a miraculous appearance of the Virgin, and an altar to an early Christian who has been
canonized on the belief that she was a martyr-" Temporalem




CA THEDRAL OF VELLETRI.                 223
mortem S. Tertura Victorina contemnens coronamvite aeternae
possidet in pace." By the side is the catacomb inscription:URTURA VICTORINA
VAE VIXIT ANNUS XLII
III MATRI FECERUNT
BENEMERENTI IN PACE.
I,
The Legate's Fountain, Velletri.
In the lower part of the town is the Cathedral, dedicated




224              DA YS NEAR ROME.
to S. Clemente, and partly ancient, though altered in I660.
It contains a chapel of the Borgias, who are still one of the
great families of the place, with their monuments. On the
left of the altar is a beautiful fresco of the Virgin and Child,
with St. John, St. Sebastian, St. Jerome, and St. Roch, by
an unknown artist of the Perugino school. In the sacristy
is the lavamano, which Julius II. presented to the church
while he was Cardinal-Archbishop of Velletri.  Latino
Orsini, to whom the hymn " Dies Ir"e " is wrongly attributed,
but who was one of the most distinguished prelates of the
thirteenth century, was also bishop here. We were present
on Easter Sunday, when the existing archbishop performed
high-mass in the presence of thousands of countrywomen,
kneeling in their white and brownpanni, and the sight was
very imposing and impressive.
Nothing can be more charming than the environs of Velletri in early spring. It is almost the only place near Rome
where the trees are allowed to grow at their own will, and
are not cut into squares, and the lanes around are delightfully shady and attractive.  Gulfs of verdure with little
streams running in their deep hollows may be discovered in
all directions, and there are also pleasant walks to many
convents and churches on neighbouring heights. Near the
Roman gate is the ascent to the Cappuccini, whence the
view is especially fine, the long lines' of the Pontine marshes
and the beautiful Circean promontory being seen behind the
old houses and churches of the town. In this direction is
the battle-field where Charles III. of Naples gained the
victory over the Austrians which gave the kingdom of the
two Sicilies to the Spanish Bourbons. On the Naples road




yESUIT CONVENT, VELLETR.                          225
is the Jesuit Convent containing a famous Madonna attributed to St. Luke, of which About tells:
"Un hote du Campo-Morto appele Vendetta congut le projet d'une
speculation hardie. Depuis longtemps, il ranyonnait les gens de Velletri
et des environs.  I1 demandait a celui-ci deux ecus, a celui-la dix ou
douze.  Quiconque avait une recolte sur pied, des arbres charges de
fruits, un frere en voyage, payait sans marchander ce singulier impot.
Cependant Vendetta finit par prendre en degout un metier si lucratif.
I1 reva de rentrer dans la vie normale avec un revenu modeste et un
honnete emploi.  Pour atteindre ce but, il ne trouva rien de plus ingenieux que de voler la madone de Velletri et de la dcposer en lieu sur.
" On approchait d'une fete carillonnee oh la madone devait paraitre
aux yeux du peuple avec tous ses diamants.  Le sacristain ouvrait la
niche etconstata avec des cris de douleur que la madone n'y etait plus.
Grande rumeur dans Velletri.  On cherche de tous cotes et l'on ne
trouve rien. Le peuple s'emeut; une certaine effervescence se manifeste
dans les villages voisins.   Le clerge du pays accuse les jesuites de
s'etre voles eux-memes; les jesuites recriminent contre les pretres de
Velletri.  Le couvent est envahi, fouille, bouleverse par un public
idolatre.  Enfin le dimanche, a la grand'messe, Vendetta, arme d'un
poignard, monte en chaire et se denonce lui-meme.  II prie le peuple
d'agreer ses excuses et promet de rendre la madone des qu'il aura regle
ses comptes avec l'autorite.  L'autorite traite avec lui de puissance a
puissance.  Vendetta demande sa grace et celle de son frere, une rente
de tant d'ecus et un emploi du gouvernement.  On promet tout, mais
Rome ddsavone ses agents et ne veut rien ratifier.  Cependant la population des montagnes se met en marche, et un flot de paysans menace
d'inonder Velletri.  Le brigand cede au nombre, revele la cachette oh
il a cele la madone, et se rend lui-meme a discretion.  II aura la tete
coupee; personne n'en doute a Velletri."-Rome Contemnporai;ze.
The inhabitants of Velletri were formerly famous for their
brigand tendencies: now they are most inoffensive. But a
Roman proverb says
" Velletrani sette volte villani."
VOL. 1                                               15




CHAPTER XV.
THE VOLSCIAN HILLS-CORI, NORBA, NINFA,
AND SEGNI.
FOR the excursion to Norba it is quite necessary to
make an early start, and can anything be more charming than six o'clock on a cloudless morning in April, if, with
jingling bells, we drive out of the old town of Velletri and
descend into the hollow lanes shaded by fresh green trees
and gay with peasants going out in bands to the work of the
day. The road winds through dips in the low hills. It is
the country which was formerly known as the "Volscorum
Ager."  We only pass one village, San Gizlianello. A little
beyond this, Rocca Massimza is seen on the top of a precipice,
but travellers may reach it by a good mountain path, if they
are anxious to explore the site of the ancient Arx Carventana. An excellent road ascends to Cori, which soon becomes visible, though its temples cannot be seen from here
as Murray describes, for they are on the other side of the
hill. Through the olives there is a beautiful view across the
Pontine marshes to the sea, with the Circean promontory
and the neighbouring islands. Of these, the largest is San
Felice. Then comes Ponza, whither Tiberius banished his
nephew Nero, the son of Germanicus, and where many
Christians lived in exile, or suffered martyrdom, under




ASCENT TO CORI.                    227
Tiberius and Caligula. Lastly we see Pandataria, to which
Julia, daughter of Augustus, and then wife of Tiberius, was
banished by her father. Hither, too, her beautiful daughter,
Agrippina, wife of Germanicus, was banished by Tiberius, and
here she was starved to death.  Here also Octavia, the
divorced wife of Nero, and daughter of Claudius and Messalina, was banished by the Empress Poppaea, who forced
her to commit suicide by opening her veins.
Thinking of these associations, and stopping to gather
honey-suckle —fiori dela Madonna (because it generally
flowers in May) —we reach the gates of Cori. We must
leave our carriage here, for the streets, chiefly staircases, are
too steep for anything but mules and foot passengers. It is
best to make our way first to the quaint old inn in the Piazza
Romana, to order dinner from the fat, good-tempered landlady with the silver spadello in her hair, and to get the
honest old landlord, Filippo Capobianchi, to provide a
guide, which is desirable, if time be of importance, and
delivers one from the swarm  of would-be cicerones who
pounce upon the stranger like so many harpies. The inn at
Cori is quite tolerable as a resting-place, but is strangely
backward in civilized knowledge.  A friend of ours who
stayed there was astonished by seeing that the eggs when
boiled were always bored through with a very small hole,
and, asking the reason, was told that of course it must be
so, or they would burst in the boiling!
Virgil and Diodorus speak of Cori as a colony of Alba
Longa.  Pliny asserts that it was founded by the Trojan
Dardanus.  It was certainly one of the thirty cities of the
Latin League in B.C. 493, and Livy speaks of it as in the
enjoyment of municipal rights during the second  Punic




228               DAYS NEAR ROME.
war. During this war it is mentioned as one of the rebellious
cities which refused to contribute the necessary supplies.
It was taken and sacked many years after by one of the
wandering bands of Spartacus.  Propertius and Lucan
describe it as totally ruined.
Yet there are few places in the neighbourhood of Rome
which have so many or such fine remains of antiquity as
Cori. In mounting to the upper town, three distinct tiers of
its ancient walls may be traced. The first, in the lower
town, built of polygonal blocks, has their interstices filled up'emple of Castor and Pollux, Cori.
with smaller stones; the second, near Santa Oliva, has polygonal blocks alone, very carefully fitted; and the third, at
the top of the hill, is still polygonal, but of ruder construction.  Behind some wretched houses are two columns still
standing, with beautiful Corinthian capitals, a fragment of




TEMPLES OF CORI.                    229
the Temple of Castor and Pollux, as is proved by still legible
inscriptions. Another capital of the same temple is before
a house door a little further up the ascent. The adjoining
house to this temple is called the Palace of Pilate. On the
top of the hill stands the church of S. Pietro, where the font
(in the first chapel on the right) is sustained by a sculptured
marble altar, adorned with rams' heads. Behind the church
is a small garden, where we find entire the beautiful Doric
peristyle of the Temple of Minerva, generally known here as
Temple of Minerva, Corl.
the Temple of Hercules.  Eight columns still remain, four
in the front. Here the figure of Minerva, which now stands
under the Senators' palace on the Roman Capitol, was
found. The ruin is most picturesque, and is grandly situated
on a terrace.




230               DA YS NEAR ROMIE.
"Whence Cora's sentinels o'erlook
The never-ending fen."
Raphael made a sketch of it, which is still extant. As we
sat to draw here, the children, who were vainly locked out
by the Sacristan, and climbed after us over the wall, got
pieces of stone for blocks, and sticks for pencils, and imitated every line we made.
Halfway up the hill is the beautiful old convent of Santa
Oliva, whose shrine is in the crypt at Anagni. She was a
holy maiden of Cori, to whom the Virgin appeared in I521.
Her cloister, with a double row of arches, is most picturesque,
and it contains an old well. The body of the church has a
ceiling whose intention is the same as that of the Sistine, representing scenes of Old and New Testament story. In the
apse is the Coronation of the Virgin, evidently by a pupil of
Pinturicchio; the donor kneels beneath.  The aisle of the
church, a labyrinth of columns of different sizes and designs,
is shown as the Temple of Jupiter.  The temples of Cori
are all attributed to Sylla. Outside the gate of the town, on
the Norba side, is the beautiful bridge called Ponte alla Catena,
built of huge masses of tufa, spanning the deep ravine of
the Pichionni, and overhung by quaint old houses.
Norba and Norma are five long miles from Cori, and
can be reached only on foot or on  muleback  without
making an immense detour.  A very steep and intensely
stony way leads up the hill-side from  near the  Ponte
alla Catena. The olive-gardens beside it are fringed with
wild blue iris —igli the Italians call them, and the gigi,
which are the arms of Florence, are represented as iris. The
path emerges on the steep of the mountain, and clambers
along, with precipices above and below, amid the wildest




NORBA.                      231
scenery. All around are grey rocks, with short grass between,
on which the flocks of goats pasture, whose shepherds, clad
in goatskins, are the only human beings we meet here.
Hawks swoop overhead.  It is a vast view over what looks
like a boundless plain, for all the undulations and sinuosities
of the country are lost to us at this great height. The
village which glitters midway between us and the sea is Cisterna, " the Three Taverns" of St. Paul. At length Sermoneta
comes in sight on the top of a precipice, and then Norma.
Then the ancient Nlorba, now often called Civita la Penna
d'Oro, one of the earliest of the Roman colonies, rises
on the right. It has been an utter ruin ever since the
time of Sylla, when it was betrayed into the hands of
his general, Lepidus, and the garrison  put themselves
and the inhabitants to the sword.  It must have been a
tremendous fortress, for the walls are seven thousand feet in
circuit, and the blocks of which they are built, and on which
time has failed to make any impression, are often ten feet in
length.  The gates may be traced, and an inner series of
walls surrounding the citadel. A square enclosure sunk in
the earth is surrounded by Cyclopean walls: its object is
unknown. Our guide said that when the Deluge occurred it
would have failed to make any impression upon Norba-a
very ancient city at that time-so strong was it; but here the
rain which fell was made of lead, and the inhabitants, who
were giants, were all destroyed, and every house, and all the
temples of the ancient religion of that time, and only the
walls remained, for they were so strong that not even a
leaden deluge could affect them.  Hither Ricchi mentions
that as late as the beginning of the last century people were
wont to use magical arts in the search for hidden treasure.




232                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
Norma and Norba belonged to the Gaetani from  1282 to
1618, when they were sold to Cardinal Scipio Borghese.
"From  the citadel, the panorama of the Maritima is especially
magnificent.  One can distinctly trace the whole boundary line of the
sea, from Antium (Porto d'Anzio) to the Cape of Circe near Terracina,
and still farther off one can distinguish Ostia, Pratica, and Ardea, and
many towers rising like solitary obelisks on the sea-shore. These watch
towers were built in the ninth century, when the Saracens began to invade the coasts of Italy; and even in the present time the whole of
Italy and all the Italian islands are encircled by these picturesque
towers....    A tower gleams on the sea-shore with the dark woods reaching down close to it: it is the celebrated castle of Astura. A mile farther
on is another tower, Foceverde, so called from the river, flowing from the
marshy wooded wilderness into the sea.  Farther on is another tower
by a great lake, the surface of which shines like molten gold, while
round it extends a thick green wood. There a ghostly stillness surrounds
the traveller, he stands by the lake as if in a strange world; and he looks
at the osprey circling above; or at the fisherman, pale with fever, floating
on his frail raft; or at the half-naked leech-seeker, who passes his life there.
These are the Tower and Lake of Fogliano, in ancient times Clostra
Romana, where Lucullus had a villa.  The Nymphoeus, that charming
stream which we see rushing through the green ring of Ninfa, flows into
the lake of Fogliano; we can trace its course thither, through the whole
of the Pontine marsh-land. Farther on, by its side, the Lago de' Monaci
is visible, then the Lago di Crapolace; finally the great lake of Paola,
with its tower; and not far from this rises the Cape of Circe, almost like
an island.' Whoever has not traversed the Pontine marshes by the Via Appia as
far as Terracina, has the most erroneous idea of their nature, if he only
thinks of horrible morasses.  There are indeed plenty of marshes and
lakes, but they lie hidden in forests and bushes, where the hedge-hog,
the stag, the wild boar, the buffalo, and the half wild bull are roaming.
In May and June the Pontine land is a sea of flowers, which cover the
ground as far as the eye can reach. In summer it is a Tartarus, where
pale fever stalks, and torments the poor shepherds and farm-labourers,
who have to earn their bread here.
" The nearer to the sea, the more forest, and from Norba we see it distinctly stretching to the Cape of Circe. From the mouth of the Tiber
the forests of Ostia, of Ardea, of Nettuno, Cisterna, and Terracina succeed one another. In the middle of these woods or on their borders lie
single farms, principally devoted to breeding cattle, but also to agricul



NORMA.                           233
ture; such are Conca, Campo Morto, Campo Leone, Tor' del Felce, and
others.  Where the forest leaves off in the interior stretch endless meadows, then a firm arable land, and we see distinctly the Appian Way,
renewed by Pius VI., traversing the Maritima.  Near it is Cisterna,
the largest place in the marshes, close to which the Three Taverns
stood formerly, and farther on is For' Appio, the ancient Forum
Appium.
"No centuryhas been able to drain the Pontine marshes. Julius CGesar
formed a plan for it, but he died before putting it into execution. The
Roman Emperors, so extravagant in buildings of every kind, did nothing
for it; and it is therefore strange enough, that under a barbarian king,
inheritor or conqueror of Rome, the great Theodoric, the ruined Appian
Way was first restored, and a part of the marshes as far as Terracina
drained. The original record of this noble deed of a Goth, may be read
at the present day inscribed on two tablets in Terracina. In papal times
Sixtus V., a man of practical Roman spirit, was the first to undertake
again the draining of the marshes, and more than two centuries later
he was followed by Pius VI. This pope restored the Appian Way, dug
the great canal alongside, had other canals made, changed part of the
marsh into arable land, and thus gained a lasting credit in this part of the
Maritima. "- Gregorovius.
A man in scarlet cap and with long curly hair guided us
through the high beans which occupied the platform of the
ancient city, to the " Grotte di Norba." It is a ruin of later
Roman brickwork, covering the entrance to long caves and
cellars, but is always shown to strangers as the place where
the spirit of Junius Brutus is held imprisoned, waiting for the
final judgment, and whence his howls are heard at night
mingling with the thunder-storms.
Leaving the citadel, and descending slightly on the other
side, we soon reach the edge of the precipice towards the
marshes, and here, through a jagged rift in the mountain-side,
we look upon Norma, perched like an eagle's nest upon the
top of tremendous precipices of bare rock.
" Immediately beneath us is a ring as of green ivy walls encircling
many wonderful mounds, which all seem formed of flowers and ivy.




234                 DAYS NEAR ROMiE.
Grey towers rise out of this, ruins all overhung with green, and in the
midst of the strange circle we may see a silver spring gushing forth and
glowing through the Pontine marshes, ending in a sparkling lake far
away by the sea-shore.  We ask in astonishment what this curious garlanded circle is with its many green hillocks, and are told it is Ninfa
Ninfa, the Pompeii of the middle ages."-Greorovius.
View of Norma.
Instead of returning the same way, it is best to descend
from  hence to  the valley, clambering down through  the
broken rock and sliding shale, clinging to the myrtle and
Judas bushes, into the depths where, nestling under the hill,




NINFA.                        235
is Ninfa, almost as entirely a ruin as Norba itself. It is
an unspeakably quiet scene of sylvan beauty, and there is
something unearthly about it which possesses and absorbs
every sense.  If fairies exist anywhere, surely Ninfa is their
capital; Ninfa, where Flora holds her court, where the only
inhabitants are the roses and lilies, and all the thousand
flowers which grow so abundantly in the deserted streets,
where honeysuckle and jessamine fling their garlands through
the windows of every house, and where the very altars of
the churches are thrones for the flame-coloured valerian.
Outside the walls you would scarcely believe it was a town, so
encrusted in verdure is every building, that the houses look
like green mounds rising out of the plain. It is as if Nature
had built the city for a perpetual Feast of Tabernacles. One
tall tower stands near the entrance and watches its reflection
Ninfa.
in the still waters of a pool white with lilies and fringed
with forget-me-not.   By the road-side a crystal spring rises




236                DA YS ANEAR ROME.
in great abundance in a little basin of ancient brickwork, and
falls into the pool, where it turns a mill, and a little farther
on becomes a lake, on which Pliny mentions the floating
islands in his time, which were called Saltuares, because they
were said to move to the time of dancing feet. An inscription on the mill tells that it was built by one of the Gaetani,
lord of the place, in I765.  The town must have been
inhabited then, yet none can tell now the story of its desertion. It has belonged to the Gaetani since the thirteenth
century, and  Pope Alexander III. was consecrated here,
September 20, II59.  From  the tower, say the natives of
Norma, " la bella Ninfa," who was disobedient to her parents,
flung herself.into the pool to evade becoming the sposina
of the unsympathetic partito they had chosen for her, and
ever since the name of the little city has kept her memory
alive. Let it be so, though etymologists suggest the little
river Nymphaeus as a godfather.  The water-nymphs will
avenge all insults by the fever-bearing vapours of their lake.
Ninfa can never be rebuilt.  Even the shepherds cannot
dare to pass the night there. Death, garlanded with flowers,
is death still. Gregory I., who built a church here in I216,
to " St. Mary of the Myrtle-branch, " dedicated it in vain. No
sound will ever be heard but the hum of the myriad insects
which float amongst the flower-possessed streets and houses,
the croaking of the green frogs in the surrounding waters,
and the everlasting sighing and rustling of the wind in the
tall bulrushes.
" Here is Ninfa, the fairy-like ruin of a town, with its walls, towers,
churches, convents, and dwellings half sunk in the marsh, and buried
under thickest ivy. Truly this place looks even more charming than
Pompeii, for there the houses stare like crumbling mummies, dragged
from the volcanic ashes. But over Ninfa waves a balmy sea of flowers;




THE CITY OF FLOWERS.                          237
every building, every wall, every church, every house is veiled with ivy,
and on all the ruins wave the purple banners of the triumphant god of
spring.
"It causes an indescribable impression to enter this ivy town, to
wander down the grassy, flowery streets, between the walls where the
wind plays in the leaves, and no voice is heard, but the cry of the raven
in the tower, the splash of the foaming stream Nymphoeus, the rustling
of the tall reeds by the pond, and the melodious singing and sighing of
the blades of grass all around.
"All the streets are filled with flowers, which seem to march in procession to the ruined churches.  They climb on every tower, they lie
laughing and smiling in all the desolate windows, they barricade every
door, for within the houses reside elves, fairies, water-nymphs, and a
thousand  charming  spirits of the fable world.  Yellow  marigolds,
mallows, sweet narcissus; grey-bearded thistles who once dwelt here
as monks; white lilies, who were nuns in their lifetime; wild roses,
laurestinus, masticks, tall ferns, wreaths of clematis and bramble; the
red fox-gloves, which look like enchanted Saracens; the fantastic caperplant growing in the clefts of the buildings, the sweet wall-flower, the
myrtle, and the fragrant mint; brilliant yellow broom, and dark ivy which
creeps over all the ruins, and falls over the walls like green cascades, -
yes, one may fling oneself into this sea of flowers, quite intoxicated by the
perfume, and the most charming fairy power enchains the soul.
" The walls of the town are still standing and encircle it like a great
ring, but they are everywhere covered thickly with ivy, and only here
and there peeps out a crumbling pinnacle on a square ruined tower.
The gates of the town are no less barred and barricaded by the wild
vine, the ivy, and the bramble, as if the flowers in Ninfa feared some
enemy who wanted to break in upon them, as formerly the Saracen, or
the soldiers of Barbarossa, or of the Duke of Alba, and the Colonna.
They have entrenched themselves behind these ivy walls; perhaps it
may be the swarms of meteors, or will-o'-the-wisps from the Pontine
marshes, who by night besiege or storm this enchanted town to carry off
the flower spirits into the marshes.
"Many squares and many streets are still standing, with their ruined
houses covered with an ivy web, many palaces of a half-gothic architecture, once the dwellings of rich nobles. The churches, the ruins of
four or five of which remain, look very strange. I never saw such fantastic ruins; but how can one describe them in words?  How shall I
Depict such a brown shattered bell tower, with round windows, or winlows divided by small pillars, with its frieze of the middle ages
lormed of sharp-pointed tiles, and with its romantic decorations of ivy




238                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
and flowers waving in the wind? or how shall I picture the ruins of
the arched niches, or the nave of the church, all overhung with tapestries
of flowers?
"These churches are old, they belong to the eleventh or twelfth century if they are not of a still earlier date, for they are built in the simple
basilica style. In their deserted space the flowers worship now, and the
censers are swung by the bacchanalian roses. From the walls, or perhaps from an ivy-hung tribune, some old fresco paintings still look down.
They represent early Christians with palms in their hands, and instruments
of martyrdom by their side. With faded nimbi on their pale foreheads,
in golden dalmatica, with stole upon their shoulders, they look down
morosely from behind their veils of flowers, and seem shocked by the
heathen rites which the children of Flora are daring to celebrate in these
deserted churches.
" The beetle hums continually his romance of summer, and the cricket
chirps incessantly her Anacreontic love-songs. The flowers and beetles
yield up these temples no more. A complaint was once brought to S.
Bernard that countless swarms of flies had taken possession of a church
which was just about to be consecrated, and would not leave it:'I excommunicate them,' said he; and behold, when the messengers returned
to the church all the flies lay dead. But a saintly exorcist would hardly
succeed in excommunicating the flowers from the churches of Ninfa, and
though the painted martyrs look angry, the ivy is already creeping up
and will soon have entirely veiled and walled them in.  Of many there
is now nothing more visible than the hem of a robe, and the name in old
Roman characters:-S. Xystus or S. Cesarius and S. Laurentius.  I
went into the last of these churches-what a sight! The original mosaic
of the pavement with its arabesques and circles or squares seemed now
to be imitated by living flowers, and from the shrine where the bones
Df the saint once lay the Indian vine waves joyously with its bluish
red berries.
" Here also the counterpart of Pompeii is not wanting. As there the
classic age expresses itself decidedly in the bright frescoes, so in Ninfa
the Christian epoch of humanity speaks fium the paintings on the walls
of the ruins. There they are the attractive forms of life and pleasure:
Cupids fishing in the pool, dancing satyrs, crickets driving a little
chariot, hovering Bacchantes clashing cymbals, or holding in their hands
a mysterious casket, or bearing juicy figs upon a dish, but in the Pompeii of the middle ages the frescoes only represent death and woe.
Instead of those cheerful pictures, we find here the melancholy figures of
the catacombs, the mythic gods of suffering and martyrdom, in the flames,




NINFA AND THE A YMPH  US.                          239
on the cross, or kneeling with folded hands before the executioner who
stands with uplifted sword.
" Is it not time that all these martyrs, saints, and decaying crucifixes
were buried in flowers? Here Nature strews them plentifully on the
graves of the unfortunate penitents and monks, and of all those who in
the time of dark superstition scourged and tortured themselves-would
that catholic humanity might imitate her, and give to the dead peace
and a grave of flowers!
" At the entrance to Ninfa still stands the castle, once the seat of the
barons in whose dungeons the victims of feudalism languished.  High
rises the square tower, built as strotlgly of bricks as the Torre delle
Milizie in Rome, and it seems to belong to the same period.  It stands
close to a pool, which lies here like a Stygian marsh at the entrance to
the city of the dead.  Tall reeds surround it.  It is a mythic spot, as if
from the shadow-world of Eneas or Ulysses.  The gloomy tower and
other ruins fling their trembling reflection across the still water of the
marsh.  The reeds rustle sadly.  Sometimes the sobbing voice of a
water-hen is heard, like the souls of the departed, lwho dwell in this
Hades and yearn after the upper existence.  I sit on ruins and look into
this green spirit world, then up to the blue entrancing mountains, on
which stand the cyclopean stones of Norba and its citadel, then over the
Pontine marshes to the sea in the sunshine of evening, whence rises the
glittering Circean mount. Can the enchantress Circe have left her castle
there? Does she now dwell in Ninfa? Has she become the ivy-queen?
There is so much ivy here, it seemed to me as if this Ninfa must be the
ivy store-house of Italy, and as if the ivy spirits of history supplied all
the ruins of this noble country with creepers from this place.
" One must sit here when the evening floods every ruin of these ivy
halls first with purple, and then with gold, and steeps mountains, and
sea, and the Cape of Circe in unspeakable richness of colour-but I will
not speak of it, or describe how this fairy land appears, so soon as the
moon shines on it.
" Out of the pool rushes the spring Nymphaeus. It appears to take its
rise here, and suddenly brings a startling contrast of young, noisy life
into this green grave-world. For with the stormy force of a mountain
torrent it dashes past the ruins, as if urged on by demons, as if winged,
as if trying to escape from the deathly grasp of the ivy, and it looks like
a living creature, as, sparkling and foaming, it flees across the Pontine
marsh towards the sea.
"Near the pool it turns a mill, which has been erected in a building
of the middle ages, for part of this house keeps still its pillared gothic



240                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
roman windows. They say that there stood in olden times, by the spring
and the lake, a temple of the Nymphs, from which the town took its
name, and on the site of that Nymphaeum the church of St. Michael was
built. In the year 1216 Ugolino Conti founded here the church of S.
Maria del Mirteto-of the myrtle-grove.
"But the history of Ninfa is all very obscure. In the I2th century
the Frangipani possessed this town. At the end of the I3th century the
race of Gaetani got possession of Ninfa, and the descendants of that
famous house retain it to this day. The archives of the family in Rome
preserve many records which show how Pietro Gaetani, nephew of
Boniface VIII., Lateran Count Palatine and Count of Caserta, gradually
bought up the houses and possessions of Ninfa. I found there no deeds
of the I5th century. But an old record of 22 Feb., I349, is inscribed on
the now ruined baronial castle. It runs thus: Actum Nimphe in scalis
palatii Rocce Nimphe presente Nicolao Cillone Vicario Sculcule."Gregorovius.
Evening  closed  in  upon us at Ninfa; the low houses
turned purple against the sunset, and the lake became like
molten gold.  We hurried away from the fever.  It was too
late to ascend the mountain way again with its unguarded precipices, but another path led us along the foot of the hills
through the low-lying moorlands-parched and ugly at midday, but beautiful in the soft twilight, when each arum and
thistle, thickly diamonded with dew, sparkled and glittered
in the last gleams, and the figures of our party on their
mules stood out dark against the soft after-glow. And then,
as the bells of Cori were ringing the last strokes of the Ave
Maria, which serves as the summons for the peasants of the
Campagna to save themselves from the malaria in their high
mountain homes, we wound up to the town through the
ancient olive-groves, the most solemn thing in nature, and
looked  down  through  the gnarled stems  over the vast
marshes to the great Circean promontory engraven in black
upon a flaming sky.
From Cori a mountain road, which is described as most




ASCENT TO SEGNI.                  241.beautiful, leads through the Volscian forests to Segni.  We
took the railway thither from Ferentino.  The station is at
the bottom of the mountain called Monte Lepini, while the
town is at the top, and we had the discomfort of finding
that no omnibus met the train from  the south, and
having to wait until the great heat of the April day was over
before we could walk up.  However, we employed the time
in sketching two fine old castles near the railway, one of
them, Colleferro, now turned into farm-buildings, being
especially picturesque, its front formed by deeply recessed
arches. The ascent to Segni is most wild and rugged, and
the road wound along the mountain edge without any parapet beyond a fringe of Judas bushes just bursting into bloom
to be ready for the Good Friday close at hand, and with
tremendous precipices Below, rather alarming in a carriage.
Segni was the ancient Signia, colonized by Tarquinius Superbus as a restraint upon the inhabitants of the Volscian
and Hernican hills, and it is said that the name is derived
from the number of standards which he saw raised by the
inhabitants in his behalf against the people of Gabii. The
town is mentioned in the " Captives " of Plautus, where the
parasite and epicure Ergasilus swears in turn by Cora,
Preneste, Signia, Phrysinone, and Alatrium, and explains,
when asked by his host Hegio why he swears by foreign
cities, that they are just as disagreeable as the dinner he
is about to receive from him. Strabo and Pliny mention
the peculiar wine of Signia, as well as several of the
poets:
"Quos Cora, quos spumans immiti Signia musto,
Et quos pestifera Pomptini uligine campi."
Sil. Ital. viii. 380.
VOL. 1.                                   16




242              DAYS NEAR ROME.
"Potabis liquidum Signina morantia ventrem;
Ne nimium sistant, sit tua parca sitis."
Martial. xiii. Ep. I06..
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the popes
sought safety in the strongest towns of the Campagna,
Segni was frequently their residence. Eugenius III. fled
hither from the Roman Senate, and built a papal palace, in
II45; and here Alexander III., Lucius III., and Innocent
III. passed a considerable portion of their reigns in security. Segni was long a fief of the great family of Conti,
to which so many of the popes belonged, and it disputes
with Anagni the honour of having been the birthplace of
Innocent III. In I353 the head of the house of Conti was
Podesta, and afterwards Vicar in the name of the Pope.
After the Conti had died out, and Segni had passed into the
hands of Mario Sforza, Sixtus V. created it a Duchy. On
the I3th of August, I557, the place was taken and almost
totally destroyed by the Duke of Alba, and it is owing to
this that so few gothic buildings remain. The town was rebuilt, and was given as a duchy by Urban VIII. to his
nephew, Cardinal Antonio Barberini. A long lawsuit which
followed between the Barberini and the Sforza, the former
lords of Segni, was only decided at the end of the last century in honour of the Sforza-Cesarini, who are still Dukes
of Segni.
The town is surrounded on all sides by steep rocks,
except where apasseggiata bordered by trees, with splendid
views of valley and mountains, leads to the one gate,
the Porta Maggiore. This gate rests against the Cyclopean
walls, and over it are the remains of the baronial castle of
the Conti, in which, as in many other buildings here, the




WALLS OF SEGNL                    243
curious style of construction may be observed, which is
frequently spoken of in old documents about other places as
"Signino opere," and which consists of alternate layers of
bricks and the dark lime-stone of the country.
All those who visit Segni should turn at once to the right
after entering the gate (there is a poor inn where a tolerable
meal may be obtained), and make the circuit of the Pelasgic
walls which give the place its chief interest.  They are
formed by masses of rock jammed into one another, and
though of no great height, almost surround the existing
town, and are among the most extensive in Italy. In some
places they are most picturesque, especially where a tall
cross crowns the huge pile of stones, and stands out against
the vast expanse of distance, for you look across the great
-. —?r  z.-                 i-'
From the Walls of Segni.
depths to billow upon billow of purple Hernican hills, and




244                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
beyond  these upon all the ranges of the Abruzzi, still, in
April, covered with snow.  The church of S. Pietro, built
quite  at the end  of the fortifications, is another striking
point.
" When I reached this spot where the cyclopean citadel of the Vol.
scians stood in hoary antiquity on the lofty heights, the magnificence of
the situation took me by surprise; it reminded me of the Acropolis of
some Sicilian mountain town. Here, on a height overlooking all Latium,
stood the citadel and temple of ancient Signia, of which but few
vestiges remain, among them a large circular cistern near the Seminary.
The townspeople have here one of their favourite promenades; they
walk about there on the cyclopean walls of the highest plateaux of the
mountain, as if round a great stone table, among the grey blocks' of
stone overgrown with moss and wild flowers. One can imagine nothing
more original than this promenade in the cloud-region, amid this grand
rock scenery. Among the promenaders I saw, as it was a Sunday, many
a gaily decked young lady in silk attire parading up and down, while,
immediately below, the mountain fell sheer away in a precipice, and
Latium lay extended below. The eye reaches over a wide-spread picture
of provinces with their innumerable mountains and cities, each of
which is full of its own historical or mythical memories. For the panorama extends from  Rome, visible in the plain, to Arpino, Cicero's
paternal city, which stands out among the far blue mountains of the
Neapolitan kingdom.
" The air up here is fresh, almost sharp. The brown grasses on the
masses of rock, the wild roses, and the golden broom wave to and fro in
it. The very spirit of antiquity and of the primaeval wilderness, of a
great, mighty, pre-historic age, seems to brood on these storm-worn
cyclopean stones.
"I scrambled further over the rocks, to reach the famous cyclopean
walls. As in all the Latin cities, their long lines girdle the actual Arx
or citadel, and sink away sheer down the precipice. The arrangement
of their unhewn stones is as perfectly preserved as if the builder had
been at work but yesterday: here and there they are pierced by a small
door of Etruscan appearance. At the end of one great line of wall there
still stands the great cyclopean gate, in use at the present day.  It is
built of massive, almost square blocks, in such a manner that the two
side walls lean towards each other till the angle is cut off by the stone
which forms the lintel.
"The hugeness of these grey walls, weather-stained by thousands of




CA THEDRAL OF SEGAI.                      245
years, the wild growth of plants clinging to them, the mighty strength oi
the mountain on which the giant fabric rests, and the grandeur of nature
which surrounds it, all combine to bring the mind into a state of feeling
impossible to describe.
" When I had passed through that gate, the rocky path led me deep
down the other side of the wall of mountain, so that the view of Latium
was lost. Below I found another and far larger circular cistern hewn in
the rock, of at least 30 feet in diameter. In its broad rocky margin many
basins are scooped out, in which the women of Segni still do their washing. In all the Volscian towns I have found such ancient and perfectly
preserved cisterns: they seem to be peculiar to that neighbourhood, as
I do not remember ever to have met with them elsewhere in Latium of
this size and shape."-Gregorovius.
The streets of Segni have little interest.  In its piazza is
the  modernized  Cathedral, having few  memorials of a
bishopric which dates from 499. It contains however two
remarkable statues-one is that of St. Vitalian, a native of
Segni, Pope from  657 to 672, the feeble though canonized
pontiff who received the Emperor Constans II. at Rome,
and allowed him to carry off to Constantinople so many of
its treasures, including the bronze roof of the Pantheon.
Nevertheless he deserves honour for having been in some
respects, with Wilfrid, the apostle of England, and, having
been the Pope who sent the Greek Archbishop Theodore
to Canterbury.  The statue was placed here in I721, and
taken from  the image on his coins.  Its inscription ends:
"Signia gave me to Rome: Rome gave me the tiara.
Signia divides with Rome the honours of my rule."
"The other statue, also of indifferent execution, stands opposite that
of St. Vitalian. Bruno, a native of Asti, in Piedmont, came to Rome,
recommended to Gregory VII., and was afterwards made Bishop of
Segni by Urban II. In defiance of the Canon, he abandoned his episcopal seat and went to Monte Cassino, where the Abbot Oderisius
received him among the Benedictines. Although Pascal II. ordered the
truant to return to his diocese, he remained at Monte Cassino, was




246                 DA YS NEAR ROMIE.
there chosen Abbot, and in the leisure of the cloister composed his
exegetical writings.
"Not long after, Bruno played a part at Rome.  It is well known that
in the sequel of the strife about investiture, Pope Pascal was taken
prisoner by the Emperor Henry V., and compelled to issue a Bull by
which he yielded to the Emperor the contested right of spiritual investiture. After his release, when Henry had returned to Germany, Cardinals and Bishops beset Pascal with entreaties to revoke the Bull thus
wrung from him, and to break his oath; among these fanatics the most
zealous was Bruno.  His vehemence angered Pascal, who thereupon
forbade him to be at the same time Bishop and Abbot. So Bruno laid
down his office at Monte Cassino, and returned to Segni, where he died
in II23.  He was canonized in I183.
" It was Lord Ellis, also both Abbot of Monte Cassino and Bishop of
Segni, who raised this monument to his predecessor. But the Church
of Segni has another and more remarkable connection with distant
England; for it was in a synod of bishops of the Campagna held here
in I 73, that Thomas a Becket was canonized shortly after his murder.
This is recorded by an inscription in the Cathedral.
"Lord Ellis became Bishop of Segni in I708.  He restored the
Cathedral, and bequeathed to the town a seminary, its best memorial of
him. Pupils come to it from all parts of Latium; they wear a priestly
garb, although not necessarily intended for Holy Orders. The seminary
stands near the Church of St. Pietro."-Gregornovius.
Nothing can be more kind than the reception which the
inhabitants of Segni give to strangers. The women here
wear a different costume to those in the towns on the other
side of the valley.  They have no panni, but a large silver
bodkin fastens up their hair, and their bodices, usually
green, are laced behind instead of in front. Almost all the
natives are proprietors in the country on a very small scale,
and though little can be grown in these lofty uplands, the
vineyards, oliveyards, and fruit-gardens are very productive.
The most excellent cherries and peaches abound; and the
woods supply chestnuts for a coarse bread which is considered very nourishing, and abundant acorns for the maintenance of the black pigs which are fed here in vast numbers.




E VENING A T SEGNL                 247
It is most amusing to see the return of the country-people
at sunset when they return home from their fields, thousands
The Inhabitants of Segni returning from the Country.
at a time, streaming along the terrace in front of the gateway,
and up the steep streets into the upper town, each accompanied by his domestic animals-his donkeys, his goats, or
his pet pigs, which come frisking behind their masters in the
most diverting manner, for all share their homes with them.
Then the whole street is blocked up for a time, and the
cries, the shouts, the braying, the barking, and, above all,
the squeaking and grunting, baffle all description.




CHAPTER XVI.
THE HERNICAN HILLS-FERENTINO, ALATRI,
AND ANAGNI.
%Ty^   ^ ^    HIS is one of the most interesting excursions near Rome,
A. C, -    m1    and is perhaps the one which
is least known, though it is now
U i^1 ^,!~   ~rendered very easy by the railway.  To accomplish  it, one
must leave Rome by the first
train at eight A.M., and it must
be remembered, that that train
Xt I Blh^\~ alone is met by the omnibus
Til\1 1  from Segni, Anagni, Ferentino,
and other places on the route,
At Ferentino.    but distant several miles from the
railway; and that if any other train is chosen, the traveller
will find himself deposited at a small country station in a
desolate district, without any further means of progress.
For the same reason it will be best to visit the nearest places
first, taking up the same train at the different stations. Any
one who is delicate about food, had better take it with them
from Rome, or at any rate some tea and coffee. Meat can
scarcely ever be obtained in the mountain towns, but eggs,




EARL Y MORNING IN THE CAMPAGNA.               249
goats' milk, and excellent coarse bread are always to be
found there, and often macaroni also, with the thin sour
wine of the hill districts. The inns are mere taverns, often
approached by filthy alleys, but the people are always civil,
the linen clean, and the beds sufficiently comfortable to be
appreciated by a tired traveller, whose appetite, strengthened
by the fresh mountain air, will also be quite ready for the
humble fare of the place. The charges are those of an Italy
unspoilt by English and Americans; one franc for bed, two
francs for dinner, and forty centimes for breakfast, are not
unusual prices. It is quite unnecessary to bargain, and will
only create surprise and discomfort.
Those who have not been accustomed to it in Rome, will
learn on this excursion how much beauty and pleasure are
lost by want of early rising. The most delicate hues and
shadows do not last for many hours after sunrise. When we
have emerged from the unfinished station, and traversed the
vineyards and kitchen-gardens within the walls of Rome, we
are astonished by the colouring of the pale pink precipices
in the familiar range of the Sabina, as they melt into a silver
haze.  Here and there a projecting cliff can be distinguished,
in the rest all form is lost in colour; Monticelli and S.
Angelo glitter on their hill-tops, and the long flat lines of
the Campagna are tinged with peacock hues, as the blue
cloud-shadows flit across them. In the foreground the rank
vegetation of thistles, marigolds, and lupins, grows together
so vigorously, that you seem to see them sucking their strong
life out of the rich brown earth. On the other side, we have
first the striding aqueducts, tinged on their inner edge by the
dazzling sunlight, and then the long line of ruined tombs,
which traces out the Appian Way against the low-lying




250              DA YS NEAR ROME.
horizon. Soon the train rushes across the sepulchral road of
so many memories, and over the stones which we know were
once trodden by the sandalled feet of St. Paul,-and so into
the upland, to olive-gardens, whose silvery stems glisten
against the brilliant green of the young corn, to dark cypress
groves and pine-trees on the edge of terraced villas, and to
fields divided by hedges of the graceful Spina Christi, the
hallowed plant, said to have been brought to Italy by the
returning crusaders, and to have come from the seed of the
tree on Calvary, whence the sacred crown was woven. Thus
we wind round the base of the green slopes encircling Monte
Cavo, from which Castel Gandolfo looks down upon the
Alban lake, and reach the station of Albano. Beyond this,
upon the right, we overlook a plain historical with the sites
of Pratica, Ardea, Antium, and Astura, to a wide expanse of
blue sea. On the left -Civita Lavinia rises with its tower on
a fortified height; then Velletri with its orange roofs and
wooded hills riven into gulfs of verdure; and then we enter
a wilder and less wooded country, the valley of the Saccoa plain alternately narrow and wide; a very definite plain
indeed, closed in by the Hernican hills on one side, and the
Volscian mountains on the other, which rise abruptly out of
it with rocky buttresses.
An omnibus met us at the Fe entino station, and took us
the three miles up into the town, through a country where
the most remarkable feature was the faggots, stacked high up
in the maple-trees, pollarded for the purpose.
We found tolerable rooms at the little inn, and almost
immediately set off in the omnibus again for Alafri. It is
a long drive (much longer than Murray describes) of about
two hours; you skirt the base of the Hernican mountains,
and cross many running streams:




ALA TRI.                        251
" Roscida rivis
Hernica Saxa colunt."
/En. vii. 683.
You are beginning to wonder where Alatri can be, when
you see its huge Cyclopean walls rising against the sky at
the end of a valley upon the left, and forming a terrace fit
for Titans to walk upon, an architectural Stonehenge. The
modern road winds into the town by a gradual ascent. The
ancient approach is the earliest instance of a cordonnata, a
hill-side broken by steps, such as the approach to the Roman
Capitol.  The streets are full of mediaeval houses, with
gothic windows and loggias; and the two ancient churches
have each a fine rose-window in the west front. But towering high above the buildings of all later ages are the Cyclopean walls of the Pelasgic city, forming a quadrangle, and
quite perfect, as if they were finished yesterday: for though
the stones are fitted together without cement, each is like a
mass of rock, and the arched form of their fitting adds to
their firmness. One of the ancient gates remains under a
single horizontal stone measuring eighteen feet by nine.
The figure of the Pelasgic god Priapus is repeatedly sculptured on the walls, and it has long been a semi-religious
custom for the inhabitants to go out en masse to mutilate it
on Easter Monday.  The place is mentioned by Plautus,
under the Greek form AXcrptov: Strabo calls it AX-rptov.
"Alatri, like Ferentino, was surrounded with walls, but the circle
round the town has been almost entirely destroyed, and only the walls
of the citadel remain, an astonishing monument of that period of civilization, and without parallel amongst the towns of Latium, so that to see
so wonderful, so unparalleled a work, which may be compared with the
buildings of Egypt, is well worth a fatiguing day's journey.
"The old citadel of Alatri (it is now called' Civita'-the town, by
itself) occupies the highest point in the place, and is now the site of the
cathedral, for here, as at Ferentino, the bishopric has nestled within the




252                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
old fortress. And this hill, on the broad flat surface of which is the
cathedral, is surrounded, supported, and surmounted by Cyclopean
walls reaching to a height of from eighty to a hundred feet. When I
saw and I walked round these constructions, of black Titanic stonework, to which the eye looks up with astonishment, so well preserved
that they seem as if their age might be reckoned not by thousands of
years but by years, I was impelled to much greater admiration of human
power than the sight of the Coliseum of Rome had inspired.  For in
times of advanced civilization, with many complete mechanical appliances, amphitheatres or public baths like those of Caracalla or
Constantine might be piled up, without imputing anything extraordinary
to the strength of man; and even the walls of Dionysius of Syracuse,
the grandest of such creations which I had yet seen, do not make an
equal impression. But here we see before us walls, each stone of which
is not a buge square but a block of irregular shape, many-sided, hewn
out of the rock; and if we ask in wonder by what mechanical means
such huge masses of rock could be lifted up and piled one upon another,
still less can we understand how it was possible to arrange the manycornered blocks so artistically that they fit into one another exactly
without leaving spaces to be filled up, and form a complete gigantic
mosaic.
" Tradition ascribes this species of ancient Latin buildings to the time
of Saturn, and so places them altogether before the time of historical
civilization; but scientific research, which occupies itself so much with
Indo-Germanic and Pelasgic races in Italy, is forced to confess that it
knows. nothing of the nations which piled up these works. Their appearance shows that the race of men which built such walls must have
possessed already a considerable material civilization and well-ordered
political arrangements. As these Cyclopean towns are found near one
another, and scattered over the whole of Latium, it follows that in this
country a great number of independent republics or states were established in very ancient times, whose connection with one another we do
not know.  But such immense fortifications imply constant war between
the different towns, and particularly a predatory, unsafe, and isolated
state of life. To bring the strength of the men into a suitable proportion to the colossal dimensions of the works, one must imagine those who
erected them, or who came as enemies to storm  them, to have been
regular giants. But these erections only point to that colossal period
with which the civilization of men in all nations and in all parts of the
world begins, till it gradually rises from the materially sublime to the
representation of things pleasing and beautiful, which more perfect
means render possible. Altogether these Cyclopean works should not




CITADEL OF ALA TR.                      253
be placed in too dark a time; perhaps some of them may have been
built in Latium after Rome was founded, and the step from this manycornered style of building to the hardly less colossal square stone walls
of the Etruscans and Romans is by no means a long one.
" Out of the walls of this Capitol of the ancient Alatri led a principal
gate which exists still, an enormous erection made of horizontal stones;
besides this there is also a smaller entrance, and three square niches in
the south wall lead to the conclusion that images of gods may have been
set up there, while at the same time Cyclopean remains in the middle of
the castle may with some probability be held to be the public altar on
which festive sacrifices were offered.
"Till the year 1843 these walls were half buried under ruins and
creepers, and no road led round them. A visit of Gregory XVI. inspired the Alatrians with the happy thought of cleaning and clearing out
such unparalleled monuments of the remotest antiquity; so 2000 men
worked for ten days at removing the rubbish, and thus the Acropolis
was not only laid bare again but surrounded with a road called Via
Gregoriana, by which one can walk round it comfortably. Then too
the great gate was dug out, and the ascent to the plateau re-opened.
This broad flat space is only surrounded by a stone bulwark, which rises
above the Cyclopean wall, and as it contains no building but the cathedral, it admits a most charming view of the mountain scenery. And
indeed the beautiful surroundings make such an enchanting picture, that
I will not attempt to describe it in words, or even to indicate the lines
of the mountains which rise from Elysian fields to the sunny blue above.
In the perfect stillness and indeed deserted condition of this strange
scene of remote civilization, the impression of the sublime is doubly
effective."- Gregorovius.
Within the precincts of the Pelasgic fortress stands the
Cathedral. It only dates from the last century, though the
see was created in A.D. 55; but it is a conspicuous feature
in all distant views of the town. A finer church is that of S.
Maria Maggiore, which has three gothic portals in its west
front, and a fine rose-window above them. The mouldings
are richly ornamented  with acanthus.   It had  formerly
two towers, but only one remains.  The interior is completely  modernized.  From  the heights overhanging  the
Cyclopean walls are  wild  views over the Volscian and




'254             DA YS NEAR ROME.
Hernican hills, the most prominent feature being a bare
mountain, crowned by a little town and a grove of cypresses.
This is Fumone, the scene of the imprisonment and death of
the abdicated hermit-Pope, Celestine V., immured here by.
the jealousy of his successor, Boniface VIII., though the
next Pope, Clement V., enrolled him amongst the saints.
In old days Fumone was carefully watched, for its lord had
feudal rights over all the surrounding country, and, when he
wished to summon his vassals, either in defence or attack,
he lighted a bonfire on his hill-top, whence the proverb,"Quando Fumone fuma, tutta la campagna trema."  The
N,     ('" I           -                     I' -"  
Cyclopean Gate of Alatri.
people of Alatri are magnificently handsome, and as the
women come down the steep stairs under the great gateway,




FROM ALATRI TO FERE.ATINO.               255
with their flowing veils, their rich costume, and their gleaming brass conche poised upon their stately heads, they are
wonderfully in keeping with the scene.
The drive back from Alatri to Ferentino in the gloaming
of one of the most beautiful days in the beginning of April,
gave us a perfect succession of charming pictures, not only of
landscape-though that was beautiful exceedingly in the still
late light-but of herdsmen in their closely-fitting blue dress,
with their guiding-poles over their shoulders, following great
grey oxen down the hollow ways between the red earth and
bright young grass, and singing as they went; and of women
Inn at Ferentino.
in white dresses, with snow-white panni folded over their
dark hair, large gold earrings, and embroidered aprons,
sometimes coming up from wayside fountains with the great
brazen vessels of water, which one sees here everywhere,




256              DA YS NEAR ROME.
poised upon their heads, like beautiful Greek Caryatides.
And our evening was a perfectly Italian one-seated in the
brick-floored, wall-painted room, lighted by Italian lamps
with three burners and hanging chains, and waited on by a
gaily-jewelled hostess, who had nothing to offer but eggs
and salad.
Another beautiful morning found us quite rested, and up
at six to enjoy the early light glinting through the old olivetrees under our window, and the distant views of rosy peaks
fading fainter into a misty plain. Then we set off to explore
the town, the ancient Ferentinum, up the steep dark street,
all balconies, and loggias, and Gothic windows, with plenty
of dirt beneath, and only a strip of opal sky lighting it up at
the end.  On the steepest part of the hill is the Church of St
Valentine, with a very curious porch, whose canopy is formed
by a projecting apse. A little further is S. Francesco, with
strange bas-reliefs in its little fore-court. Hence the Via
dell' Antico Acropole, a street full of long steep staircases,
beloved by artists, leads up to a terrace under Cyclopean
walls of huge stones, something like those of Alatri. The
dark passage caverned under these walls emerges close to
the Duomo (SS. Giovanni e Paolo), which, externally, has
much of its Lombard architecture remaining; and, within,
a splendid opus-alexandrinum pavement, mended with fragments of sculptured marble-work, and a glorious twisted
mosaic pillar nearly the whole height of the church, secured
against the wall by iron clamps. Behind the church is the
bishop's palace, with a stately old staircase guarded by
marble lions.
A crowded street, where old women, like the Fates of
Michael Angelo, sit spinning in their doorways, surrounded




FERENTINO.                       257
by their domestic circles of goats, cats, dogs, and pigs, all
joining vociferously in the conversation, leads to the lower
Z!
Bishop's Staircase, Ferentino.
town.  The stone used as the font in the little church of St
Giovanni Evangelista has an inscription from the inhabitants
of Ferentinum to Cornelia Salonina, wife of the " unconquered
Gallienus."  From  the piazza, where a number of Roman
altars are collected, we have a magnificent view over mountain and plain.  Hence, also, one may learn, by looking
down, to find one's way through the intricate maze of filthy
alleys, many of which have such stately names as Via dell'
Atreo, Vicolo dei Bagni de Flavio, Vicolo del Calidario,
&c., to the finest of the churches, Sta. Maria Maggiore,
which, in its beautiful west front, has a door with detached
red marble columns banded together, and above it the
VOL. I.                                       17




258                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
emblems of the Evangelists on either side of the Lamb of
God, and a grand rose window.
S. Maria Maggiore, Ferentino.
Old Italian histories assert that S. Maria Salome, the
reputed mother of S. John the Evangelist, was buried at
Ferentino, "as is attested by the archives in the cathedral
of Veroli."
Near the gate close to this church an inscription hewn in
the solid rock records the erection of a statue by the grateful
people of Ferentinum to Quinctilius Priscus, who, amongst
other largesses, gave them crustula and mulsum (cakes and
mead) upon his birth-day, with sportzulb (presents of money)
for the decurions, and nucum sparsiones (scrambles of nuts)
for the boys.
"The pride of Ferentino, amongst its antiquities, is the so-called'Testament.' With difficulty I climbed over rocks and through the
brambles in a vineyard to reach this curiosity, and at last I saw before
me a great table hewn in the living rock. A long inscription in wellcut characters tells here that Aulus Quinctilius, Quatuorvir and AEdile,
was the benefactor of his native town, bequeathing to it all his
property by will, for which the town gratefully honoured him by placing
his statue publicly on the Forum."- Gregorovius.
Another public carriage met us at the station for Anagni,




ANA GA.                          259
the ancient Anagnia, the capital of the Hernicans, and one
)f the five Saturnian cities whose names begin with the first
Letters of the alphabet-Anagni, Alatri, Arpino, Arca, and
Atino.  The town clings to terraces on the bare side of the
Hernican  hills, with  the most splendid  views in  every
direction.   Its streets perfectly abound  in  quaint architectural fragments, griffins, lions, open loggias, outside staircases, trefoiled windows, and great arched doorways, and
still remind one of the expression "municipium  ornatissimum," which Cicero, in his defence of Milo, applies to this
town.  Virgil also speaks of its riches:"Quos, dives Anagnia, pascis."
The centre of life here, as in all the mountain towns, is
the piazza, where groups of brilliantly-dressed peasants, the
women all wearing panni again, stand gossipping round the
fountain, poising their brazen conche meanwhile upon its
marble ledges.  The men lie basking in the sunshine along
the stone ledges of the terrace, for here only three sides of
the piazza are surrounded with houses, the fourth is open
towards the valley and the mountains.
" From this piazza the view is so beautiful, that it enchants even those
who have seen all Italy from the Alps to the African and Ionian sea.
Immediately opposite rise the Volscian hills, whose sunny heights are
so distinctly seen that the windows in the houses can be distinguished.
Everywhere Volscian towns catch the eye, as they follow one another
along the hills.  Monte Fortino, the celebrated Segni, Gavignano,
Rocca Gorga, Scurgola; then Morolo, Supino, Patrica, behind which
the tall pyramid of Monte Cacume rises blue and beautiful. Further
still are peak after peak; then more towns; here Ferentino on a hill;
there Frosinone, whose citadel even is visible, and Arnara, Posi,
Ceccano, and many other places which the eye can discover. Towards
Rome extends a large plain bounded by the mountains of Palestrina,
which is itself visible in the far distance. The Latin hills also appear,
and thus the view embraces a large part of Latium."-Gregorovius.




260               DA YS NEAR ROME.
Beyond the piazza, on the left, open the huge round arches
of the portico of the old Papal palace. Little that is curious
Papal Palace, Anagni.
remains in the interior; yet in these rooms William  of
Nogaret insulted the mighty Boniface  VIII., and  imprisoned him in his own palace, when " the fleur-de-lis was
seen in Anagni." Here, also, Innocent III., Gregory IX.,
and Alexander IV., held their courts in the thirteenth
century, all born here, and all sprung from native families,
and once canons of the cathedral.  Behind the palace a
fragment of a beautiful Gothic loggia of the time of Boniface
remains; part of the interior is now used as a theatre.
There is not a book-shop in Anagni, and we could find no
one, not even the sacristan of the cathedral, who knew
anything whatever of its history. The utmost they could
tell, was that "Bonifazio" had lived there, that his statue




CATHEDRAL OF ANAGNI.                   261
stood on their walls, and that Dante had written of himwhat, or who he was, they were quite ignorant of.
Entrance to the Cathedral, Anagni.
It is a very short distance up the hill to the Catheiral
(Sta. Maria), which is the most interesting mediaval building
in this part of Italy, except the convent of Subiaco. The
see dates from  A.D. 487.  On the wall, above what was
once the great south entrance, Boniface VIII. sits aloft, in
robes and tiara, in his throne of state.  Over his head,
blazoned in gold and mosaic, are the illustrious alliances of




262                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
the Gaetani before his time. The steps beneath this statue,
which must have had a magnificent effect in the open space,
as seen from the valley beneath, were destroyed thirty years
ago by a certain Marchese (even his name seems to be
forgotten), and the present entrance is by the north, where
a quaint winding staircase leads into a dark gallery, lined
with curious old frescoes and inscriptions, and so into the
cathedral.
"The cathedral of Anagni, though several times renovated by the
bishops of the town and by the popes, still retains its original GothicRoman character. The fa;ade is of rude architecture; it terminates in
an obtuse-angled gable, the triangle of which is cut off by a simple
cornice. In it is an arched, unornamented window, beneath which is a
large square one, evidently of a later date. The door (there is only one)
has a cornice in very bad taste, formed of different blocks of stone
patched together, and ornamented with heads of oxen and lions, the rude
work of the middle ages. Two pillars are built into the wall, with the
capitals joined together, without any visible object, and very unsymmetrically too, asthey are only on one side of the door. Over the door is
a round arch adorned with simple arabesques. The masonry is throughout of the black limestone from the neighbouring mountains. One can
see that the facade still retains its original form, and has only been restored at a later period in a hurry, when absolutely necessary."Gregorovius.
The interior is far more picturesque than beautiful. In
the lofty choir is a grand pascal candlestick, supported by a
crouching figure. Portraits of all the popes connected with
Anagni hang over the throne and stalls. The whole pavement of the church is of the most splendid opus alexandrinum, though much decayed, and in the choir it reaches a
degree of minuteness and perfection like delicate jewellers'
work.  Here, on the Maundy Thursday of II60, Alexander
III. stood to curse the great Emperor Barbarossa. Here
Innocent III. read aloud the bull which excommunicated




ASSOCIA TIONS OF ANAGNI.                    263
Frederick II., and on this same spot Alexander IV. banished
the young Manfred.  Here also the cardinals elected Innocent IV., after they had received the furious letter of the
Emperor Frederick II., calling them "sons of Belial." In
this church also (September 7, I303) Boniface VIII. knelt
at the altar in his pontifical robes, when the French, prompted
by his hereditary enemies, the Colonnas, had forced the
gates of the town, and burst into the streets, crying, "Vive
le roi de France, et meure Boniface."
" The Pope had retired, as usual, from the summer heat to his native
city, Anagni. Here he seemed, as it were, to pause, to be gathering up
his strength to launch the last crushing thunders upon the head of the
contumacious king of France.  The Bull of excommunication was
ordered to be suspended in the porch of the cathedral of Anagni. The
8th of September was to be the fatal day.
" On a sudden, on the 7th of September, the peaceful streets of
Anagni were disturbed. The Pope and the Cardinals, who were all
assembled around him, were startled with the trampling of armed horse,
and the terrible cry, which ran like wild-fire through the city,'Death
to Pope Boniface! Long live the King of France!' Sciarra Colonna,
at the head of three hundred horsemen, the Barons of Ceccano and
Supino, and some others, the sons of Master Massio of Anagni, were
marching in furious haste, with the banner of the King of France displayed. The ungrateful citizens of Anagni, forgetful of their pride in
their holy compatriot, of the honour and advantage to their town from
the splendour and wealth of the Papal residence, received them with
rebellious and acclaiming shouts.
"The bell of the city, indeed, had tolled at the first alarm; the
burghers had assembled; they had chosen their commander; but that
commander, whom they ignorantly or treacherously chose, was Arnulf,
a deadly enemy of the Pope. The banner of the Church was unfolded
against the Pope by the captain of the people of Anagni. The first
attack was on the palace of the Pope, on that of the Marquis Gaetani,
his nephew, and those of three Cardinals, the special partisans of Boniface. The houses of the Pope and of his nephew made some resistance.
The doors of those of the Cardinals were beaten down, the treasures
ransacked and carried off; the Cardinals themselves fled from the backs
of the houses through the common sewer. The Pope and his nephew




264                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
implored a truce; it was granted for eight hours. This time the Pope
employed in endeavouring to stir up the people to his defence: the
people answered coldly that they were under the command of their
captain. The Pope demanded the terms of the conspirators.' If the
Pope would save his life, let him instantly restore the Colonna Cardinals
to their dignity, and reinstate the whole house in their honours and
possessions; after this restoration the Pope must abdicate, and leave his
body at the disposal of Sciarra.' The Pope groaned in the depth of his
heart.'The word is spoken.' Again the assailants thundered at the
gates of the palace; still there was obstinate resistance.  The principal
church of Anagni, that of Santa Maria, protected the Pope's palace.
Sciarra Colonna's lawless band set fire to the gates; the church was
crowded with clergy and laity, and traders who had brought their
precious wares into the sacred building. They were plundered with
such rapacity that not a man escaped with a farthing.
"The Marquis Gaetani found himself compelled to surrender, on the
condition that his own life, that of his family, and of his servants,
should be spared. At these sad tidings the Pope wept bitterly. The
Pope was alone; from the first the Cardinals, some from treachery,
some from  cowardice, had fled on all sides, even his most familiar
friends: they had crept into the most ignoble hiding-places. The aged
Pontiff alone lost not his self-command. He had declared himself ready
to perish in his glorious cause; he determined to fall with dignity.' If
I am betrayed like Christ, I am ready to die like Christ.' He put on
the stole of S. Peter, the imperial crown was on his head, the keys of S.
Peter in one hand and the cross in the other: he took his seat on the
Papal throne, and, like the Roman senators of old, awaited the approach
of the Gaul.
" But the pride and cruelty of Boniface had raised and infixed deep
in the hearts of men passions which acknowledged no awe of age, of
intrepidity, or religious majesty. In William of Nogaret the blood of
his Tolosan ancestors, in Colonna the wrongs, the degradation, the
beggary, the exile of all his house, had extinguished every feeling but
revenge.  They insulted him  with contumacious reproaches; they
menaced his life. The Pope answered not a word. They insisted that
he should at once abdicate the Papacy.'Behold my neck, behold my
head,' was the only reply.
"The Pope was placed under close custody, not one of his own
attendants permitted to approach him. Worse indignities awaited him.
He was set on a vicious horse, with his face to the tail, and so led
through the town to his place of imprisonment.  The palaces of the
Pope and of his nephew were plundered; so vast was the wealth, that




POPE BONIFACE  VIII.                      265
the annual revenues of all the kings in the world would not have been
equal to the treasures found and carried off by Sciarra's freebooting
soldiers.  His very private chamber was ransacked; nothing left but
bare walls.
" At length the people of Anagni could no longer bear the insult and
the sufferings heaped upon their illustrious fellow-citizen. They rose in
irresistible insurrection, drove out the soldiers by whom they had been
over-awed, now gorged with plunder, and doubtless not unwilling to
withdraw. The Pope was rescued, and led out into the street, where
the old man addressed a few words to the people:'Good men and
women, ye see how mine enemies have come upon me, and plundered
my goods, and those of the Church, and of the poor. Not a morsel of
bread have I eaten, not a drop have I drunk, since my capture. I am
almost dead with hunger. If any good woman will give me a piece of
bread and a cup of wine,-if she has no wine, a little water,-I will
absolve her; and any one who will give me their alms, from all their
sins.' The compassionate rabble burst into a cry,' Long life to the
Pope!' They carried him back to his naked palace. They crowded,
the women especially, with provisions, bread, meat, water, and wine.
They could not find a single vessel: they poured a supply of water into
a chest. The Pope proclaimed a general absolution to all except the
plunderers of his palace. He even declared that he wished to be at peace
with the Colonnas and all his enemies. This perhaps was to disguise his
intention of retiring, as soon as he could, to Rome.
"The Romans had heard with indignation the sacrilegious attack on
the person of the Supreme Pontiff. Four hundred horse, under Matteo
and Gaetano Orsini, were sent to conduct him to the city. He entered it
almost in triumph; the populace welcomed him with every demonstration of joy. But the awe of his greatness was gone; the spell of his
dominion over the minds of men was broken.
"The religious mind of Christendom  was at once perplexed and
horror-stricken by the sacrilegious violence on the person of the Supreme
Pontiff: it shocked some even of the sternest Ghibellines. Dante, who
brands the pride, the avarice, the treachery of Boniface in his most
terrible words, and has consigned him to the direst doom, nevertheless
expresses the almost universal feeling.  Christendom'shuddered to
behold the Fleur-de-lis enter into Anagni, and Christ again captive in
his Vicar, the mockery, the gall and vinegar, the crucifixion between
robbers, the insolent and sacrilegious cruelty of the second Pilate.'"
— Milman's Hist. of Latin Christianity.
" Veggio in Alagna entrar lo fiordaliso,
E nel vicario suo Cristo esser catto;




266                DAYS NEAR ROME.
Veggiolo un' altra volta esser deriso,
Veggio rinnovellar l'aceto e'1 fele,
E tra vivi ladroni esser anciso.
Veggio' nuovo Pilato si crudele,
Che cio nol sazia, ma, senza decreto,
Porta nel tempio le cupide vele."-Purgatorio, xx. 89.
Two chapels on the left of the cathedral nave are filled
with Gaetani memorials.  In one is a Greek inscription.
In the other is a painting of the Madonna, of 1322, and the
grand mosaic tomb wrought by the Cosmati (" magister
Cosmas, civis Romanus, cum filiis suis Luca et Jacopo "),
known as "II sepolcro della famiglia di Bonifazio."  It
bears in Latin the inscription:
" Whoever thou art who directest thy steps to this venerable church,
know at once the founders of all its glories. Peter the Bishop founded
it with great effort, whom noble Salerno reared and gave to us. May the
only Son of the Supreme Father have mercy on him."
In the sacristy are preserved some curious copes, and the
croziers of Innocent III. and Boniface VIII. The crypt is
given up to the especial saints of Anagni, who are numerous,
and whose story, in a series of very early frescoes, occupies
the walls. The south altar is devoted to Santa Oliva, whose
bones and head are shown  in a glass case beneath  her
statue.  Opposite her is St. Magnus, bishop and martyr,
who is represented above seated between two virgin saints.
Beneath another altar are the martyrs Secunda, Aurelia, and
Neonissa. In the tribune, which has a magnificent pavement, is the papal throne, and over it, in ancient fresco, the
whole story of the Apocalypse-the seven candlesticks, the
seven churches, the twenty-four elders in adoration of the
spotless Lamb, &c., and, in the centre, above the altar, the
Redeemer seated on a rainbow, with the two-edged sword
proceeding out of his mouth.




A CUTO.                     267
The tall Romanesque tower of the Cathedral is not joined
to the rest of the building, but stands alone upon a little
green platform at the west end of the church. Hence there
is a grand view over the valley, but to Roman Catholics a
more interesting feature will be the knot of brown buildings
on the barren side of the mountain, about six miles above
Anagni; for this is Acuto, where the recently founded but
ever-increasing order of the Precious Blood had its origin,
and where its foundress, Maria de Matthias, lived till her
death in August, i866. The story of her vocation is quite
as romantic and curious as that of any old saintly legend,
and that of her founding here a large sisterhood and school
which she supported by faith and prayer, without any definite sources of assistance, in the same way in which the
immense institutions of the Protestant Muller are carried on
at Clifton. Of her extraordinary influence on the surrounding districts, no one who has visited them can have a doubt,
or of the power of her sermons, which were simple discourses
of loving practical Christianity, such as Miss Marsh might
have delivered.  When she was likely to preach thousands
flocked to hear her, and when she appeared, a silence fell
upon the crowd, with the whisper, " Hush, the great mother
is going to speak to us."




CHAPTER XVII.
PALESTRINA.
(Palestrina is about 27 miles from Rome by way of Zagarolo. Public carriages leave the Piazza S. Marco daily at 6 A.M. for Palestrina
and proceed to Olevano-fare, five francs. A shorter way of reaching
these places is to take the railway as far as the Valmontone Station,
where a post-carriage, with seats for two, meets the first train. It is
about seven miles from the station to Palestrina. But the best plan
of all is to drive from Velletri. There is no decent inn at Palestrina, but comfortable quarters may be obtained at the house of an
artist's widow, sister of a lawyer, Anna Pastina, at the same charges as
those usual in country inns. Her house-I, Via delle Concie-is the
last on the left at the top of the staircase on the right of the piazza.)
A    N  early drive from  Velletri to Palestrina, the ancient
Praeneste, is delightful.  Then the cloudless sky is
generally opal behind the soft pink mountains. Reaching the
foot of the Volscian hills, we come upon the most picturesque
town of Monte Fortino, a fortress of the Conti, clambering up
the side of a hill so steep that each row of houses begins
over the roof of its neighbour, and each has a clear view of
the sky.
About a mile distant, at the spot now called La Civita,
is the site of the Volscian city Artena.  portions of the
Cyclopean walls of the citadel remain.
It is about three miles from Monte Fortino (passing the
station) to Valmontone, the ancient Toleria, which stands on




VALMONTONE.                      269
a tufa rock in the midst of the plain between the two ranges
of mountains, and is girt by old republican walls, with medieval towers. From the families of Conti, Sforza, and Barberini, it has passed to the Pamfili, by whom the huge palace
which crowns the town was built in 1662. The eldest son
of Prince Doria Pamfili bears the title of Prince of Valmontone. In the cortile of the palace are some inscriptions
from the Labican catacombs. Adjoining it is a rather handsome cathedral of the I7th century, designed by Matteo de
Valmontone.
Rossi. There are several bits at Valmontone to delight an
artist, especially at the entrance of the town, where a magnificent fragment of the ancient wall forms the foreground to
some very picturesque houses.  Near this also is the interesting old church of Sant' Antonio, now called the Madonna delle Grazie.
Palestrina is quite a different type of place from all the
others we have seen, and its people, unlike the courteous




270               DA YS NEAR ROME.
peasants we have hitherto met with, are savage and lawless,
violent and avaricious. Can the bitter warfare of reprisal,
of which both ancient Prseneste and medieval Palestrina
have been the scene, be setting its mark still upon the inhabitants? for perhaps no place has been more often besieged, and more often utterly ruined and destroyed.
Praeneste is one of the towns of fabulous origin. Virgil
ascribes it to Caeculus the son of Vulcan:
" Nec Praenestinoe fundator defuit urbis,
Vulcano genitum pecora inter agrestia regem
Inventumque focis omnis quem credidit zetas,
Caeculus."
_En. vii. 678.
Strabo gives it a Greek origin, and says that it was first
called IloXvar.~)avoc.  Pliny also says that it was called Stephane, a name which is supposed to have been derived from
the appearance of the castle on the top of the hill being like
a mural crown.  Servius derives the name from the 7rptvoi,
ilexes, which grew here, Cato and Festus from the situation
-" quia montibus prestet."
Even in the time of the Siculi, Virgil describes Praeneste
as having been governed by a king called Herilus, who fell
in defending his country against the Latins. Livy says that
eight towns were dependent upon it. It was reduced to the
condition of a Roman colony upon the failure of the struggle in favour of the Tarquins. After the defeat of Caius
Marius, who killed himself within its walls, Prxeneste fell into
the hands of Sylla, who totally annihilated the population
and the city alike:"...   Vidit Fortuna colonos
Proenestina suos cunctos simul ausa recisos,
Unius populum pereuntem tempore mortis."
Lucan. ii. 193.




PRXNE'STE.                           271
But Sylla rebuilt the town with the utmost magnificence,
and erected the Temple of Fortune, which was so splendid
that the  Athenian  philosopher  Carneades  said  he  had
"never seen a Fortune so fortunate as that of Prneneste."
Its glories were celebrated by several of the Latin poets.
" Sextus Junonis mensis fuit. Aspice Tibur,
Et Przenestinae mcenia sacra Deae."
Ovid. Fast. vi. 6I.
" Edificator erat Cetronius, et modo curvo
Littora Caietae, summa nunc Tiburis arce,
Nunc Proenestinis in montibus, alta parabat
Culmina villarum, Grecis longeque petitis
Marmoribus, vincens Fortunae atque Herculis redem."
7uv. Sat. xiv. 86.
"~...   sacrisque dicatum
Fortune Praeneste jugis."
Sil. Ital. viii. 366.
"...   sacro juvenes Praeneste creati
Occubnere simul: votisque ex omnibus unum
Id Fortuna- dedit, junctam inter praelia mortem."
Id. ix. 404.
"Cicero gives a curious account of the institution of the divination
called the Sortes Fortunae Primigeniae Praenestinae:'Numerius Suffucius
having, in consequence of frequent dreams, excavated in a rock, found
a piece of oak, on which the necessary ceremonies seem to have been
inscribed in ancient characters. The place was inclosed, honey flowed
from an olive tree on the spot, and the Temple of Fortune was erected
on or near the site."  (De Divin. ii. 41.)  "In the time of Cicero, the
credit of the Sortes Praenestinae had much diminished."-Gell's Topography of Rome.
Its coolness, which was an agreeable change after the
heat of Rome, made Praeneste a favourite summer resort to
the  emperors Augustus,  Tiberius, Nero, Domitian, and
Hadrian. Suetonius describes Augustus as employing two
days on the journey hither from Rome. Horace alludes to
the freshness of the climate.




272                 DA YS NVEAR ROME.
".. seu mihi frigidum
Proeneste, seu Tibur supinum,
Seu liquide placuere Baie.
Horace, iii. Od. 4.
Sometimes the poet himself resided here:
"Trojani belli scriptorem, maxime Lolli,
Dum tu declamas Romae, Proeneste relegi."
i. Epist. 2.
"Quis timet aut timuit gelida Praeneste ruinam? "'uv. Sat. iii. I9o.
In 970, the town, already called Palestrina, was given by
Pope John XIII. to his sister Stephania, and through the
marriage of her grand-daughter Emilia (" Imilia nobilissima
comitissa "), came into the Colonna family, whose history is
henceforth that of the place.  When, in 1217, the Cardinals
Giacomo and Pietro Colonna had opposed the election of a
member of the rival family of the Gaetani of Anagni to the
papacy, they fled hither with their kinsfolk.   The newlyelected pope, Boniface VIII., immediately issued bulls confiscating all the estates of the Colonnas, and promised
plenary indulgences to all who would take up arms against
them.
"Stronghold after stronghold was stormed; castle after castle fell.
Palestrina alone held out with intrepid obstinacy. Almost the whole
Colonna house sought their last refuge in the walls of this redoubted
fortress, which defied the siege, and wearied out the assailing forces.
Guido di Montefeltro, a famous Ghibelline chieftain, had led a life of
bloody and remorseless warfare, in which he was even more distinguished
by craft than by valour. He had treated with contemptuous defiance
all the papal censures which rebuked and would avenge his discomfiture of many papal generals, and the depression of the Guelfs.  In an
excess of devotion, now grown old, he had taken the habit and the vows
of S. Francis, divorced his wife, given up his wealth, obtained remission
of his sins, first from Ccelestine, afterwards from Boniface, and was




THE COLONNA FAMILY.                              273
living in quiet in a convent at Ancona.  He was summoned from  his
cell on his allegiance to the Pope, and, with plenary absolution for his
broken vows, commanded to inspect the walls and give his counsel for
the best means of reducing the stubborn citadel. The old soldier surveyed the impregnable defences, and then, requiring still further absolution for any crime of which he might be guilty, uttered his memorable oracle, " Promise largely, keep little of your promises."*-Milmanz' 
Latin Christianity.
Thus the Colonnas were induced to open their gates, and
proceeded  in  mourning robes to  meet the  Pope at Rieti.
He received them with outward forgiveness, and gave them
absolution;  but while  they  were  detained  as his guests,
Ranieri, Bishop of Pisa, was sent to destroy Palestrina utCathedral, Palestrina.
terly, and ordered to spare nothing except "the cathedral of S.
* Among the evil-counsellors in Malebolge, swathed and tormented in the flame of
his own consciousness, Dante saw the shade of Guido di Montefeltro, who had found
that the Devil was a logician and unable to reconcile the wish to repent with the wish
to sin. So the cordelier's frock had to give place to the robe of flame, in which the
unhappy warrior must rue eternally the crafty counsel,
"Lunga promessa con'attender corto."
l7f. xxvii.
VOL. I.                                                  18




274              DA YS NEAR ROME.
Agapitus." Everything else was " totali exterminio et ruine
exposita," a plough was driven over the ruins, and the ground
was sown with salt; even the famous marble staircase of a
hundred steps, up which people could ride on horseback into
the palace, perished. The Colonna family fled in all directions, but Sciarra Colonna returned just at the time when
Boniface was quarrelling with Philippe le Bel, and joining the
French, captured the Pope at Anagni. Under Benedict IX.,
the ban against the Colonnas was removed, and under Clement V. Stefano Colonna was allowed to rebuild Palestrina.
In  I35o and I354 the town was successfully defended
against Rienzi, but in 1436, when the Colonnas had rebelled
against Eugenius IV., it was again besieged and taken by
his legate Cardinal Vitelleschi, who completely razed it to
the ground, not even the cathedral being spared this time.
In 1447, Nicholas V. gave permission that Palestrina should
once more be rebuilt, but it never again became a place of
any importance, and the only noteworthy event which has
since occurred there, has been the birth, in I524, of the
musician Pierluigi da Palestrina, author of the mass of Pope
Marcellus.  The last Colonna of Palestrina was Francesco,
who died in I636, and in 1630 the town was sold to Carlo
Barberini, brother of Urban VIII., and it still belongs to that
family.
Remains of the old Proeneste meet us on every side, and
it is typical of the place and its overflow of antiquities, that
the curbstone at the cross-roads as we approach it is a headless ancient statue. In the walls of almost every house
fragments of pillars and capitals may be discovered. And
what is chiefly remarkable is that almost all the remains
belong to one building, the gigantic Temnle of Fortune, built




PALAZZO BARBERINI, PALESTRINA.                 275
by Sylla, which rose upon terraces, tier above tier, occupying
the whole space now filled by the town, and perhaps the
largest building in Italy.
Behind Palestrina the mountain rises abruptly, bare and
arid, and the town itself stands very high. Virgil alludes to
the cool climate of Praeneste:
"Quique altum Praeneste viri, quique arva Gabinx
Junonis, gelidumque Anienem, et roscida rivis
Hernica saxa colunt:  "
There is not much to be seen in the lower town.  In the
piazza are some pillars of the Temple of Fortune built into
a wall, and the small ugly Cathedral, which has a low but
graceful gothic campanile. In the highest part of the town
is the Palazzo Barberini, of which the wing is used as a barrack, but which is for the most part as deserted and forlorn
a specimen of an old Italian palace, once exceedingly magThe Barberini Well, Palestrina.
nificent, as can well be found. Its front was built in a
vast semi-circle, so as to follow the plan of the temple of




276                DA YS NEAR ROME.
Sylla, and is approached by curved staircases enclosing an
old well. The halls on the ground-floor are painted by the
Zuccheri, but Apollo with his dove-chariot, and Juno with
her peacocks, are fading with the damp which streams from
the walls.  We asked the old housekeeper if she did not
suffer from it. " Ah, yes," she said, "all my hair has come
off, and all my teeth have fallen out; for even when out of
doors it is a caldoferoce, here within it isfresco assai." She said
she was aforestiera, for she came from Frescati, and though
she had been here forty years, she could not accustom herself to the wickedness of the people,-"II mondo e bello,
ma se fosse buono sarebbe meglio."  On the upper floor
is the famous mosaic, found amid the ruins of the Temple of
Fortune, representing the joy of the people and the beasts
of Egypt in the annual overflow of the Nile. It is like
a dictionary of the manners and customs and people of the
Egypt of its time.  Priests and priestesses, warriors, fishermen, shepherds, and huntsmen are equally represented, with
all the peculiar animals of the country, and its plants, besides its temples and houses. The mosaic was discovered
in I638 and it is quite perfect: the arms and the bees of the
Barberini have been added in the corners. There is a grand
view from the balcony of this room over the Volscian and
Alban ranges, while the Hernican and Sabine hills are seen
in profile.
" What is most remarkable in the palace of Palestrina is its incomparable situation on the height, where an ever-fresh and health-giving
breeze blows, and whence the indwellers enjoy a view, whose beauty is
indescribable. Here a great part of Latium lies spread out beneath the
eyes on one side, and of Tuscany or the patrimony of S. Peter's on the
other, a great and classic district, whence rise the Latin and Volscian
mountains, between which a wide plain opens, reaching to the distant




S. MARIA DELLA  VILLA.                     277
glancing sea. There is the world-town Rome steeped in the mist;
there stands the island-like Soracte; hard by rise the mighty chains of
the Apennines; on the left, at their feet, is the deep beautiful valley of
the Sacco, overwhich shine the gleaming hill-towns of Monte-Fortino and
Segni; further are the heights of the Serra, and the airy chiefs of all
these hills, whose varied forms lose themselves in the sunny atmosphere
beyond Anagni and Ferentino.  One looks upon these plains and hills,
bedecked with towns and villages, of which most are rich in associations,
and the early history of Rome, the story of the empire, or of the middle
ages, comes back to one's recollection, and when one feels that Umbria,
the Sabina, Latium, the Equian territory, the land of the Hernicans,
Etruria, the Volscian country, the Alban hills, and the sea are united in
one panorama, one appreciates the grandeur of this view. When a
Colonna of the middle ages looked down from the windows of the old
palace or castle, he might venture, as he gazed upon his possessions, to
feel that he was the richest and mightiest chieftain in Latium."-Gregorovius.
The plain beneath the windows is so rich that it looks
like one vast garden of fruit-trees, amongst which, about a
mile from the town, near S. Maria della Villa (the name
commemorating it), the remains of the immense villa  of
Hadrian may be discovered.  They are little worth visiting,
yet here the Braschi Antinous and other important statues
have been found, and smaller antiquities are dug up daily.
Madama Pastina, who lets the lodgings to strangers, has a
collection of them, chiefly terra-cottas and small bronzes,
which she sells at low prices. The little statuettes of Fortune suckling a child are very interesting.
The hill-side above Palestrina is so bare and the sun beats
so pitilessly upon its white rocks, that it is best to put off the
ascent till near sunset. It may be made. on donkeys, but
they are atrociously bad. We were obliged to dismiss ours;
and when we reproached its owner for having brought it, he
coolly said-" Yes, he knew that it was bad, and would certainly fall down, but he brought it because if a saddle was




27S              DAYS NEAR ROMIE.
once put on it must be as much paid for as if it had been
used. So few strangers came, that they must be taken adStreet Scene, Palestrina.
vantage of." We did not wonder that so few came amongst
this savage population. Every woman and child you meet,
however well dressed they may be, rush at you with defiant
shouts, insisting, not petitioning, " Signor, dammi un baiocc."
From every window hands are outstretched. Stern-looking
Sibyls scowl their demands at you, distaff in hand, upon
their doorsteps. Dozens of ragged children yell and tumble
over one another, and follow you for hours, dancing like
frantic little demons, wherever you go.  Some friends of
ours ascended the mountain, followed by hampers well




S. PIETRO.                   279
equipped for a delicious pic-nic. They reached the top,
and were surrounded by the inhabitants of S. Pietro. The
hampers were unpacked and the luncheon spread out, and
-before any resistance could be offered or even suggested,
the thronging swarms had descended upon the feast like
locusts, and, in one moment, men and women tore up the
chickens and swallowed the limbs at a mouthful, crunching
bones and all like wild beasts, so that not the slightest vestige remained, and the rightful owners were left, dumbfoundered and famished, to-stare at their empty table-cloth.
We had happily no such attractions to offer, but were well
persecuted notwithstanding, and heartily cursed by troops
of hungry ragged urchins because we had brought nothing
for them, as well as by a shaggy-looking ruffian, who was imprisoned under the Barberini Palace, for having lately murdered his wife and son, and who stretched out his bony hand
with nails like claws, and shook it at us through the iron bars as
we passed. Yet an officer, who was quartered at the palace,
told us that the people here are perfectly angelic compared
to those of the neighbouring Cavi.  There, on the slightest
contradiction, the natives never hesitated to pull out a stiletto
or a revolver, and he never knew a time when six or seven
of his men were not suffering from their violence while they
were quartered there.
The view from the top is certainly magnificent.  No
wonder that Hannibal climbed up to survey it in order to
assist his military operations.  It is the most historical panorama imaginable. Rome is seen amidst the mists of the plain.
Nearer us are Gabii, Collatia, and Zagarolo. On the Alban
hills are Tusculum, Frescati, Monte Porzio, Monte Compatri, Labicum (now Colonna), Corbio (now Rocca Priora),




280              DA YS NEAR ROME.
Velitrae (now Velletri). Then on the distant sea-coast we
can make out Astura, Nettuno, Antium  (Porto d'Anzio),
Ardea, Pratica, Ostia, Porto, and  Fiumicino.  On the
Volscian hills are Monte Fortino, Colle Ferro and Signia
(Segni); on the Hernicans, Anagni, Ferentino, Paliano,
Genazzano, and Cavi, and the fore-ground is formed by the
Cyclopean walls of Praeneste! Looking down upon all these
scenes, girt by the huge polygonal stones of the walls of the
ancient citadel, is the modern village of San Pietro, a place
so dilapidated and crumbling, so bare and colourless, that it
looks as if it had been transported from Africa to this windy
height. Here the Roman Catholic Church believes that St.
Peter dwelt for some time, and here, in the church, he is
commemorated in a statue by Bernini, as well as in a good
picture representing his martyrdom by Pietro di Cortona.
The holy water basons are supported by ancient cippi.
Colonna Castle, Palestrina
Colonna Castle, Palestrina.
Still higher, on the last peak, stand the huge ruins of the
fortress, rebuilt by the famous Stephen Colonna, which bears




PONTE S. ANTONIO.                  28r
over its gate, beneath the Colonna arms, the inscription,
" Magnificus DNS Stefan de Columna-redificavit civitatem
penestre cv monte et arce. Anno 1332."
In summer the stagnation of Palestrina is enlivened by the
presence of the Barberini family, who live, not at the palace
with the mosaic, but at another lower down in the town,
quite in a feudal manner, and, as Prince and Princess of
Palestrina, hold receptions in their garden, to which all the
small gentry of the place are invited.
The Ponte S. Antonio may be visited from Palestrina. It
is a magnificent Roman arch I20 feet in height, not far from
Poli, by which the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus were
carried across a deep ravine in the Campagna.




CHAPTER  XVIII.
GENAZZANO, PALIANO, AND OLEVANO.
(At Olevano there is an excellent country inn, kept by Nino and
Pepina Baldi, much frequented by artists, who reside here for months
in summer. The charges for pension, including everything, are five
francs a day, or four francs if for a long time. A carriage may be obtained from Olevano to meet the train at the Valmontone Station by
writing beforehand to Casa Baldi. The public carriage, which leaves the
Piazza S. Marco at six A.M. for Palestrina, proceeds to Olevano-fare,
from four to five francs. At Subiaco there is a comfortable small hotel
with capital food-Locanda della Pernice-pension, six francs a day. )
IT is a pleasant drive of three miles from Palestrina to Cavi,
which is built on the edge of a steep bank over a torrent, approached by a handsome bridge, and entered by a
gateway, over which is an inscription, dedicating the place to
the especial protection of the Madonna.  To her the inhabitants trust to supply them with all the necessaries of
life, and exist themselves in a far niente not very dolce, but
unending.  The very dogs seemed too apathetic to move
when our carriage approached where they lay in the sun.
Some ragged children were rolling in the gutter, while their
mother was engaged in lavishing the tenderest embraces and
kisses upon a pet pig-the son of her heart. In the marketplace rises a column decorated with the arms of the Colonna,
of whom Cavi is a fief. The dialect of the people here is
very peculiar. Six miles beyond Cavi, after passing a chapel




GENAZZANO.                          283
beautifully situated near an old pine and some cypresses,
Genazzano rises in a valley on the left about half a mile
distant from  the road.  It contains the shrine of the Madonna di Buon Consiglio; who flew hither through the air
from Albania.
"From this time the Madonna of Genazzano, called'Our Lady of
Good Offices,' began to work miracles, and a church was built in her
honour, with a monastery adjoining it. The Order of the Augustines
possessed themselves of this wonder-working and holy source of gain,
which is not less profitable, if not more so, than the Madonna of the
Augustine monastery at Rome.  For this Divinity of Genazzano enjoys
throughout the whole of Latium a reputation, which exactly corresponds
with that of a heathen oracle. Twice a year, in spring and in summer,
her festival is celebrated, and thus a double harvest of offerings is reaped,
besides innumerable presents of money and jewels brought by the worshippers. And as even the poorest countryman lays his mite upon the
altar of the picture, it may be said that this one Madonna taxes the
whole Latian Campagna as well as the State itself. I was told that the
offerings are collected by certain confraternities which exist in the Campagna; each member puts into the common fund as much as five baiocchi
a month, and thus a travelling confraternity brings sometimes as much
as a hundred scudi. The yearly receipts of this place of pilgrimage are
estimated at 37, 500 francs."-Gregorovius.
The festa of the Madonna of Genazzano, on the 25th of
Genazzano.
April, is one of the most celebrated and the most frequented




284                 DA YS.AL,4R ROME.
in this part of Italy. A figure-artist should never fail to see
it, and the most sanguine expectations as to colour and costume cannot possibly be disappointed.
"Even on the eve of the festival the pilgrims begin to arrive, and the
place and the whole landscape becomes animated in a wonderful manner,
while the air resounds perpetually with the chanting of Litanies.
Through all the streets pass gay but orderly crowds. They come from
the Abruzzi, from the sandal land, from Sora, from the Liris, and from
all parts of the Latian Campagna.
" The festival of Jupiter Latiaris seems to be renewed before our eyes,
so numerous are the thousands that approach, so varied their dress and
their dialects. They come down from the hills with their solemn chant of
the' Ora,' there down the broad road, here along the river, by field paths,
ever and again fresh bands of pilgrims in bright red, green, and blue
costumes, with their tall pilgrim staves (bordoni) in their hands, and the
sight combined with the grandeur of the scenery is one which would be
alike wonderful to the artist, the poet, and the historian.
"... They wander along the Sacco, and down from the hills (come
igrui, che van cantando lor lai), like the cranes who sing as they go.
The middle ages passed before me; and I thought of those bands of
pilgrims who thronged to Rome at the Jubilee year, and more than once
the sight made me repeat that beautiful verse in the pilgrim sonnet of
the Vita Nuova,
Deh! peregrini, che pensosi andate
Forse di cosa che non v'e presente,
Venite voi di si lontana gente,
Com' alla vista voi ne dimostrate?
"They go by tens, twentys, fiftys, hundreds, and even more. All ages
are represented amongst them; the old man leans on the same pilgrim
staff which has supported him already fifty times along the same road,
and this may perliaps be the last time: the matron passes with her grandchildren; the beautiful and blooming maiden; the sturdy youth, the
boy; even infants are here carried on the heads of their mothers, for in
one of these processions I saw a young woman carrying on her head a
basket in which lay a laughing child, its eyes wide open as if it was enjoying the beautiful sunshine. Most of the women carry on their heads
a basket of provisions, or a bundle of clothes, which still more increases
the beauty of the spectacle. If any one could lift up the veil from
these souls they would see concealed crime side by side with innocence,
and vice, remorse, pain, and virtue passing in a motley crowd.




THE GENAZZANO PILGRIMAGE.                        285
" It is like a great and beautiful but serious masked procession which
passes over one of the most beautiful scenes of nature, always with fresh
dresses and colours, and with different faces. One sees the people of
Contadino, Valley of the Sacco.
Frosinone, of Anagni, the inhabitants of Veroli, of Arpino, of Anticoli,
of Ceprano, and the Neapolitans from Sora.
"See the groups from Sora! dark olive complexions and beautiful




286                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
oval faces. The women look fantastic, like the Arab women; they are
adorned with strings of coral or golden chains round their necks, and
heavy gold earrings; their heads are covered with white or brown kerchiefs, with long fringes, which hang down upon the neck like a madonna's veil: they wear white chemisettes quite loose though folded in
Contadina, Valley of the Sacco.
innumerable plaits, and over these a low, dark red bodice. The skirt is
short, of a bright red or blue colour, with a yellow border. And what
large dark eyes, under black, strongly marked eyebrows!
"The pilgrims of Ceccano I The women wearing red bodices with
long aprons of the same colour, white kerchiefs on their heads with long




THE GENAZZANO PILGRIMAGE.                        287
ends hanging down behind, and sandals. The men in pointed hats, with
red jackets, and a girdle round the waist, twisted of bright ribbon.
" Pilgrims from  Pontecorvo!  The women in dark red dresses
beautifully ornamented; with a red head-dress; beautiful and majestic.
"Pilgrims from Filettino: black velvet bodices, a most simple dress,
quiet and graceful.
"Ciociari!  The men and women of the sandal land!  Perhaps
from some place near Ferentino, or farther away, from the Neapolitan
boundaries of the Liris and the Melfa. It is a land of beautiful and wild
mountains, which extends from Ferentino far into the Neapolitan territory. There the people wear the Ciocia, a very simple covering for the
foot, from which the country is called Ciociaria. I found this covering
for the foot in use near Anagni. One more primitive certainly cannot
be found, perhaps one might also say there is none more comfortable.
It certainly made me envy the Ciociari. The shoe is simply formed of
a square piece of ass or horse skin. Holes are made in this skin, through
which a string is passed, and this parchment is so tied round the foot
that it forms itself to the shape of the foot. The leg is swathed up to
the knee with coarse grey linen, bound round many times with string or
thread.  Thus the Ciociaro moves freely and comfortably across the
fields, and over the rocks, whenever he goes to dig the ground ('zappar
la terra'), or drives his sheep and goats, as a shepherd with bag-pipes,
dressed in a short grey cloak, or clothed in skins. These sandals are
classical, and Diogenes would have worn them if he had not gone barefoot; and Chrysippus or Epictetus might have praised them in a treatise
on the few needs of wise men. If these shoes are well arranged, and the
linen leggings new, they look well, but very bad and beggarly when they
are old and ragged; and as this is generally the case, it has given the
sandal folk a character of ragged poverty, and their name is despised
and even used as a word of reproach.  One day, when a man of San
Vito was showing me the beautiful panorama of the Campagna, he said
to me,'See, sir, there lies the Ciociaria!' and he smiled with a look
of lofty contempt.
"The Ciociari wear bright red vests, and pointed black felt hats,
which seldom lack a gay feather, a bow, or a flower. I found among
them, especially in the Campagna of Rome, a remarkable number of
men with fair hair and blue eyes; they wear their hair cut short behind,
like the Prussian Landwehr, but let it hang down in long locks from the
temples.  Hang a ragged grey waterproof cloak or a black or white
sheepskin on the Ciociaro, and we have our sandal man complete; but
we will not give him a gun in his hand, or he will fall upon us as a robber in the pass of Ceprano, crying out,'faccia in terra,' and will empty




288                DA YS NEAR ROME.
our pockets with astonishing agility. The women also wear the sandals,
a short gay skirt, a bright striped apron, a white or a red woollen kerchief on the head, and lastly the busto, the principal article of female
dress throughout the whole of Latium. This is the bodice of stifflyquilted linen, hard as a saddle, broad and high, with epaulets resting on
the shoulders. It forms a support to the breast, it seems like a bulwark
to shield virtue; like a firm breast-plate it surrounds the bosom; yet it
is loose, and stands out, so that it serves at the same time as a pocket."
-Gregoravius.
The town  of Genazzano  was long  a fortress of the
Colonnas, and was the place where Stefano Colonna was
murdered in I438.  The only pope given by the great
Colonna family to Rome was born at Genazzano. This was
Oddone Colonna, elected at Constance in 14I7 as Martin
V. while two other popes were already in existence.  As
sovereign he continued to be devoted to his native place,
where he built churches and enlarged the palace of his
family, which is now neglected and fast falling into decay.
In its decline it is very picturesque, and is supplied with
water by a half-ruined aqueduct, along which there is a walk
leading to the deserted convent of San Pio.  The whole
population is occupied in the cultivation of the hill-side
vineyards.
Continuing our way along the valley, we see that a hilltop in front of us is occupied by a mountain-town, surrounded with strong, sixteenth-century fortifications. This is
Paliano, another important stronghold of the Colonnas.
Prospero Colonna defended it against Sixtus IV.  In I556
Paul IV. took it away from the Colonnas, and gave it to his
own nephew Giovanni Caraffa, for whom it was raised into a
principality.
"Declaring that the Colonnas,' those incorrigible rebels against God
and the Church,' however frequently deprived of their castles, had




OLE VANO.                         289
always managed to regain them, Paul IV. resolved that this should be
amended; he would give those fortresses to vassals who would know
how to hold them. Thereupon he divided the possessions of the house
of Colonna among his nephews, making the elder Duke of Paliano,
and the younger Marquis of Montebello.  The cardinals remained
silent when he announced these purposes in the assembly; they bent
down their heads and fixed their eyes to the earth." —Ranke's History
of the Popes.
Only fifteen years after, however, upon the victory of MarcAntonio Colonna over the Turks at Lepanto, Paliano was
restored to its original owners, and has since given the title
of Duca di Paliano to the head of their house.
A long ascent now brings us to Olevano, of the beauty of
which one has no idea till one really arrives, but it is perhaps the most picturesque place of this wonderful district.
Passing from the rough stone houses with their crumbling
staircases of rock, and from the stony ways full of pigs and
children, a gate admits us to a high olive garden, full of
beans and corn, where a winding path leads to a kind of
large farm-house at the top of the hill, with an outside loggia
and staircase. And this is the famous inn of Olevano, the
Albergo degli Artisti.  It is a perfect artist's paradise.  Its
rooms are homely, but are cleanliness itself. They all debouch from  a common sitting-room, surrounded by queer
old  portraits and  with a grand  old  chair, which  may
have been that of Cardinal Scipio Borghese, whose picture
hangs over the fire-place.   The pleasant honest mistress,
Pepina Baldi, with her husband Nino, are really charming
specimens of respectable well-to-do Italians of the lower
orders, full of simple kindnesses and courtesies, and frankness and openness itself.  Their handsome boys and girls
have served as voluntary  models to half the artists in
VOL. I.                                         19




290              DAYS NEAR ROME.
Rome when they have been staying here; and many
sketches of the family by famous hands, which  would
fetch enormous prices in Paris or London, hang upon the
walls, where they have been left as thank-offerings with the
mother.  For the entertainment of guests too we have a
collection of albums, which any sovereign might envy, and
than which few possess any more valuable, for every artist who
has staid here has left his portrait, by his own hand or that
of a friend, and the collection is really wonderful, of the
natives of every country in Europe, from the delicate hand of
our English Leighton to that of the least known student of
the Via Margutta.  But still the greatest charm of Casa
Baldi is its view.  One looks along the whole of the
Hernican range, tossed above into every variety of peak, and
clothed on its lower slopes with corn and fruit-trees, olives
and  cypresses, from  which Anagni and Ferentino and
Frosinone look  across the valley to the more distant
Volscians, also sprinkled with rock-throned villages.  In
the middle distance Paliano watches the valley from a steep
elevated ridge.  Deep below rises the town of Olevano,
Olevano.
with yellow-roofed houses, weather-stained, machicolated,
arch-adorned, rising from  rocks overhung with ivy and




OLE VANO.                         291
flowers, and leading up to the jagged walls and tower of a
ruined castle. Behind the town are the wild mountains of
the Sabina, with Civitella, Capranica, San Vito, and Rocca
di Cavi perched upon different heights, and on the furthest
of all the curious sanctuary and the Polish convent of Mentorella, and round the corner of this range we catch a
glimpse of the  Alban  hills projecting  over the  purple
Campagna.
"There are many places on the sunny heights, or in the dark recesses
of the mountains; castles, monasteries, and towns, rising in the clear
air-all seems to rest in a romantic quietude. The outlines of the mountains are cut with enchanting clearness and sharpness upon the pure
blue of the sky; one longs to cross over, to wander amongst the shining
crags and soft plains in the freshness of that high and heavenly region.
Above the hollows of the Serra, rises, here and there, a snow-capped
mountain, violet-tinted, out of the wilds of the Abruzzi, suggesting still
another distance; in the background mountain-peaks rise further and
further out of the silvery mists, shadowy, many-formed, obelisk-like,
dome-like, beckoning the spirit onwards into the unknown regions of
the sandal-land, or to the shore of the lovely Liris."-Gregrorovizus.
The name of Olevano carries us back pleasantly into the
mediaeval times, when it was compelled to pay a tax called
Olibanzum, for purchasing incense for the churches of the
province.   Then  the noble  family  of Frangipani, who
derived their glorious name of " Bread-breakers " from their
vast charities during a famine, resided in its fortress.  From
them it passed by exchange to the Benedictine monks of
Subiaco, by whom  it was sold in the i3th century to the
Colonnas, who built the present castle and guarded it through
weal and woe for four hundred  years, when it was purchased by the Borgheses, who hold it still.
The most remarkable excursion which can be made from
Olevano is that to Guadagnolo, a rock 4000 feet high, with a




292                DA YS NVEAR RO.ME.
village curiously wedged in between high rocks, which surround and conceal it on every side, as with a natural wall.
A  mile and  a half below  the town, are the hermitage
and church of La iMentorella, on the edge of the precipice,
jutting out over the valley of the Girano. Here, before he
went to Subiaco, S, Benedict lived in the sixth century, in a
cave at the foot of the rock.  A tradition of far earlier date
(during the reign of the Emperor Trajan) represents the crag
of La Mentorella as that where the vision of a white deer,
with a crucifix between his horns, led to the conversion of S.
Eustace.
"S. Eustace was a Roman soldier, and captain of the guard to the
Emperor Trajan. His name before his conversion was Placidus, and he
had a beautiful wife and two sons, and lived with great magnificence,
practising all the heathen virtues, particularly those of loyalty to his
sovereign and charity to the poor.  He was also a great lover of the
chase, spending much of his time in that noble diversion.
" One day while hunting in the forest, he saw before him a white stag,
of marvellous beauty, and he pursued it eagerly, and the stag fled before
him, and ascended a high rock. Then Placidus, looking up, beheld,
between the horns of the stag, a cross of radiant light, and on it the
image of the crucified Redeemer; and being astonished and dazzled by
this vision, he fell on his knees, and a voice which seemed to come from
the crucifix cried to him, and said,' Placidus! why dost thou pursue me?
I am Christ, whom thou hast hitherto served without knowing me. Dost
thou now believe?' and Placidus fell with his face to the earth, and
said,'Lord, I believe!' and the voice answered, saying,'Thou shalt
suffer many tribulations for my sake, and shalt be tried by many temptations; but be strong and of good courage, and I will not forsake thee.'
To which Placidus replied,' Lord, I am content. Do thou give me
patience to suffer I' And when he looked up again the wondrous vision
had departed. Then he arose and returned to his house, and the next
day he and his wife and his two sons were baptized, and he took the
name of Eustace."7-J7ameson's Legendary Art.
A flight of stairs, which troops of pilgrims devoutly ascend
upon their knees on the festa of the twenty-ninth of Septem



LA MENTORELLA.                   293
ber, leads to the campanile, which is surmounted by a pair
of antlers, like those of the portico of the church of S. Eustachio at Rome, commemorating his conversion.  The festa
of La Mentorella is one of the most romantic in Italy. The
peasants come by the steep  mountain-paths chaunting
litanies, and each carrying a stone which they add to a great
commemorative pile. They spend the night in groups,
sleeping round fires lighted on these wild crags, and those
who have been present describe the scene as quite unrivalled
in its weird picturesqueness-the brilliant costumes illuminated by the fire-light and backed by the savage precipices
which overhang the Girano and Siciliano, and the rude
chaunts echoing amid the rocks under the starlit sky. The
name of Mentorella comes from Wultvilla or Wulturela, the
ancient name of the mountain.  The gothic chapel which
now exists, is of the tenth century, but a church certainly
existed here as early as A.D. 594, when it was bestowed upon
the abbot of Subiaco by Gregory I. In A.D. 958, the mountain of Wulturela with its church, dedicated to Sta. Maria,
belonged to S. Gregorio in Rome, but the building appears
to have been deserted in the fourteenth century, though it
was restored by the Emperor Leopold in i660.




CHAPTER XIX.
SUBIACO.
(Subiaco is 26 miles from Tivoli. A diligence runs daily. Thereis a
very tolerable inn, La Pernice,-pension, 5 francs a day-but passing
travellers must arrange their prices beforehand.)
T    HE road from  Olevano to Subiaco passes through a
dismal bare rocky district, but is a fine specimen of
engineering, being one of the many excellent mountain-roads,
constructed under Pius IX.  A  few miles before reaching
Subiaco, we skirt a lake, which is probably one of the Simbriviae Aquse.
"Quique Anienis habent ripas, gelidoque rigantur
Simbrivio, rastrisque domant iEquicula rura."
Sil. Ital. viii. 370.
The three pools called Simbrivii Lacus were made by
Nero by the damming up of the Anio.   Here he fished for
trout with a golden net, and here he built the mountain-villa
to which he gave the name of Sublacum-under the lake
-which still exists in Subiaco.
" Avoir une villa dans les montagnes du pays des AEques, c'etait pour
Neron ce que serait pour un moderne la fantaisie d'un chalet en Suisse."
-Ampere, Emp. Rom. ii. 62.
While Nero was residing here the conspiracies were forming which led to his overthrow, and here he was warned of




VILLA OF NERO.                       295
his fate by a portent most terrible in those times of omens,
when his drinking-cup was shivered in his hand by lightning whilst he was seated at a banquet near the lake, a presage which seized upon his mind with appalling effect. That
very day he had bathed in the aqueduct of the Aqua Marcia, that all his people might enjoy the privilege of drinking water that had been thus defiled.*  The choice of his
villa amid the IEquian mountains shows that, in spite of all
his monstrosities, Nero must have been as great a connoisseur of the beauties of nature as of art, and for centuries the
glorious gorge through which the Anio foams beneath its
ruins, between tremendous crags clothed with evergreens
and flowers, has been a sanctuary to half the poets and
painters in the world.
Hither, four centuries after the time of Nero, when the
recollection of his orgies had given place to silence and
solitude, a young patrician, sprung from the noble family of
the Anicii, which gave Gregory the Great to the Church,
and many other saints to the sacred calendar, fled from the
seductions of the capital, to seek repose for his soul, with
God alone as his companion. The name of the fugitive was
Benedictus, or " the blessed one."  He was only fourteen
when  he renounced  his  fortune,  his family, and  the
world. It was to Mentorella that he first fled, and thither
he was followed by his faithful nurse Cyrilla, who could not
bear to think that the child of her affections was alone and
uncared for, who begged for him, and prepared the small
modicum of food which he could be prevailed upon to take.
Some neighbour had lent her a stone sieve to make bread,
* Claudius first made an aqueduct to bring to Rome the water of two fountains
called Curtius and Caeruleus, in the hills above Sublacum.




296               DAYS NEAR ROME.
after the manner of the mountain district, she let it fall out
of her hands, and it was broken to pieces. Moved by her
distress, Benedict prayed over the fragments, and they are
said to have been instantly joined together.  This was
his first miracle. Terrified at the excitement it caused, and
at seeing the sieve hung up in the village church as a relic,
Benedict evaded the solicitude of his nurse, and escaped unseen by any one to the gorge of Subiaco, where he found
(c. 480) a cave in the rocks above the falls of the Anio, into
which not even a ray of the sun could penetrate. Here he
lived, his hiding-place unknown to any one, except to
Romanus, a monk who dwelt amid a colony of anchorites
founded by S. Clement on the ruins of Nero's villa.  By
him he was provided with a garment made of the skin
of a beast, and each day Romanus let down to him from the
top of the rock the half of his daily loaf, giving him notice
of its approach by the ringing of a bell suspended to the
same rope with the food.  It is said that when the devil
wished to make himself particularly disagreeable to Benedict
he would cut the cord which supplied him.  His hidingplace was discovered by a miracle. A village priest seated
at a banquet of Easter luxuries had a revelation that while
he was thus feasting a servant of God was pining with hunger, and his steps were miraculously directed to the hermitage. Benedict refused to eat the delicate food, until convinced that it was indeed the festival of Easter. The priest
told what he had seen to the shepherds, who, while following their goats along one of the tiny pathlets which may still
be seen on the face of these mountains, had seen a strange
creature with unkempt hair, and nails like claws, and taking
it for a wild beast, had fled from it in terror. They were




THE TWELVE MONASTERIES.                         297
now re-assured by his gentle words, and from that day, while
they watched their flocks, he began to instil into their rude
and ignorant minds the light of the Christian faith. Gradually their report became spread abroad, pilgrims flocked
from all quarters to the valley, and through the disciples who
gathered round Benedict, this desolate ravine became the
cradle of monastic life in the West.
"The life of Benedict, from infancy to death, is the most perfect
illustration of the motives which then worked upon the mind of man.
In him meet and combine together all those influences which almost
divided mankind into recluses or coenobites, and those who pursued an
active life; as well as all the effects, in his case the best effects, produced by this phasis of human thought and feeling.  Benedict, it was
said, was born at that time, like a sun to dispel the Cimmerian darkness which brooded over Christendom, and to revive the expiring spirit
of monasticism.  His age acknowledged Benedict as the perfect type of
the highest religion, and Benedict impersonated his age.
" How perfectly the whole atmosphere was then impregnated with an
inexhaustible yearning for the supernatural, appears from the ardour
with which the monastic passions were indulged at the earliest age.
Children were nursed and trained to expect at every instant more than
human interferences; their young energies had ever before them examples of asceticism, to which it was the glory, the true felicity of life,
to aspire.  The thoughtful child had all his mind thus pre-occupied;
he was early, it might almost seem intuitively, trained to this course of
life; wherever there was gentleness, modesty, the timidity of young
passion, repugnance to vice, an imaginative temperament, a consciousness of unfitness to wrestle with the rough realities of life, the way lay
invitingly open-the difficult, it is true, and painful, but direct and unerring way to heaven. It lay through perils, but was made attractive
by perpetual wonders; it was awful, but in its awfulness lay its power
over the young mind. It learned to trample down that last bond which
united the child to common humanity, filial reverence; the fond and
mysterious attachment of the child and the mother, the inborn reverence
of the son to the father."-Milman's Latin Christianity.
Twelve monasteries speedily arose amid these peaks and
gorges, each only containing twelve monks, for it was an idea




298               DAYS NEAR ROME.
of Benedict that a larger number led to idleness and neglect.
The names of several of these institutions recall their
romantic situations, and they were the scenes of the miracles
attributed to the founder and his disciples. S. Clemente
della Vigna was the place whither Maurus and Placidus were
brought to Benedict by their parents.  It was situated near
one of the lakes, and it was there that the sickle of a Gothic
monk, which he dropped into the water while cutting weeds
upon the bank, swam in answer to the prayers of Maurus,
who summoned it by holding the wooden handle over the
waves. This monastery was entirely destroyed by the earthquake of 12I6. S. S. Cosmo and Damian was the next to be
built, the monastery which was afterwards dedicated to
Scholastica.  S. Biagio (S. Blaise) was the home of the
monk Romanus, the friend of Benedict.  Its church was
consecrated in iioo by Manfred, Bishop of Tivoli.  S.
Giovanni dell'Acqua was so called because there, as well as
in two other houses, water is said to have burst forth from
the arid rock to supply the thirsting monks, in answer to the
prayers of Benedict.*   Santa Maaria de Marebotta was
afterwards called S. Lorenzo in honour of the holy monk S.
Lorenzo Loricato who lived there as a hermit, in the most
severe austerity, from  I209 to  I243. At Sant' Angelo,
Benedict saw the devil, in the form of a black boy, leading
away a monk, who had neglected to attend properly the services of the Church.  In S. Victor at thefoot of the Mountain
lived the monk who brought the Easter food to Benedict
when he was starving in the cave.  S. Andrew, or Eternal
Life, was ruined in a Lombard invasion.  S. Michael the
Archangel was built by Benedict beneath the Sacro Speco,
* This subject is represented in the frescoes of Spinello at San Miniato.




APPROACH TO THE MONASTERIES.             299
but has long since disappeared. Sant' Angelo di Trevi stood
near Sta. Scholastica and was incorporated with it.  S.
Girolamo was rebuilt as late as I387 in accordance with a
bull of Urban VI.  S. Donato has entirely disappeared.
Gradually all these societies became incorporated in the
great monastery dedicated to Scholastica, the holy sister of
Benedict, which may be regarded as the mother house of the
whole Order, and which was governed by a regular abbot
chosen by the General Chapter.
The visits of the numerous Popes who have come hither
form landmarks in the story of the place. In 853 Leo IV.,
summoned by the Abbot Peter, came to consecrate the
altars of the Sacro Speco. In 98i Benedict VII. came to
consecrate Sta. Scholastica.  In 1052 Leo IX. was summoned to turn out a monk who had unlawfully seized the
abbacy-and issued a bull appointing Sta. Scholastica
" Caput omnium monasteriorum per Italiam constitutorum."
In the thirteenth century the privileges of the monastery
were greatly augmented by Alexander IV., who had lived
there as a simple monk, and who declared in his diploma that
other Benedictine communities had only to look to Sta.
Scholastica to receive a perfect model which they should
copy. The same affection for the place was evinced by
Urban V., who had also been a Benedictine, and who
colonized the monastery with German monks, to amend the
morals of the brethren, which had then grievous need of it.
The last of a long series of papal visits was that of Pius IX.
in the first year of his pontificate.
The road which leads from the town to the monasteries
(S. Benedetto is about two and a half miles distant) is beautiful,-bordered by ilexes and olives, beneath which there is




300              DA YS NEAR ROME.
ever a carpet of tulips, hyacinths, and anemones, in spring.
Gorgeous are the views looking back amid the mountain rifts,
between which Subiaco rises house above house with the great
archiepiscopal castle at the top of its rock. The modern
Collegiafa, a huge mass of building, seems to block the
valley, standing almost over the stream of the Anio, and
consisting of a church and palace built by Pius VI., when
Cardinal Bishop of Subiaco,-being necessary, because the
abbots of Santa Scholastica had been bishops also, until the
see was united with a cardinalate.  The nearer hills are
all aglow with the richest vegetation, olives, chestnuts, and
corn, and here and there the tall spire of a cypress.  The
air is scented by the sweet box, which grows upon the cliffs
close to the road, and a freshness always rises from the river
which dashes wildly through the abyss of green beneath,
rejoicing to be freed from its imprisonment in the walls of
cliff beneath S. Scholastica. Here a ruined gothic chapel
stands amid thickets of flowers, there a gaily painted shrine,
very dear to artists, surmounts the tufa rocks.
When we reach the bridge called " Ponte S. Mauro," by
which the road from Olevano crosses the Anio at a great
height, a carriage can go no further, and the footpath which
ascends to the great monasteries turns off up the gorge to
the left. Little chapels at intervals mark the rocky way,
which is overhung by wild laburnum  and coronilla, and
fringed with saxifrage and cyclamen.  The first of these
chapels commemorates an interesting mediaeval story in
which Benedict bore a share.  Amongst those who came
hither from Rome to share his teaching, were two Roman
senators of high rank, Anicius and Tertullus, who brought
with them  their sons Maurus and Placidus, entreating




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302               DA YS NEAR ROME.
him to bring them  up in the way of Life.  Maurus was
then twelve years old and Placidus only five. One day (in
528) the child Placidus fell into the Anio below this cliff.
Benedict, seeing him  fall, called to Maurus to assist him,
and he, walking upon the water, caught the drowning boy by
the hair, and dragged him out. His safety was followed by
a contest of humility between the pupil and master. Maurus
attributed it to the holiness of Benedict, Benedict to the
self-devotion of Maurus; Placidus decided the question by
saying that he had seen the sheepskin-coat of Benedict
hovering over him in the water.
Long before we reach it, the grandly toned bell of Santa
Scholastica, echoing amid the rocks, gives notice of the
approach to a great sanctuary.  Nothing can exceed the
solemn grandeur of its situation, perched upon huge crags,
and with the roaring river below.  The monastery was
founded in the fifth century by the Abbot Honoratus, the
sainted successor of Benedict, and though repeatedly attacked and burnt by the Lombards, the Saracens, and by its
own neighbours, it always rose again from its ashes more
splendid than ever. In 98i it was rebuilt from the ground
under Benedict VII., and dedicated to S. Benedict and his
holy sister Scholastica   From this time rich donations were
constantly made, and lands were added to its territory, till,
in rIoo, its abbots became princes, possessed of many castles and fortresses, and with a right of supreme jurisdiction
over their vassals.  They did not hesitate to appear personally in the battle-fields of that troubled time, in which the
Bishops of Tivoli, Anagni, and Palestrina were also frequently seen.  Many curious records remain of their savage
administration of justice.  In the time of the Ghibelline




SANTA SCHOLASTICA.                  303
Abbot Adhemar (I353) seven monks were hung up by their
feet, and fires lighted under their heads. In 1454 their
severities led to a rebellion in which the convent was
stormed and many of the monks massacred.  Calistus III.
made the Abbot a Cardinal Commendatory, and the first
who bore this title was the Spanish Torquemada, under
whose rule, in 1464, the famous Sweynheim  and Pannartz
established here the first printing-press in Italy, and published from hence " Lactantius de divinis institutionibus;"
"Cicero de Oratore," and, in 1467, " Augustinus de Civitate
Dei." In the same year, however, a quarrel with the monks
drove them to Rome, where they established themselves in
the Massimo Palace. It is interesting to remember that the
first printing-press in England was also established in a
Benedictine Abbey-that of'Westminster.
Torquemada was succeeded as abbot by Rodrigo Borgia,
afterwards Pope Alexander VI., and in his time Lucrezia
Borgia often resided in the castle-palace, and Caesar came
hither to hunt.  Under the Abbot Pompeo Colonna, Julius
II. united the abbacy with that of Farfa; in I514, Leo X.
joined it to that of Monte Cassino.  After this it remained
for i i6 years in the hands of the Colonnas, and a memorial
of the way in which they held their own against the Popes
may be seen in the papal banner which fell into their hands
in battle, and which still hangs in the convent church.
From the middle of the last century the great power of the
abbots of S. Scholastica began to decline, but until the late
suppression the monastery remained one of the richest and
most influential in Italy, and it continued to own no less
than sixteen towns and villages, viz. Subiaco, Trevi, Jenna,
Cervara, Camerata, Marano, Agosta, Rocca di Canterano,




304                DA YS NEAR ROME.
Canterano, Rocca di Mezzo, Cerreto, Rocca di Santo Stefano,
Civitella, Rojate, Asile, and Ponza.
The front of S. Scholastica is modern, but its tower dates
from  1053, when it was built by the Abbot Humbert.
The most interesting parts of the building are its three
cloisters. The first, which only dates from the seventeenth
century, has its arcades decorated with frescoes of papal and
royal benefactors, amongst which is a full-length portrait of
"James III., king of England."  Here is a curious sarcophagus with Bacchic ornaments.   The second cloister,
which dates from Io52, contains many beautiful fragments of
Gothic decoration, but its chief feature is a richly decorated
arch adorned with small figures and spiral columns. A basrelief of 981 represents two animals, apparently a wolf and a
dog, drinking; on the body of one of the beasts is an inscription relating to the dedication of the church, Dec. 4th,
981, by Benedict VII.  To the right of the church, we
enter the third and smallest cloister-" Il chiostro dell' Abbate Lando "-built early in the thirteenth century.  It is
surrounded by a beautiful arcade of double pillars like those
at the Lateran, and has an inscription in mosaic, the work
of the famous Cosmo Cosmati and his two sons, Luca and
Jacopo, to whom  are due the beautiful decorations in the
cloister of the Benedicine convent oi S. Paolo at Rome:
"Cosmus ct Filii Lucas et Jacobus alter
Romani Gives in Marmoris arte periti
Hoc opus explerunt Abbatis tempore Landi."
In the porch of the church is an interesting old Giottesque
picture and the capital of a Corinthian column attesting the
presence of a temple on this site.  The interior, though
modern, is not unimposing.  S. Onorato sleeps beneath




THE SACRED ILEX GROVE.                     305
the high altar.  Under his statue is an inscription which
recalls the legend that the translation of his beloved master
Benedict into the better world was miraculously revealed
to him:
" Scandentem hic alter Benedictum vidit in astra;
Primus et has cedes illo abeunte regit."
As the path from Sta. Scholastica to the Sacro Speco is
steep and fatiguing, a small chapel has been erected at a
short distance beyond the larger monastery, where aged and
infirm persons are allowed to accomplish their pilgrimage.
It bears the inscription"Si montis superasse jugum negat aegra senectus,
Nec detur ad sacros procubuisse specus,
Siste, tibi cceli haec cedes aeraria pandet,
Haec tibi ccelestes prodiga fundet opes."
The scenery now becomes more romantic and savage at
every step as we ascend the winding path, till, about half a
mile further on, a small gate admits one to the famous immemorial flex Grove, which is said to date from  the fifth
century, and which has never been profaned by axe or
hatchet. The grand old trees bowed with age, with twisted
and contorted stems, form a dense mass of shadow, grateful
after the arid rocks, and they hang in masses of grey-green
verdure over the depth. Here and there the mossy trunks
are covered with fern, upon which a ray of sunlight falls with
dazzling brilliancy. At the end of the grove the path narrows, and a steep winding stair, just wide enough to admit
one person at a time, leads to the platform before the convent, which up to that moment is entirely concealed. It is
always said that monks have known how to choose the sites
of their dwellings better than any one else, but surely no
VOL. I.                                       20




306                DA YS NEAR ROME.
situation was ever equal to this, to which they were led by
its historical associations. There is an old Latin distich
which says:
"Bernardus valles, colles Benedictus amabat,
Oppida Franciscus, magnas Ignatius urbes."
The name of the monastery, Sacro Speco, commemorates
the holy cave of S. Benedict. Over his caverned oratory a
chapel was erected by Onorato, his immediate successor.
Soon after another chapel was built in the cave which was
his dwelling, and the two were united by the sixth abbot,
Pietro.  In the eleventh century a more imposing church
was constructed by the Abbot Humbert, which was to enclose both the caves-utramque cryptam.  His successor,
the Abbot John V., finished the church much as we now see
it, for the present buildings, raised on arches against the
rocks, all date from the eleventh and the early part of the
twelfth centuries; the lower church is of 1053.
At the entrance, the thrilling interest of the place is at
once recalled to us by the inscription-" Here is the patriarchal cradle of the monks of the West of the  Order
of S. Benedict."  The entrance corridor, built on arches
over the abyss, has frescoes of four sainted popes-Gregory, Agatho, Leo, and another.  It ends in  an  antechamber with a painted statue of S. Benedict, some beautiful old Umbrian frescoes of the Virgin and Child between
the four Evangelists, and the lines
"Do you ask of Benedict,'If you seek for light, why do you choose a
cave,
For a cavern can give no light to him who prays for it?'
Know that if one ray penetrates into utter darkness,
It gives more light in the gloom than the stars in the night."




CHURCH OF THE SACRO SPECO.                      307
We now  reach the entrance of the all-glorious upperchurch, built by the Abbot John V. in  1i 6, and adorned
with frescoes under John VI. in 1220.
"One seems to be deeply embued with the mysterious associations of
famous days of old, as one enters the first church from the gallery,
and finds oneself suddenly in a little cathedral of graceful Gothic architecture, its walls and pillars gleaming with the varied colour of already
fading frescoes. Unseen monks sing vespers in the choir, their powerful bass voices echoing solemnly through the twilight gloom of the
church, and the pauses of the litanies are filled up by the louder croaking of ravens.  For three young ravens are brought up here in the
convent in memory of S. Benedict; it seems that the number of this
living symbol of the order must always be maintained. "-Gregorovius.
On one side of the church the story of the Birth of Christ
is told, introduced by the figures of the prophets who announced His coming, and the story of His life is continued
round the church to the eastern wall, which is occupied by
the history of the Crucifixion. Here, angels are represented
as catching the streams of blood which flow from the Divine
wounds; the soul of Dismas,t the penitent thief, is received
by an angel, while that of the bad thief Gesmas is carried off
by a black demon.
Beneath the fresco of the Crucifixion, is S. Benedict
throned with his principal disciples around him, over a triple
arch, with hanging lamps, behind which the bare rock of the
cavern is seen.  A  representation of Benedict writing his
Rule in the cave, has the inscription:
" Hic mons est pinguis, qui multis claruit signis,
A Domino missus sanctus fuit Benedictus,
Mansit in hac cripta, fuit hic nova Regula scripta,
Quisquis amas Christum talem sortire Magistrum."
* One of the litanies preserved in Santa Scholastica has the strange invocation"Sancte Dismas, latro de Cruce.... "




308                DA YS NEAR ROME.
From  the principal church  we enter upon  a perfect
labyrinth of chapels hewn out of the rock, which frequently
forms one of their walls, while the other is completely
covered by ancient frescoes. The four chapels hewn in the
rock to the right and left of the high altar, are devoted
to the story of S. Benedict, together with that of Scholastica, Placidus, Maurus, and other of his followers. The
holy water basin was once the sarcophagus of a Roman
child, and is decorated with reliefs of birds. The frescoes
continue in succession  to  the  second or middle church.
A  Madonna throned between two angels has the inscription-" Magister Conciolus pinxit hoc opus."   Concioli is a
rare Umbrian master noticed by Vasari, who, however,
seems scarcely to have been aware of the power of his
works.  The most striking frescoes are those of the death
and burial of the Virgin: in the latter the Jews who attempted to intercept the funeral procession are represented
as stricken with blindness. A picture of the martyrdom of
S. Sebastian bears the date 1486.
"Le gout moderne, qui s'attache surtout'a'effet exterieur et a la
perfection materielle, pent aujourd'hui regarder d'un ceil dedaigneux ces
types etranges mais singulierement expressifs qui, pendant plusieurs
siecles, furent invariablement reproduits par la piete autant que par le
genie tout symbolique des premiers peintres chretiens. Or, bien different
etait sur ces questions le jugement des hommes du moyen age. Ammes
du sentiment profondement religieux qui avait inspire les ceuvres des
artistes, leurs contemporains, ils regardaient ces pieuses representations
avec les yeux de la foi, et n'y cherchaient qu'un nouvel aliment a la
ferveur dont leur ame etait remplie." - Alphonse Dantier, Les Monastres Benedictins.
In the sacristy are some small pictures by Bellini and the
Caracci.  Through the chapel on the left of the high altar
a series of grotto-chapels are reached. In one of them is




THE FRESCOES OF SUBIACO.                 309
a picture by Giotto of " gli angeli che fanno festa " over the
virtues of S. Benedict in his cave, while devils are tormenting S. Romano and cutting his cord.
It is by a staircase in front of the high altar that we descend to the under church. At the foot of the first flight of
steps stands the frescoed figure of Innocent III., who first
raised Subiaco into an abbacy, above the charter of 12I3,
setting forth all the privileges he accorded to the abbey. In
the same fresco is represented the Abbot John of Tagliacozzo, under whom  (I217-I227) the chronicles of the
abbey narrate that many of the paintings were executed.
The passage on the right of this landing has, among many
others, a fresco of S. Claridonia, who lived here in a hermitage above the monastery.  On her dress is a curious inscription evidently scratched by a chaplain of ~Eneas Silvius
when he was celebrating mass here. Here also is a fresco of
Christ seated in judgment-the lily in his hand blossoms on
the side of the good. This passage leads to the hermitage
occupied by S. Gregory the Great when he visited Subiaco.
On the outer wall is a fresco of Gregory writing his commentary on Job.  The inner chamber, which is decorated
with frescoes of seraphim, contains a portrait of S. Francis,
supposed to have been painted during his visit to the Sacro
Speco, by the artist then at work upon the chapel. It is in
exact accordance with the verbal description which remains
of him: —"facie hilaris, vultus benignus, facie utcumque
oblonga et protensa, frons plana et parva, nasus aequalis et
rectus."
" It is a life-size figure of a youthful monk in a high conical cowl,the frock and cord of a mendicant friar, inscribed with the words
FR. FRACISCU.  Partially restored and retouched, the head may




310                 nA YS NEAR ROME.
still attract attention by its character. Though lean from abstinence, the
features are regular, the brow open, the eyes large, and the nose straight.
The tonsure is visible across the forehead and along the temples to the
ears, which are not remarkable for smallness. A straggling beard and
a downy upper lip complete a far more pleasing portrait of Brother
Francis, than those which in hundreds, at a later time, were placed in
every monastery and convent of the Order. A miniature kneeling figure
of a donor at the monk's feet seems to have been added at a later time.
It is remarkable that S. Francis is depicted without the Stigmata; and
if it be, as is pretended, a genuine portrait, it must have been executed,
if not in I216, at least before I228, when the monk was canonized, and
perhaps by one who had seen and conversed with him. If considered
as a work of art, it differs in no wise from other early pictures in the
Sacro Speco.  Parts of the picture, where the colour had entirely fallen
off, have been renewed. The background is all repainted."-Crowe and
Cavalcaselle.
Another portrait, believed to be from his own hand, represents Brother Oddo, a monk of Subiaco, receiving the
blessing of an angel he has invoked. S. Gregory is represented consecrating the altar of the church with the words"Vere locus iste sanctus est in quo orant." An inscription
which commemorates the dedication of the  chapel, also
mentions the two months' retreat which Gregory IX. made
in the monastery:
Pontificis summi fuit anno picta secundo
Haec domus: hic primo quo summo fulsit honore,
Manserat et vitam ccelestem duxerat idem,
Perque duos menses sacros maceraverat artus.
Julius est unus, Augustus fervidus alter.
On the second landing, the figure of Benedict faces us
(on a window), with his finger on his lips, imposing silence.
On the left is the coro, now used by the monks. On the
right the cave where Benedict is said to have passed three
years in  darkness.  A  statue by Raggi (sculptor of the




FRESCOES OF SUBIA CO.                     311
fountain in the Piazza Navona), of the school of Bernini,
commemorates his presence here: a basket is a memorial
of that lowered with his food by S. Romanus. An ancient
bell is shown as that which rang to announce the approach
of his daily sustenance.
"The grotto of Benedict vividly reminded me of the famous grotto of
S. Rosalia on the Monte Pellegrino near Palermo. Behind the richlydecorated altar one sees the marble figure of the young Benedict kneeling in prayer before the cross: it is a tolerable work of the Bernini
school, and it gains through the half darkness of the cavern. Truly everything here has a dramatic character. The smallness and grace of this
little church gleaming with colour, its chapels and grottoes like a spiritual vision, such as I have never found elsewhere in the whole field of
religious conception.  It is an illustrated picture-book of poetical
legends, which are bloodless and painless, though fantastic, like the
lives of pious anchorites in the wilderness, and amid the birds of the field.
Here Religion treads on the borders of fairy-land, and brings an indescribable atmosphere away from thence."-Gregorovius.
As we descend the Santa Scala, trodden by the feet of
Benedict, and ascended by the monks upon their knees,
the solemn beauty of the place increases at every step.
On the right, is a powerful fresco of Death mowing down
the young, and sparing the old; on the left, the Preacher
shows the young and thoughtless the three states to which
the body is reduced after death. Much of the rock is still
left bare and hangs overhead in jagged masses, preserving
the cavern-like character of the scene, while every available
space is rich with colour and gold, radiant, yet perfectly
subdued and harmonious.  On all sides the saints of the
Order, and those especially connected with it, Benedict,
Gregory the Great, the Archdeacon Peter, Romanus, Maurus,
Placidus, Honoratus, Scholastica, and Anatolia, look down
upon us repeatedly from the great thirteenth-century frescoes.




312                   DAYS NEAR ROME.
"C'est d'abord l'image du Christ qui ouvre le cycle de ces peintures,
en indiquant, dans la livre de sa vie, ce passage dont le texte a ete si
fidelement suivi par l'auteur de la regle Benedictine-ego sum via, veritas,
et vita.  Par un harmonieux rapprochement qui fait honneur a la pensee
de l'artiste, de meme que le Sauveur y est entoure de ses principaux
apotres, de meme Saint Benoit y rassemble aupres de sa personne ses
disciples bien-aimes, auxquels il recommande de benir incessamment le
Seigneur, et d'avoir toujours ses louanges sur leurs levres:
Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore:
Semper laus in ore meo.
En effet, a l'entour figurent Saint Romain, Saint Placide, Saint Maur, et
Saint Honorat, occupes a mediter les sages preceptes de leur maitre.
Puis, on voit Saint Gregoire ayant a ses cotes le diacre Pierre, son confident habituel, et tous deux places en face du pape Saint Sylvestre et du
diacre Saint Laurent.  Plus loin sous la deriere travee, apparaissent
les images a demi symboliques des quatre evangelistes dont le corps, qui
a la forme humaine, est surmonte de la tete de chacun des animaux qui
leur sert ordinairement d'embleme distinctif."-Alphonse Dantier, Les
Monasteres Benedictins.
" Let any young painter or sculptor, thoroughly accomplished in the
mechanism of his art, in which these his predecessors were so deficient,
but drawing his inspiration from Christianity and the Romano-Teutonic
nationality of Europe-let any such young artist, I say, visit Italy so prepared-tossing to the winds the jargon of the schools, content to feel
and yield to the impulses of a high, and pure, and holy nature, and disposed, with God's blessing, like Fra Angelico or Perugino, to dedicate
his talents, as the bondsman of love, to his Redeemer's glory and the
good of mankind-let him so come, and commune with these neglected
relics of an earlier, a simpler, and a more believing age-talk to the
spirit that dwells within them in its own universal language; ask it
questions, and listen reverently for a reply-and he will gain more than
a mere response-that spirit will pass into his own bosom-his eyes will
be touched as with the magician's salve, and he will find himself in a
world of undreamt-ofbeauty, hitherto unseen only because inadequately
bodied forth; a world of high spirits, beings of the mind; ideas as yet
only half-born (as it were), but which will throng around him on every
side'Demanding life, impatient for the skies,'
for that life of immortality which his practised hand can so well bestow.
-Lord Lindsay's Christian Art.




FRESCOES OF SUBiA CO.                    313
In the chapel on the left of the Scala Santa, that of S.
Lorenzo Loricato, who is buried here, is a picture of the
Madonna and Child, shown as one which existed in the
time of S. Benedict, and was venerated by him in his childhood. It is signed " Stammatico Greco Pictor P.," a powerful painter of whom we have no account whatever.
Lastly, we reach the Holy of Holies, the second cave, in
which S. Gregory narrates that Benedict after his return
from  Vicovaro (to which he had gone for a short time as
abbot) "dwelt alone with himself," being "always busied
in the presence of his Creator, in bewailing the spiritual miseries of his soul and past sins, in watching over the
emotions of his heart, and in the constant contemplation of
Divine things." Here the Devil hovered over him as a little
black bird, suggesting sinful thoughts and desires, which he
subdued by flinging himself amid the thorns and nettles.
Here he received a poisoned loaf from  the wicked priest
Florentius, and, throwing it on the ground, forced a tame
raven on his command to bear it beyond mortal reach. And
here he laid down the rule of his order, making its basis the
twelve degrees of humility: viz.I. Deep compunction of heart, and holy fear of God and His judgments, with a constant attention to walk in the Divine presence, sunk
under the weight of this confusion and fear.
2. The perfect renunciation of our own will.
3. Ready obedience.
4. Patience under all sufferings and injuries.
5. The manifestation of all thoughts to a spiritual director.
6. To be content, even rejoice, under all humiliations, to be pleased
with mean employments and mean clothes; in short, to love simplicity
and poverty.
7. To esteem ourselves more unworthy and base than all-even the
greatest sinners.




314                  DAYS NEAR ROME.
8. To avoid all wish for singularity in words and actions.
9. To love and practise silence.
io. To avoid uncurbed mirth and laughter.
1. To seek for modesty of speech and words.
12. To be humble in all external actions.
"Three virtues constituted the sum of the Benedictine discipline.
Silence with solitude and seclusion, humility, obedience, which, in the
strong language of its laws, extended to impossibilities. All is thus
concentrated on self. It was the man isolated from his kind who was
to rise to a lonely perfection.  All the social, all patriotic, virtues were
excluded: the mere mechanic observance of the rules of the brotherhood, or even the corporate spirit, are hardly worthy of notice, though
they are the only substitutes for the rejected and proscribed pursuits of,
active life.
" The three occupations of life were the worship of God, reading, and
manual labour. The adventitious advantages, and great they were, of
these industrious agricultural settlements, were not contemplated by
the founder; the object of the monks was not to make the wilderness
blossom with fertility, to extend the arts and husbandry of civilized life
into barbarous regions, it was solely to employ in engrossing occupation
that portion of time which could not be devoted to worship and study."
-Milman's Latin Christianity.
Here an appropriate inscription commemorates the wonderful series of saints, who, issuing from Subiaco, became the
founders of the Benedictine Order all over the world.
From the arches below the convent one may emerge upon
a small terraced Garden, once a ridge covered with a thicket
of thorns, upon which S. Benedict used to roll his naked
body to extinguish the passions of the flesh. Here, seven
centuries afterwards, S. Francis, coming to visit the shrine,
knelt and prayed before the thorns which had such glorious
memories, and planted two rose-trees beside them.  The
roses of S. Francis flourish still, and are carefully tended by
the monks, but the Benedictine thorns have disappeared.
" Ce jardin, deux fois sanctifie, occupe encore une sorte de plateau




GARDEN OF S. BENEDETTO.                           315
triangulaire qui se projette sur le flanc du rocher, un peu en avant et audessous de la grotte qui servait de gite a Benoit.  Le regard, confine de
tous cotes par les rochers, n'y peut errer en liberte que sur lazur du ciel.
C'est le dernier des lieux sacres que l'on visite et que l'on venere, dans
ce celebre et unique monastere du Sagro Speco, qui forme comme une
serie de sanctuaires superposes les uns aux autres et adosses a la montagne que Benoit a immortalisee.  Tel fut le dur et sauvage berceau de
l'Ordre monastique en occident.  C'est de ce tombeau, oh s'etait enseveli tout vivant cet enfant delicat des derniers patriciens de Rome, qu'est
nee la forme definitive de la vie monastique, c'est-a-dire la perfection de
la vie chretienne. De cette caverne et de ce buisson d'epines sont issues
ces legions de moines et de saints dont le devouement a valu a 1'Eglise
ses conquetes les plus vastes et ses gloires les plus pures.  De cette
source a jailli l'intarissable courant du zele et de la faveur religieuse.
La sont venus, la viendront encore tous ceux a qui lesprit du grand
Benoit inspirera la force d'ouvrir de nouvelles voies ou de restaurer
I'antique discipline dans la vie claustrale. Tous y reconnaissent la site
sacre que le prophete Isaie semble avoir montre d'avance aux cenobites
par ces paroles d'une application si merveilleusement exacte: Attendite ad
fetram de qua excisi estis, et ad cavernam laci de qua precisi estis.  I1
faut plaindre le chretien qui n'a pas vu cette grotte, ce desert, ce nid
d'aigle et de colombe, ou qui,'ayant vu, ne s'est pas prosterne avec un
tendre respect devant le sanctuaire d'oti sortirent, avec le regle et l'institut de saint Benoit, la fleur de la civilisation chretienne, la victoire
permanente de l'ame sur la matiere, l'affranchissement intellectuel de
l'Europe, et tout ce que lesprit de sacrifice, regle par la foi, ajoute de
grandeur et de charme a la science, au travail, a la vertu "-Montalembert, Les Moines d' Occident.
"Cache d'abord au fond d'un antre, oublie des hommes, et connu de
Dieu seul, passant les nuits, ou a chanter de saints cantiques, ou a
mediter les annees eternelles, Benoit ne trouve plus de volupte qu'a
crucifier sa chair, et la reduire en servitude; devenu pere d'un peuple
de solitaires, il renouvelle en Occident ces prodiges d'austerite, que les
deserts de Scethe et de la Thebaide avoient admires; et sa regle si
estimee depuis, ne fut, dit Saint Gregoire, que l'histoire exacte des
moeurs du saint Legislateur.  C'est ainsi que Benoit confond la mollesse
du monde.  En effet, quand on nous propose ces grands modeles, nous
nous recrions sur la puissance de la grace dans ces hommes extraordinaires: mais nous n'allons pas plus loin; et parceque nous ne croyons
pas que ces modeles de penitence soient proposes pour etre imites, nous




316                  DAYS NEAR ROME.
ne les croyons pas meme faits pour nous instruire. Mais quel a pu etre
le dessein de Dieu en suscitant dans tous les siecles, de ces penitents
fameux qui ont edifie l'Eglise? n'est-ce pas de nous faire comprendre de
quoi notre faiblesse, soutenue de la grace, est encore capable? De plus,
je vous demande pourquoi ces grands exemples de penitence nous
paroissent-ils si eloignes de nos devoirs et de notre etat? Est-ce parcequ'ils ont vecu dans des siecles fort eloignes des n6tres? mais les devoirs
ne changent pas avec les ages. Est-ce parce que les Saints ont ete des
hommes extraordinaires? mais les Saints ne sont devenus parmi nous
des hommes extraordinaires, que parceque la corruption est devenue
universelle.  Est-ce parceque les mortifications et les saintes austerites
ne forment que le caractere particulier de quelques Saints? mais lisez
les histoires; tous ont fait penitence; tous ont crucifie leur chair avec
leurs desirs; et partout ou vous trouverez des Saints, vous les trouverez
penitents. Nous avons done beau nous rassurer sur l'exemple commun;
si les Saints l'avoient suivi, ils ne meritoient pas aujourd'hui nos hommages.  L'Evangile est fait pour nous comme pour eux; et comme il
n'a rien qui nous ressemble, il n'a rien non plus qui doive nous rassurer."
Massillon, Sermons.
Under the part of the cave which opens upon this garden
all the monks are buried, and when corruption has passed
away their bones are taken up and placed in an open chapel
in the rock, where they are visible to all. To obtain a
general view of the convent of the Sacro Speco, it is necessary to follow the lower path which diverges just beyond
Santa Scholastica. A succession of zig-zags along the edge
of the cliffs, amid savage scenery, leads into the gorge,
which is closed in the far distance by the rock-built town
of Jenne, the birth-place of Alexander IV. and of the Abbot
Lando.  We cross the river by a bridge, whence a pathlet,
winding often by staircases up and down the rocks, allows one
to see the whole building rising above the beautiful falls of the
Anio.  We emerge close to the ruins of a Nymphcum belonging to Nero's Villa, and nothing can be more imposing than
the view from hence up the gorge, with the great rock-crest



CASTLE OF SUBIACO.                 317
ing monastery on the other side, and all the wealth of rich
verdure on the nearer steeps, which take the name of Montte
Carpineeto from the hornbeams with which they are covered.
The little chapel above the Sacro Speco is that of San Biagio
(S. Blaise), who is invoked whenever any catastrophe occurs
in the valley. Here, once every year, mass is chaunted by
the monks of Santa Scholastica.
Sacro Speco, Subiaco
Sacro Speco, Subiaco.
The castle, called La Rocca, built by the warlike Abbot
John V., was long a summer residence of the popes. One
of its towers, still called "Borgiana," recalls the residence
here of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, afterwards Alexander VI.
Magnificent views may be obtained from the windows of the
rooms, which contain a few good pictures.




318                  DAYS NEAR ROME.
The town formerly professed the utmost devotion to the
papacy, and the waggon-load of its wild-flowers was one of
the most suggestive and attractive of the presents to Pius IX.
on his anniversary, sent by "La sua divotissima Subiaco,"
yet now the names of the streets are all changed, and we
have the eternal "Via Cavour, Via Venti Settembre, &c."
Costumes still linger here, but are less striking than further
in the mountains.  The men all wear bunches of flowers in
their hats on festas, the women wear spadoni, ending in a
hand, an acorn, or a bunch of flowers in silver. Beyond
the  Albergo  della  Pernice  (see  above), and the  gate
built in honour of Pius VI., is a curious old bridge with a
gate-tower over the Anio.  One of the best views of the
town is just across this bridge.
The path which is approached by the bridge leads to the
beautifully situated Convent of the Cappuccini.  In its portico
is a very quaint fresco of S. Francis, the beloved of animals,
"vir vere catholicus totusque apostolicus," shaking hands
with a wolf, much to the horror of his attendant monks.*
Endless other paths lead up the hills in different directions,
through  woods by rushing  brooks, and  along  mountain
ledges, and indeed the whole of the Valle Santa, as the district of Subiaco is popularly called, is well worth exploring.
The road to Tivoli is one of the many benefits which
Subiaco owes to its having been so long the residence of
Pius VI.  It follows, first the Via Sublacensis, constructed
* This was at Gubbio. A wolf who had long ravaged the surrounding country was
rebuked by S. Francis, who promised it a peaceful existence and daily food, if it would
amend its ways. The wolf agreed to the compact, and placed his right paw in the
hand of S. Francis in token of confidence and good faith. " Brother Wolf," as S.
Francis called him, " lived afterwards tamely for two years at Gubbio, in good fellowship with all, and finally died, much regretted, of old age."-From the " Fioretti di S.
Francesco."




THE VALLE SANTA.                          319
by Nero, and then the Via Valeria, which was the work of
the censor Valerius Maximus, in the year of Rome 447.  In
spring, when it is chiefly visited by foreigners, the country
here strikes one as bare, and the chief interest is derived
entirely from the villages which crest the hills on either side.
Subiaco.
But in summer, when  the chestnut woods are in full leaf,
and the luxuriant vines leap from tree to tree along the valleys, the scenery is unspeakably lovely.
"Les montagnes rapprochees forment une suite de vallees etroites et
singulierement accidentees, ou, a chaque detour du chemin, le charme
saisissant de l'imprevu vous decouvre une source toujours nouvelle
d'emotions.  Sous la voute epaisse de ces bois, au milieu des gorges
protondes de ces montagnes, on croit errer dans les forets primitives que
les anciennes traditions nous representent pleines de tenebres, de mystere et d'horreur, et qui couvraient le pays, quand les colons sicules et
peiasges vinrent s'y etablir long-temps avant la periode romaine.
"La silence de ces retraites inhabites n'est trouble que par le mur



320                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
mure de ruisseaux nombreux qui, roulant sur des pentes rapides, y
forment des cascades et se precipitent ensuite dans l'Anio, dont les
chutes retentissantes dominent 9a et la tous les autres bruits. C'est
toujours le meme cours d'eau impetueux, aux ondes froides et transparentes-' Frigidas atque perspicuas emanat aquas'-comme le peint
Saint Gregoire le grand, en decrivant la contree montagneuse oui le
jeune Benoit trouva une solitude si bien appropriee a ses desirs. Aujourd'hui encore la nature vivante n'y decele sa presence qu'a de rares
intervalles. Parfois seulement un troupeau de chevres a demi sauvages
apparalt suspendu sur la crete d'un nlamelon recouvert de broussailles.
Au vetement grossier, a la figure etrange du patre qui les conduit, il
semble qu'on retrouve quelque berger arcadien, descendant des compagnons du bon roi 1vandre.  Assis sur la pointe du roc d'ou il parait
ecouter la bruyante harmonie produite par les chutes de l'Anio, ce
berger rappelle assez fidelement celui que Virgile depeint, dans une
attitude semblable;'...... stupet inscius alto
Accipiens sonitum saxi de vertice pastor.'
AEn. ii. 307.
pretant'oreille aux bruits sinistres qui s'elevent d'une campagne devastee
par l'inondation d'un torrent."-Alphorse Dantier.
A continuous avenue of mountain villages lines the way.
First we have, on the right Cerbara, and on the left Rocca di
Canterano, its long lines of old houses cresting the declivity.
Then, on the right we have Agosta, and on the left Marano.
A road on the right now turns off to the Lago Fucino, and,
only two miles distant, we see Arsoli, the ancient Arsula,
containing the handsome, still inhabited castle of Prince
Massimo. Here the apartment once occupied by S. Filippo
Neri, founder of the Oratorians, is preserved with religious
care.  Though he frequently staid with the Massimo family,
he lived here almost as a hermit, eating only bread, with a
few olives, herbs, or an apple, drinking only water, and lying
on the bare floor. There is a small Picture Gallery at Arsoli,
but it is almost always locked up.




S. COSIMA TO.                     321
Passing under Roviano, which has a castle of the Sciarras,
we reach a more fertile country, where the men train the
vines, with bunches of great blue iris fastened in their hats,
and on the right we see Cantelupo, where the Marchese del
Gallo, who married a daughter of Prince Lucien Buonaparte,
has a chateau, in which he spends the summer.  Here a
number of shrines, surrounding a little green with some old
ilex-trees, announce the approach to San  Cosimato, the
village of hermitages, mentioned in a bull of Gregory VII.
as " Monasterium Sancti Cosimatis situm in valle Tiburtina."
No one would imagine, from merely passing along the road,
that this is one of the most curious places in the country,
well deserving of attention and study.  But in the earliest
ages of Latin Christianity the caverns in the cliffs which here
abruptly overhang the river, had been taken possession of by
a troop of hermits, who turned this country, for they had
many caverns at Vicovaro also, into a perfect Thebaid.
Passing through the convent, and its pretty garden full of
pillared pergolas (ladies are not admitted), a winding path,
the merest ledge, often a narrow stair against the face of the
precipice, often caverned over or tunnelled through the
rock, leads to this extraordinary settlement, and opens upon
one tiny hermitage after another, provided with its little
window  and its rock-hewn couch and seat.  A  campanile remains on a projecting crag, which summoned the
recluses to prayer. The last cave, larger than any of the
others, was their chapel, formed of living rock. Mass is still
occasionally said here, and the scene is most striking, as, to
admit the light, large doors just opposite the altar, and only
a few feet distant, are thrown open, and one looks down the
perpendicular cliff overhung with ilexes centuries oli, into the
VOL. I.                                       z 




322               DA YS NEAR ROME.
Anio immediately beneath, and the roar of its waters mingles
with the chaunting of the Psalms. In the fifth century a
At S. Cosimato.
collection of monks had united on the heiglhts above the
river, and, before he had founded his own convent, attracted
by the fame of his sanctity, they chose S. Benedict as their
superior.  He declined at first, warning them  that they
would not like the severity of his rule, but they insisted and
he joined them here.  In a short time his austerity roused
their hatred, and they attempted to poison him  in the
Sacrament cup, but when, before drinking, he made the sign'
of the cross over it, it fell to pieces in his hands.  "God
forgive you, my brethren," he said, "you see that I spoke
the truth when I told you that your rule and mine would not
agree," and he returned to Subiaco. The scene of this story




S. COSIMATC.                    323
is a caverned chapel in the cliff on the other side of the convent, adorned with rude frescoes.  Here women are permitted to enter.
Two miles beyond San Cosimato is Vicovaro.  The rest
of the road to Tivoli is described in chapter xiii.
END OF VOL. I.




INDEX.
A.                   Anio Novus, Aqueduct of, at Tivoli,
i. 204
Acque Salvie, ii. 290                 Ansedonia, ii. 345
Acuto, i. 267                         Antinum, ii. I9I
Ad Medias, Roman station of, ii.  Antium, ii. 268
249                                 Antrodoco, ii. 163
2Esula, i. I90                        Antemnae, i. I67
Agosta, i. 320                        Anxur, ii. 251
Agylla, ii. 304                       Appii Forum, ii. 248
Alatri, i. 251; ii. Io                Appiola, i. 55
Alba Fucinensis, ii. 183              Aquae Albule, i. i86
Alba Longa, site of, i. 73            Aqua Bollicante, i. I54
Alban Lake, i. 67                     Aquae Cutiliae, ii. 162
Alban Mount, distant view of, i. 5I; Aqua Ferentina, ii. 290
summit of, i. 85                    Aqueduct of the Anio Novus, i. 28I
Albano, i. 59-80                                      Aqua Claudia, i. 52,
Albula, river, i. 185                                   97, 281
Aldobrandini, family of-their villa                   Aqua Marcia, i. 295
at Frascati, i. I04                                 Aqua Vergine, i. 162
Alexander III., Pope-his consecra-                    Della Torre at Spotion at Ninfa, i. 236                                 leto, ii. 146
Allia, the river, i. I75, I81                          Paoline, i. 97
Altieri, family  of —their villa at  Aquataccia, the, ii. 290
Oriolo, i. 152                      Aquila, ii. 163-169
Aluminiera, ii. 311                   Aquino, ii. 234-241
Amasena, the river, ii. Io, 249, 259    Area, i. 259
Amatrice, ii. 161                     Arce, ii. 202
Amelia, ii. 139                       Arco di Pino, i. I40
Amiternum, ii. 161                    Ardea, ii. 276
Amphitheatre of Albano, i. 66         Ariccia, i. 62
Albai Fucensis, ii. 184  Arnara, i. 259
Sutr, ii. 68           Arnolfo, tomb of Cardinal de Braye
Tusculum, i. 107         by, ii. 133
Ampiglione, i. 207                    Arpino, ii. 198
Anagni, i. 259-267                    Arpino, I1 Cavaliere d' -picture at
Angelico, Fra, his frescoes at Orvieto,    Trisulti by, ii. I8; birthplace of,
ii. 128                               i1. 200
Angitia, ii. I89                     i Arrone, rivulet, i. I44
Anguillara, i. 152                   i Arsoli, i. 320
Anio, river, i. I85; falls of, at Tivoli,  Artena, i. 268
i. 194, 196; at Subiaco, i. 316     Aspra, ii. 25




INDEX.                                  325
Astura, ii. 27                         Bulicame, the,-baths of, ii. 93
Atina, ii. 203                         Buonaparte, family of,-their proAugustus, bridge of — at Narni, ii.    perty at Frascati, i. I05; at Musig136                                    nano, ii. 334; their connexion with
Avezzano, ii. 183                         Canino, ii. 334; their burial-place
at Corneto, ii. 317
B.                   Buonaventura, S.,-birth-place  of,
ii. II6
Baccano, i. 141                        Blon Ricovero, farm  of, I31
Bagnaja, ii. 89
Bagni di Paterno, ii. 162                                C
Bagnorea, ii. II6
Balbi of Alatri, works of, ii. 18      Caere, ii. 304
Balzorano, ii. 192                     Camaldoli, convent of the, on the
Barberini,  Cardinal,  i. 127;  the    Alban hills, i. 113
family Dukes of Segni, i. 242;  Camindoli, ii. 181
their palace at Palestrina, i. 275;  Campagna, the, -  its geographica
their residence at, i. 281             limits, i. II, 12; characteristics of
Bardella, i. 209                          the, i. I9, 32; effect of the, i. 98;
Basilica of S. Alessandro, i. 178        lost cities of the, i. 144; in the
Bassano, Francesco and Leandro,-         direction of Ostia, ii. 292; views
frescoes by, ii. 229                   over, i. 131
Bernini, Chigi Palace at Ariccia by,  Campagnano, i. 141
i. 63                                Campiglia, hill of, ii. 353
Bertaldo, tower of, ii. 314            Campo Bufalaro, ii. 287
Bieda, ii. 97-Ioo                              di Annibale, i. 84
Bisentina, island of, ii. io                   Morto, i. 40; ii. 245
Blera, ii. 97                          Canino, ii. 334
Bomanzo, ii. I07                       Cantalupo, i. 320
Boniface VIII., the story of, i. 263-   Canterano, i. 320
265; his persecution of the Colonna  Capistrello, ii. I9I
family, i. 272; his treatment of  Capranica, ii. I04
Ccelestine V., ii. 7                 Caprarola, ii. 65-73
Borghese, property of,-at Frascati,  Carciano, a suburb of Tivoli, i. 206
i.'i6; at Cervaretto, i. 162; at  Carsoli, ii. i86
Palombara,  i. I79;  at  Porto  Cartiera, the,-of Isola, ii. 198
d'Anzio, ii. 267; at Pratica, i. 282; Casale dei Pazzi, i. 178
at Rocca Priora, i. 168              Casamari, ii. 8-io
Borghetto, on the Alban hills, i. 99    Casa Nuova, i. I79
in the Sabina, ii. 33      Castel d'Asso, ii. 89-94
Borgia, Caesar,-his siege of Isola            Fusano, i. 47-49
Farnese, i. 132                             Gandolfo, i. 72
Borgo Velino, ii. 163                         Giubeleo, i. 173
Bovillae, i. 55                               Madama, i. 207
Bracciano, i. 146                             dell' Osa, i. i60, 164
Bramante, La Quercia built by, ii. 88         Porciano, ii. 287
Braschi, family of,-Villa Adriana the         di Sangro, ii. 178
property of, road constructed by,  Castiglione, tower of, i. 157
i. 190; villa at Tivoli of, i. 204  Castle ofBrigands in the Campagna, i. 35;           Anguillara, i. 152
their attack on the family of Lucien     Antrodoco, ii. 163
Buonaparte, i. Io5; their encour-        Aquila, ii. 169
agement by the Sardinian Govern-         Ardea, ii. 277
ment, ii. 36                             Arsoli, i. 320
Bruno, Bishop, his statue at Segni,        Avezzano, ii. i83
his history, i. 245, 246                 Borgetto, near Frascati, i. 99




326                            INDEX.
Castle of-continued.                 Cathedral of-continued.
Borghetto, in the Sabina, ii. 33     Segni, i. 245
Bracciano, i. 147                    Spoleto, ii. I47
Cantelupo, i. 32                     Sutri, ii. 64
Castel di Sangro, ii. 178            Terni, ii. 140
Castel Fusano, i. 47                 Terracina, ii. 252
Celano, ii. 181                      Tivoli, i. 202
Ceprano, ii. 205                     Todi, ii. 143'Civita Castellana, ii. 35           Toscanella, ii. 336
Galera, i. 146                       Valmontone, i. 269
Isola, ii. 202                       Velletri, i. 223
Montalto, ii. 329                Cavaliere, ii. I86
Nemi, i. 88                      Cavamonte, i. 160
Nepi, ii. 58                     Cavi, i. 283
Olevano, i. 291                  Ceccano, ii. 205
Ortucchio, ii. I90               Celano, ii. 18i.
Orvieto, ii. 134                         Lago di, ii. I86
Ostia, i. 42                     Centumcellae, ii. 313
Palestrina, i. 280               Ceprano, ii. 205
Passerano, i. 206                Cerbara, near Subiaco, i. 320
Petrella, ii. i62                Ceri Nuovo, ii. 311
Popoli, ii. I69                  Cervara, caves and tower of, i. 162;
Populonia, ii. 351                 festa of, i. 163
Pratica, ii. 283                 Cervaretto, i. 154, I62
Rocca Janula, ii. 208            Cervetri, ii. 302-311
Ronciglione, ii. 64              Cesarini, family of the,-their proRoviano, i. 320                    perty at Genzano, i. go; at Ardea,
Savelli, at Albano, i. 79         ii. 277.
Segni, i. 242                    Chiarriccia, ii. 313
Sermoneta, ii. 246               Chigi, family of,-their palace at
S. Severa, ii. 312                 Castel Fusano, i. 47; at Arriccia,
Spoleto, ii. 146                   i. 63.
Subiaco, i. 320                  Ciampino, i. 98
Tivoli, i. I94                   Ciminian Hills, ii. 59-74
Viterbo, ii. 79                  Cioccari, the, i. 287
Castro, ii. 338                      Circean Mount, ii. 253
Castro Vetere, i. I94                Circeii, town of, ii. 255
Castrum Novum, Roman station of, Cisterna, ii. 244
ii. 313                            Citadel of Tusculum, i. I09
Cathedral of-                                  Veii, i. 136
Alatri, i. 253                   Civita Castellana, ii. 33-39
Albano, i. 78                          d'Antino, ii. I91
Anagni, i. 26I-267                     Ducale, ii. 162
Bieda, ii. 97                          Lavinia, i. 93
Civita Castellana, ii. 36              la Penna d'Oro, i. 231
Corneto, ii. 315                       di Roveto, ii. 191
Ferentino, i. 256                      Vecchia, ii. 313
Frascati, i. 99, ioo             Civitella, i. 291
Massa, ii. 35                    Claudian Aqueduct, near Tivoli, i,
Narni, ii. I39                     206, 207
Orvieto, ii. I20                 Collatia, i. 164
Ostia, i. 43                     Collemaggio, La, ii. i66
Palestrina, i. 275               Collepardo, village of, ii. 13; Grotto
Pontecorvo, ii. 242                of, ii. 19
Porto, ii. 298                   Collicelli, ii. I6I
Ronciglione, ii. 64              Colonelle, Lago della, i. i86




INDEX.                                327
Colonia, ii. 350                        mosaics at Subiaco by, i. 304; at
Colonna, i. II9                         Civita Castellana by, ii 34
Colonna, family of,-at Marino, i.  Crimera, the river, i. I33, I75
I30; at Galera, i. 145; at Colonna,  Crustumerium, i. 182
i. 118; at Olevano, i. 29I; their  Cyclopean walls ofPope, i. 288; at Cavi, i. 282; at     Alatri, i. 25 —253
Paliano, i. 288; at Palestrina, i.      Amelia, ii. I39
272-280                                 Arpino, ii. 200
Colonna, Vittoria, her residence at       Atina, ii. 203
Viterbo, ii. 85.                        Cori, i. 228
Columbarium of Veii, i. 134               Cosa, ii. 345
Concioli, frescoes at Subiaco by, i.      Ferentino, i. 256
308                                     Norba, i. 23I
Convent of-                               Palestrina, i. 280
Acuto, i. 267                         Pyrgi, ii. 313
Buon Pastore, near Cavamonte,         Segni, i. 243
i. i60
Camaldoli, i. I3 
Cappuccini, at Albano, i. 65                      D.
Cappuccini, at Frascati, i. 1i5  Dennis, his work on Etruria, i. 17
Cappuccini, at Subiaco, i. 318    Digentia, the brook, i. 209
Cappuccini, at Velletri, i. 224    Diligence travelling, i. 34
Casamari, i. 8                   Domenichino, his frescoes at Grotta
Fossanuova, ii. 255                 Ferrata, i. 127
Gesuiti, at Velletri, i. 225     Doria Pamphili, family of, - their
Grotta Ferrata, i. I26              property at Valmontone, i. 269
Il Retiro, on Monte Argentaro,  Dragoncello, ii. 29I
1. 347
La Madonna del Sorbo, i. 143
La Quercia, ii. 88                                E.
Monte Cassino, ii. 208
Passionists, on Monte Cavo, i. 85  Egeria, fountain of, near Nemi, i.
S. Casciano at Narni, ii. I37       89
S. Elia, ii. 56                  Emissarium of the Alban Lake, i. 69
S. Pietro Celestino, ii. I76                 of the Lago Fucino, ii.
Sacro Speco, i. 306                              88
S. Scholastica, i. 303           Empulum, i. 207
S. Silvestro, near Monte Com-  Eretum, i. i8I
patri, i. 12I       Expenses, of living, in the Roman
on Mount Soracte,    castelli, i. 28
ii. 48, Trisulti, ii. I9                                  F.
Consular Tomb at Palazzuola, i. 82
Conti, family of,-their possessions  Fajola, La, i. 87
at Segni, i. 242; their fortress at  Falacrino, ii. 161
Monte Fortino, i. 268              Falacrinum, ii. I4I
Corchiano, ii. 54                     Falerium Novum, ii. 42
Corcolo, i. I6I                       Falerium Vetus, ii. 36
Corese, i. i80                        Falleri, ii. 40-42
Corfinium, ii. 179                    Fara, ii. 25
Corioli, i. 95                        Farfa, ii. 2I-31
Corneto, ii. 315-327                  Farnese, ii. 338
Cornufelle, Lake of, i. x16           Farnese, Cardinal Odoardo, chapel
Cosa, ii. 345                           of Grotta Ferrata built by, i. I27
Cosmati, the family of,-the  Gae-  Farnese, family of,-their palace at
tani tomb at Anagni by, i. 266;    Caprarola, ii. 68




328                            ZINDEX.
Ferentino, station of, i. 250; town I Grotta della Maga, ii. 250
of, i. 255-257                             Ferrata, i. I23
Ferentinum, ii. I05                           Marozza, i. I8I
Ferento, ii. I05                      Guadagnolo, i. 291
Feriae Latinae, i. 85
Feronia, the fountain of, ii. 250                      H
Fescennium, ii. 55
Festa degli Artisti, i. I63           Hadrian, his villa near Palestrina, i.
Fiano, ii. 54                           277; his villa near Tivoli, i. i88
Ficulea, i. I79                       Handbooks, the best on the neighFiora, the river, ii. 329               bourhood of Rome, i. i8
Fiume Conca, ii. 273                  Hermitage of Pietro  Murrone, ii.
Fiume Rapido, ii. 207                    I73
Fiumicino, ii. 301                    Horace, farm of, i. 210-218
Fons Blandusiae, i. 216
Fossanuova, ii. 257                                     I
Fosso de' due Fossi, i. I33, 144
dell' Incastro, ii. 278         Ibi, Sinibaldo, picture at Orvieto by,
Frangipani, the, -  their castle at    ii. I33
Olevano, i. 29; their betrayal of  I1 Toraccio, ii. 273
Conradin at Astura, ii. 271         Incile, ii. I88
Frascati, i. 99-I07                   Infiorata, festival of the, i. 91
Fregellae, ii. 301                    Interamna, ii. I40
Frosinone, ii. 21                     Ischia, ii. 338
Fucino, Lago di, ii. i86              Isernia, ii. 179
Fumone, i. 254; ii. 7.                Isola, ii. 202
Isola Farnese, i. 132
^~~G. ~         Isola Sacra, ii. 299
Isole Natanti, Lago dei, i. i86
Gaetani, family of,-property of, at
Ninfa, i. 236; history and memorials of, at Anagni, i. 260, 266; 
palace of, at Cisterna, ii. 244; Jenne, i. 316
property of, at Sermoneta, ii. 246; Joanopolis, i. 39
property of, at Monte Circello, ii.
254; castle of, at Astura, ii. 272                  L.
Galera, i. I44
Galleria, di Sopra, Albano, i. 69     Labicum, i. II9
di Sotto, Albano, i. 75      Lacordaire, the profession of, ii. 89
Gallese, ii. 54                       Lacus Sabatinus, i. 152
Gallicano, i. I6o                     La Civita, i. 268
Gallo, Marchese del, castle of, i. 209  La Fallonica, ii. 351
Gasperoni, his imprisonment at Ci-  La Maiella, ii. I63, I70
vita Castellana, ii. 36             La Mercareccia, ii. 327
Gell, Sir William, his work  on  La Quercia, ii. 88.Roman Topography, i. 17            La Solfatara, ii. 280
Genazzano, i. 283                     La Storta, i. 132, 143
Genzano, i. 89                        La Vaccareccia, i. 140
Gonsalvi, death of Cardinal, i. I29    Lago di Albano, i. 67
Gran Sasso d' Italia, ii. i63                  Bolsena, ii. ioo
Graviscae, ii. 328                             Bracciano, i. I47
Grazioli, Duke of, i. x64                      Caldano, ii. 350
Greco, Stammatico, picture at Su-              Caprolace, ii. 273
biaco by, i. 3I3                             Castiglione, ii. 353
Gregorovius, works of, i. 17                   Celano, ii. I86
Grosseto, ii. 349                              Cornufelle, i. i16




INDEX.                                329
Lago di-continued.                    Marcigliana  Vecchia, the  site  of
Fogliano, ii. 273               Crustumerium at, i. 182
Fucino, ii. 181, I86          Marco da Siena, frescoes at Monte
Gabii, i. I57                   Cassino by, ii. 229
La Posta, ii. 203            Marino, i. I30
Lago Morto, i. I46           Marrana, river, i. i85
Mezzano, ii. 339              Marsica, the, ii. 182
Nemi, i. 88                   Marta, the river, ii. 328
Paolo, ii. 256                Martana, island of, ii. ioo
Pi6 di Lugo, ii. I43          Massa, ii. 356
Regillus, i. ii6             Massimi, family castle at Arsoli, i.
Scanno, ii. I77                 320; dukes of Rignano, ii. 52
Lancellotti, family of,-their villa at  Matthias, Maria de, i. 267
Frascati, i. I05; their palace at  Mazzaroppi, Marco, -  frescoes at
Velletri, i. 221                       Monte Cassino by, ii. 228
Lante, family of,-their villa at Bag-  Medullia, Latin city of, i. I78
naja, ii. 89                        Memmi, Luca, his picture at Orvieto,
Lautulae, pass of, ii. 253               ii. I27
Lavinium, ii. 281                     Mengs, Raphael, picture at Sulmona
Le Caldane, ii. 353                      by, ii. I36
Le Casacce del Bacuco, ii. I05        Mentana, i. 179
Le Frattocchie, i. 53                  Mentorella, i. 292, 295
Le Molette, the river, i. i85          Mesa, ii. 248
Le Vene, ii. I53                       Mignone, river, ii. 314
Licenza, the, i. 209                  Minio, river, ii. 314
village of, i. 21I            Miollis, General, his works at Tivoli,
Ligorio, Pirro, the architect of the    i. I95
Villa d' Este, i. 203               Monica, S., her death at Ostia, i 45
Lionessa, ii. 60o                     Mons Lucretilis, i. 209
Lippi, Filippo, tomb of, ii. I47             Sacer, i. 178
Liris, falls of the, ii. 202          Montalto, ii. 329
Lo Schioppo, ii. I9I                   Monte Affliano, i. I90
Lo Spagna, his frescoes at Todi, ii.         Algido, i. 118
I43; at Spoleto, ii. I47, I49,  50;       Argentaro, ii. 347
at S. Giacomo, ii. I5I; at Trevi, ii.     di Canino, ii. 334
I56                                        Carpineto, i. 317
Lomentana, Ponte, i. I78                     Cassino, i. 208-230
Loreto, ii. 24I                              Catillo, i. I98, 203
Luco, ii. I89                                Circello, ii. 253
Lucus Ferentinae, i. I30                     Compatri, i. 118
Lunghezza, i. I64                            di Decima, ii. 291
Due Torre, i. 95
Fortino, i. 268
M.                          Gennaro, i. 218
Gentile, i. I79
Maccarese, ii. 30I                           Giove, i. 95
Madonna del Tufo, shrine of, i. 82           di Grano, i. 97
Madonna di Buon Consiglio, shrine            Libretti, i. 209
of, i. 283                                 Luco, ii. I50
Maglian Sabina, ii. 33                       Migliore, ii. 284
Magliano, ii. 347                            Musino, i. I40
Magliano, river, i. i85                      Peschiavatore, i. I98
Malaria, the, i. 26, I45                     Porzio, i. II7, 121
Mandela, i. 209                              Rotondo, i. 181
Marcian Aqueduct, near Tivoli, i.            Salviano, ii. 191
206                                        Somma, ii. I45




330                             INDEX.
Montefiascone, ii. I07 —Io            Papal Palace, Orvieto, ii. 120
Monterozzi, the,-of Corneto, ii. 317                Subiaco, i. 317
Montes Corniculani, i. 178, i86, 219                Viterbo, ii. 77
Montopoli, ii. 25                     Papignia, i. 97; ii. 141
Morolo, i. 259                        Papigno, ii. i58
Musignano, ii. 334                    Parco dei Barberini, i. 122
Chigi, i. 64
Colonna, i. 131
N.                   Passerano, i. 206
Patrica, i. 259
Nar, the river, ii. 136               Pedum, i. I60
Narni, ii. 136-I39                    Pelasgic Remains, i. 22
Nemi, i. 88                           Pentima, ii. 179
Nepi, ii. 58, 59                      Pescina, ii. I90
Nepete, ii. 58                        Petrella, ii. i62
Nhequinum, 11. I36                    Pie de Lugo, ii. I43
Nero, his death, i. I70-173; his  Pifferari, the exile from Rome of the,
residence at Subiaco, i. 294          i. 14
Nero's Tomb, i. 13I                   Pino, rivulet, i. 133
Nettuno, ii. 268                      Piombino, ii. 350
Ninfa, i. 235-240                     Piperno, ii. 257
Nomentana, Ponte, Torre, i. I78       Pitigliano, ii 339
Nomentum, i. I80                      Plautii, tomb of the, i. 187
Norba, i. 231                         Poggio Catino, ii. 25
Norcia, in the Abruzzi, ii. i60              Mirteto ii 25
Mirteto, ii. 25
Norchia, ii. 9 —04                           Reale, i. 136
Norma, i. 233                         Polo, i. 218
Novels, about Rome and its sur-  Pompeo, ii. 25
roundings, i. I7                    Ponte dell' Abbadia, ii. 330
dell' Acquoria, i. 200
P.                         S. Antonio, i. 281
alla Catena, i. 230
Palace (Palazzo)-                           dell Isola, i. 134
Barberini, at Palestrina, i. 275        Lucano, i. 187
Bruschi, at Corneto, ii. 315            Mammolo, i. 184
of Castel Gandolfo, i. 73               Nomentana, i. 178
Cesarini, at Genzano, i. go             Nona, i. 155
Cisterna, ii. 244                       Salara, i. i68
Chigi, at Ariccia, i. 63                Sodo, i. 134
at Viterbo, ii. 85         Pontecorvo, ii. 241
Doria, at Valmontone, i. 219     Pontine Marshes, ii. 247-250
of Musignano, ii. 334            Ponza, island of, i. 226
of Theodoric (ruined), at Terra-  Popoli, ii. 170
cina, ii. 253                  Populonia, ii. 351
Vincentini, at Rieti, ii. I60    Porcigliano, ii. 287
Vitelleschi, at Corneto, ii. 315    Portella, frontier gateway of, ii. 253
Palazzuola, i. 82                     Porto, ii. 296-299
Palestrina, i. 269-28r                Porto d'Anzio, ii. 263-267
Paliano, i. 288                             d'Ercole, ii. 347
Palo, ii. 302                               Falese, ii. 350
Palombara, i. 178                           di Paolo, ii. 256
Pan di Neve, i. 84                          di Troja, ii. 350
Pandataria, island of, i. 227         Posi, i. 259
Panetella di S. Nicolo, i. 150        Pozzo di Santulla, ii. 13
Papal Palace, Anagni, i. 260          Pratica, ii. 281
Castel Gandolfo, i, 72  Prato Rotondo, i. i69




INDEX.                               33 
Precious Blood, the Order of the, i.  S. Felice, island of, i. 226
267                                  Germano, ii. 206
Privernum, ii. 257                     Giacomo, ii. I51
Punicum, Roman station of, ii. 313     Giorgio, the family of,-at Bieda,
Puntone del Castrato, ii. 313            ii. 99
Pyrgi, ii. 313                         Giovanni, Lago di, i. I86
Giulianello, i. 226
Maria in Forcassi, ii. 95
Q'                     Maria della villa, i. 277
Querquetula, i. I6                     Marinella, ii. 313
Quintiliolo, i. I98                    Oreste, ii. 44
Pietro, i. 280
Procula, ii. 279
R.                    Severa, ii. 312
Vito, i. 290
Rapinium, Roman station of, ii. 314    Vittorio, ii. 6
Regillus, Lake of, i. II6            Saturnia, ii. 341
Rieti, ii. i58                       Saturnian Cities, the five, i. 259'
Rignano, 11. 52                      Savelli, castle of the, i. 99; their
Rio Torto, ii. 279                     fortress at Palombara, i. 178
Ripoli, i. g90                       Scalza, Ippolito,-his works at OrRocca di Cavi, i. 291                  vieto, ii. 12, 132
Circea, ii. 254                Scaptia, i. i6i
Giovane, i. 209                Schizzanello, ii. 284
Gorga, i. 259                  Scholastica, Convent of, at Subiaco,
Janula, ii. 208                  i. 30I-305; grave of, at Monte
Massima, i. 226                  Cassino, ii. 229
di Mezzo, ii. 181              Sriara, family of, their castle at
di Papa, i. 82                   Roviano, i. 320
Priora, i. 118                Scrofano, i. 141
Ronciglione, ii. 64                  Scurgola, i. 259; ii. 84
Rosa S., di Viterbo, ii. 83          Segni, i. 241-247
Rospigliosi, family of,-their pro- Sermoneta ii. 245-247
perty at Colonna, i. 119; at Za-  Setia, i. 256
garola, their title, i. 61i        Sette Basse, i 97
Roviano, i. 320                           Vene, i. 142
Ruspoli, family of,-their property  Sezza, ii 256
at Cervetri, their title, ii. 304  Sforza-Cesarini, family of,-gardens
Russelae, ii. 349                      and villa of, at Genzano, i. 90; posRustica, i. 163                        sessions of, at Segni, i. 242
Signorelli, Luca, his works at Orvieto,
S.                     11. 127-137.
Silva Laurentina, the, ii. 275
Sacro Speco, monastery of the, i. 306  Simbriviae Aquae, i. 294
Salt Mines, near Ostia, i. 4I        Simone, church at Vicovaro built by,
S. Agostino, tower of, ii. 314         i. 205; his death, i. 207
Angelo in Cappoccia, i. 178, I86, Solfatara, the, near Ardea, ii. 280;
219                                near Tivoli, i. 181
Appetite, ii. I8I                  Sonnino, ii. 260, 261
Bartolomeo, i. 127                 Sora, ii. 192
Benedetto, ii. I90                 Soracte, ii. 42-52
Clementino, ii. 329                Sorano, ii. 339
Cosimato, i. 320                   Soriano, ii. 54
Domenico Abate, ii. I94            Sovana, ii. 339
Elia,.ii. 56                       Spaccato, i. I90
Felice, ii. 253                    Spina Cristi, the, i. 250




332                             INDEX.
Spoleto, ii. 145-151                  Tolfa, ii. 311
Stagno, the, of Ostia, i. 41, 47      Tomb ofStorta, rivulet, i. 133                   Aruns, i. 59
Strada del Diavolo, i. 53                 the Buonapartes at Frascati, i.
Stretti di S. Luigi, ii. 178                 Io5
Strozzi, the,-their property at Lun-      C. Maenius Bassus near Tivoli,
ghezza, i. 164                            i. 207
Subiaco, i. 294-318                       Cardinal Altieri at Albano, i. 78
Sugareto, the, ii. 280                    Cardinal de Braye at Orvieto, ii.
Sulmona, ii. I7I-177                        133
Superstitions of the Campagna, i. 30      Charles Edward at Frascati, i.
Supino, i. 259                              99
Sutri, ii. 59-64                          Consular, at Palazzuola, i. 82
P. V. Marianus, i. 131
T.                       Pompey, at Albano, i. 56
Torano, ii. 162
Tarquinii, ii. 315                    Torfea, ii. 25
Tartari, Lago dei, i. I86             Torlonia, family of,-at Frascati, i.
Telamone, ii. 349                       103; at Bracciano, i.'49; at
Temple of-                              Gabii, i. 15; at Musignano, ii.
Castor and Pollux, at Cori, i. 229    334the Clitumnus, ii. 153           Torre (tower)Equestrian  Fortune, at Porto         della Bella Marsilia, ii. 349
d' Anzio, ii. 262                  Cervaro, i. 163
Esculapius, at Porto d' Anzio,        Flavia, ii. 312
ii. 264                             Lupara, i. I79
Fortune, at Palestrina, i. 271        Nuova, i. 97
Hercules, at Tivoli, i. 200, 202      Paterno, ii. 284
Juno, at Civita Lavinia, i. 95        Salara, i. 169
Juno, at Gabii, i. I56                Sapienza, i. I55, I62
Jupiter Latiaris, on the Alban        degli Schiavi, i. 154
Mount, i. 86                       Tre Teste, i. I55, 162
Leucothea, at Pyrgi, ii. 313     Toscanella, ii. 335-338
Minerva, at Cori, i. 229         Trasacco, ii. 190
the Sibyl, at Tivoli, i. I94     Trevignano, i. 152
the Sun, on the Circean Mount, Tribucci, ii. 26
ii. 254                        Trisulti, ii. 15-19
Tiburtus, at Tivoli, i. 195      Tuder, ii. 144
Tosse, at Tivoli, i. 200         Turchina, hill of, ii. 317, 326
Vacuna, at Rocca Giovane, i.  Tusculum, i. 107
209                            Tutia, river, i. i85, 186
Temple Tombs at Norchia, ii. 103
Terni, ii. 140
Terracina, ii. 250-253                                 V.
Testament, the, at Ferentino, i. 258
Teverone, the river, i. i85           Val del Paradiso, i. 219
Theatre-                              Valentano, ii. 338
of Civita Lavinia, i. 95         Vallericcia, i. 60
of Gabii, i. 157                 Valle Santa, i. 318
of Tusculum, i. 107              Valmontone, i. 268
Tiber, the river described, ii. 288-  Veii, i. 133-I4I
290                                Velino, the river, ii. 140
Tibur, history of, i. I90-I92         Velletri, i. 220-225
Timone, river, ii. 333                Venafro, ii. I79
Todi, ii. i43                         Veroli, ii. io
Toleria, i. 268                       Vespasian, the Emperor,-born at




INzDEX.                                333
Amiternum, ii. r6i; died at Aquae  Villa Doria, at Albano, i. 79
Cutiliae, ii. 162                         D'Este, at Tivoli, i. 203
Vetralla, ii. 94                            Falconieri, at Frascati, i. I05
Vetulonia, ii. 348                          of the Gens Cassia, at Tivoli, i.
Via Appia Nova, i. 52                         206.
Appia Vecchia, i. 53                    Imperial, of the Sette Basse, i.
Ardeatina, ii. 280                        97
Aurelia, ii. 313, 348                   Iante, at Bagnaja, ii. 89
Cassia, i. 18i                          of Maecenas, at Tivoli, i. i99
Collatina, i. 164                       Mondragone, at Frascati, i. II5
Constantina, i. 201                     of Nero, at Porto d'Anzio, ii.
Ficulea, i. I79                           264
Fiaminia, ii. 135                       Pallavicini, at Frascati, i. 103
Gabina, i. 154                          of Phaon, i. 169
Labicana, i. 121                        Rufinella, at Frascati, i. I05
La.tina, i. 52                          Savorelli, at Sutri, ii. 63
Laurentina, ii. 285, 287                Sora, at Frascati, i. 114
Nomentana, 177, I8r                     Taverna, at Frascati, i. 114
Prgenestina, i. I54, I60                Torlonia, at Frascati, i. 103
Salara, i. i77, i8i                     of Vopiscus, at Tivoli, i. I97
Severiana, i. 48                  Vitalian, S., his statue at Segni, i.
Sublacensis, i. 318                 245
Valeria, ii. i86, 318             Viterbo, ii. 75-87
Vicarello, i. 159                      Viterbo, Lorenzo di, frescoes by, ii.
Vicovaro, i. 207                         81
Vignanello, ii. 54                     Vitorchiano, ii. I05
Vignola, his work at Caprarola, ii.  Volci, ii. 329-333
69; at Bagnaja, ii. 89; at Rieti,
ii. I59                                               U
Villa Adriana, i. 188-190
Aldobrandini, at Frascati, i. 103  Ufente, the river, ii. 249
Altieri, at Albano, i. 76        Ulmanus, the, i. 185
Altieri, at Oriolo, i. 152
of Attilius Regulus, i. 97                        Z.
Barberini, at Albano, i. 71
Braschi, at Tivoli, i. 204       Zagarola, i. I6I
of Cato the Younger, i. 117      Zuccheri, the,-their works at Capraof Catullus, at Tivoli, i. 205     rola, ii. 71; at Bagnaja, ii. 90
of Cicero, at Frascati, i. o06
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DAYS NEAR ROME.
BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE,
AUTHOR OF "WALKS IN ROME," "MEMORIALS OF A QUIET LIFE, ETC.
tb it  IIustxationS.
TWO  VOLUMES.   II.
PHILADELPHI A:
P()RTER  &  C(OAT ES,
822 CHESTNUT STREET.
I875.








CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XX.
PAGE
THE HERNICAN MONASTERIES AND THE GROTTO OF COLLE
PARDO.....
CHAPTER XXI.
FARFA.....22
CHAPTER XXII.
CIVITA CASTELLANA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD...  32
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE CIMINIAN HILLS-NEPI, SUTRI, AND CAPRAROLA..56
CHAPTER XXIV.
VITERBO AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD...  74
CHAPTER XXV.
MONTEFIASCONE, BOLSENA, AND ORVIETO.... 105
CHAPTER XXVI.
NARNI AND TERNI..   35
CHAPTER XXVII.
SPOLETO AND THE CLITUMNUS... 145




6                      CONTENTS.
CIAPTER XXVIII.
PAGEt
IN THE ABRUZZI (ABRUZZO ULTERIORE II.)... 157
CHAPTER XXIX.
IN THE MARSICA-THE LAGO FUCINO... I
CHAPTER XXX.
SORA, AND THE LAND OF CICERO...191
CHAPTER XXXI.
MONTE CASSINO..... 205
CHAPTER XXXII.
AQIINO AND PONTECORVO....                          233
CHAPTER XXXIII.
TIFE PONTINE MARSHES.....243
CHAPTER XXXIV.
TIIE I,ATIN SHORE......                            262
CHAPTER XXXV.
THK DESCENT OF THE TIBER-PORTO AND FIUMICINO.        288
CHAPTER XXXVI.
CERVETRI...... 302
CHAPTER XXXVII.
COIRNFTO......3 312
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
VOICI (PONTE DEL ABBADIA).....                    328
CHAPTER XXXIX.
TOSCANELLA AND CENTRAL ETRURIA.     335
CHAPTER XL.
THE ETRUSCAN SHORE..343




CHAPTER XX.
THE HERNICAN MONASTERIES AND THE GROTTO
OF COLLEPARDO.
(The best way of reaching these places is from the station of Frosi
none on the Naples line; a carriage and two horses may be engaged
there for the two days' excursion, and costs about 40 francs, but an exact
understanding must be made at the station with the Vetturino as to
what is required. There are very tolerable though humble hotels, and
with very obliging and honest people, at Alatri and Frosinone.)
O    N a beautiful April morning we reached Frosinone by
rail from Ronme. The country was in its freshest, brightest green. At the station we found plenty of carriages waiting,
and were soon leaving the town of Frosinone behind on its
high isolated hill, and advancing fast into the mountains,
through a rich corn-clad country.  On the left, the most
conspicuous feature was always Fumone, a knot of castellated
buildings and cypresses on a lofty conical hill, where, in a
prison, which none who look upon it can help feeling unutterably desolate, the dethroned Ccelestine, who had been
dragged  to the papal throne from  his hermitage  in  the
Abruzzi, was forced by his successor Boniface VIII., at the
age of 8i, to spend the last ten months of his life.
" Like the meanest son of the Church, Coelestine fell at the feet of his
successor; his only prayer, a prayer urged with tears, was that lie might
be permitted to return to his desert hermitage. Boniface addressed him




8           A       DA YS NEAR ROME.
in severe language.  He was committed to safe custody in the castle
of Fumone, watched day and night by soldiers, like a prisoner of state.
His treatment is described as more or less harsh, according as the writer
is more or less favourable to Boniface.  By one account his cell was so
narrow that he had not room to move; where his feet stood when he
celebrated mass by day, there his head reposed at night.  He obtained
with difficulty permission for two of his brethren to be with him; but so
unwholesome was the place, that they were obliged to resign their charitable office. According to another statement, the narrowness of his
cell was his own choice; he was permitted to indulge in this meritorious
misery; his brethren were allowed free access to him; he suffered no
insult, but was treated with the utmost humanity and respect.  Death
released him before long from his spontaneous overforced wretchedness.
He was seized with a fever, generated perhaps by the unhealthy confinement, accustomed as he had been to the free mountain air. He died
May I9, I296, and was buried with ostentatious publicity, that the
world might know that Boniface now reigned without a rival, in the
church of Ferentino.  Countless miracles were told of his death: a
golden cross appeared to the soldiers shining above the door of his cell:
his soul was seen by a faithful disciple visibly ascending to heaven. His
body became the cause of a fierce quarrel, and of a pious crime. It was
stolen from the grave at Ferentino, and carried to Aquila. An insurrection of the people of Ferentino was hardly quelled by the Bishop on the
assurance, after the visitation of the tomb, that the heart of the saint had
been fortunately left behind. The canonization of Coelestine was
granted by Clement V."-Miian's Hist. of Latin Christianity.
Many other villages glittered on the distant hills, and,
amongst the most conspicuous of them, Arpino, the birthplace of Cicero, which overlooks the beautiful valley of the
Liris.  The nearer country  now  became more stony and
desolate, but the road was enlivened by gaily-dressed groups
of pilgrims returning from a Madonna-festa at Paliano, who
met us with the kindly greeting "Santa Maria e San Giuseppe vi salutano." At length on the edge of a hill, like one of
the uplands of Burgundy, we came suddenly in view of the
great monastery of Casamari, which is said, with the sole
exception of Fossanuova, to be the finest monastic building




CASA MARL.                         9
in Latium.  It was with almost a surprise that we found
a perfectly pure Gothic building, with a church like a small'Vel,
Casamari.
northern cathedral, in this Italian wilderness. It is utterly
lonely, not even a peasant's cottage near it, a mass of grey
buildings, standing  above the softly  gliding  stream   of
the Amasena.  An aqueduct crosses the valley and frames
the first view of the church and gateway. The latter is a
Gate of Casamar.
graid round arched portal, with a succession of small arches




o                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
above it. Within, facing a little lawn, are the western facade
of the church, and the grey front of the monastery, which
now contains only 30 monks instead of the 300 to which it is
accustomed.
"In contemplating such a monastery as this, so separated from the
world, a peculiar feeling is awakened. For nowhere is the past so perfectly real and almost tangible. Time seems indeed to have stood still,
and the moral atmosphere of a long past age and race to have remained
collected here. The former occupations of the monks, singing, prayer,
silence, work, they continue to the present day, in the same garb, in the
same spot, and with the same monotonous activity. The history of the
world has changed, but they take no part in it, it is enough for them
that the church, the bishops, the pope at Rome, continue as before.
Their immediate surroundings are unchanged, Veroli, Posi, and San
Giovanni, with their churches and saints, still stand as before; pilgrims
knock at the door of the monastery as before. The fear of the Saracens,
the robber counts, and the condottieri no longer torments them, but
has given way to the dread of revolution, more pitiless than robberchief or Saracen. For formerly it was a question of plundering and
devastation with fire and sword, now it is existence or non-existence.
Besides this the monastic lands are diminished, and thereby the external
influence of the church contracted. Indeed such a monastery is like
a parchment chronicle, wherein the miniatures, like shadows, are animated with life."-Gregorovius.
Tradition derives the name of Casamari from casa amlara,
the bitter house, because of the perpetual silence which is enforced there; but the name is really Casa lMarii, since it
was founded by a member of the famous family of Arpino.
It first belonged to Benedictines, but was given to Cistercians in 115 2 by Eugenius III.
The foundation-stone of the church was laid in 1203. It
is approached by a staircase which leads to an arched portico. Here, on the right, is a statue of Pius VI., and, opposite it, an inscription in honour of the benefits conferred
upon Casamari by Pius IX.  The interior is lofty, simple,




VEROLI.                      I 
and severe. The delicate cream-coloured tint of the travertine is as fresh as when it was built. There are no pictures,
niches, or chapels, and it might, as Gregorovius observes, be
a Protestant cathedral in Germany. The nave is separated
from the aisles by seven clustered columns, on the capitals
of which are some curious masonic-marks. At the fifth column
a screen of wrought-iron cuts off the clausura. On the floor
are curious chains of tiles ornamented with the bees of the
Barberini.
From the right transept we entered the beautiful cloister,
surrounded by Romanesque arches, with columns all different, as at the Lateran. The ceiling of the chapter-house is
supported by splendid clustered columns, and is marvellously well preserved. Here also we seemed to be in the'north: and it was unnatural to emerge upon the stony hillside, and look upon the delicate amethystine distances,
lighted up by a sky without any shadows. Our visit was a
great amusement to the monks, who were very anxious to
make the most of their lions. Ladies were not allowed to
see the chapter-house, but were shown the ancient vaulted
Refectory supported by huge columns, and above it the
Dormitory, now turned into a vast granary.
As the sun was setting we drove away from the melancholy valley of the Amasena, with its dismal poplars, and
ascended into the hills towards Veroli, the ancient Verulae.
This is a magnificently situated city, and most picturesque
externally. Our horses had to scramble like cats up its semiperpendicular street, and finally fell down on one another,
which gave us time to walk out beyond the gates towards
Rome, and see the last after-glow over the valley, standing
beneath the crowd of strangely clustered houses and old




12                DA YS NEAR ROME.
Romanesque churches which line the natural rock-ramparts
of the town.  There is a great Seminario at Veroli, and the
road was crowded with ecclesiastics, scholars in their different dresses of miniature priests, watched over by their
professors; and following them were canons and curati, and
even the bishop of Veroli, attended by his footmen, as if he
were taking a walk on the Pincio.
Alatri had a weird look as we ascended its hill in the
starlight: the Titanic platform  of the Cyclopean walls
engraved upon the clear sky.  In its narrow streets few
people were still moving and work was over.  Only some
young men arm-in-arm were singing stornelli in loud ringing
voices. Close under the shadow of the old fortress, which
forms so great a feature of the street with its Gothic windows
and cornices, we found a little inn, kept by a most obliging
landlady, with two handsome daughters in the national
dress.
We were astir early in the morning, and went up the hill,
while the goats were being milked for breakfast, to have
another look at the grand Cyclopean walls, and by the time
we returned all Alatri was awake, crowds of women in their
white panni, and men in their red  waistcoats, pointed
sandals, and with bunches of flowers stuck in their high felt
hats, were thronging the streets, and the chief labour of life
here was begun, the weaving of woollen cloth for jackets and
the great gaily-striped blankets so  much worn by  the
poorer classes in this district. Our horses waited for us
outside the gates, for they would have fallen on the lava
pavement, though they scrambled easily up the jagged
rocks, and lanes like torrent beds of loose stones piled one
upon another, to which we afterwards came.  Soon after




IL POZZO DI SANTULLA.'3
leaving Alatri, the bridle-road into the mountains enters the
wildest country imaginable: no vegetation, save here and
there a tuft of wild lavender, and some of the small yellow
marigolds which Italians call " primo fiore," grows upon the
scorched rocks.  The path skirts a ravine, winding high
amongst its precipices, where a false step would be fatal.
Steeper and steeper becomes the stony way, and wilder and
wilder the valley, till at length Collepardo comes in sight, a
large village, perched on a cliff, at a tremendous height
above the Cosa, with black broken walls (proving that even
this poverty-stricken place was not safe from robbers), a
ruined gate earthquake-rent, and here and there some tiny
gardens and a few sad-looking olive-trees, planted where the
scanty soil will allow.
About a mile from the village (by a path which turns to
the left before entering it) is the strange hole called the
Pozzo di Santulla. It is a pit in the rock, about 400 yards
round and 200 feet deep, hung with vast stalactites and
fringed at the top with ilex. Once (as may be seen in a published engraving by Don Baldassare Buoncompagni) it was
filled with trees, though there could only have been room
for very few: now all these are gone, and the bottom is
covered with grass. It is quite inaccessible except by ropes,
but goats are occasionally let down, and drawn up when
they have eaten all there is.  If a tiger, as is said, once
existed here, it must soon have died of hunger. The Pozzo,
says tradition, was once a vast threshing-floor, on which the
people impiously threshed corn upon the festa of the Assumption, when the outraged Madonna caused it to sink into the
earth with all who were upon it, and it remains to this day a
memorial of her wrath. Alas! there is little doubt that the




14                   DAYS NEAR ROME.
pit was really caused by some strange volcanic action. The
account of this place in Murray's Handbook, describing it as
nearly half a mile in circuit, &c. (it is here called " Pozzo d'
Antullo "-but of course the description is intended for La
Santulla), is strangely exaggerated, and will mislead many
travellers. Still it is a spot worth visiting, and very weird
and  amazing.  The  graphic  description  of  Gregorovius
applies to its former condition.
"Nature has brought together many wonders near Collepardo, for
only a short distance from the stalactite cave is that celebrated well of
Italy the Pozzo di Santulla, close by the road to the Carthusian monastery. After a half-hour's ride (from the village) between gardens and
over an elevated rocky plain, I found myself suddenly on the edge of a
steep circular pit, which vividly recalled the great Latomia of Syracuse.
About fifteen hundred paces in circumference, this strange well sinks to
a depth of over a hundred and fifty feet, and presents at the bottom a
dark green forest of tree-tops and creepers, which when a breeze is
wafted down, ripple like the waves of the sea.
" The sun shed streaks of light from the clearest sky into its depths,
and I saw  white butterflies merrily playing about over this sunken
forest. Blooming creepers hung from the branches of these trees, which
are said to rise more than thirty feet from the bottom, and yet from
above only look like bushes.  The inaccessible flowers, the wild labyrinthine paths through the dark thicket, the fluttering of the birds which
inhabit it, entice the fancy, which represents this underground magic
grove as a fairy paradise or a garden for Oberon and Titania. There
abundant springs take their mysterious course, and keep the plants continually green, while the basin draws down and collects the night dews.
With admiration the eye follows the walls down to the giddy depth;
they take strange and fantastic forms like stalactites, and are overgrown
with dwarf oaks, golden-flowered broom, and mastick bushes. They are
adorned with all colours of the rainbow, for the rock is now soft silver
grey, now burning red, again dark blue, yellow, and deep black. This
well, together with the wild mountain scenery which surrounds the
horizon, forms a scene which words would fail to express; here, the
brown district of Collepardo looking melancholy behind green trees;
there, long vistas of rocky valleys; further off, gigantic and quiet mountains
majestic in form, with solitary golden eagles soaring round the untrodden
peaks, or fantastic mists spreading their white veils around.




APPROACH TO TRISULTI.                      15
" Wild-looking herds, sandal-men of the mountains, with lance-like
staves, had encamped with their mountain goats on the edge of the well,
and gave life to the magnificent scene, while sturdy boys amused themselves with rolling down stones. They fell with a hollow crash into the
forest, and frightened from their nests the grey doves, which flew from
the trees with the speed of lightning, and dashed to and fro in despair.
Although these goatherds told me that a tiger lived in the mysterious
well, yet at the same time they confessed that they sometimes let down
goats by ropes. These animals find there water and herbs in abundance,
and remain in the forest for months, until they are brought up well fed,
for the men go down by ropes to bring them up again."-Laeinische
Sommer.
Beyond Santulla the scenery became even more savage.
The path wound through a chaos  of great rocks and
descended into a deep gorge, whence it mounted again to
the final isolated plateau of Trisulti, close under the snows,
where the approach to a great religious house was as usual
indicated by a cross perched in the most advantageous
position. Here nothing could exceed the wildness of the
scene, as we looked backwards while resting on the platform
of the cross upon the rugged billows of arid rock, melting
into blue distances, but all without life. Beyond, however,
it was different.  We entered  a wood of old oaks carpeted with  lilies, and  their boughs, which  had  never
known the axe, green with the ferns which had taken root
upon them.  A wide path, beautifully kept, led through the
wood to Alpine pastures, sheeted with mountain flowers,
gentians, ranunculus, squills, and auriculas. Only the booming of its bell through the solemn solitudes, told that we
were near the monastery, till we came close upon it, and then
a vast mass of buildings, overtopped by a church, revealed
itself on the last edge of the rocky plateau.
Ladies are not allowed to enter Trisulti without a special
permission from the Pope. It has hitherto been one of the




i6               DA YS NEAR ROME.
few great monasteries which have not been entirely plundered by the Sardinian government, and forty monks remain
here, leading a most useful and beneficent life, honoured by
Trisulti.
all the country round, the friends and lhe;,ers of the poor of
the mountain villages in sickness or in sorrow.
We had scarcely reached the monastery when sounds of
Litanies resounded through the woods, and between the distant oak-stems appeared the head of a procession of pilgrims
which was just arriving from Naples. All were in holiday
costume, and carried baskets. The priest who led them
knelt, when he came in sight of Trisulti, at an outside chapel,
and, two and two, all the multitude knelt behind him, and
as he recited the Litany of the saints, their " Ora pro nobis "
echoed through the mountains. Afterwards food was sent
out from the convent, which they ate seated in groups upon
the grass, and then continued their way to the shrine at
Genazzano, singing in cadences as they moved.




TRIS UL T.                        17
A  noble-looking monk in white robes, with a long w'hite
beard, Padre Gabrielli, acted as guide through the convent,
which is exceedingly clean and well kept. Fountains sparkle
in every court, and the roads within the walls, for it is like a
little city, are covered  with  fine white sand.  We were
received at the head of a staircase by the Superior, who
looked like a saint in a niche, with the face sculptured in
wax, so perfectly white was it, and so absorbed and serene.
He desired that we should have dinner provided and every
comfort.  While it was preparing we saw  the rest of the
convent.
"There are few curiosities in the monastery, for unfortunately every
thing ancient has disappeared under later restorations, so I did not find
much to gratify my curiosity. However the situation in the mountains,
the life of the monks in their lonely republic, and the history of this
strange order, gave abundant matter for observation. One of those characters produced by the epoch of the crusades among which Francis and
Dominic were soon after so remarkable, was St. Bruno, who, shocked
at the excesses of Abp. Manasses of Rheims, founded the Carthusian rule
towards the end of the Iith century. This order, which unites social
monachism with the anchorite life, and exacts abstinence with the
utmost rigour, received its name from the place where it took its rise, la
Chartreuse near Grenoble.  Its statutes (Consuetudines Cartusianae)
date from the year 1134, its confirmation by the Pope was obtained in
iI 70. In a time when the minds of men were brought into a mystic
ecstasy by the struggle with the Mahometan East, the war of the church
with the heresy of the Albigenses, and finally with the state, a new reformed order would have a rapid success. The Carthusians soon spread,
and the extreme peculiarities of their rule contributed thereto not a
little. As early as I208 these fathers settled in Trisulti, which place was
given to them by Innocent III.  Here they found a ruined monastery,
which had formerly belonged to the Benedictines, and here they erected
upon the ruins the original Carthusian monastery in 12II. They say a
castle, Trisalto, gave the name to that spot, which is generally explained
a thibus saltibus, of three wood-covered hills. " —Grlegorovius.
The little houses of the monks surround a cloister which
VOI. II.                                         2




IQ                  DAYS NEAR ROME.
is now a radiant garden.  Through it we were taken to the
church, which was built in  12I  by Innocent IlI., but
restored in I768. It is covered internally with marbles,
jaspers, and alabasters, in the style of the Certosa of Pavia.
In the Sacristy is an admirable picture by the Cavaliere
d' Arpino, and on either side of the church are two large
pictures by the modern artist Balbi of Alatri, one representing Moses striking the rock, the other the same miracle as
performed by S. Bruno.   Over the high-altar is a fresco of
the sending forth of the first Carthusian monks to colonize
Trisulti.
Just within the gate of the monastery is a little garden
enclosed by walls, and ornamented with box clipped into
most fantastic shapes.  The terrace beyond it leads to the
Spezeria, also decorated by Balbi, where many herbal medicines, and excellent liqueurs and perfumes are made by the
monks.  The country people come hither constantly and
from a great distance for medicine and advice, and receive it
without any payment.
"I had greater pleasure in going through the various rooms of the
monastery than in looking at the modern pictures, to which one at last
becomes indifferent.  The Refectory is a large room, suitably ornamented with a painting of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Here
the brethren all assemble on feast days at a common repast, but on
other days, solitary meals in the cells are ordered by the Rules. I was
shown the clean kitchen and the bakehouse, where they make good
bread of finer and coarser qualities, not only to supply the food of the
monks, but also of the numerous servants. A pond, from which flows a
canal, supplies a mill in the neighbouring yard. But the object the most
worthy of notice, and which was shown to me with just pride, is the Dispensary; and I entered it with a feeling of deeper devotion than I had
felt on entering the church.  The combination of medicinal cures with
the care of the soul, is a natural and very ancient task of these monastic
institutions in lonely places: the monks who study medicine exercise an
activity which is truly praiseworthy and efficacious. The nature of these




COLLEPARDO.                          19
mountains invites them to uninterrupted study of the medicinal herbs
which grow here in great quantities; and what more pleasing occupation can there be than botanizing in these mountains among rocks and
rivers, collecting these wonder-working balsamic plants, or preparing
them medicinally..... At midnight the bell rings for matins, and the
Excitator goes from cell to cell to rouse the monks. They pray in the
four first penitential psalms; then they go into the church, where for
three hours they chant matins. Having returned to their cells they continue their prayers, and then a short interval of sleep is again permitted."
- Gregorovius.
A little path which turns off to the left outside the gateway
of Trisulti gives the best view of the monastic buildings, and
continues through the forest to the Gothic chapel and cell of
S. Domenico Loricato, who first collected a number of hermits around him on this spot, and built a chapel which he
dedicated to S. Bartholomew. A spring which rises near S.
Domenico supplies the fountains of the convent, and popular
tradition declares that it comes by channels from the Lago
di Celano, and that it used occasionally to bring up fragments of fishing-nets from thence.
Having feasted on the convent fare we returned to Collepardo to visit its famous grottos.  We left our horses at the
top of the rock, whence a stony path winds down by zigzags into the abyss of the Cosa. Here the scenery is magnificent, the gorge is very narrow, only wide enough to contain the stream and the path by its side, and on the left rises
a tremendous precipice, in  the face of which yawns the
mouth  of the cavern.  We had taken the precaution  of
asking for what is called an " illumination " on our way to
Trisulti-and had ordered one of five francs, knowing by
experience that the light which is enough to show, but not
to annihilate the effect of darkness, is far the most effective.
When we arrived, all was ready, and a troop of boys, and of




20                 DA YS NA EAR R0OME.
peasant women from  the village, had arrived to take part
in the spectacle. We descended into the earth by a wide
path like a hill-side, and then  ascended by a narrower
rocky path through the darkness, lighted by glaring torches.
Suddenly we found ourselves on the edge of a chasm, something like the Pozzo di Santulla, a fearful pit, with a kind
of rock-altar rising in the midst, blazing with fire, and
throwing a ghastly glare on the wondering faces looking over
the edge of the abyss, and on the sides of the tremendous
columns of stalactites which rose from the ground to the
roof like a vast natural cathedral, and seemed to fall again
in showers of petrified fountains. Sir R. C. Hoare says that
" the large vaulted roofs, spacious halls, fantastic columns
and pyramids, imitating rustic yet unequalled architecture,
present a fairy palace which rivals the most gorgeous descriptions of romance." Yet this does not give a sufficiently
impressive idea of Collepardo.  It must be seen to be
realized:-seen, with its vast stalactite halls opening one
beyond another, not level, but broken by rugged cliffs with
winding pathlets along their edges; seen, with its flamebearing pinnacles sending volumes of bright smoke into the
upper darkness: seen, with its groups of wondering people
clambering along the rocks, with their flashing torches,
shouting to one another as they go, and startling the bats
and owls which add by their shrieks to the hideous confusion. Collepardo is the crowning feature of the tour.
"The very entrance promises something extraordinary. A black
abyss yawns from between dark masses of rock, and a stream of cold air
seems to rise up from the deepest depths. We wrapped up carefully
before going down. The guides with the torches went on before, and
soon light clouds of smoke, issuing from the clefts of the outer wall,
showed that they were within. I have seen many mountain grottos, and




FROSINAONVE.                          21
am no longer on the whole susceptible to these freaks of nature; so I
did not think much of the grotto of Collepardo when I entered. Yet it
made an impression on me by its great size. It consists of two principal
parts, like two enormous halls, separated in the middle by a low broken
wall. The colour of the sides and the ground is black or golden-brown;
great rocks lie about, some of which must be climbed over, and from the
irregular vaultings of the roof depend stalactites of various shapes, great
and small, while others in the strangest forms and groups seem to rise
to meet them from the ground.
"The most singular formations are in the back part of the grotto. In
order to see it perfectly, we waited in the front space until it was completely lighted up.  Not only had many men and boys with torches
placed themselves here and there, but they had lighted great heaps of
tow in different places. When I looked into the magic hall thus illuminated, it was certainly a wonderful sight.  We now seemed to enter an
Egyptian temple with black pillars, between which stood statues of
sphinxes and gods, now we roamed through a forest of stone palm-trees and
other fantastic plants, and again lances and swords bristled here, or armour
of dwarfs and giants hung from the walls. All this seemed to live in the
flickering light of the torches, which here brought out the dazzling
masses, and there threw yet blacker shadows. No representation can be
made of such a cave, for the imagination of each one sees it in a particular way, and peoples it with phantoms.
" Of course names are not wanting for particularly prominent stalactite
formations, and I was called upon to acknowledge the likeness of this
and that, but the only ones I remember are the so called' Trophies of
the Romans,' some strongly-marked forms which may easily recall the
trophies on the ascent to the Capitol at Rome."-Gregorovius.
It is possible to reach Rome in the evening after visiting
Trisulti and Collepardo.  We only went to the excellent
country inn at Frosinone, and spent a delightful morning in
the enjoyment of its invigorating air, and the lovely view
from  our windows.  The town is most picturesque, and is
full of quaint mediaeval bits, with some insignificant remains
of a  Roman  amphitheatre.  It occupies the site of the
Volscian city Frusino.
"Fert concitus inde
Per juga celsa gradum, duris qua rupibus haeret
Bellator Frusino."-Sil. Ital. xii. 530.




CHAPTER XXI.
FARFA.
(The only way of reaching Farfa and returning to Rome the same day
-and there is no satisfactory sleeping-place-is to take the train at 6.40
A.M. to Montorso. If carriages are waiting at the station, the direct road
to Farfa may be taken; if not, there is a humble diligence to Poggio
Mirteto, whence a two-horse carriage-25 francs-may be taken to
Farfa, about five miles distant, and kept to go on to Montorso to meet
the evening train. Rather more than Is hour must be allowed for the
return drive to Montorso. There is no inn at Montorso, so those who
are late for the last train must go on to sleep at Terni or Spoleto.)
T HE  excursion to Farfa should be kept till the spring.
In the latter part of April, or still better in May, it is
quite impossible to visit a place of more radiant loveliness.
It is the ideal Italy,-the most fertile part of the beautiful
Sabina, and no transition can be more complete than that
from  the desolate Campagna, with its ruined  tombs and
aqueducts speaking only of the past, to  these exquisite
woods and deep shady valleys amid the purple mountains,
filled' with life and in the richest cultivation, and watered by
the rushing stream of the Farfarus.
One can scarcely open a page of Italian history in the
middle ages, without meeting the name of Farfa.  Doubly
founded by saints, its monastery rose to the utmost height of
ecclesiastical importance.   Its  Benedictine  monks were
looked upon as the centre of Italian learning, and the




THE IMPORTANCE OF FARFA.                23
"Chronicle of Farfa," compiled from its already decaying
charters and records by Thomas the Presbyter, about I092,
and now preserved amongst the most valuable MSS. of the
Vatican, has ever since been one of the most important
works of reference for Church history. The abbots lived as
princes and considered themselves as the equals of the
popes. It is narrated that the Abbot of Farfa once met a
Pope at Corese, and knew that he must be going to the
monastery.  He said to his Majordomo, who was with him
-" That is the Pope, and he is going to Farfa; of course I
cannot be expected to return, but you will go back to receive
him, and you will desire that the same respect should be
paid to him which is paid to me, and that a fatted calf
should be killed in his honour."  The monks of Farfa
appear never to have numbered more than 683, but the
amount of their possessions is almost incredible:-" urbes
duas, Centumcellas (Civita-Vecchia) and Alatrium; castaldatus 5; castella 132; oppida 6; portus 7; salinas 8; villas
14; molendina 82; pagos 315; complures lacus, pascua,
decimas, portoria, ac praediorum immanem  copiam."  Till
the recent suppression, the revenues of the abbot, who has
long resided at Rome, amounted to nine thousand scudi
annually.
But in I686, when Mabillon made his monastic tour, the
buildings of Farfa were already falling into decay. In the
summer and autumn months the air of the Farfarus was
considered unhealthy, and the abbot resided at the castle of
Fara on the hill-side above the monastery, and the monks
eight miles off, at the convent of San Salvatore. Since that
time Farfa has been more and more neglected, till its very
name and existence are almost utterly forgotten.




24               DA YS NEAR ROME.
Before our visit to Farfa in April, I874, we found it
utterly impossible to obtain any accurate information either
as to the present state of the monastery or the means of
reaching it. No foreigner, no modern Roman, had ever
been known to go there. Even Mr. Hemans, so usually indefatigable, had never seen it. Priests, monks, and bishops
were consulted in vain. Two monks were found in the
abbey of Monte Cassino who had been there, and who spoke
of it almost with tears of affectionate admiration, but they
had been there in extreme youth, and they were now very
old men. Our nearest approach to accurate information
about the long lost monastery came from a porter at one of the
palaces, who had a cousin, who had a sister-in-law, who had
a lover, who had seen Farfa. At last, a coachman was
found who came from that neighbourhood, and who said
that Englishmen went far and wide to see the country and
underwent many difficulties to accomplish their objects, but
he wondered that they never went to Farfa, for " at Farfa:vere the Gates of Paradise."
Finding no carriage at the Montorso station, we were glad
to take the so-called diligence to Poggio Mirteto, being the
only possible means of locomotion-not a very swift one
certainly, as it only went at a foot's pace on the level ground,
and on the hills it stopped altogether, when, as the driver
explained, it was "necessary for all the company to get out
and walk, to prevent the wheels rolling backwards."  We at
once began to reach a new country, rich in vines and figs
and olives, and with lovely views towards the noble serrated
outline of Soracte. Here, amidst the glowing uplands, the
master of the Hotel Minerva at Rome has a great farm and
a pink palazzo. Various towns and villages crest the differ



MONTOPOLL                       25
ent hills; to the left, Cantelupo, Pompeo, Poggio Catino,
and Aspra; to the right, Montopoli.  The largest town is
Poggio Mirteto, which our driver assured us was II Pargi
delta Sabina, and which has rather a handsome church and
piazza. Strange to say, the population of this considerable,
though out of the way place, is chiefly Protestant, and there
is a Protestant church here. The priests themselves, by
their lives, had brought about this change of religion, said
the people we spoke to.
Here we obtained a carriage, and proceeded to Montopoli
by an excellent road along the ridges of the swelling hills,
which are covered with olives, chestnuts, and peach-trees,
with an under-carpet of corn. On the left a wide valley runs
up between the mountains, which are here clothed with
wood almost to their summits, ending in the rock-built town
of Torfea. The further mountain is crowned by a castle.
This is the famous fortress of Fara, which protected the
abbey at its feet in time of trouble, and which is spoken
of in the chronicle of Farfa as, "Castellum Pharze in hoc
Farfa.
eminente monte."  On the hill beyond, at the spot called




26              DA YS NEAR ROME.
Bucci, is another castle of the monastery called Tribucci or
Buccinianum. A tall ruined tower on a nearer hill is called
Cottetino.
Embosomed in woods, beneath La Fara, the great monastery of Farfa stands boldly out from the side of the mountain. It is on the spot where the Syrian hermit Lorenzo,
who had been made Bishop of Spoleto, retired from  the
world about A.D. 550, and built a hermitage, where by his
prayers he destroyed a poisonous dragon which had long
devastated the neighbouring valleys. The exact site of his
cell was long marked by three tall cypresses, but they are
now only to be seen in a fresco in the church. Many
brethren and disciples gathering around his retreat, he built
a monastery which he called after the name of the farmCasale Acutianus-in which it was erected, and dedicated it
to the Blessed Virgin. The monastery of Acutianus became
a place of pilgrimage, as containing the shrine of Lorenzo,
and attained great splendour, no less than five basilicas being
raised there, one of which was intended for women. But
the monastery was attacked and destroyed by the Lombards
in 568. It then remained desolate till 68i, when S. Thomas
the Venerable, while praying before the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem, beheld in a vision the Blessed Virgin, who commanded him  to rebuild her sanctuary and that of her
servant Lorenzo.  The buildings were restored, and the
monastery rose to such magnificence, that no other in Italy,
except that of Nonantula, could rival it. Early in the
eleventh century the name seems to have been changed to
Farfa. The famous Chronicle speaks of it by both its names
-" Liber Chronici Monasterii Acutiani sive Farfensis in
Ducatu Spoletano."




FARFA.                            27
" About the year 936, the reigning abbot was murdered by two of the
fraternity, Campo and Hildebrand. The last words of the abbot, addressed in doggerel Latin to Campo, were,' Campigenans Campo, male
quam me campegenastis.'
"Campo was abbot in 936, and Hildebrand in 939. The conduct of
Campo seems to have been particularly disgraceful: his children he
portioned from the effects of the church, and he seems to have been
addicted to every species of riotous and disorderly living, to the great
scandal of the place and times.
"These crying sins of the Christians, says the history, calling aloud
for punishment, the Agareni (Saracens) invaded the country (A.D. I004)
and surrounded the monastery of Farfa. The abbot of that time, Peter,
made a stout resistance, and drove away the invaders several times; and,
in the interim, found means to send away all the treasure of his convent
to Rome, to Rieti, and Firmo.  The valuable marbles of the church
lie hid underground, and they have never since been discovered. The
Saracens, when they at length took the deserted monastery, though
enraged at the loss of their expected booty, admired the place so much,
that instead of burning it, they converted it into a residence for themselves. The abbey was subsequently destroyed by fire: certain Christian marauders from Poggio Catino, who had taken up their lodging
there for the night, whilst the Saracens were absent upon some occasion,
had lighted a fire in a corner, which (being alarmed by some noise in
the abbey) they left burning; and, hurrying away, the neglected fire
spread, and the stately buildings were completely destroyed.
"After this, Farfa lay in ruins forty-eight years; till Hugo, king of
Burgundy, coming into Italy, the abbot Raffredus began to restore it,
with the treasures sent to Rome and to Firmo; but those which had
been conveyed to Rieti had fallen into the hands of the Saracens."-Sir
W. Gell's Rome and its Vicinity.
From the time of St. Thomas the Venerable in 680, to
Nicholas II. in 1388, the list of the abbots of Farfa is
almost intact, and the place constantly increased in importance.   One of its monks, Bernardo, chosen  Abbot of
Subiaco in the thirteenth century, pompously begins his
installation-edict with: "We, Bernardo Eretoni, of the
Order of St. Benedict, monk of the holy and imperial abbey
of S. Maria of Farfa, and afterwards by the grace of God
Abbot of S. Scolastica, &c."




28                DA YS NEAR ROME.
Through the valley beneath the monastery flows the
beautiful river Farfarus or Fabaris:
"Qui Thybrim Fabarimque bibunt. "-Virgil.,En. vii. 715.
"Amcenae Farfarus umbrae." —Ovid. Metam. xiv. 330,
and is crossed by an ancient bridge.
As in classical times, the valley is almost buried in ver
dure.  Plautus alludes to it:-" You shall be dispersed like
the leaves of Farfarus."  A  stony road (possible for carriages) ascends from the stream, through thickets of oaks,
and of Judas trees, which make the very ground pink with
their falling flowers in spring.  The banks are carpeted
with periwinkles and anemones, and cuckoos and nightingales sing incessantly in the thick shades. An outer wall
surrounds the monastic enclosures, and serves also as protection to the little village, which nestles under the shadow
of the church.  Twice a year, after Easter and Michaelmas, there is a famous fair here, much frequented by those
who purchase the oil of Farfa, which is sold here in huge
barrels.  At these times the Titular Abbot, who is also the
Procuratore Generale of the whole Benedictine Order (the
Padre Pescinelli), comes to reside for a time at Farfa, where
there are generally only three monks, to fulfil the offices of
the Church.  We were fortunate in arriving at this time.
The little street was lined with booths full of gay wares, and
shaded by coloured awnings of orange, blue, and white
canvas.  Two gateways, both very richly sculptured, lead
to the church.   Over the outer, the sainted founders,
Lorenzo and Tomaso, over the inner Benedict and Scholastica, kneel before the Virgin and Child, in two very beau
tiful frescoes by an early Umbrian master. The church is




CONVENT OF FARFA.                    29
cruciform, and almost covered with frescoes, which, if not
very good as works of art, are at least highly picturesque.
The papal benefactors of the monastery are represented
between the arches, which are supported by ancient granite
pillars. The ceiling is richly carved in wood. At the cross
is an intricate pavement of opus-alexandrium. The whole
of the western wall above the door is occupied by a fresco
of the Last Judgment, which, when executed, was considered "so terrible to behold, that those who looked upon
it thought of nothing but death for many days."
A_
Convent of Farfa.
The choir is now stripped of its " choir books plated with
gold and silver and set with gems," and is no longer rich in
"gold and silver ornaments, and in dresses for the officiating
priests, embroidered with gold, and studded with precious
stones," but a beautiful paschal-candlestick remains, a real
work of art, though only carved in wood. On the left of the




30               DA YS NEAR ROME.
altar is the Chapel of S. Lorenzo Siro, where he is buried,
and where the brazen hoop of the scatola in which he carried
a famous picture of the Virgin to Farfa is preserved.  This
picture is still over the high-altar: four heads, the Virgin,
with the Bambino beneath, and two seraphins set in goldblack of course, and attributed to St. Luke. On the right is
the chapel of the second founder, Tomaso, with a picture of
him receiving the commands of the Virgin; the hill of Farfa
and the three cypresses of Lorenzo are represented in the
background.  Here also, and in other parts of the church,
the original building is pourtrayed with two towers, only
one of which remains.
The vast monastic buildings are now chiefly used as a
farm.  In the corner of the cloister is an ancient well,
apparently a relic of some pagan temple on this site, to
which the pillars of the church also probably belonged. It
is beautifully sculptured with the Battle of the Amazons in
high relief. Outside, is the terrace, where the Chronicle says
that the monks were sitting before supper, in the year 1125,
when " they beheld the tower of the castle of Farfa stricken
and burnt by a flash of lightning."
It was a picture seldom  seen now in Italy, when the
carriage came to take us away from Farfa and the venerable
abbot with his few remaining monks came out to take leave
of us. He had invited us to stay, as the abbey is no longer
clausura, and the ladies of our party could have been accommodated, " though," he added, "as there were neither beds
nor chairs, they might not be very comfortable."  As he
stood in the gateway, under the old fresco, the whole population of the little town gathered around him, with perfect




FARFA.                      31
friendly confidence in him, and farewell speeches for usand it gave one an idea of what the paternal relation must
often have been between the abbots and their people in
these secluded places, and of what might have been their
influence.




CHAPTER XXII.
CIVITA CASTELLANA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.
T HIS is quite one of the most interesting parts of Italy,
and is far too little known. Scarcely one traveller in
a thousand ever visits Civita Castellana, though it stands
amid the noblest scenery imaginable, possesses the most
delightful air and lovely views over the mountains, and is
only two hours distant from Rome. The inns are very
humble, but bearable. The Croce Bianca is the best, though
there is a fine view from La Posta. To the archaeologist the
neighbourhood of Civita opens a wonderful mine of interest
hitherto almost unexplored, while to the botanist and geologist it would prove scarcely less attractive. An artist might
pass months here fully employed upon the glorious scenery,
though there is no variety of costume in this country, as in.
the mountain villages south of Rome.
On the last day of April, a most lovely fresh sunny morning, we took our tickets at Rome for the Borghetto station
on the Florence line of railway. It is rather more than an
hour's journey across the Campagna, passing close under the
hill of Fidenae, and seeing, beyond it, Monte Rotondo on
the right, and the town of Corese, the ancient Cures, which
Dionysius calls the greatest of Sabine cities, on the left.




BOR GHETTO.                     33
Several carriages were waiting at Borghetto, and we travelled
pleasantly into the delicious clover-scented uplands, stopping
Borghetto.
by the way to admire the grand old castle with its tall tower
and ruined church, standing on a tufa rock just above the
railway. Beyond, in the hollow, flows the stealthy Tiber,
which here makes such immense bends amongst the lowlying pasture lands that one pities the passengers in the
river steamers, which till a few years ago were the chief
means of communication between Rome and Borghetto.
As we were carried merrily on over the luxuriant hay-fields,
between hedges of wild roses and cistus, we looked across
the valley to Maglian Sabina gleaming white against the
dark mountain steeps.  Suddenly, without any previous
sign, the pastures opened, and we found ourselves on the
edge of a gulf in the tufa, a deep abyss of rock where
the  evergreen shrubs and  honeysuckle  fell in  perfect
cascades of luxuriance over the red and yellow tufa cliffs,
stained here and there with dashes of black and brown,
and perforated  with Etruscan  tombs of various sizes,
reached by narrow  pathways along the face of the precipice. In the misty depths the little river Treja wanders
VOL. II.                                 3




34                DA YS NEAR ROME.
amid huge stones, and under the tall arches of a magnificent bridge of I 72, which crosses the ravine at a height
Gorge of Civita Castellana.
of  z20 feet. The opposite bank is crested by the old
houses and churches of Civita; and in the hollow are some
rustic water-mills. One must make a very sharp bargain if
one descends at the Hotel of La Posta, as the landlord takes
advantage of his few travellers to extort as much as he possibly can. It is a curious kind of caravansary, as a great
part of the large building is let off to poor families, and most
of what remains is occupied by the officers of the garrison.
Ablutions can here only be made like mosaics, a small portion at a time. From the terrace there is the most lovely
view over the ravine to the mountains.
The Cathedral of Civita is very fascinating, and very unlike anything else. The wide portico at the west end supported by a range of pillars is encrusted with lovely mosaic
work of I2I0, by Lorenzo Cosmati and his sons.




CATHEDRAL OF CIVITA.                          35
"A fine flight of steps leads up to a porch of fair proportions, flanked
by porticoes. The porch opens on to the chief portal by a broad arch
resting on pilasters and crowned with an entablature and balcony. The
portal is a series of pilasters and columns, above the architrave of
which is a recess with a fan window. The arched border of this recess,
as well as the pilasters, friezes, and wall, are worked in mosaic. In the
key of the border is the lamb; on the pilasters, the symbols of the Evangelists. The following inscription on the architrave reveals the name of
the author:
Laurentius cum Jacobo, filio suo, magistri
doctissimi Romani, hoc opus fecerunt.
Two lateral doors flank the chief portal, and in the lunette of that to the
right is a bust figure in mosaic of the Saviour, with a cruciform jewelled
nimbus, holding a book and stretching out his right hand in the act of
benediction.  A natural movement and fair contours mark the figure,
which has none of the usual grimness or vehemence. The oval head,
inclosed by hair falling in a triple wave behind the shoulders, has at
least an expression of repose. The chin, broad and bare, is fringed with
a short beard, the nose is straight, the mouth small, and the eyes without
stare. A red tunic with gold borders and jewelled blue cuffs, and a gold
mantle, complete the dress, which is shadowless and flat, but fairly lined.
The yellowish flesh tints tend to red on the cheeks, and are outlined with
red in the lights and black in the shadows. On the architrave below
this gay and not unpleasant mosaic are the words:
Ma... Jaco   t Rainerius Petri Rodulpho fieri fecit."
bus m fecit                             Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
Except the opus alexandrinum  pavement and the crypt,
the interior of the church has been modernized, but the
arrangement is remarkable, as the nave ends in a broad
semi-circular staircase leading to the tribune, like a picture
of Paul Veronese. The transepts are occupied by the local
saints Gracilianus and Felicissima: the latter is shown in a
glass case and wreath of pink roses.
Beyond the cathedral rises the citadel, built by Antonio
San Gallo for Alexander VI. Gsell-fels calls its tower with the
triangular outworks "the political Bastile of Rome." Some
years ago we went thither to visit the famous robber chief



36                DA YS NEAR ROME.
tain Gasparoni, imprisoned for twenty years under the papacy.
Many of his band were with him, and there was certainly
Cathedral Portico, Civita Castellana.
an unpleasant sensation when the door of the large room
they inhabited was closed, and from  the numerous little
beds where they were lying, gaunt and with matted hair,
the many figures rose up of men who were so long the terror
of the Campagna, and whose murders under circumstances
of the most detailed barbarity still are told by Castelli grandmothers to terrify the village circles. When About went to
visit Gasparoni in his prison, the old robber-chief offered
him a printed list of the hundred murders he had committed,
as a souzenir on taking leave, and was greatly surprised that
he did not wish to accept it. Under the Sardinian government * Gasparoni and all the survivors of his band are set at
liberty!
Civita Castellana occupies the site of the Falerium Vetus,
* Who complain that brigandage is encouraged by the adherents of
the Pope and Francis II.




FALERRI.                            37
mentioned so often by Plutarch and Livy, and founded by
the Pelasgi soon after the Trojan war. Ovid however, who
married a Faliscan wife, ascribes its foundation to Halesus,
son of Agamemnon.
"Venerat Atridme fatis agitatus Halesus;
A quo se dictam terra Falisca putat."
Fast. iv. 73.
"Cum mihi pomiferis conjux foret orta Faliscis,
Mcenia contigimus victa, Camille, tibi.
Casta sacerdotes Junoni festa parabant
Per celebres ludos, indigenamque bovem.
Grande morse pretium ritus cognoscere, quamvis
Difficilis clivis huc via praebet iter.
Stat vetus et densa praenubilus arbore lucus:
Aspice, concedas numen inesse loco.
Accipit ara preces, votivaque tura piorum,
Ara per antiquas facta sine arte manus.
Hinc ubi praesonuit sollenni tibia cantu,
It per velatas annua pompa vias.
Ducuntur niveae, populo plaudente, juvence,
Quas aluit campis herba Falisca suis."
Amor. iii. Eleg. 13.
"Camillus was the military tribune under whom Falerii was added to
the territory of Rome. According to the legend,'a schoolmaster, who
had the care of the sons of the principal citizens, took an opportunity
when walking with his boys without the walls, to lead them to the
Roman camp, and throw them into the power of the enemy.  But
Camillus, indignant at this treason, bade the boys drive their master back
into the town again, flogging him all the way thither, for the Romans,
he said, made no war with children. Upon this the Faliscans, won by
his magnanimity, surrendered to him at discretion, themselves, their
city, and their country.' " —Arold's Hist. of Rome.
The most remarkable remains of the ancient Falerii will
be found near the Ponte Terrano about a mile beyond the
castle of Sangallo. The bridge crosses the ravine of the Rio
Maggiore by a double arch; one pier is of rock, the other
of Etruscan masonry.




38                   DA AS NEAR ROME.
"The cliffs above and below the bridge are perforated in every direction with holes-doorways innumerable, leading into spacious tombssepulchral niches of various forms and sizes-here, rows of squares, side,
by side, like the port-holes of a ship of war-there, long and shallow
recesses, one over the other, like an open cupboard, or a book-case,
where the dead were literally laid upon the shelf,-now again, upright
like pigeon-holes, —or still taller and narrower, like the creneaux in a
fortification. This seems to have been the principal necropolis of the
Etruscan city. If you enter any of the tombs, which are in all the faces
of the low cliffs into which the ground breaks, you will find one general
plan prevailing, characteristic of the site. Unlike those of Sutri, where
ihe door opens at once into the tomb, it here leads into a small antechamber, seldom as much as five feet square, which has an oblong hole
in the ceiling, running up like a chimney to the level of the ground
above.  The tomb itself is generally spacious-from  twelve to twenty
feet square, or of an oblong form-never circular-mostly with a massive
square pillar in the centre, hewn out of the rock, or, in many cases,
with a thick partition-wall of rock instead, dividing the tomb into two
equal parts. The front of this, whether it be pillar or projecting wall,
is generally hollowed out, sometimes in recesses, long and shallow, and
one over the other, to contain bodies, sometimes in upright niches, for
cinerary urns or votive offerings. Around the walls are long recesses for
bodies, in double or triple tiers, just as in the catacombs and tombs of
the early Christians, forcibly reminding you, by their size, form, and
arrangement, of the berths in a steamer's cabin. The door-posts are
frequently grooved to hold the stone slabs with which the tombs were
closed. The chimney in the ceiling of the ante-chamber probably served
several purposes-as a spiramen, or vent-hole, to let off the effluvium of
the decaying bodies or burnt ashes-as a means of pouring in libations
to the graves of the dead-and as a means of entrance on emergency
after the doors were closed. That they were used for the latter purpose
is evident, for in the sides of these chimneys may be seen small niches,
about a foot or eighteen inches one above the other, manifestly cut for
the hands and feet. These chimneys were probably left open for some
time, till the effluvium had passed off, and then were covered in,
generally with large hewn blocks. Similar trap-doorways to tombs are
found occasionally at Corneto, Ferento, Cervetri, and elsewhere in
Etruria, but nowhere in such numbers as at Civita Castellana and
Falleri, where they form a leading characteristic of the sepulchres."Dennis, Cities of Etruria.
One of the tombs near the bridge is decorated with a row




GORGE OF CIVITA CASTELLANA.              39
of niches, five on each side of the doorway; on the next
tomb to this is inscribed-'Tucthnu' in Etruscan letters,
once filled in with red. Another tomb hard by has an
Etruscan inscription of two lines, but much obliterated.
Fragments of Etruscan masonry remain here and there along
the edge of the cliffs, serving as the foundation of mediaeval
walls.  Wherever you turn around Civita Castellana, the
ravine seems to pursue you, as if the earth were opening
under your feet; so does it twist around the town. Each turn
is a picture more beautiful than the last, and ever and
again beyond the rocky avenues, Soracte, steeped in violet
shadows, appears rising out of the tender green of the plain.
The gorge has been compared to the famous Tajo of Ronda;
it has no waterfalls and the cliffs are not as high, but it is
quite as full of colour and beauty. The traveller who merely
spends a few hours in Civita knows nothing of it. In the
early morning the hollows are filled with mist, while the sun
lights up here and there a crag crested with ilex and overhung with clematis and honeysuckle. Near the bridge a
huge block of grey rock divides the valley and stands level
at the top with the surrounding country, from which it must
once have been riven, —like an inaccessible island fortress in
the midst of the ravine. Up into the town winds the ancient
way, a steep zig-zag following the curves of the rock, and
here are fountains where the dresses of the women who
come down to draw water, or to wash at the great basons on
the ledge, add bright patches of colour to the view. While
upon the face of the rocks and along the edge of paths in
the precipices, so narrow now that only goats can follow them,
yawn everywhere the open mouths of caverned sepulchres,
the dead pursuing the living up to the very gates of the city.




40                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
About three miles beyond the Ponte Terrano, stranded and
deserted in the upland plain, so wildly beautiful from its
thickets of broom and cistus and its primaeval oak woods, and
backed by the lovely ranges of the Ciminian hills, stands the
utterly ruined city of Falleri. One of the finest Etruscan
tombs in this country is passed on the way thither. It is in
a hollow, on the right of the road, presenting a three-arched
portico, with a' boldly-cut cornice, sculptured in the rock.
Within is an ante-chamber leading into the principal tomb.
Here the flat ceiling is supported by a square pillar, all
around  are benches for sarcophagi, and  the walls and
pillars are perforated with niches for urns or ornaments.
Several other tombs exist close by, but this may be taken as
a good  specimen of an Etruscan sepulchre, and is more
architecturally interesting than any of the tombs at Castel
d'Asso or Bieda.
Soon after ascending the hill beyond the tombs, Falleri
comes in sight, its massive walls and towers rising above the
ploughed land, about twenty-five feet in height. They are
almost perfect, but there are no ruins standing of the city
within them.
" There is nothing to recommend the site of Falerii, as a strong position. The whole of the northern wall of the city stands only as much
above the plain, as may be accounted for by the circumstance of having
been built upon the earth thrown out of the ditch. In this part of the
wall there are nineteen towers, all remaining in a state of great perfection, fifteen or sixteen courses in height; but, from their position,
they are of little strength. About nineteen more are on the second side
of the triangle, placed on the verge of precipices: the third side is defended not only by walls, but by a rocky descent into a deep glen,
watered by a pretty stream, which falls into the Tiber. The vestiges of
an ancient aqueduct may be traced from the upper country, and a
modern one passes near the stream in the glen below.
The walls were of tufa; in some parts twelve courses of blocks are




FALLERI.                           41
still remaining, and in others as many as fifteen or sixteen. The solidity
of the towers is singular; they do not project internally beyond the
thickness of the walls, and some of them have no more than five stones
at the base, and no empty space within. The distance between them
is about fifty yards. Above the parapet the towers were chambered;
and being pierced by doors, permitted an uninterrupted walk on the
top of the walls behind the battlements. Perhaps no place presents a
more perfect specimen of ancient military architecture; its preservation
in modern times may be principally ascribed to the seclusion and comparative desertion of the district."-Gells' Roman Topography.
In the turfy enclosure which the walls encircle stand only
the remains of a mediaeval abbey-Santa Maria di Falleri,
with its beautiful church, of the twelfth century, utterly
ruined since the roof fell in thirty years ago, and overgrown
with  rank  vegetation, though  retaining  all the delicate
sculpture of its pillars and cornices, evidently constructed of
materials taken from the ancient city. The cart-track which
diverges from the front of the church leads to the Porta di
Giove, a fine gate admirably  preserved  and  flanked  by
towers.  It takes its name from  the sculptured head over
the key-stone of the arch, though this more probably represents Apollo than Jupiter.
Porta di Giove. Falleri.
To enjoy Falleri properly, one must make the circuit of




42                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
the walls, which are nearly triangular, and which, on the
side which overhangs the stream, rise almost perpendicular
with the tufa rocks. Here and there they are hollowed into
tombs and niches, while on the other side of the narrow
ravine are tall cliffs full of small caverned sepulchres. In
the distance beyond the broomy heights, soars Soracte, ever
one of the most beautiful of mountains. Below flows the
rivulet Miccino, one of the waters which Pliny describes as
having the power of imparting a white colour to cattle. In
the southern wall of the city is the Porta del Bove, so called
from the bull's-head upon its key-stone. Falleri was a city
constructed entirely upon the Etruscan model, but was built
in the year of Rome 512, after the destruction  of the
ancient city, when it was called Falerium Novum. Zonaras,
who describes the capture of Falerium  Vetus, says that
" the ancient city situated on a steep and lofty height was
destroyed, and another built on a site easy of access." The
name of the ancient city was transferred with the inhabitants,
and when the town on the earlier site rose from its ruins, in
the ninth century, it was with the name of Civita Castellana.
The second town was erected by the Romans, but at a time
when Etruscan arts were most admired and copied, and it was
probably raised on or near the site of some small Etruscan
citadel, to which many of the tombs in its rock-barriers may
have belonged.
"This celebrated city, unlike the other rivals of Rome, has preserved
entire the circuit of her ancient walls. Not one ancient building is
standing within them: they have survived all that they were erected to
defend. It is very fine to see the enormous masses of travertine
masonry glowing in the rays of the setting sun, and throwing their long
purple shadows on the bright fresh green of the spring grass and blossoming thickets. And most of all, where the walls, skirting one of the
deep glens, are built down even into its depths, presenting a face of




SORACTE.                           43
solid masonry not less than fifty feet in height. One longs to have a
painter there, to catch the warm glow of the great wall, lichened and
weather-stained, as it descends into the verdure, and then into the deep
shadow of the underlying ravine; then the same is again repeated, but
with all the varieties of receding colour, as, promontory after promontory, the defences run up the glen; till at length a barrier of high rocks
closes in its head, over which, after a belt of wooded country, rises the
graceful group of Soracte, in loveliest, tenderest blue. But no painter
can give us the fragrance of the spring-flowers which fills the air, nor
the gushing notes of many nightingales from the balmy thickets below."
-Dean Alford.
On the first of May we drove out from Civita Castellana
to spend the day upon Soracte, emerging from  the town
through an Etruscan cutting in the rock, which is lined
with tombs.  The  excursion  is a very  easy one, though
when we made it the stone bridges in the hollow had all
been washed away in a flood, and a man had to be sent on
to help in taking our horses out and in drawing our carriage over a temporary wooden structure.
No drive can be uninteresting with such an object as
Soracte before one, ever becoming more defined.  Those
who look at it from  Rome have no idea whatever of the
majestic character of the mountain as seen from this side,
where it rises abruptly in the midst of the rich green plain
of the table-land. Dennis compares it to the rock of Gibraltar. Ampere says that it resembles a blue island in the
AEgean Sea.  At first it is a sharp blue wedge against the
sky, darkened by the woods with which it is covered, then
it lengthens out into several peaks of sharp cliff succeeding one another and crowned by white convents and hermitages. The lower slopes are rich and green. They melt
gradually into thick olive groves, which terminate in steeps
of bare grey rock, white and dazzling when the sun falls
upon them.




44                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
It is a mark of a severe winter when Soracte is capped
with snow:"Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum
Soracte-"
Horace, Od. i. 9.
and, thus crested, it is the most beautiful feature in the wellknown view from  the terrace of the Pamfili-Doria villa at
Rome. But all the snow will have melted before the charms
of the fresh spring have attracted visitors to Civita Castellana, and its lower slopes will be breaking into such a loveliness of tender green as is quite indescribable. Though of
no great altitude, Soracte, from its isolation, its form, and its
glorious colour, is far more impressive than many mountains
which are five times its height.
"Athos, Olympus, Etna, Atlas, made
These hills seem things of lesser dignity,
All, save the lone Soracte's height, displayed
Not now in snow, which asks the lyric Roman's aid
For our remembrance, and from out the plain
Heaves like a long-swept wave about to break,
And on the crest hangs pausing."
Byron, Childe Harold, c. iv.
Separated from  the main mass of the mountain on the
Roman side, is an attendant rock supporting the picturesque
little town of Sant' Oreste, which has given its modern name
to Soracte. At the foot of this smaller hill is the fountain of
Felonica, marking the side of Feronia, where the peasants
of the surrounding districts offered their firstfruits to the
great Sabine goddess, who would seem to have been identical with Proserpine.
"The most important of all the Italian fairs was that which was held
at Soracte in the grove of Feronia, a situation than which none could
be found more favourable for the exchange of commodities among the




FERONIA.                            45
three great nations. Thrat high isolated mountain, which appears to
have been set down by Natvre herself in the midst of the plain of the Tiber
as a goal for the pilgrim, lay on the boundary which separated the Etruscan and Sabine lands (to the latter of which it appears mostly to have
belonged), and it was likewise easily accessible from Latium and Umbria. Roman merchants regularly made their appearance there, and
the wrongs of which they complained gave rise to many a quarrel with
the Sabines."-Mommsen's Hist. of Rome, ch. xiii.
It was narrated by Strabo, that pilgrims to Feronia, possessed with her spirit, could walk with bare feet, uninjured,
over burning coals.  The goddess was honoured with such
valuable offerings of gold and silver, that Hannibal thought
it worth while to turn aside hither, to plunder the famous
shrine.
S. Oreste from Soracte.
" Annibal alla au pied du Soracte piller le sanctuaire de Feronia;
les paysanes capenates, aussi devotes'a la grande deesse sabine que leurs
descendants peuvent l'etre'a Saint Oreste, offraient'a ce sanctuaire




46                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
celebre les premices de leurs moissons.  Elle recevait aussi des offrandes en or et en argent. Annibal traita le sanctuaire de F6ronia comme le
general Buonaparte devait traiter un jour le sanctuaire de Notre-Dame
de Lorette; il le depouilla."-Ampere, Hist. Rome, iii. Ioo.
A carriage can ascend the mountain as far as S. Oreste,
and here we left it near the gate of the town and followed a
foot-path, which turns up to the left by a small chapel. It
is about two miles to the top. Most of the convents are in
ruins. Sta. Lucia is the first which comes in sight, on the
crest of the nearest peak, then S/a. Roamana on the eastern
slope. Then, by the pilgrims' road which winds through an
avenue of ancient ilexes and elms, we reached the gates of
Sta. Maria dele Grazie. The long drive, and the steep walk
in the great heat, had made us faint with hunger and thirst.
The monks came out with wine, and slices of Bologna
sausage and delicious coarse bread, to a room at the gate,
for ladies are not allowed to enter the walls, and never was
refreshment more acceptable.   There are  only thirteen
monks now, who live an active life of charity, and whose
advice and instruction are widely sought by the country
people around. There is little fear of their suppression, as
they have scarcely any finances, and their humble dwellings
on the bare crag, far from all human habitations, could not
be sold for anything, and would be useless to the present
Government.  Those we saw were a grand group; one, a
tall and commanding figure with handsome face and flashing
eyes, told us of the peace and blessing he received from his
solitary life here, and of the ever-growing interest of the
place and all its associations; another, of a coarse common
expression, spoke in murmuring tones, and was sceptical about
all his stories, which he wound up always by " E tradizione;"




ASCENT OF SORA CTE.                      47
a third, was an old venerable man of eighty-six, who had
passed his life in these solitudes, a life so evidently given up
to prayer that his spirit seemed only half to belong to earth.
We spoke to him of the change which was coming over the
monastic life, but he did not murmur-" E la volont, di
Dio;" only when he talked of the great poverty of the
people from the present taxation, and of their reduced
means of helping them, he lamented a little. He said the
people came to him  every day, and they asked why they
had such sufferings to bear, that they had been quite happy
before, and had never wished or sought for any change; and
that he urged them to patience and prayer, and to the faith
that though outward events might change and earthly comforts be swept away, God, who led His children by mysterious
teaching which we could not fathom, was Himself always the
same.
The three monks went with us to the top, where the
temple of Apollo, the " guardian of the holy Soracte," formerly stood, and where the Hirpini, as the people of the
surrounding district were called, came to offer their annual
sacrifices, and were, on that account, says Pliny, exempted
from military service and other public duties.
"Summe deum, sancti custos Soractis Apollo,
Quem primi colimus, cui pineus ardor acervo
Pascitur; et medium freti pietate per ignem
Cultores multa premimus vestigia pruna;
Da, pater, hoc nostris aboleri dedecus armis."
Virgil, En. xi. 785.
"Tur Soracte satum, praestantem corpore et armis,
lEquanum noscens; (patrio cui ritus in arvo,
Quum pius arcitenens accensis gaudet acervis,
Exta ter innocuos leto portare per ignes)
Sic in Apollinea semper vestigia pruna




43                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
Inviolata teras, victorque vaporis ad aras
Dona serenato referas solennia Phcebo."
Sil. I/al. v. 175.
On the supposed site of the ancient temple, 2270 feet
above the level of the sea, perched on the highest points of
the perpendicular crags, its walls one with their precipices,
now  stands the monastery of S. Silvestro.  It is a sublime
position, removed from and above everything else. Hawks
circle around its huge cliffs, and are the only sign of life.
Convent of S. Silvestro, Summit of Soracte.
On a lower terrace are the church and hermitage of S. Antonio, ruined and deserted. To these solitudes came Constantine to seek for Sylvester the hermit, whom he found here
in a cave and led away to raise to the papal throne, walking
before him as he rode upon his mule, as is represented in
the ancient frescoes of the Quattro Incoronati.




SULMMI T OF SORA CTE                       49
" Sylvester, who had been elected bishop of Rome, fled from the persecution, and dwelt for some time in a cavern, near the summit of
Soracte. While he lay there concealed, the Emperor Constantine was
attacked by a horrible leprosy: and having called to him the priests of
his false gods, they advised that he should bathe himself in a bath of
children's blood, and three thousand children were collected for this purpose. And, as he proceeded in his chariot to the place where the bath
was to be prepared, the mothers of these children threw themselves in
his way with dishevelled hair, weeping, and crying aloud for mercy.
Then Constantine was moved to tears, and he commanded that the
children should be restored to their mothers with great gifts, in recompense of what they had suffered.
" On that same night, as he lay asleep, S. Peter and S. Paul appeared
at his bedside, and they stretched their hands over him, and said-' Because thou hast feared to spill the innocent blood, Jesus Christ has sent
us to bring thee good counsel. Send to Sylvester, who lies hidden
among the mountains, and he shall show thee the pool, in which having
washed three times, thou shalt be clean of thy leprosy; and henceforth
thou shalt adore the God of the Christians, and thou shalt cease to persecute and oppress them.' Then Constantine, awaking from this vision,
sent to search for Sylvester. And he, when he saw the soldiers
of the Emperor, supposed it was to lead him to death: but when he
appeared before the Emperor, Constantine saluted him, and said,'I
would know of thee who are those two gods who appeared to me in the
vision of the night?' And Sylvester replied,' They were not gods, but the
apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.' Then Constantine desired that he
would show him the effigies of these two apostles; and Sylvester sent
for the pictures of S. Peter and S. Paul, which were in the possession
of certain pious Christians.  Constantine, having beheld them, saw that
they were the same who had appeared to him in his dream. Then Sylvester baptized him, and he came out of the font cured of his malady."
-~'zmesonz's Sacred A rt.
The oratory of Sylvester was enclosed in a monastery
founded in 746 by Carloman, son of Charles Martel, and
uncle of Charlemagne, and though later buildings have succeeded upon the same spot, and the existing edifice is externally of I500, it encloses much of the church of Carloman,
and the more ancient hermitage of Sylvester. The walls of
the church are covered with mediaeval frescoes, fading, but
VOL. II.                                         4




50                DAYS NEAR ROME.
still very beautiful. On the right of the entrance is S.
Buonaventura; then come S. Anne, the Virgin, S. Roch,
and S. Sebastian, but all have been much injured by the
goat-herds who used to shelter their flocks here when the
church was utterly deserted.  The beautiful old high-altar
is richly carved in stone taken from the mountain itself.
Behind it are a curious holy water basin, and a priest's chamber.  A martyr's stone-" Pietra di Paragone "-may be
seen in the wall.
Beneath the lofty tribune is the cell of Sylvester, half cut
in the mountain itself. It encloses the sloping mass of rock
which formed the bed of his hermitage, and his stone seat.
Here also is the altar on which, first Sylvester himself, and
afterwards Gregory the Great, said mass. On the walls are
dim frescoes of the seventh century, faintly lighted by the
rays stealing in above the altar-Christ, S. Silvester, S.
Gregory, and the Archangel Michael.  A long inscription
in the upper church tells the story of a later sainted monk
of Soracte, Nonnosus, who is reported to have performed
three miracles here.  The first was when a monk broke a
valuable lamp-" una lampada orientale "-quite into small
pieces in this church, and was in despair about the consequences, when Nonnosus fell on his knees and prayed,
and the culprit saw the fragments miraculously joined together again. In the second, the olive-gardens of the convent
failed, and the abbot was about to send out to buy up the
oil of the paesani, when Nonnosus took the convent oil"il poco che fu "-and it was miraculously multiplied. In
the third, he lifted by the force of prayer a large stone,
which had fallen, back to its mountain ledge, where it may
still be seen in proof of the power of this saint.




THE STORY OF SORA CTE.                 5
Behind the convent is its little garden, where legend tells
that S. Sylvester would sow one day his turnips for the meal
of the morrow, and that they were miraculously brought to
perfection during the night. There is a grand view from
this over all the wide-spreading country, but especially into
the blue gorges of the Sabina, and the monks described the
beautiful effect when each of the countless villages which
can be seen from hence, lights its bonfire on the eve of the
Ascension.
The last monks who lived in S. Silvestro were Franciscalns,
and they left it in I700, because seven of their number were
then killed by lightning in a storm.  Our monastic friends
accompanied us on our return as far as Sta. Maria delle
Grazie, and as we turned to descend the mountain-path, the
old monk of eighty-six, standing at the head of the steps,
stretched out his hands and most solemnly blessed us" May the blessed Saviour keep and guide you, and may
His holy angels walk with you in all your ways."
As we slowly descended the mountain, we looked down
through the woods to Santa Romana at its eastern base,
near which are the deep fissures called Voragini, whence
pestilential vapours arise. Pliny mentions these exhalations
from Soracte as fatal to birds, and quotes Varro, who speaks
of a fountain on Soracte four feet in width, which flowed at
sunrise, and appeared to boil, and of which, when birds drank,
they died. By Servius a story is told of jome shepherds who
were sacrificing to Pluto, when the victims were carried off
from the very altar by wolves. The shepherds pursuing them
came upon the cave whence the pestilential vapours issued,
which destroyed all who came within their reach. A malady
ensued, and the oracle declared that the only remedy was to




52                DAYS NEAR ROME
do as the wolves did-to live by plunder."  Hence they
were called Hirpini Sorani-Pluto's wolves, from  hirJus,
which was Sabine for a wolf, and Soranus, another name for
Pluto; and accordingly, robbers there always were on
Soracte till the forests which clothed the whole neighbourhood were for the most part cut down about twenty years
ago. With the robbers the wolves and bears, which abounded on the sides of the mountain, disappeared, many persons
being still alive who have had adventurous escapes from
them.  Cato says that there were also wild goats upon
Soracte, of such wonderful activity, that they could leap
sixty feet at one bound! t
From S. Oreste one looks across a wooded country to the
village of Rigliano, about 31 miles distant.  It claims to be
the birth-place of Caesar Borgia.  Fragments of ancient
columns and altars abound there, and in the piazza is preserved a curious primitive cannon.  Rignano gives a title to
the eldest son of Duke Massimo.
Seven miles south-east of Rignano is a hill crested by
the ruined church of San Martino, which occupies the site
of the Etruscan Capena, the faithful ally of Veii, indeed Cato
says that Veii was founded by the Capenates. The citadel
was strongly defended by nature, being situated on an
insular rock connected with the neighbouring heights by a
kind of isthmus, and was consequently almost impregnable.
It was never taken by siege, but capitulated to the Romans,
after vainly joining with the Falisci, in an attempt to succour
Veii.
"After the fall of Veii, Valerius and Servilius marched to Capena;
and, the inhabitants not daring to quit their walls, the Romans de* fEn. xi. 785.     t Cato ap. Varron. Re Rust. ii. cap. 3.




CAPENA.                              53
stroyed the country, and particularly the fruit-trees, for which it was
celebrated."-Livy, v. 24.
There are some small remains of the foundations of walls
and towers, and of reticulated work, visible here and there
amid the thickets of wild-pear, descendants of the fruit-trees
mentioned  by Livy, which are covered  with  blossom  in
spring.
"Placed, like Alba and Gabii, upon the verge of a volcano, Capena
assumed the form of a crescent; the citadel was on the highest point
westward, and communicated by a steep path with the Via Veientana.
This road may be traced in the valley below, running towards the
Grammiccia and the natural opening of the crater on the east; and it
was only here, as the remains testify, that carriages could enter the city.
"On ascending from this quarter, a fine terrace is observed, which is
evidently placed on the top of the ancient walls. The squared blocks
with which the place is strewed, show that these were parallelograms of
volcanic stone. They may yet be traced by their foundations round the
summit of the hill.
" Capena has something in it altogether peculiar: the situation, though
commanding, seems singularly secluded, the country is once more wholly
in a state of nature; nothing of animated life, except here and there
flocks of goats or sheep, feeding on some green eminence or in the
valleys below, which are spotted with such innumerable patches of
underwood, that, were it not for the brousing of these animals, it would
soon become a forest.  The desolation is complete: Silvanus, instead
of Ceres, is in full possession of the soil."-Gells' Topography of Rome.
"The view from the height of Capena is wildly beautiful.  The deep
hollow on the south, with its green carpet: the steep hills overhanging
it, dark with wood-perhaps the groves celebrated by Virgil: the bare
swelling ground to the north, with Soracte towering above: the snowcapt Apennines in the eastern horizon: the deep silence, the seclusion;
the absence of human habitations (not even a shepherd's hut) within the
sphere of vision, save the distant town of Sant' Oreste, scarcely distinguishable from the gray rock on which.it stands;-it is a scene of
more singular desolation than belongs to the site of any other Etruscan
city in this district of the land."-Dennis' Cities of Etrmria.
The stream of the Grammiccia probably once bore the
name of Capenas.




54                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
"Dives ubi ante omnes colitur Feronia luco,
Et sacer humectat fluvialia rura Capenas."
Sil. Ital. xiii. 84.
The site of Capena is best visited on horseback, and
may be reached from Rome by leaving the Via Flaminia on
the left at the Monte della Guardia.  About three miles from
Capena, on the Tiber, is Fiano, with the castle of the Duke
of that name. This village is supposed to mark the site of
the Flavinium of Virgil:"Hi Soractis habent arces, Flaviniaque arva,
Et Cimini cum monte lacum lucosque Capenos.".-En. vii. 696.
and the Flavina of Silius:
"Quique tuos, Flavina, focos, Sabatia quique
Stagna tenent, Ciminique lacum."
Sil. viii. 492.
Six miles north of Civita Castellana is Corchiano, a most
picturesque village occupying an Etruscan site, and surrounded, like almost all the towns of Etruria, with ravines full of mutilated sepulchres.  One of these, half a mile distant, on the
way to Falleri, is inscribed Larth. Vel. Arnies, in Etruscan characters. Three miles further is Gallese, beautifully situated
on a rock at the junction of two ravines.  Canon Nardoni
has written a work to prove that this is the _Equum Faliscum,
mentioned by Strabo, Virgil, and Silius.  It contains some
obscure Roman remains, and there are many Etruscan tombs
in the neighbouring valleys. Gallese was early the seat of
a bishopric.
Six miles north-west of Corchiano is Vignanello, and four
miles beyond it Soriano, both Etruscan sites.*
* For all these places see Dennis' Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. ii




FESCENNI UM.                    55
Dennis believes that he has identified the fragments of a
city, half covered with wood, but marked by the ruined
church of S. Silvestro (" a mile and a half west of Ponte
Felice, on the way to Corchiano "), with the lost town of
Fescennium, mentioned by Dionysius and Virgil, and celebrated in the history of Latin poetry for the nuptial songs
called Carmina Fescennina, to which, according to Festus,
it gave its name.




CHAPTER XXIII.
THE CIMINIAN HILLS-NEPI, SUTRI, AND
CAPRAROLA.
(These most interesting places may be visited from Civita Castellana,
taking the railway to Borghetto. Here a carriage may be engaged for
the whole excursion at about 20 francs a day. Or Ronciglione, where the
Aquila Nera is a humble but tolerable inn, may be reached by diligence
from Rome, and excursions made from thence. If a carriage be taken
from Rome to Ronciglione, Nepi and Sutri-a few miles off the road
in opposite directions-may be visited on the way.  Caprarola is three
miles beyond Ronciglione. )
I T is a delightful drive of about an hour and a half through
the forest from  Civita Castellana to Nepi.  The road
passes near the castle and Benedictine church of Sant' Elia,
the latter a very curious early Christian building, covered internally with frescoes by the brothers Johannes and Stephanus
and their nephew Nicolaus of Rome.
"The exact period in which these artists executed the decorations of
S. Elia cannot be ascertained; but they were men who combined the
imitation of forms and compositions characteristic of various ages of
Roman art, with a technical execution which can only be traced as far
back as the tenth century. Their work, though it has suffered from the
ravages of time, illustrates a phase hitherto comparatively unknown.
They seem to have been men accustomed to mosaics, for they mapped out
their colours so as to resemble that species of work. They used, not
the thin water-colour of the early catacomb painters at Rome or Naples,
but the body-colour of the later artists, who painted of the chapel of S.
Cecilia in S. Calisto and the figures of Curtius and Dcsiderius in the




SANT' ELL4.                            57
catacomb of S. Januarius.  On a rough surface of plaster they laid in
the flesh tones of a uniform yellowish colour, above which coarse dark
outlines marked the forms, red tones the half-tints, and blue the
shadows.  The lights and darks were stippled on with white or black
streaks, and a ruddy touch on the cheeks seemed intended to mark the
robust health of the personage depicted. The hair and draperies were
treated in the same manner.  They were painted of an even general
tone streaked with black or white lines to indicate curls, folds, light and
shadow.  The result was a series of flat unrelieved figures, which were,
in addition, without the charm of good drawing or expression.
"In the semidome of the apsis, the Saviour was represented standing
with his right arm extended, and in his left hand holding a scroll.  On
his right S. Paul in a similar attitude was separated from S. Elias by a
palm on which the phcenix symbolized Eternity. S. Elias, in a warrior's
dress, pointed with his left hand to S. Paul. To the Saviour's left S.
Peter, whose form is now but dimly visible, and probably another saint
were depicted. A back-ground of deep blue, spotted with red clouds of
angular edges, relieved the figures. This was in fact an apsis picture
similar to those in the numerous churches of Rome, and in arrangement
not unlike that of SS. Cosmo e Damiano.  The form of the Redeemer
indeed, his head, of regular features, with a nose a little depressed and
the flesh curiously wrinkled, his high forehead, and long black hair falling in locks, his double-pointed, beard, tunic, mantle and sandals, had
a general likeness with those of SS. Cosmo ed Damiano.  The saints,
on the other hand, in their slender forms, S. Elias with his small head
and long body, were reminiscent of later mosaics, whilst their attitude,
and movement, their draperies, depicted with lines, their defective feet
and hands, were not unlike those of SS. Nereo ed Achilleo.  The NeoGreek influence might be traced in other parts of the paintings of S. Elia.
Beneath the green foreground, where the four rivers gushed from under
the feet of the Saviour, and the Lamb stood pouring its blood into a
chalice, an ornament separated the paintings of the semidome from
those in the lower courses of the apsis. In the uppermost of these,
Jerusalem, and in the intervals of three windows, twelve sheep in triple
groups, between palms, were depicted.  Bethlehem, no doubt, closed
the arrangement on the right, but is now gone.  In the next lower
course, the Saviour sat enthroned between two angels and six female
saints, amongst which S. Catherine in a rich costume and diadem and
S. Lucy may still be recognized. The rich ornaments, the round eyes
and oval faces, of these female saints, were not without admixture of the
foreign element which had left its impress on Rome in the seventh and
eighth centuries.. Still, the angels with their hair bound in tufts and




58                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
their flying ban is were of regular features.  The painters covered the
sides of the tribune with three courses of pictures, fragments of which
remain.  On the upper to the right, the prophets with scrolls, on the
second, martyrs with the chalice, on the third, scenes from the Old
Testament.  On the left the lowest course was likewise filled up with
biblical subjects taken from the Revelation. The aisles and nave were
also doubtless painted, but the pictures have unfortunately disappeared.
The painters inscribed their names as follows beneath the feet of the
Saviour in the apsis-Joh. FF. Stefanu frts picto..e.. Romani et
Nicholaus Nepr Johs.
" The paintings of S. Elia are far more instructive and interesting than
those of a later date, and even than the mosaics of the eleventh century
at Rome."-Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
Nepi is the ancient Nepete.  Its position is not higher
than that of the surrounding plain, but it is cut off by deep
ravines like Civita Castellana.  At the entrance of the town
Castle of Nepi.
the gorge is crossed by a bridge and by a double aqueduct




SUTRI.                      59
built by Paul III. in the sixteenth century. Below this a
little rivulet tumbles over the cliffs to a great depth. The
piazza has a handsome town-hall, with a large fountain and
a wide portico decorated with Roman altars and fragments of
sculpture found in the neighbourhood. The cathedral has
a fine campanile; its first bishop was S. Romanus, and
tradition ascribes the foundation of the see to S. Peter. At
the Roman entrance to the town stands the most picturesque
castle, with a double gateway.  Outside this there is a
charming spot; the great machicolated towers hang over the
edge of the cliffs, against which rises an old mill, and, below,
a waterfall sparkles and loses itself in a mass of luxuriant
evergreens. Turning to the right are some grand remains of
ancient Etruscan wall, probably the same which were scaled
by Camillus, when he came to avenge the desertion of the
city from the Roman alliance to that of Etruria.
Again a drive of two hours, through woods of oaks and
deep lanes overhung with golden broom, and then along
the plain which is bounded by the beautiful Ciminian Hills,
upon which Ronciglione and Caprarola gleam in the sunlight, and-crossing the high road from Rome to Siena-we
reach Sutri.  The little town is visible at a great distance,
and occupies a crest in the tufa, filling every rocky projection with its old walls and houses, for its extent seems to
have been limited by the cliffs which formed its natural protection, and which gave it such strength as made it deserve
the name of " the key of Etruria."
Sutrium was made a Roman colony at a very early period,
and was celebrated for its devotion to Rome. In u. c. 365 it
was captured by the Etruscans, and the whole of its inhabitants were expelled, with nothing but the clothes they wore.




60               DA YS NEAR ROME.
Camillus met them with his army as they were escaping
towards Rome, and moved by their anguish, bade them be
of good cheer, for he would soon transfer their troubles to
their conquerors, and this he did, for that very day he
reached the town, found it undefended, and the Etruscans
occupied in collecting the spoil.  Before night the rightful
inhabitants were restored, and their victors driven out.
From the rapidity with which his march was effected, "ire
Sutrium" became henceforth a proverb for doing anything
in a hurry.  Soon after (368) the town was again taken by
the Etruscans, and again restored by Camillus: in 443 the
old enemy once more besieged it, when the consul Fabius
came to the rescue.
As we approach the town on the Roman side,'the rocks
on the left of the road are filled with tombs. They are cut in
the tufa, but many seem to have been fronted with more
durable stone-work. The cliffs are crested by grand old ilexes
which hang downwards in the most luxuriant masses of
foliage, unspoilt by the axe. There is no appearance of
anything more than this, and it is startling, when one turns
aside from the road and crossing a strip of green meadow
passes through a gap in the rocks, to find oneself suddenly in a Roman Alm.phitheatre, perfect in all its forms,
almost in all its details, with corridors, staircases, vomitories, and twelve ranges of seats one above the other, not
built, but hewn out of t.t, solid rock, all one with the cliffs
which outwardly make no sign. The Coliseum is grander,
but scarcely so impressive as this vast ruin in its absolute
desertion, where Nature, from which it was taken by Art,
has once more asserted her rights, and where the flowers
and the maiden-hair fern, clambering everywhere up the




SUTRI.                         6I
grey steps and fringing the'rock galleries, and the green
lizards darting to and fro, are the only spectators which
look down upon the turfy arena. All around the great ilexes
girdle it in, with here and there the tall spire of a cypress
shooting up into the clear air.  The silence is almost awful,
and there is a strange witchery in the solitude of this place,
which nothing leads up to, and which bears such an impress
of the greatness of those who conceived it, and made it, and
once thronged the ranges of its rock-hewn benches, now so
unspeakably desolate.  Dennis considers that the amphitheatre of Sutri was " perhaps the type of all those celebrated
structures raised by Imperial Rome, even of the Coliseum
itself. For we have historical evidence that Rome derived
her theatrical exhibitions from Etruria. Livy tells us that
ludi scenici, a new thing for a warlike people, who had
hitherto only known the games of the circus, were introduced into Rome in the year 390, in order to appease the
wrath of the gods for a pestilence then devastating the city,
and that ludiones were sent for from  Etruria, who acted to
the sound of the pipe, in the Etruscan fashion."
Sutr.
Turning to the left, beyond the amphitheatre, a path leads




62                DA YS NEAR ROME.
under the old city.  The tufa, glowing from  the red and
golden colour with which time has stained it, is half rock
and half masonry, the natural cliffs being  surmounted
by ranges of Etruscan walling, and the whole crested by
stately mediaeval houses which follow every crevice of the
natural formation, and occasionally, where more space is
required, are bracketted out from it upon arches.
On the other side of the narrow ravine, the rocky barrier
is still fringed with ilexes and perforated with tombs. A
little path attracted us to the entrance of one of these, just
beneath the villa and the old clipped garden of the Marchese Savorelli.  Over the door is inscribed in Italian:
"Here stay thy step; the place is sacred to God, to the
Virgin, and to the repose of the departed. Pray or pass on.'
It admitted us to one of the most interesting places we ever
entered.  Several tombs had apparently been thrown together at a very early period of Christianity, and formed a
very long narrow Christian church, of which the pavement,
roof, pillars, and seats were all one, and all carved out of
the living rock.  From the ante-chapel or entrance tomb,
still surrounded with its couches for the dead after the manner of Etruria, one looks down an avenue of low pillars
green with damp, and separated from  the aisles by rockhewn seats, to the altar, beyond which, from an inner sanctuary, a light streams in upon the gloom.  On the rock
walls are mouldering frescoes-the Annunciation, the Salutation, the Last Supper; several saints, and a grand angel
with a face raised in low relief. It is a touching and most unearthly sanctuary, and carries one back to the earliest times
of Christian life and Christian suffering more forcibly. than
the most celebrated Roman catacomb.  The church is now




SUTRL                        63
called, "La Madonna del Parto," and is still much frequented.  A poor woman, while we were there, was kneelin the dimness, so lost in prayer, that she seemed quite unconscious of the strangers wandering about, though they
must be rare enough at Sutri. The chapel beyond the altar
had a traditional communication with the Roman catacombs,
but it has been walled up now, in consequence of stories of
persons having been lost there.
A ruin on the cliff near the Villa Savorelli, is shown as the
building in which Charlemagne staid when he was on his
way to Rome in the time of his " great father " Adrian I. In
a wood below is the Grotta d'Orlando, a cave to which
the great hero of chivalrous romance is supposed to have
been lured by the witcheries of a beautiful maiden of
Sutri of whom he was enamoured, and where he was shut
up by her. Another story says that the Sutri maiden was
not the love but the mother of Orlando, and that the
Paladin was born here.
But tradition is wonderfully alive at Sutri. The house of
Pontius Pilate is shown, and to the curse which he brought
upon his own people, it is said that the lawless nature is due
for which the natives of Sutri have ever since been remarkable. At a corner of the principal street is the head of a
beast, be it ass or sheep, which is believed always to be
watching the hiding-place of great treasure with its stone
eyes, but the authorities of the town, who will not search for
it themselves, have forbidden all other enterprise in that
direction.
Some of the old palaces have beautifully-wrought cressets
still projecting from their walls. In a small piazza is a
grand sarcophagus, adorned with winged griffins, as a foun



64               DA YS NEAR ROME.
tain. The dirty Cathedral has a lofty tower with trefoiled
windows, and an opus-alexandrinum pavement.  It contains
a portrait of Benedict VII., who was a native of Sutri, and
of the canonized Dominican, Pius V., who was its bishop
for five years.
It is about an hour's drive from Sutri to Ronciglione, retracing the road by which we came for some distance. Here
the little inn of the Aquila Nera is a tolerable resting-place,
and though the rooms are humble, the people are most civil
and anxious to please.  There is a handsome cathedral of
the last century, and a large fountain in the upper town, and
below the inn is one of the deep ravines so peculiar and
apparently so necessary to Etruscan cities, perforated with
tombs, and with a ruined castle (La Rocca) and an old
church (La Providenza) clinging to its sides.
La Providenza di Ronciglione.
It is most pleasant in these ol  places to have plenty of
time, and no fixed plans to tie one down. The walks in the
still evening light along the edge of these wonderful gorges
are so inexpressibly charming, and the power of resting from
the glowing mid-day heat in the great shady churches. Even




LAGO DI VICO.                     65
in the ugly churches, much may be derived either from
the decaying, neglected pictures, often so beautiful, or from
the numerous inscriptions, for in Italy almost everything is
handed down to us about either places or people, indelibly
written upon stone.  And then it is so pleasant to make
friends with the cordial, open-handed, open-hearted peasantry, who are so pleased to be talked to, so happily
natured, so willing to understand a joke, and so merry,
while so civil. And if there is rather a stuffy sensation of
domestic fog in some of the little inns, it is atoned for by
the delicious morning afterwards; and as for the fleas, if
they only come thick enough and go on long enough, there
is a moment when you almost try to persuade yourself that
you really like them.
It is almost necessary to sleep at Ronciglione in order to
have a day at Caprarola, and what is there for which such a
day does not compensate? Caprarola is alike a climax of
nature and of art, certainly one of the most perfectly glorious
places even of Italy. No view is more singular, more historical, or more lovely.  No royal palace in any country of
Europe has such a situation, or has the beauty of this masterpiece of Vignola in its solitude, its desertion, and decay.
We leave Ronciglione by the Viterbo road, and as soon
as we have ascended the hill behind the town, come upon
the Lago di Vico, the Ciminian lake.  Tradition tells that
when Hercules was here, the natives asked him to give them
a proof of his enormous strength, and that, to please them,
he drove an iron bar deep into the earth; but that when
they bade him draw it forth again, waters followed, which
filled the hollow of the mountain and formed the lake.*
* Serv.,En. vii 697.
VOL. II. 




66                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
Beneath its waves the lost city of Succinium was believed to
exist.* Formerly it was surrounded by a forest which was
regarded as an impenetrable barrier to preserve Etruria
against the attacks of the Romans.  It was said that
Fabius, after his great defeat of the Etruscans at Sutrium,
was the first Roman who dared to enter the Ciminian wood,
and the terror which was excited when his intention of
doing so became known at Rome, caused the senate to
despatch especial envoys to deter him.t
Lago di Vico.
The little lake lies, deep-blue, in the vast bason of an
extinct crater. Part of the hollow is taken up by the water,
and the rest by the wooded hill of Monte Venere, which
looks as if it had been thrown up by the same convulsion
which hollowed the bed of the waters at its foot. Virgil was
here, and speaks of the lake and its mountain, and as we
drive through the adjoining forests we think of Macaulay,
and
"-the stags that champ the boughs
Of the Ciminian hill."
* Amm. Marcell. xvii. 7, 13.     t Livy, ix. 56; Florus, i. 17.




THE CIMINIAN HILLS.                  67
It is a long ascent after this; and oh, what Italian scenery,
quite unspoilt by English, who never come here now. The
road is generally a dusty hollow in the tufa, which, as we pass,
is fringed with broom in full flower, and all the little children
we meet have made themselves wreaths and gathered long
branches of it, and wave them like golden sceptres. Along
the brown ridges of thymy tufa by the wayside, flocks of goats
are scrambling, chiefly white, but a few black and dun coloured creatures are mingled with them, mothers with their little
dancing elf-like kids, and old bearded patriarchs who love
to clamber to the very end of the most inaccessible places,
and to stand there embossed against the clear sky, in triumphant quietude. The handsome shepherd dressed in white
linen lets them have their own way, and the great rough
white dogs only keep a lazy eye upon them as they themselves lie panting and luxuriating in the sunshine. Deep
down below us, it seems as if all Italy were opening out, as
the mists roll stealthily away, and range after range of delicate mountain distance is discovered. Volscian, Hernican,
Sabine, and Alban hills, Soracte —nobly beautiful-rising out
of the soft quiet lines of the Campagna, and the Tiber
winding out of the rich meadow-lands into the desolate
wastes, till it is lost from sight before it reaches where a
great mysterious dome rises solemnly through the mist, and
reminds one of the times when years ago, in the old happy
vetturino days, we used to stop the carriage on this very
spot, to have our first sight of S. Peter's.
Near a little deserted chapel, a road branches off on the
right, a rough stony road enough, which soon descends
abruptly through chestnut woods, and then through deep
clefts cut in the tufa and overhung by shrubs and flowers,




68               DAYS NEAR ROME.
every winding a picture, till, in about half an hour, we arrive
at Caprarola. Why do not more people come here? it is so
very easy. As we emerge from our rocky way the wonderful position of the place bursts upon us at once.  The
grand, tremendous palace stands backed by chestnut woods,
which fade into rocky hills, and it looks down from  a
high-terraced platform upon the little golden-roofed town
beneath, and then  out upon the whole glorious rainbow-tinted view, in which, as everywhere we have been,
lion-like Soracte, couching over the plain, is the most conspicuous feature. The buildings are so vast in themselves,
and every line so noble, every architectural idea so stupendous, that one is carried back almost with awe to the reCapraro'a.
collections of the great-souled Farnese who originated the
design, and the grand architect who carried it out. The
idea does not embrace only the palace itself, but is carried
round the whole platform of the hill-side in a series of buildings, ending in a huge convent and church, built by Odoardo
Farnese.  S. Carlo Borromeo, the great patron of idle alms



CAPRAROLA.                             69
giving, came hither to see it when it was completed, and complained that so much money had not been given to the poor
instead.   " I have let them  have it all little by little," said
Alessandro Farnese, "but I have made them earn it by the
sweat of their brows."
" Cardinal Farnese would have everything in his Palace of Caprarola
arranged after the designs and invention of Jacopo Barozzi, the architect
Vignola.  Nor was the judgment of the prelate in selecting so good an
architect less remarkable than his greatness of mind in constructing so
noble and magnificent an edifice, which is not indeed in a position to be
much enjoyed by the public, being in a remote and solitary district, but
is nevertheless admirably placed for one who desires to escape for a
time from the toils and vexations of cities.
"The edifice has the form of a pentagon; it is divided into four parts,
exclusive of the principal front, wherein is the great door; behind which
is a loggia eighty palms long by forty broad, and at one end of the same
is a spiral staircase the steps of which are ten palms in width, while the
space in the centre, which gives light to the whole, is of twenty palms.
This spiral stair ascends from the ground to the third or uppermost
floor, it is supported on double columns, and adorned with rich and
varied cornices: at the lower end we have the Doric Order which is
followed successively by the Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite, all
richly decorated with balustrades, niches, and other fanciful ornaments,
which render it very graceful and beautiful."-Vasari.
"Vignola's great work is the palace of Caprarola.  The plan is
unique, or nearly so, being a pentagon, enclosing a circular court. Each
of the five sides measures I30 feet on plan, and the court is 65 feet in
diameter, while the three stories are each about 30 feet in height, so
that its dimensions are very considerable, and certainly quite sufficiently
so for palatial purposes. The object of adopting the form here used,
was to give it a fortified or castellated appearance, as all citadels of that
age were pentagons, and this palace is accordingly furnished with small
sham bastions at each angle, which are supposed to suggest that idea of defensibility. Above the terrace formed by these bastions and their curtains,
the palace rises in two grand stories of " Orders," the lower arcaded in
the centre, the upper including the stories of windows. This last is
certainly a defect, but in spite of this, the whole is so well designed, the
angles are so bold, and the details are so elegant, that it is one of the
finest palaces in Italy, and we may admire the ingenuity of the archi




70                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
tect the more, because the pentagonal form is singularly unfavourable to
architectural effect externally, or to commodious arrangements inside,
and the site also is such that from most points it looks too high for its
other dimensions. But all these defects have been overcome in a manner that makes us regret that its architect was not more employed on the
great works of his day. "-Fergusson.
There is the most overwhelming sense of strength and
imperviousness to time in the huge rock-like bastions upon
which the palace stands. As it has five sides, from every
view  of it you have an  angle, and  the effect is very
singular.  When you ascend the balustraded terraces and
cross the bridge you are admitted to an open circular court,
whence a magnificent staircase, a cordonia, leads to the upper
chambers, decorated by the three brothers Zuccheri, by
Tempesta, and Vignola, with pictures chiefly relating to the
power and importance of the Farneses, uninteresting perhaps
elsewhere, but here, where all is suggestive of them, most
striking and curious.  In the great hall are a fountain and a
grotto, like those in the Villa d'Este at Tivoli, yet roofed in
and not too large in this vast chamber.  96,000 lbs. of
lead, comprising the works of this and many other fountains,
were sold in the last century by a dishonest steward, who
also took advantage of the constant absence of the owners
to make away with all the  old furniture and tapestries.
The walls of the hall have frescoes of the towns which
belonged to the Farneses:-Parma, Piacenza, Castro, Vignola, Scarpellino,  Capo-di-monte,  Canina,  Ronciglione,
Fabrica, Isola, and Caprarola; no wonder they were rich!
The chapel has windows of ancient stained glass, and between
them frescoes of the apostles, with S. Gregory, S. Stephen,
and S. Laurence.  The design of the elaborate ceiling is
curiously repeated in the pavement.  The next hall is all




FRESCOES OF CAPRAROLA.                                    71
Farnese history. The marriage of Orazio Farnese is represented (1652) with Diana, daughter of Henry II. of France,"
and that of Ottavio, with a daughter of Charles V.+   Pietro
and Raniero Farnese are made captains-general of the
Florentines.   Then   Alessandro  and  Ottavio   Farnese  are
seen accompanying Charles V. on a campaign against the
Lutherans; and the three Zuccheri carrying a canopy over
Charles V., who is riding  with  Francis  I. on  one  side, and
Cardinal Farnese  on  the  other.   Paul III., who took such
unbounded care of his family, is shown appointing Pietro
Farnese commander of the Papal army,+  and  Orazio
governor  of  Rome.~    Ranutio  Farnese  is  receiving  the
golden  rose  from   his uncle.   And  there  are  many  scenes
from  the life of the great Pope himself; how  he presided  at
the Council of Trent; how he made peace between Francis
I. and Charles V.; and how Charles kissed his feet on his
return from Africa; how he gave the lucky hat to four cardinals who afterwards all became popes.  We see one of these
again, Julius  II., when  he  is receiving  the  city  of Parma
* In this picture, besides the portraits of D-iana and Orazio, there are those of
Queen Catherine de' Medici; of Margaret the King's sister; of the King of
Navarre; the Constable; the Dukes of Guise and Nemours; the Prince de Conde,
Admiral of France; and the younger Cardinal of Lorraine; with those of another
Guise who had not then been made a Cardinal; of the Signor Piero Strozzi; of
Madame de Montpensier; and of Mademoiselle de Rohan.
t In the centre is Pope Paul III. The picture also contains portraits of Cardinal
Farnese the younger; Cardinal di Carpi; the Duke Pier Luigi; Messer Durante;
Eurialo da Cingoli; Giovanni Riccio of Montepulciano: the Bishop of Como; the
Signora Livia Colonna; Claudia Mancina; Settimia; and Donna Maria de Mendoza.
I Here are portraits of the Pope; Pier Luigi Farnese; the Chamberlain; the
Duke Ottavio; Orazio, Cardinal of Capua; Simonetta; Jacobaccio; San Jacopo;
Ferrara; the Signor Ranuccio Farnese, who was then a youth; Giovio; Molza, and
Marcello Cervini, who was afterwards Pope; the Marquis of Marignano; the Signor
Giovan Battista Castaldo; Alessandro Vitelli; and the Signor Giovan Battista Savelli.
~ Here also are numerous portraits, including the Cardinal Jean Belley, Archbishop of Paris; with Visco, Morone, Badia Sfondrato, Ardinghelli, and Christofano
Madruzio, the prince-bishop of Trent.




72               DA Y.S NEAR ROME.
from Ottavio and Alessandro, the kneeling nephews of his
predecessor, and restoring it to them. There is also a portrait of Henry II. of France,-" conservator familiae Farnesize." All these pictures are described at the utmost length
by Vasari.  Many other rooms are very interesting,-the
private study and bed-room of the Cardinal with his secret
staircase for escape; the room covered with huge maps like
the gallery at the Vatican, and with the wonderful fresco of
the " Maura," for which I2,000 scudi have been refused; the
room with the frescoes of the appearances of S. Michael the
Archangel to Gregory the Great at Rome, and to the shepherds of Monte Gargano; and then all the family are represented again and again, and their attendants, down to the
dwarfs, who are painted as if they were just coming in at
imaginary doorways.
Are we really in Arcadia, when the old steward opens the
door from the dark halls where the Titanic forms of the
frescoed figures loom upon us through the gloom, to the
garden where brilliant sunshine is lighting up long grass
walks between clipped hedges, adding to the splendour of
the flame-coloured marigolds upon the old walls, and even
gilding the edges of the dark spires of the cypresses which
were planted three hundred years ago?  From the upper
terraces we enter an ancient wood, carpetted with flowersyellow orchis, iris, lilies, saxifrage, cyclamen, and Solomon's
seal.  And then we pause, for at the end of the avenue we
meet with a huge figure of Silence, with his finger on his lips.
Here an artificial cascade tumbles sparkling down the middle of the hill-side path, through a succession of stone basons,
and between a number of stone animals, who are sprinkled
with its spray, and so we reach an upper garden before the




GARDENS OF CAPRAROLA.                 73
fairy-like casino which was also built by Vignola. Here the
turfy solitudes are encircled with a concourse of stone
figures, in every variety of attitude, a perfect population.
Some are standing quietly gazing down upon us, others are
playing upon different musical instruments, others are
listening. Two Dryads are whispering important secrets to
one another in a corner; one impertinent Faun is blowing
his horn so loudly into his companion's ears, that he stops
them with both his hands. A nymph is about to step down
from her pedestal, and will probably take a bath as soon as
we are gone, though certainly she need not be shy about it,
as drapery is not much the fashion in these sylvan gardens.
Above, behind the Casino, is yet another water-sparkling
staircase guarded by a vast number of huge lions and griffins,
and beyond this all is tangled wood, and rocky mountainside.  How we pity the poor King and Queen of Naples,
the actual possessors, but who can never come here now.
The whole place is like a dream which you wish may never
end, and as one gazes through the stony crowd across the
green glades to the rosy-hued mountains, one dreads the
return to a world, where Fauns and Dryads are still supposed to be mythical, and which has never known Caprarola.




CHAPTER XXIV.
VITERBO AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.
O    N  descending the Ciminian Hill towards Viterbo, one
overlooks the great plain of Etruria, once crowded with
populous cities, now deserted and desolate. It is a deeply
interesting historical view, second only to that on the other
side of the hill.
" With what pride must an Etruscan have regarded this scene two
thousand five hundred years since. The numerous cities in the plain
were so many trophies of the power and civilization of his nation. There
stood Volsinii, renowned for her wealth and arts, on the shores of her
crater-lake-there Tuscania reared her towers in the west-there Vulci
shone out from the plain, and Cosa from  the mountain-and there
Tarquinii, chief of all, asserted her metropolitan supremacy from her
cliff-bound heights. Nearer still, his eye must have rested on city after
city, some in the plain, and others at the foot of the slope beneath him;
while the mountains in the horizon must have carried his thoughts to the
glories of Clusium, Perusia, Cortona, Vetulonia, Volaterrae, and other
cities of the great Etruscan Confederation. How changed is now the
scene! Save Tuscania, which still retains her site, all within view are
now desolate. Tarquinii has left scarce a vestige of her greatness on the
grass-grown heights she once occupied; the very site of Volsinii is forgotten; silence has long reigned in the crumbling theatre of Ferentum;
the plough yearly furrows the bosom of Vulci; the fox, the owl, and the
bat, are the sole tenants of the vaults within the ruined walls of Cosa;
and of the rest, the greater part have neither building, habitant, nor
name-nothing but the sepulchres around them to prove they ever had
an existence."-Dennis' " Cities of Etruria."
The sun was setting as we drove down the long descent




VITERBO.                       75
of the Ciminian forest, and entered Viterbo, and over the
gate the great figure of Santa Rosa holding her crucifix stood
out stern and grey against the opal sky. Viterbo, which the
old chroniclers called "the city of beautiful fountains and
beautiful women," is now rightly known as "the Nuremberg
of Italy."  Every street is a study.  Such wonderful old
houses, with  sculptured  cornices, Gothic windows, and
heavy outside staircases resting on huge corbels! Such a
wealth of sparkling water playing around the grand Gothic
fountains, and washing the carved lions and other monsters
which adorn them! The great piazza is so curious, where
the houses are hung with stone shields of arms, where two
lions on tall pillars guard the way, and where stands the
Palazzo Publico, within whose court is such a fine view of
the city and the hills beyond. Here, round the little platform, are five Etruscan figures reclining upon their tombs
At Viterbo.
much like people looking out of their berths in a steamer.
In the palace above are preserved the forgeries by which




76                   DA YS NEAR ROME.
Fra Giovanni Nanni, commonly called Annio di Viterbo,
claimed for his native city an antiquity greater than that of
Troy, and a marble tablet, inscribed with a pretended edict
of Desiderius, the last of the Lombard kings, decreeing that
"within one wall shall be included the three towns, Longula,
Vetulonia, and Terrena, called Volturna, and that the whole
city thus formed shall be called Etruria or Viterbum.
On the opposite side of the piazza, raised high against the
wall of the church of S. A;zgelo in Spata, is the sarcophagus
tomb  of the  fair Galiana, whose  beauty  made  her the
cause of a war between Viterbo and the Romans, who only
consented to raise the siege of her native city, on condition
of her showing herself upon the battlements, and allowing
the besiegers once more to gaze upon her charms.  Her
epitaph says:"Flos honor patriae, species pulcherrima rerum,
Clauditur hic tumulo Galiana ornata venusto;
Foemina signa polos conscendere pulchra meretur
Angelicis manibus diva hic Galiana tenetur.
Si Veneri non posse mori natura dedisset,
Nec fragili Galiana mori mundo potuisset.
Roma dolet nimium; tristatur Thuscia tota;
Gloria nostra perit; sunt gaudia cuncta remota;
Miles et arma silent, nimio perculsa dolore.
Organa jam fidibus pereunt caritura canoris.
Anno milleno centeno terque deceno
Octonoque diem clausit dilecta Tonanti."
"Galianae Patritiae Viterbensi,
Cujus incomparabilem pulchritudinem
Insigni pudicitiae junctam
Sat fuit vidisse mortales,
Consules majestatis tantoe fceminae
Admiratione hoc honoris ac pietatis
Monumentum hieroglyphicum exsculp."
CIDCXXXVIII.




CATHEDRAL OF VITERBO.                    77
Though not so old as the mendacious Dominican, Nanni,
would make out, there is nothing new, and nothing small, in
Viterbo, whose very name, compounded of Vetus Urbs,
would indicate its antiquity. Every wall, every doorway,
every sculpture, is vast of its kind, and every design is noble.
Its ancient name would appear from inscriptions to have been
Surrina. The Cath/dral (of S. Lorenzo) stands in the lower
part of the town, on a rising ground, which was once occupied by a temple  of Hercules, and  which  was called
"Castellumn Herculis" as late as the thirteenth century.
Near it is a Bridge with Etruscan foundations in blocks of
six courses. The cathedral stands in a kind of close, and is
Cathedral of Viterbo.
almost surrounded by different fragments of the half-demolished Palace where the popes of the thirteenth century
resided. In the great hall which still exists, met the conclaves
at which Urban IV. (I261), Clement IV. (I264), Gregory X.
(1271), John XXI. (1276), Nicholas III. (I277), and Martin
IV. (I277), were elected.  The cardinl spent six months




78                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
over the election of the last pope, and made Charles of
Anjou, who was then at Viterbo, so impatient, that he took
away the roof of their council-chamber to force them to
a decision, and  they, in a kind  of bravado, dated theii
letters of that time from " the roofless palace." This councilhall is surrounded by memorials of all the popes who were
natives of Viterbo and its surrounding villages, or who lived
there. Adjoining it is another hall, still roofless, in which
Pope John XXI. (Pedro Juliani-a Portuguese) was killed
by the fall of the ceiling in 1277. This room is supported
by a single pillar, standing in the open space below, which
projects through the floor so as to form a fountain.
"John XXI. was a man of letters, and even of science; he had published some mathematical treatises which excited the astonishment and
therefore the suspicion of his age. He was a churchman of easy access,
conversed freely with humbler men, if men of letters, and was therefore
accused of lowering the dignity of the pontificate. He was perhaps
hasty and unguarded in his language, but he had a more inexpiable
fault. He had no love for monks or friars: it was supposed that he
meditated some severe coercive edicts on these brotherhoods. Hence
his death was foreshown by gloomy prodigies, and held either to be a
divine judgment, or a direct act of the Evil One. John XXI. was
contemplating with too great pride a noble chamber which he had built
in the palace at Viterbo, and burst out into laughter; at that instant
the avenging roof came down on his head. Two visions revealed to
different holy men the Evil One hewing down the supports, and so overwhelming the reprobate pontiff. He was said by others to have been,
at the moment of his death, in the act of writing a book full of the most
deadly heresies, or practising the arts of magic." -ilnalz's Hist. of
Latinz Christianity.
There is not much to see in the cathedral, beyond a
beautiful font, pictures of several of the native popes, and
the tomb of poor John XXI. close to the door. It is chiefly
interesting to Englishmen from the murder of Prince Henry
D'Almaine, son of Richard Earl of Cornwall and nephew of




PAPAL PALACE, VITERBO.                     79
Henry III.  He was returning from  the crusades with his
cousin Prince Edward, and was met here by Guy de Montfort, the hereditary enemy of his family, who stabbed him
while kneeling at the altar. The murderer was leaving the
church and boasting of his vengeance to his followers, when
one of them reminded him that his father, Simon de Montfort, had been dragged in the dust, upon which, returning to
the altar, and seizing the lifeless prince by the hair, he dragged him into the piazza.  The deed is commemorated by
Dante, who alludes to the fact that his sorrowing father exposed the heart of Prince Henry to public pity on London
Bridge, and who sees the murderer in the seventh circle of
hell, plunged in a river of boiling blood.
" Poco piu oltre il Centauro s'affisse
Sovra una gente, che fino alla gola
Parea che di quel bulicame uscisse.
Mostrocci un' ombra dall' un canto sola
Dicendo: Colui fesse in grembo a Dio
Lo cor che in su'1 Tamigi ancor si cola."
P1l'gatorio, xii.
Passing  through  the detached  Chapel of the  Holy
Sepulchre (beyond the council-chamber), which contains a
curious fresco portrait of our Saviour, we may emerge on a
terrace below the finest part of the papal palace, a lofty
wall pierced with Gothic windows and supported by flying
buttresses.
Quite at the other end of the town, close to the Tuscan gate,
stands the fine old castle called La Rocca, like all the towncastles in this part of Italy. In front of it is a beautiful fountain approached by many steps.  The neighbouring Church
of S. Francesco has an outside pulpit, whence S. Bernardino
of Siena used to address the people. It contains several




80                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
beautiful thirteenth-century tombs, especially that, resplendent with delicate sculpture and mosaic, of Pope Adrian V.,
Papal Palace, Vite
Papal Palace, Viterbo.
who was one of three popes elected within three years after
the death of the holy and wise Gregory X. He was Ottobuoni
Fieschi, nephew of Innocent IV.  He answered his relations
who came to congratulate him  on his election,-" Would
that ye came to a cardinal in good health and not to a dying
pope."  He was not crowned, consecrated, or even ordained
priest, and only lived long enough to choose his name and
to redeem  his native  Genoa from  interdict.'   On the
other side of the altar is another grand Gothic tomb, that
of Cardinal Landriano (1445), with angels drawing a curtain
over his sleeping figure. Opposite, is the solemn thoughtinspiring picture of " the Solitude of the Virgin," by Sebastian
del Piombo,-the Madonna watching the dead body of Christ
* See Milman's Hist. of Latin C/ristianity, vol. v. 94.




CHURCHES OF VITERBC.                        81
through the moonlit night. It is a grand subject, grandly
carried out, and should be seen in early morning, when alone
there is sufficient light in the church to illumine the barren
distances of the picture, and reveal figures otherwise unseen.
" The works of Sebastiano having been exalted to great, or rather
infinite, reputation by the praises lavished on them by Michael Angelo,
to say nothing of the fact that they were in themselves beautiful and
commendable, there was a certain Messer, I know not who, from
Viterbo, who stood high in favour with the Pope, and who commissioned
Sebastiano to paint a dead Christ, with our Lady weeping over him, for
a certain chapel which he had caused to be erected in the Church of S.
Francesco in Viterbo; but although the work was finished with infinite
care and zeal by Sebastiano, who executed a twilight landscape therein,
yet the invention was Michael Angelo's, and the cartoon was prepared
by his hand. The picture was esteemed a truly beautiful one by all
who beheld it, and acquired a great increase of reputation for Sebastiano."- Vasa;i.
"The figLrec of Christ, which has, apparently, been drawn from
nature, is nearly black; it is extended on a white winding-sheet, with
the shoulders raised, and the head drooping back, admirably drawn.
The difficulties of the position are completely surmounted. The Madonna, behind, clasping her hands in an agony of grief, strongly expresses the deep, passionate, overwhelming affliction of a mother, weeping for her child in a despair that knows no comfort. This is its charm;
there is nothing ideal, nothing beautiful, nothing elevated. She is
advanced in life; she is in poverty; she seems to belong to the lower
orders of women:-but, there is nature in it, true and unvitiated, though
common, and perhaps vulgar-nature, that speaks at once to every
heart."'-Eatoln's Rome.
Next to  S. Francesco, the most interesting church in
Viterbo is that of Sta. Maria della Veritd, outside one of the
gates. The interior was once painted all over with frescoes
of the rare master Lorenzo di Viterbo, who spent twenty-five
years upon the work, completing it in I469.  The church
was used as a hospital during the plague, after which it was
thought necessary to whitewash it all over, only a greatlyrevered figure of the Virgin and one or two saints being pieVOL. r1.                                          6




82                   DA YS NEAR ROME.
served in the body of the church.  But the chapel of the
Virgin was uninjured. It stands on the right of the nave,
from which it is separated by a curious screen of wroughtiron, and it is covered all over with frescoes from the story
of the Madonna.  In the picture of the Nativity, her figure,
kneeling  in  a  long  white  veil, is perfectly lovely.  The
oblong fresco of the Sposalizio, crowded with figures, is most
interesting, not only as a memorial of thirteenth-century art,
but of all the persons living in Viterbo at that time, as every
figure is a portrait.  Few  who visit the church will agree
with the following criticism, yet it is not without interest.
"The preservation of the name of Lorenzo is due to the vanity of a
citizen of Viterbo, Niccola della Tuccia, who having compiled a book of
the annals of his native place, could not resist the temptation of inserting a passage in it relative to himself.  He describes how Nardo Mazzatosta, having caused a chapel in S. Maria della Verita, outside Viterbo,
to be painted by Maestro Lorenzo di Pietro Paolo, that artist took him
for a model in his fresco of the Presentation in the Temple,'on the
26th of April, 1469.'
"On the walls of the chapel of Nardo Mazzatosta, the curious of our
day will see, in a lunette, the Procession of Mary and her parents to the
temple, with the Sposalizio in a lower course; in a second lunette, a
Virgin and angel annunciate with saints, and the Nativity below; in a
third, the Burial and Assumption of the Virgin; finally, in the ceiling,
the symbols of the evangelists, prophets, fathers of the Church, and confessors, the venerable Bede amongst them.
" Nothing can be more clear than the imitation of the manner and
conception of Piero della Francesca and Melozzo in the Presentation
and Sposalizio. Lorenzo not only designs with the examples of Piero in
his mind, he endeavours also to reproduce his architecture and perspective. In some portraits his realism is not without power; but vulgarity and affectation are striking. He is not correct as a draughtsman.
His colour is cold and dull.  His perspective is false, his forms rigid.
These features are, however, more striking in the Nativity than in the
Annunciation, which recalls Benozzo. Nor are the reminiscences of
that master confined to one subject.  They are produced with equal
force in the ceiling, in which a head like that of the venerable Bede
seems a caricature of the Florentine in tricky tone as well as in features




SANTA ROSA.                         83
"The initials of Lorenzo, and the date 1469, confirm the annals of
Niccola della Tuccia, but Lorenzo was busy in other parts of S. M. della
Verith, besides the chapel of Nardo Mazzatosta; and an Annunciation,
a Marriage of S. Catherine, and a Madonna giving suck to the infant
Saviour, all of them completed before 1455, betray the same rude hand,
and the influence of Gozzoli."-Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
In the Chiesa degli Osservanti del Paradiso is a replica by
Sebastian  del Piombo of his famous "flagellation" in the
church of S. Pietro in Montorio at Rome.  Here also is a
Nativity, attributed to Pinturicchio, but " the style is that of
Spagna's pupils, such as Jacopo da Norcia, or the Perugian
Orlandi who was assistant to Sinibaldo Ibi." * A lunette
on the outside of the church, representing the Virgin and
Child between S. Jerome and S. Francis, has been attributed, without reason, to Leonardo da Vinci-it is more probably the work of Lo Spagna.
No one should stay at Viterbo without going to visit the
Church of Sta. Rosa, to look upon the incorruptible patroness of the town.  There was no sign of her when we first
entered the church, where the people, in loud voices, were
singing "Benediction," but the service being over, we were
directed to ring a bell, when a wooden screen drew  up,
and a nun appeared behind a grille, pointing to a blackened
mummy by her side, in a golden shrine and crowned with
roses.  The dead face still wears a calm, rather touching,
expression. A number of country people had flocked to the
grille with us, most of whom knelt. We all received from
the nun a gift of a small piece of knotted cord-" Disciplina "which had been laid upon the holy body, and
roses were given to those especially favoured.
Santa Rosa was not a professed nun, but a member of the
* Crowe and Cavalcaselle, iii. 297.




84                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
Third Order of S. Francis. In the thirteenth century she
was as conspicuous for her eloquence as for her charity, and
for the extraordinary moral influence she exercised over the
people of Viterbo. She obtained her position as patroness
of the city rather through politics than piety.  By her fiery
addresses she excited  her fellow-citizens to  rise against
Frederic II. of Germany. They were defeated, and she was
driven into exile, but lived to return triumphantly when the
Emperor died, and after her death (May 8, 126I) she was
canonized by the Pope she had served, and invoked by the
party she had advocated.
"We paid a visit, at her own convent, to Santa Rosa, a very surprising woman.'Cowards die many times before their death,' but this
saint has died once since hers.
"She originally died, it seems, in the thirteenth century; but after
lying dead a few hundred years, she came to life one night when her
chapel was on fire, got up and rang the bell to give notice of it, and
then quietly laid down and died again, without anybody knowing anything
of the matter. The chapel, however, was burnt down, though she had got
out of her grave and rung the bell to prevent it; all her fine clothes, too,
were burned off her back, and her very ring was melted on her finger;
but she remained unconsumed, though her face and hands are as black
as a negro's. However, they say she was very fair four hundred years
ago, before she was singed, and that she never was embalmed even after
her first death, but was preserved solely in the odour of sanctity. This
remarkable saint began, with praiseworthy industry, to work miracles as
soon as she was born, by raising a child from the dead, while she was
yet a baby herself; and miracles she still continues to perform every day
-as the nun who exhibited her informed me. On inquiring what kind
of miracles they were, I was informed that she cures all sorts of diseases,
heals sores, and even re-establishes some lame legs; but she does not, by
any means, always choose to do it, thinking it proper that the infirmities
of many should continue. I have no doubt that the nun, who related
her history to me, really and truly believes in it all. She knelt before
the saint in silent devotion first, and then gave me a bit of cord, the use
of which perplexed me much; and while I was turning it round and
round in my fingers, and wondering what she expected me to do with it,




S. CA TERINAA, VITERBO.                    85
a troop of dirty beggars burst into the church, together with some better
dressed, but scarcely less dirty people; and the whole company, having
adored the saint, received from the nun, every one, bits of cord like
mine. I inquired the use of them, and was told they had been round
the body of the saint, where they had acquired such virtues, that, tied
round any other body, they would save it from'molte disgrazie.'"Eaton's Rome.
Another convent, S. Caterina, is interesting from its connection with the beautiful Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of
Pescara, who retired here in 1541, prompted by the wish of
greater abstraction and retirement from worldly life. Here
she held her principal residence till the last year of her life
(1546), taking part in the education of the younger nuns.
Of the sonnets which she composed here, one may be given
as a specimen, and especially as showing her spirit of constant preparation for death.
" Would that a voice impressive might repeat,
In holiest accents to my inmost soul,
The name of Jests; and my words and works
Attest true faith in Him, and ardent hope;
The soul elect, which feels within itself
The seeds divine of this celestial love,
Hears, sees, attends on Jesus; Grace from Him
Illumes, expands, fires, purifies the mind;
The habit bright of thus invoking Him,
Exalts our nature so, that it appeals
Daily to Him for its immortal food.
In the last conflict with our ancient foe,
So dire to Nature, armed with Faith alone,
The heart, from usage long, on Him will call."
Translation by 7. S. Harford.
The streets of Viterbo are full of old palaces. Just above
the pleasant little hotel of La Americana, is that which was
built by Paul III. for his Legate. The old Palazzo Chigi
is very  curious.   The loggia is covered  with  frescoes.
Several of the chimney-pieces are magnificent, sculptured




86                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
with lilies in low relief. Some of the tapestry, with a beautiful frieze of "putti," is interesting as representing all the
fashionable amusements of its time. The tall tower is now
so ruinous, that its ascent, by a series of ladders, is almost
dangerous, but it has a splendid view. It is a resting-place
for innumerable pigeons, who do not belong to the inmates,
but are allowed a home here and provide for themselves.
The Palazzo San Martino, which Murray would lead
people to look for in Viterbo, is in reality four miles distant,
on the declivity of the Ciminian Hills, whence there is a
splendid view. It is well worth visiting on account of its
connection with Olympia Pamfili, the famous "papessa,"
sister-in-law of Innocent X. She was born at Viterbo in
I594, of the noble but ruined family of the Maidalchini, and
was destined by her parents for a convent, but insisted upon
marrying a Count Pamfili, nineteen years older than herself.
The attraction to this alliance was the fact that her husband
had a brother, over whom she obtained unbounded ascendancy, and who rose under her guidance to obtain a cardinal's
hat in I629, and the papal tiara in I644.  Her husband
being then dead, Donna Olympia took up her residence at
the Vatican, and employed the eleven years of her brotherin-law's life in the sale of benefices, appointments, and offices
of every description, for which she did not hesitate to drive
the hardest bargains possible.
" Olympia established herself in the Vatican as its mistress! No
step of domestic government or foreign policy decided on, no grace,
favour, or promotion accorded, no punishment inflicted, was the
pontiff's own work. His invaluable sister-in-law did all. He was
absolutely a puppet in her hands. The keys of S. Peter were strung to
her girdle; and the only function in which she probably never interfered, was blessing the people.
"One day a large medal was conveyed into the Pope's hands, on the




PALAZZO SAN MAR TINO.                      87
obverse of which was represented Olympia, with the pontifical tiara on
her head, and the keys in her hand: while the reverse showed Innocent
in a coif, with a spindle and distaff in his hands. Another day a report
was brought to him from England that a play had been represented
before Cromwell, called'The Marriage of the Pope;' in which Donna
Olympia is represented rejecting his addresses on account of his extreme
ugliness, till, having in vain offered her one of the keys to induce her to
consent, he attains his object at the cost of both of them. The Emperor
again had said to the Papal Nuncio,' Your Pope, my Lord, has an easy
time of it, with Madame Olympia to put him to sleep.'"- T. A. Trollope.
Innocent X. died Jan. 7th, I655, by which time Olympia
had amassed, besides vast estates, and an immense amount
of uncoined gold and precious stones, more than two millions of golden crowns. The succeeding Pope, Alexander
VII., demanded from  her an account of the State monies
which had passed through her hands, and restitution of the
valuables she had taken away from  the Vatican; but this
was never carried out, the pestilence which appeared in
Italy drew away the attention of every one, Olympia herself
was among its first victims, and her son Camillo, who had
been allowed to resign his cardinal's hat and released from
his Orders by Innocent, and married to the rich Princess
Rosano, succeeded to all her treasures, and founded the
great family  of the  Pamfili-Doria.  Many relics of their
wicked ancestress are still preserved in the palace of the
Dorias at San Martino, especially her portrait, and her bed
with its leather hangings.
There is another even more interesting palace in this
neighbourhood, that of Duke Lante at Bagnaja.  It is the
perfect ideal of a Roman villa. We leave Viterbo by the
Porta Romana, close to La Rocca, outside which there is a
public garden, crowded towards evening, like the Pincio,
with gaily-dressed ladies and cavalry-officers in their smart
tightly-fitting uniforms.




88               DA YS NEAR ROMSE.
A straight road, a mile in length, leads from the gate to the
famous sanctuary of La Quercia. In the square before it two
ancient fairs are held, which are of great antiquity, the first
founded in I240 by Frederick II., beginning on the 22nd of
September, and ending on the 6th of October; the second,
founded in 1513 by Leo X., beginning at Pentecost, and
lasting for the fifteen days following. The front of the great
church of La Madonna della Quercia, and its stately tower,
are splendid works of Brainante. Over the central door is
a fine representation of the Madonna surrounded by angels,
and over the side doors S. Joseph and S. Stephen, S.
Dominic and S. Peter Martyr, by Luca della Robbia.  The
monks of the adjoining convent are devoted to education,
and when we visited the church its vast aisles were peopled
with large groups of children, which the friars in their white
robes were teaching. The ceiling is gilt and very magniThe Well of la Quercia.
ficent, like that of Santa Maria Maggiore. Behind the altar,




LA  QUERCIA.                            89
in a kind  of recess, is preserved  the  famous  relic, the
Madonna which miraculously grew  out of an oak on that
spot.  The branch  of the  tree is preserved as evidence!
But the great charm  of the place  is its glorious Gothic
cloister and fountain, with the inscription, "He who drinketh
of this water shall thirst again, but he who drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst." It was in
this church that the Pere Lacordaire and the Pere Requedat
made their profession.  Alexandrine de la Ferronays thus
describes the scene to M. de Montalembert:"Les cloches sonnaient, l'orgue jouait triomphant dans cette belle
eglise..  Je m'&tais mis a genoux, baissant la tete.  En la relevant,
je vois pres de moi deux dominicains etendus la face contre terre:
c'etaient les freres Lacordaire et Requedat.  Ils se sont bientot releves
et ont ecoute, assis, le discours que leur a fait celui qui ce jour-la occupait la place du superieur.  Ce discours a ete excellent.  Il leur a parle
de ce que devait etre leur vie, obeissante et mortifiee; de tous les differents pays de la terre ou ils pouvaient etre appeles h aller; de ce qu'ils ne
devaient rien s'attribuer,-ce qui ne voulait pas dire qu'ils dussent ignorer
les talents qu'ils possedaient, lorsqu'ils en avaient, mais que, s'ils mourraient martyrs avant d'avoir pu faire autre chose, rien ne serait mieuxA ce mot, Pauline a vu un sourire de beatitude sur la figure de M.
Requedat.  Puis ils ont fait profession entre les mains du superieur, qui
les a tres-tendrement embrass6s.  Tout a ete bien vite fini, et on nous
a menes voir la madone miraculeuse conservee dans le chene."-Recit
d'une Saour.
Two miles further, a tall tower and a quaint castle guarding a little village announces Bagnaja.   The castle was the
old residence of the Lante family, and though neglected now
and let out to poor families, it still retains much that is
interesting in the interior. A steep street leads up to the
iron gate of the later villa, which admits one to a glorious
garden, designed by Vignola at the same time with the villa
itself.  It is a perfect paradise.  In the centre of the clipped




90                DA YS NEAR ROME.
box-walks is a large fountain with most beautiful Florentine
figures-and beyond it a silvery cascade glitters and dances
down through the green depths from a series of fern-fringed
grottoes. On either side stand the buildings of the villa, one
for the family, the other for the guests. They were begun
by Cardinal Riario, and finished by Cardinal Gambara. The
great hall has fine frescoes by the Zuccheri brothers, and the
real comfort and elegance of the rooms attest the frequent
presence of the present Duchess, who is of American birth.
Beyond the villa the walks are of indescribable beauty:
gigantic plane-trees; terraces, where crystal water is ever
sparkling through grey stone channels; mossy grottoes overhung with evergreens; woods of ancient ilexes, which have
never known the axe, and which cast the deepest shade in
the hottest summer weather; peacocks strutting up and
down the long avenues and spreading their tails to the sun;
and, here and there, openings towards the glorious mountain
distances or the old brown town in the hollow.
But the great object of our stay at Viterbo was to see the
Etruscan remains in its neighbourhood, to which three hardworked days must be devoted, for distance and difficulty
make it utterly impossible that any traveller can ever have
visited Castel d'Asso, Norchia, and Bieda, on the same day,
and gone on to Ronciglione, as is indicated in Murray's
Handbook.  It is best to make head-quarters at Viterbo, as
we did, and drive out each day, for though Vetralla is
nearer the scene of action at the two latter places, the inn,
a mere tavern, is so dirty and so perfectly miserable, we
should not advise any one to attempt it. Castel d'Asso is
only five miles from Viterbo, on the edge of the great plain
of Etruria, but the place is so little visited, and the track




CASTEL D'ASSO.                     91
across the fields so constantly changed, that it is most difficult to find. The description in Murray's Handbook, copied
from Sir William Gell, is most grandiloquent, saying that
" the cliffs of this and the four adjoining valleys are excavated
into a continued series of cavern-sepulchres of enormous
size, resembling nothing else in Europe, and only to be compared to the tombs of the kings of Thebes," and that
"nothing can be more grand or imposing than the ruined
fortress of Castel d'Asso from all parts of the valley." It is
perhaps only kindly, however, to warn our readers that the
highest of the individual tombs is only about ten feet high,
their usual height only six feet (though the cliff above occasionally rises to a height of from 25 to 30 feet, and is now
and then ornamented with a moulding near the top), so that
travellers may not be deterred from visiting Egypt by the
imputed resemblance of "the Bibar el Melek of Etruria."
While, as for the fortress, it is a small ordinary campagna
tower on the edge of the glen, with a few low, ruined walls.
Etruscan Tomb, Castel d'Asso.
As usual, on all subjects connected with Etruria, the most
correct account is that of Mrs Hamilton Gray, by whom
these valleys were first unlocked to the general English public,
and who made her way, hatchet in hand, through the brushwood from one memorial to another, encountering and sur



92                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
mounting difficulties, and countless natural obstacles, in a
way which none but those who have followed in her footsteps can appreciate. The place does not present any one of
the sublimities described in Murray's Handbook; it has not
any of the natural advantages of scenery which render most
of the Etruscan sites so attractive, but it is very curious,
and the careful antiquarian, and real lover of historical
detail, will not find it unworthy of a visit.  Mrs Gray considers Castel d'Asso to have been the site of the Fanum
Voltumne, which Dennis places at Montefiascone.
"The great interest of Castel d'Asso arises from its having been the
ancient Voltumna, the grand gathering place of all the Etruscan tribes,
where the national councils were held from the time of their first
establishment in Central Italy; frequented on every occasion by the
assembled nobles and their trains, by the rulers of each separate state,
and by the priests with all the pomp of their gorgeous and awful worship. There the national chief, or dictator, was elected; hence laws
were promulgated, and peace and war declared, not by one state only,
but by all Etruria, collected for her own internal government, or for defence against her foes; there all those solemn councils were held which
required the highest religious sanctions, and the universal national
consent-a plan of government under which the nation increased and
flourished for six centuries, until about fifty years before the building of
Rome.
" At the head of the glen is supposed to have stood the great temple in
the precincts of which the council assembled, and within which sacrifices
were made; and in its immediate vicinity were the rocks dedicated to
be the sepulchres of those whom Etruria honoured and mourned-the
high captains of the league, the high priests, the distinguished patriots,
noted orators, dreaded warriors, or beloved and wise kings; those, in
short, to whom the whole nation gave a grateful burial, and for whom
they wept."-Mrs Hamilton Gray's Sepulchres of Etruria.
The best time for a visit to Castel d'Asso is the winter; in
the summer, the tombs (such is their size!) are almost entirely concealed by the brushwood.  The so-called guides
at Viterbo are utterly ignorant, inefficient, and useless.




CASTEL D'ASSO.                         93
The road to Castel d'Asso descends into the great plain
of Etruria from the Porta Romana, and then turns to the
left, at the foot of the hills. It is an excellent carriage-road
as far as the hot suphureous baths of the Bulicame, mentioned
by Dante.
"Lo Bulicame che sempre si scema."
ljerlO;io, xii. I79.
"Tacendo divenimmo la've spiccia
Fuor della selva un picciol fiumicello,
Lo cui rossore ancor mi raccapriccia.
Quale del Bulicame esce'1 ruscello
Che parton poi tra lor le peccatrici; *
Tal per la rena gilt sen giva quello."
I/f xiv. 70.
Soon after leaving the Baths, the road becomes the merest
track in the wilderness, but can still be pursued in a carriage
with a careful driver. It is necessary to take almost all
turns to the left, and as far as possible to keep in sight the
tower of Castel d'Asso. At length one arrives upon the edge
of a very narrow side-gorge just opposite the ruin. Here
one must leave the carriage, tether the horse, and fight one's
way through the thick wild roses and honeysuckle into the
main glen.  Before we reach it, the tombs begin to appear
on the right of the way, and continue to follow the face of
the cliffs into the principal ravine, though, perhaps, small as
they appear, those at the entrance of the side glen are the
best specimens of the whole. The face of the cliffs is everywhere smoothed away by art, leaving the decorations of the
sepulchres in high relief. These decorations are of Egyptian
character, each tomb-front being marked by boldly-raised
mouldings which seem to denote the outline of a door, the
* See Blssi, Storia di Viterbo.




94                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
real entrance being deep below. Occasionally the mouldings are engraved with inscriptions, generally only the names
of those within, but occasionally with the addition of other
words, especially of Ecasu, which is sometimes interpreted,
"Rest in peace," sometimes " Adieu," though, as the learned
Orioli of Bologna says, "we really know nothing about it,
and our wisest plan is to confess our ignorance." There is
no variety in the sculpture. The low opening at the base of
the tombs admits to the interior, consisting generally of
two chambers.  All the tombs have been rifled, but are
strewn with broken pottery; brass arms and scarabei have
been found there.
"The doors of the tombs have been engraved high up on the rocks
in the Egyptian form, that is, smaller at the top than at the bottom, and
they have a broken and defaced, but perfectly visible, rock-cornice
above them. These rock-sepulchres joined one another in a continued
series; there was indeed fully a mile of them, thirty of which we
counted, and the castle valley is met by another towards its centre, and
directly opposite the ruin, in which we saw sepulchres in the cliffs on
both sides. They were like a street, the dwellings of which correspond
to each other.  We found beneath each engraved door, if I may use
such an expression, an open one, six or eight feet lower, which led into
the burial-chamber. It would appear that these cavern mouths had
formerly been covered up with earth, and that nothing remained aboveground but the smooth face of the rock, with its false Egyptian door and
narrow cornice. "-Seulchres of Etruria.
The difficulties of finding the way to the sepulchres of
Castel d'Asso are not to be compared to those of reaching
the famous temple-tombs of Norchia, which is about fourteen
miles from Viterbo. A carriage may be taken for about 21
miles beyond the picturesque mediaeval town of Vetralla,
which stands finely on an outlying spur of the Ciminian
Hills. Travellers occasionally pass the night there, but the




S. MARIA IN FORCASSI.               95
inn is most miserable, and it is much better to return to
Viterbo and to set out again in the early morning. The site
of the Forum Cassii, a station on the Via Cassia, is about a
mile from Vetralla, and is now marked by the church of
Santa Maria in Forcassi, called "Filicassi" by the natives.
The Etruscan sites of Norchia and Bieda are each about
four miles from Vetralla. The road to Norchia does not
lead one, as Murray says, over "bare moors," but through
a forest of brushwood; nor does the eye, when you arrive
there, "range along the face of the cliffs and trace a long
and almost unbroken line of tombs," for though a vast
number of tombs exist, they are at great intervals from one
another, and exceedingly difficult to discover.  We had
taken the guide who is generally recommended from Vetralla
to direct us to the temple-tombs, and at first, when we left
the carriage, he marched on so confidently, that we had faith
in his knowledge. After a long hot walk we reached a little
ruined Romanesque church, occupying the end of a promontory between two ravines, and marking the site of an ancient
village, called Orcle in the ninth century, a name which has
been supposed to come from Hercules, who was worshipped
by the Etruscans as Ercle. The church was ruined and the
village pulled down at a very early period, when the place
was utterly deserted on account of the malaria, and all the
inhabitants removed to Vitorchiano. To our dismay our socalled guide began to try to persuade us that the ruins of the
church were the famous Etruscan monument. He had been
here hundreds of times, he said, " this was where all travellers staid, here they held up their hands in admiration, here
they expatiated on the grandeurs of Etruria, all around were




96               DA YS NEAR ROME.
the scavi, the pozzi, of that ancient people; why were we
not satisfied?"
Despairing of our " guide," we engaged two contadini who
were at work in a corn-field and set out again, struggling
through the thick thorns and brambles on the hill-side,
sliding down the almost perpendicular banks of tufa, and
wading up to our waists in the high corn and grass, reeking
with wet below from late thunder-storms, though the sun
was pouring down upon us with full force, and the whole
valley steaming under its influence. Dismally enough for
ourselves we were so foolish as to follow the only indications which " Murray" gives, and which led us in every
direction but the right one. Each little tomb we came upon,
generally with the same external mouldings as those at
Castel d'Asso, our contadini persisted was the celebrated
monument, while the guide  aimlessly scrambled  about
amongst the bushes, and tried to mislead us by ecstasies
over imaginary discoveries, which often made us clamber
up after him, to find nothing whatever.
At last, when we actually found, in the valley to the right
of the church, a tomb on which two human heads were
sculptured, they would search no further. The contadini
declared that we must now have seen sufficient of these
freaks of nature (scherzi della natura), for such they persisted the sepulchres to be, and the guide now changed his
tone, and swore that though the temple-tomb had certainly
existed,-he had forgotten it at first, but remembered it
now perfectly-it had fallen down with a piece of the
rock years ago, and not a vestige -of it remained.  For
hours we searched, scrambling amid brambles and brushwood, tumbling over broken rocks, making our way over




BIEDA.                          97
streams by almost invisible stepping-stones, till at last, as,
though we had lost all faith in each of our companions, we
had still some lingering belief in the position indicated by
our guide-books, we began to think that the tomb must have
perished as the guide said, and, weary and disgusted, we retraced our steps to Vetralla.
Several hours of daylight still remained, so we left the
ladies of our party to rest in the carriage at Vetralla, with
an old blind musician seated on a chair by its side, playing
on the mandolin to a song, each refrain of which ended in
an invocation to " Il Dio Cupido," to soften the hearts of
the belle donne, and two of us set off again for Bieda,
taking donkeys, such donkeys, who alternately kicked, and
fought, and brayed, and ran away for the whole four miles
which separate the two villages, like so many demons.
Bieda is much more worth seeing than either Norchia or
Castel d'Asso; and though the Etruscan remains are exaggerated, the natural scenery of the place is most beautiful.
The road is only a stony, sandy track across rough uplands,
with occasional steps in the tufa.  After crossing a bridge,
it becomes a mere ledge in the face of the precipice, and
Bieda is seen hanging, eyrie-like, a nest of old worn houses
on the edge of the cliff, which is furrowed beneath with
ranges of rude sepulchres, for the most part mere caves and
devoid of ornament.  Deep below a little stream murmurs
through the ravine.  As the Etruscan city of Blera, this
place was of considerable importance, and though unapproached by any road, it continued to be so through the
middle ages.  Two Popes, Paschal II. and  Sabinianus,
were natives of Blera. The town has still an old gateway,
and there is a beautiful well with the arms of the great
VOL. it.                                      7




98                DA YS NEAR ROME.
extinct family of Anguillara in its little piazza. The church
was once a cathedral, and there were fourteen bishops of
Blera who also ruled over Civita Vecchia and Toscanella.
Over its west door is a little figure of the local saint, the
"Divus Viventius," who was a native of the place, where he
officiated first as priest and then as bishop. His shrine is
in the crypt (now entered by steps in front of the altar, but
once approached by two side staircases), which is supported,!,
Cathedral Well, Bieda.
by curious old fluted marble columns, apparently from a
pagan temple. In a side chapel is Annibale Caracci's fine
picture of the Flagellation, displaying wonderful power of
muscular drawing. In proof of the healthiness of Bieda, the
tomb is shown of " Joannes Samius," who died here in his
hundred and eighth year, having been parish-priest for
seventy-eight years. As we came out of the church, three little
children were sitting in the old Roman sarcophagus in the
portico, pretending it was a boat, and a number of countrypeople were collected round our donkeys, curious to see the
unwonted strangers, and forming the most picturesque groups
with their bright costumes. Several had brought coins and




BIEDA.                        99
curiosities of different kinds dug up in the neighbourhood,
in the hope of selling them.  Our arrival had made such
a sensation that it was declared to be quite impossible that
we could leave without visiting the great person of the place,
the Conte di San Giorgio-the very idea raised quite a
clamour, and to his palazzo our new friends accordingly accompanied us in triumph.  We found the young Count in
his garden, decorated with beautiful vases and aniphore,
found in his own scavi, and with all the shrubs clipped into
patterns after the fashion of this neighbourhood.  With the
purchase of the estates of Bieda, the family of San Giorgio
have acquired almost feudal rights in the place, but their
tenure obliges them to reside here at least six months of
every year, six months of exile from all civilized life, for it
was fifteen years, the Count said, since any strangers had
visited Bieda. He had occupied the time in making a small
museum of Etruscan curiosities found on the property. Opposite the Palazzo S. Giorgio, which is a mere country villa,
are the remains of the stately tower of the Anguillaras,
destroyed by the people three hundred years ago, and its
lord murdered, because he insisted on an old baronial
right which allowed him to forestall every bridegroom on his
estates.
A steep path, a mere cleft in the tufa, leads from the gate
near this tower, to a famous Etruscan bridge, the " Ponte del
Diavolo," built of huge blocks of tufa. The bridge is gone,
and only its three arches remain, formed of huge stones,
fastened together without cement. The whole is now overgrown with shrubs and most picturesquely overhung with
smilax and ivy.
"The central arch was a true semi-circle thirty feet in space. It has




Ioo                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
been split throughout its entire length, probably by an earthquake; the
blocks, being uncemented, have been much dislocated, but few have
fallen. It is clear that this split occurred at an early period; for in
crossing the bridge, passengers have been obliged to step clear of the
gaps, which in some parts yawn from one to two feet wide, and, by
treading in each other's footsteps, have worn holes far deeper than pious
knees have done in the steps at A' Becket's shrine, or in the Santa Scala
at Rome.  They have worn a hollow pathway almost through the
thick masses of rock, in some spots entirely through-a perpendicular
depth of more than three feet."-Dennis' Cities of Etruria.
The cliffs beyond the bridge rise to a great height, and the
valley is exceedingly beautiful.   The rock above a cave
close to the bridge is covered with bullet-marks, for by old
feudal custom, every inhabitant of Bieda on returning successful from the chase, is compelled to discharge his gun
against this rock, in order to warn his lord, the Conte di San
Giorgio, who then descends from the height to claim his
tithe of the boar's thigh. Without returning into the town,
one may follow  a path along the hollow  where there is
another old bridge. Here, beneath the houses, the cliff is
perfectly honey-combed with tombs, many of them  used
now as pig-sties or cattle-sheds.
"Here are rows of tombs, side by side, hollowed in the cliff, each
with its gaping doorway; here they are in terraces, one above the other,
united by flights of steps carved out of the rock; here are masses split
from the precipice above, and hewn into tombs, standing out like
isolated abodes-shaped, too, into the very forms of houses, with sloping roofs culminating to an apex, overhanging eaves at the gable, and a
massive central beam to support the rafters. The angle of the roof is
that still usual in Italian buildings-that angle, which being just sufficient to carry off the rain, is naturally suggested in a climate where snow
rarely lies a day. On entering any one of the tombs, the resemblance
is no less striking. The broad beam carved in relief along the ceilingthe rafters, also in relief, resting on it and sinking gently on either side
-the inner chamber in many, lighted by a window on each side of the
door in the partition-wall, all three of the same Egyptian form-the




LOST TOMBS OF NORCIlIA.                  IoI
triclinial arrangement of the rock-hewn benches, as though the dead, as
represented on their sarcophagi, were wont to recline at a banquetthese things are enough to convince one that in their sepulchres the
Etruscans, in many respects, imitated their habitations, and sought to
make their cemeteries as far as possible the counterparts of the cities
on the opposite heights."-Dennis.
We did not reach Viterbo on our return from  Bieda till
9 P. M. Very early next morning we received a visit from the
antiquity vendor of Viterbo, a most grandiloquent gentleman, who declared that he had himself made excavations,
and was enthusiastic as to having lately discovered some fine
sarcophagi-" mi sono detto, questi sono per l'Inghilterra,
cosi gli ho destinato." He produced a little bronze ornament from  a chandelier of the seventeenth century, an
amorino, and swore that it was " Cupido," the ancient god of
the Etruscans, upon whose image the warriors struck their
weapons when they went to battle, and he protested that
some scratches in the metal figure had been left by the
clashing of their swords. Nevertheless, as his report of their
continued existence coincided with our own opinion, we were
beguiled into believing him when he vowed that he knew
Norchia intimately, and that he had seen the temple-tombs
hundreds of times, and so, tired as we were, we actually ordered the carriage again, and retraced the long fatiguing drive to
Vetralla, and on to the copses of Norchia, taking him with us.
He roused our hopes by leading us, after we left the carriage,
exactly in the opposite direction to that in which we had
been the day before. After long wanderings, we reached
the bank of a river, which we had to wade through, and then
to follow more valleys in the tufa, half choked up with brushwood.  He, and all the natives, were fully convinced that we
had come to Norchia to look for a hidden treasure of which




102               DA YS NEAR ROME.
he fancied we had discovered the whereabouts.   "You
know,-of course you have read in  history,"  he  said,
"that the Etruscans, when they emigrated to England, took
with them  documents (pergamena), telling of an immense
treasure buried at Norchia, and at intervals ever since the
English have come, of course you know it, to seek for these
riches."  Hour after hour we wandered, vainly affirming that
the temple-tombs were all that we cared for, and when at
length in despair we insisted that we must be near the place,
the guide began-" Oh si, Signori, mi pare che deve essere
qui, o almeno deve essere qua," pointing in exactly opposite
directions, and-it turned out that he knew nothing whatever
about it, had never seen the temple-tombs in his life, had
not the faintest idea what they meant, and that all he had
said was a lie.  For hours we searched fruitlessly," sending
the so-called guide in other directions, till at length in one
of these excursions a shepherd encountered " questa spia," as
he called him, and returning with him  to us, declared that
he really knew of a " facciata sculta" in a distant valley,
and could find the way to it. All our hopes were renewed
by this intelligence, our fatigues melted away, and we set out
again, but it was a long round of six miles.
For the benefit of future travellers we may say that if they
turn to the right across both fields and woods from the
place where the carriage has to be left, they may eventually
arrive at the tombs; but the safest way would be (utterly disregarding Murray's direction as to its being at the "extremity"
of any valley at all), to make straight for the ruined church,
beneath which a number of valleys unite.  Looking hence
* We had not Dennis' Cities of Elruria with us, otherwise we might have found
the tomb by his admirable plan.




THE TEMPLE-TOMBS.                    103
(away from  the path already traversed), the tombs are
on the further side of the first collateral valley on the
right.
It was a triumphant moment, when, wearied, wet, footsore, torn with brambles, and covered with mud, we first
came in sight of the famous sepulchres. A featureless glen,
smaller than the others, had opened from one of the main
valleys; banks covered alternately with fragments of rock,
and shrubs of wild pear and cistus, sloped up on either side
to the low ranges of tufa rock which separated it from the
flat plain around, and here, on turning a corner, we saw two
sculptured Doric sepulchres, which recalled the monuments
of Petra in extreme miniature.  It is, as it were, a double
tomb, with two massive projecting entablatures, but one encroaches on the other which is cut away to receive it, so
that they are evidently not of the same date.  Both are
much alike, and have been covered with sculptures in the
boldest relief. Half of one of the pediments has fallen
down, but on the tomb and a half which remain, though
much worn by time, the forms of warriors are distinctly
visible. One figure seems to have fallen and others are
fighting over him; a winged genius is also discernible; and
there are remnants of colour over the whole, the groundwork apparently red.  The pediments end on either side in
a volute, within which is a gorgon's head. There are traces
of pillars having once supported the heavy entablatures. On
the mass of tufa below the pediments are traces of more
figures, probably once painted, with the armour in low relief. All archaeologists are agreed that both architecture
and sculpture are imitations of the Greek. Orioli attributes
the monuments to the fourth or fifth century of Rome. The




104               DA YS NEAR ROME.
interiors of the tombs are quite devoid of ornament, mere
chambers hewn in the tufa.
Temple-Tombs, Norchia.
Mutilated and ruined as they are, the massive sculptures
of the temple-tombs will ever make them one of the most
interesting of Etruscan remains, and in connection with
their lost history, and their lost language, it is impossible to
look upon them without the deepest interest. We, however,
were unable to linger long on the rugged slopes before their
portals;-night was fast closing in, and it was so late before
we reached Viterbo, that we met people coming out with
lights to look for us, when we were two miles from the town.
Eight miles from Vetralla on the Via Cassia in the direction of Sutri is Capranica, an Etruscan site, but of little
interest.




CHAPTER XXV.
MONTEFIASCONE, BOLSENA, AND ORVIETO.
(Orvieto is now most easily reached from Rome by railway (in 3A
hours ) as it has a station-at the foot of the hill on which the town is
situated-on the line from Orte to Siena. But those who have time
will not regret the longer excursion by Viterbo and Bolsena. There is a
diligence to Viterbo from Orte, and thence carriages may be taken for
the rest of the excursion.)
I T is an interesting drive across the great Etruscan plain
from Viterbo to Montefiascone. On the left of the road,
five miles from  Viterbo, are the ruins called le Casacce del
Bacucco, consisting of baths and other buildings of imperial
date. The largest ruin is now popularly called La Lettighetta,
or the warming-pan.   Considerably to the east of this,
stranded in the wide plain, are the ruins, still called Ferento,
of the Etruscan city Ferentinum, which Horace alludes to,
when he says:"Si te grata quies et primam somnus in horam
Delectat; si te pulvis strepitusque rotarum,
Si laedit caupona; Ferentinum ire jubebo."
I Epist. 17.
From this it appears to have been a quiet country town,
but Suetonius speaks of it as the birth-place of the Emperor
Otho, and Tacitus as the site of a temple of Fortune.  It




jo6                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
continued to exist in mediaeval times, and was the site of an
episcopal see, but was utterly destroyed in the eleventh
century by the people of Viterbo, because its citizens had
committed the heresy of representing the figure of Christ
upon the cross with the eyes open instead of shut!
In the area of the town, mediaeval remains are mingled
with early Roman foundations and  polygonal blocks of
basaltic pavement. The principal ruin is the Theatre, which
is finely placed on the edge of a ravine. It has seven gates,
and the stage-front is a hundred and thirty-six feet in length,
built of large rectangular volcanic blocks without cement.
" Ferentum, though small, and probably at no time of political importance, was celebrated for the beauty of its public monuments.
Vitruvius cites them as exhibiting'the infinite virtues' of a stone hewn
from certain quarries, called'Anitianae,' in the territory of Tarquinii,
and especially in the neighbourhood of the Volsinian Lake. This stone,
he says, was similar to that of the Alban Mount in colour, i.e., it was
grey like peperino; it was proof alike against the severity of frost
and the action of fire, and of extreme hardness and durability, as might
be seen from the monuments of Ferentum, which were made of it.'For there are noble statues of wonderful workmanship, and likewise
figures of smaller size, together with foliage and acanthi, delicately
carved, which albeit they be ancient, appear as fresh as if they were but
just now finished.' The brass-founders, he adds, find this stone most
useful for moulds.' Were these quarries near the city, it would be well
to construct everything of this stone.' Pliny speaks of this stone in the
same laudatory terms, but calls it a white silex."-Dennis' Cities of
Etruria.
About four miles east of Ferento, by a path very difficult
to find, is Vitorchiano, a village on an Etruscan site, which
still possesses the curious privilege of having the monopoly
of supplying the servants of the Roman senators. It is said
that this was granted when a native of the place successfully
extracted a thorn from the foot of one of the emperors.
Every forty years the principal families draw lots for their




MONTEFIASCONE.                        107
order of service, each sending one of its members, or selling
the privilege at a price which is fixed by custom.
Still further east, 12 miles from Viterbo, by the direct
road, is Bomarzo.   Two miles from  the modern village,
which has an old castle of the Borghese, is the site of an
Etruscan town, supposed to be Mceonia.  There are few
remains above-ground, but several interesting tombs. One,
with a single pillar in its centre, is known as the Grotta della
Colonna.  Near it is the Grotta Dipinta, decorated with
very curious frescoes of Dolphins and other monsters, some
of them with semi-human faces. The temple-shaped sarcophagus, adorned with snakes, now in the British Museum,
was found in this tomb.
As we continue the road to Montefiascone, the town is exceedingly effective from a distance, cresting a hill, and
crowned by the handsome dome of a cathedral, designed by
San  Michele and  dedicated  to S. Margaret.   The hill,
always celebrated for its wine, probably derives thence its
name,-fiascone signifying a large flask. Dennis considers
that it occupies either the site of the Etruscan city CEnarea,
or that of the Fanum Voltumnae, the shrine where the princes
of Etruria met in council on the affairs of the confederation.
No Etruscan remains however exist except a few caverned
tombs, now turned into the hovels of the miserable living
inhabitants.
"Well may this height have been chosen as the site of the national
tempIle! It commands a magnificent and truly Etruscan panorama.
The lake (of Bolsena) shines beneath in all its breadth and beauty-truly
meriting the title of'the great lake of Italy;' and though the towers and
palaces of Volsinii have long ceased to sparkle on its bosom, it still
mirrors the white cliffs of its twin islets, and the distant snow-peaks of
Amiata and Cetona. In every other direction is one'intermingled




108                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
pomp of vale and hill.' In the east rise the dark mountains of Umbria;
and the long line of mist at their foot marks the course of' the Etruscan
stream'-'The noble river
That rolls by the towers of Rome.'
The giant Apennines of Sabina loom afar off, dim through the hazy
noon; and the nearer Ciminian, dark with its once dread forests,
stretches its triple-crested mass across the southern horizon. Fertile
and populous was the country, numerous and potent the cities, that lay
beneath the confederate princes as they sate here in council; and many
an eye in the wide plain would turn hitherward as to the ark of national
safety. The warriors gathering at the sacred lake in defence of their
children's homes and fathers' sepulchres, would look to the great goddess for succour, the augur on the distant arx of Tarquinii or Cosa,
would turn to her shrine for a propitious omen,-the husbandman
would lift his eye from the furrow, and invoke her blessing on his
labours,-and the mariner on the bosom of the far-off Tyrrhene, would
catch the white gleam of her temple, and breathe a prayer for safety and
success."-Dennis' Cities of Etruria.
Outside the Roman gate of the town, near the pleasant
little inn of the Aquila Nera, at which the vetturini halt, is
the principal sight of the place, the wonderful old Church of
S. Flaviano, which dates from the eleventh century, but was
restored by Urban IV. in I262.  It is a most curious building, and highly picturesque outside, with a broad balconied
loggia over a triple entrance. Within, it is quite one of the
most remarkable churches in Italy, by no means " subterranean," as Murray says, nor has it even a crypt, but the
triforium is of such breadth, that it almost forms a second
church, and contains a second high-altar, and a bishop's
throne, approached by staircases on either side of the highaltar which covers the remains of S. Flaviano in the lower
church.  The pillars are most extraordinary, of enormous
size, and with magnificent and very curious capitals sculptured with intricate patterns. Some of the side chapels are




S. FLA; IA NO, MON TEFIASCONE.          0og
almost in ruins. The whole building was once covered with
frescoes, which are now only visible where a white-wash coating has been removed. In a chapel on the left of the
I                   a:a
S. Flaviano, Montefiascone.
entrance they are more perfect, and exquisite specimens of
Umbrian Art. The chief subject is the Massacre of the Innocents; a beautiful head, probably of the unknown artist, is
introduced in the frieze. In the centre of the ceiling is Our
Saviour surrounded by Angels.
An incised grave-stone before the high-altar representing
a bishop with a goblet on either side of his head, is interesting as that of Bishop Johann Fugger, one of the
famous family who burnt the proofs of the debts of Charles
V., and lived in princely splendour in the old palace at
Augsburg, now known as the " Drei Mohren."  The bishop
loved good wine beyond everything, and travelled over all
distant lands in search of it. He was so afraid of the price




I Io              DAYS NEAR ROME.
rising on his advent, that he sent on his valet before, bidding him taste the wine at the places he came to, and if he
found it good to send back the word " Est."  The valet
came to Montefiascone and found the wine so absolutely enchanting, that he wrote the sign three times-" Est, Est, Est."
The bishop arrived and drank so much, that he died
that night, desiring with his last breath, that a barrel of wine
might annually be upset upon his grave, so that his body
might still sop in the delicious fluid, and bequeathing a
large sum of money to Montefiascone on this condition.
The bishop's wishes were carried out annually till a few years
ago, but the price of the cask of wine is now applied to
charities. On the bishop's grave is the epitaph placed by
the valet.
"Est, Est, Est
Propter nimium est,
Joannes de Foucris
Dominus meus
Mortuus est."
From  the hill above  Montefiascone we look  down
over the lake of Bolsena, which we have already made
acquaintance with from the top of Soracte. It is more than
twenty-six miles round, and encircled by low hills. Two
rocky islets break the expanse of water; on the larger,
Bisentinza, is an interesting church built by the Farnesi to
commemorate the miraculous escape of Sta. Christina from
drowning: in the smaller island, Martana, may be seen the
staircase which led to the bath where the Gothic Queen
Amalasontha was strangled by her cousin Theodatus. The
lake is full of fish, especially eels: Pope Martin IV. died
from eating too many of them:




BOLSENA.                          I I
"E quella faccia
Di la da lui, piu che Ie altre trapunta,
Ebbe la santa chiesa in le sue braccia
Dal Torso fu, e purga per digiuno
Le anguille di Bolsena e la vernaccia.
Plrgat. xxiv.
" The lake is surrounded with white rocks, and stored with fish and
wild-fowl. The younger Pliny (Ep. xi. 95) celebrates two woody islands
that floated on its waters: if a fable, how credulous the ancients! if a
fact, how careless the moderns! yet, since Pliny, the islands may have
been fixed by new and gradual accessions."-Gibbon, v. I28.
As we approach Bolsena the valley is hemmed in to our
right by curious basaltic rocks, formed by rows of columns
closely imbedded together, as at the Giant's Causeway, and
at Dunstanborough in  Northumberland.   Since railways
have diverted the traffic, there has been absolutely no inn in
Street Scene, Bolsena
the little town of Bolsena, though artists may obtain lodgings
there. They will find plenty of work in its old streets, full
of beautiful doorways, and charming subjects of vine-covered




112                DAYS NEAR ROME.
loggias before the old houses, with views of the blue lake
beneath the twining branches.
Outside the northern gate is a sort of little piazza, round
which are ranged some altars and capitals of columns, relics
of the city of Volsinii, which the Romans built on the site
of the earlier Etruscan city of Volsinium, celebrated in the
pages of Livy. Sejanus, the favourite of Tiberius, was born
at Volsinii.
Bolsena.
That which alone saves Bolsena now from sinking into utter
insignificance, is the fame of Sta. Christina, for though her
legend is rejected by the authorities of the Roman Catholic
Church, her fame continues to be great through the whole
of central Italy, and as the little town of Tiro, where she was
born, on the shore of the lake, has been swallowed up by its
waters, the pilgrimages in her honour are all now devoted to
Bolsena, where she is buried.
" Her legend, as given in the Perfetto Legendario, represents her as the




BOLSENA.                           I13
daughter of Urbanus, a Roman patrician, and governor of the city. He
was an idolater, but his daughter, who had been early converted to the
faith of Christ, called herself therefore Christina.'One day, as she
stood at her window, she saw many poor and sick, who begged alms,
and she had nothing to give them. But suddenly she remembered that
her father had many idols of gold and silver; and, being filled with the
holy zeal of piety and charity, she took these false gods and broke them
in pieces, and divided them amongst the poor. When her father returned
and beheld what had been done, no words could express his rage and
fury! He ordered his servants to seize her and beat her with rods, and
throw her into a dark dungeon; but the angels of heaven visited and
comforted her, and healed her wounds. Then her father, seeing that
torments did not prevail, ordered them to tie a mill-stone round her
neck, and throw her into the lake of Bolsena; but the angels still
watched over her; they sustained the stone, so that she did not sink,
but floated on the surface of the lake; and the Lord, who beheld from
heaven all that this glorious virgin had suffered for His sake, sent an
angel to clothe her in a white garment, and to conduct her safe to land.
Then her father, utterly astonished, struck his forehead and exclaimed,
"' What meaneth this witchcraft?"  And he ordered that they should
light a fiery furnace and throw her in; but she remained there five days
unharmed, singing the praises of God. Then he ordered that her head
should be shaved, and that she should be dragged to the temple of
Apollo to sacrifice; but no sooner had she looked upon the idol, than
it fell down before her. When her father saw this his terror was so
great that he gave up the ghost.
"'But the patrician Julian, who succeeded him as governor, was not
less barbarous, for, hearing that Christina in her prison sang perpetually
the praises of God, he ordered her tongue to be cut out, but she only
sang more sweetly than ever, and uttered her thanksgivings aloud, to
the wonder of all who heard her. Then he shut her up in a dungeon
with serpents and venomous reptiles; but they became in her presence
harmless as doves. So, being well-nigh in despair, this perverse pagan
caused her to be bound to a post, and ordered his soldiers to shoot her
with arrows till she died. Thus she at length received the hardly-earned
crown of martyrdom; and the angels, full of joy and wonder at such
invincible fortitude, bore her pure spirit into heaven.' " —amesoa's
Legendary Art.
The beautiful Church of Sta. Christina stands near the
Roman gate.  In front of it is a splendid sarcophagus, with
VOL. II. 




114                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
Bacchic bas-reliefs.  The doors have ornaments by Luca
della Robbia. Inside, is the shrine of the saint, with three
scenes from her prolonged martyrdom,-the cutting off of
her breasts, her being roasted in a furnace, and her being
shot with arrows.
A dark chapel on the left is famous as the scene of the
Miracle of Bolsena, pourtrayed by Raphael on the Walls of
the Stanze, when, to convert an unbelieving priest, the consecrated wafer bled at the moment of elevation.  The institution of the festival of Corpus Domini by Urban IV. is
often attributed to this story, but really resulted from the
visions of Julienne, abbess of Mont Cornillon near Liege.
The miracle of Bolsena has however a still greater memorial
in the Cathedral of Orvieto.
"The story of the miracle of Bolsena presents one of the most singular examples of the acceptance, and intensely-felt influences in the popular mind, of the miraculous, admitted without any such proofs or
investigations as modern intellect would demand. And the two versions
of the same story are essentially different. A German priest, troubled
in conscience for having doubted, not (it seems) the doctrine of a real,
but of a carnal Presence, in the Eucharist, set out for Rome, with the
hope of securing the intercession of the chief Apostle, for the solving of
his doubts or pardoning of his errors.  Resting one day on the shores of
the beautiful lake of Bolsena, he celebrated mass in the church of Sta.
Christina; and after the consecration, whilst holding the sacred Host
in his hands, with mind earnestly bent, as was natural, on the mysterious question that had led him to undertake his pilgrimage, beheld
blood issuing from the consecrated species, and staining the linen corporal; each stain severally assuming the form of a human head, with
features like the'Volto Santo,' or supposed portrait of the Saviour!
Such is one version; but different indeed are even leading details in the
other-namely, that the priest merely let fall some drops of consecrated
wine on the corporals, and when endeavouring to conceal this by folding
up the linen, found that the liquid had passed through all the folds,
leaving on each a red stain, in circular form like the Host! The rest
of the story is given without discrepancies, and is perfectly credible.
Too much awe-stricken to consume the elements, that priest, now for




BOLSEXA.                           I5
ever cured of scepticism, reverentially reserved both those sacramental
species; proceeded to Orvieto, and threw himself at the feet of the
Pope, confessing his doubts, and narrating the miracle. Urban IV. immediately sent the Bishop of Orvieto to bring thither the Host and the
corporals; and himself, with all the local clergy, went in procession to
meet the returning prelate, at a bridge some miles distant, where he received the sacred deposit from his hands. It was soon afterwards, in 1264,
that Urban IV. published at Orvieto the bull instituting the Corpus
Domini festival, and commissioned S. Thomas Aquinas, who was then,giving theological lectures in that city, to compose the office and hymns
for the day. "-Heman's Hist. of Medicval Christianity.
Three stones "insanguinati" are enclosed in the altar,
and  beneath  it is another relic, the  stone  which  was
tied to the feet of Sta. Christina, that she might sink in
the lake, but which miraculously bore her up like a boat,
and on which her holy foot-marks may still be seen. In the
sacristy is a predella telling the story of S. George.
Castle Gate, Bolsena.
We were amused by the curious sense of proprietorship
manifested by the little children who surrounded us while




116              DA YS NEAR ROME.
we were drawing at Bolsena.  " You think that those roses
in your hand are beautiful, don't you? " said one little child
of six years old to another; " you should see the roses in my
vigna."
" Ah, tu hai una vigna!" exclaimed the little listener with
wide jealous eyes.
"Oh, altro!"
Most lovely is the ascent from Bolsena into the vine-clad
hills, where, between the garlands hanging from tree to tree,
one has glimpses of the broad lake with its islands, and the
brown castle and town rising up against it in the repose of
their deep shadow.
Lake of Bolsena.
Considerably to the right, but accessible from this road,
is the wonderfully picturesque mediaeval town of Bagnorea,
the ancient Balneum Regis, in the midst of a wild volcanic
district, and occupying a high hill-top, only approached by
narrow ridges across tremendous gulfs which separate it
from the table-land. This remote town was the birth-place
of Giovanni da Fidanza, the "Seraphic Doctor," who obtained
his name of S. Buonaventura from the exclamation of S.




APPROACH TO ORVIETO.                  117
Francis, " 0 buona ventura," when, during a severe illness, he
awoke from a death-like trance in answer to the prayers of his
great master. He died in 1240, leaving behind him a vast
number of mystic works, bearing such names as-" The
Nightingale of the Passion of our Lord fitted to the Seven
Hours," "The six wings of the Cherubim  and the six
wings of the Seraphim," and "The Soul's Journey to God."
Dante introduces him as singing the praises of S. Dominic
in Paradise:"Io son la vita di Bonaventura
Da Bagnoregio, che ne' grandi uffici
Sempre posposi la sinistra cura."
Par. xii. 127.
Long before reaching Orvieto, one comes in sight of it. It
occupies an Etruscan site. On turning the crest of the hills
which shelter Bolsena, one looks down into a wide valley
filled with the richest vegetation,-peach-trees and almonds
and figs, with vines leaping from tree to tree and chaining
them together, and beneath, an unequalled luxuriance of
corn and peas and melons, every tiniest space occupied.
Mountains of the most graceful forms girdle in this paradise,
and, from the height whence we first gaze upon it, endless
distances are seen, blue and roseate and snowy, melting
into infinity of space; while, from the valley itself, rises,
island-like, a mass of orange-coloured rock, crowned with
old walls and houses and churches, from the centre of which
is uplifted a vast cathedral, with delicate spray-like pinnacles,
and a golden and jewelled front,-and this is Orvieto.
The first impression is one which is never forgotten,-a
picture which remains; and the quiet grandeurs of the place,
as time and acquaintance bring it home to one, only paint in
the details of that first picture more carefully.




1I8                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
"La citta d Urbivieto e alta e strana:
Questa da Roman vecchi il nome prese,
Ch'andavan la perche l'aere v' e sane."
Fazio degli Uberti.
"Orvieto is built upon the first of those huge volcanic blocks which
are found like fossils, embedded in the more recent geological foundations of the Campagna of Rome.  Many of them, like that on which
Civita Castellana is perched, are surrounded by rifts and chasms, and
ravines and fosses, strangely furrowed and twisted by the force of fiery
convulsions. But their advanced guard, Orvieto, stands up definite and
solid, an almost perfect cube, with walls precipitous to north and south
and east, but slightly sloping to the westward. At its foot rolls the
Paglia, one of those barren streams which swell in winter with the
snows and rains of the Apennines, but which in summer-time shrink up,
and leave bare beds of sand and pestilential cane-brakes to stretch
irregularly round their dwindled waters.
" The time to see this landscape is at sunrise; and the traveller should
take his stand upon the rising ground over which the Roman road is
carried from the town-the point, in fact, which Turner has selected
for his vague and misty sketch of Orvieto in our Gallery. Thence he
will command the whole space of the plain, the Apennines, and the
river creeping in a straight line at the base; while the sun, rising to his
right, will slant along the mountain flanks, and gild the leaden stream,
and flood the castled crags of Orvieto with a blaze of light. From the
centre of this glory stand out in bold relief old bastions built upon the
solid tufa, vast gaping gateways black in shadow, towers of churches
shooting up above a medley of deep-corniced tall Italian houses, and,
amid them all, the marble front of the cathedral, calm and solemn in its
unfamiliar Gothic state. Down to the valley from these heights there is a
sudden fall; and we wonder how the few spare olive-trees that grow
there can support existence on the steep slope of the cliff.
"Our mind, in looking at this landscape, is irresistibly carried to Jerusalem. We could fancy ourselves to be standing on Mount Olivet, with
the Valley of Jehoshaphat between us and the Sacred City. As we
approach the town the difficulty of scaling its crags seems insurmountable. The road, though carried skilfully along each easy slope or ledge
of quarried rock, still winds so much that nearly an hour is spent in the
ascent.  Those who can walk should take a foot-path, and enter
Orvieto by the mediaeval road, up which many a Pope, flying from rebellious subjects or foreign enemies, has hurried on his mule."-7. A.
iSymonds.




ASCENT TO ORVIETO.                        119
"Never can I forget one view I enjoyed of this cathedral. Early on
an autumn morning I left Orvieto to travel by vettura southwards. The
valley that surrounds the isolated height where the city stands, o, the
plateau above her rock-fortifications, was filled with dense mist, like a
rolling sea of white waves; nothing of town, towers, or rocks was visible through that autumnal veil; but there, all radiant in the morning sun,
rose, as if on an aerial island, the glorious facade, its marbles and pinnacles, mosaics and sculptures, glittering in solitary resplendence under
the eye of Heaven."-Hemans.
From the Walls of Orvieto.
We descend into the plain by the winding road, where
wains of great grey oxen  are always employed  for the
country work of the hill-side, and we ascend the hill on
which the city stands, and enter it by a gate in rocky walls.
The town* is remarkably clean, but one has always the feeling
of being in a fortress. Unlike Viterbo, gaiety and brightness
seem to have deserted its narrow streets of dark houses,
interspersed with huge tall square towers of the Middle Ages,
and themselves, in the less frequented parts, built of richbrown stone, with sculptured cornices to their massive doors
and windows, and resting on huge buttresses. From one of
* There are two good inns at Orvieto-the "Belle Arti " and the "Aquila Nera."




120                  DAYS NEAR ROME.
the narrowest and darkest of these streets we come suddenly
upon the cathedral, a blaze of light and colour, the most
aerial Gothic structure in the world, every line a line of
beauty.  There is something in the feeling that no artists
worked at this glorious temple but the greatest architects,
the greatest sculptors of their time, that no material was
used  but that which was most precious, most costly, and
which would produce the most glorious effect, which carries
one far away from all comparisons with other earthly buildings —to the description in the Revelation of the New
Jerusalem.   The  very platform   on which  the  cathedral
stands is of purple Apennine marble; the loveliest jaspers
and pietre dure  are worked  into  its pinnacles  and buttresses; the main foundation of its pictured front is gold.
A  hundred and fifty-two sculptors, of whom  Arnolfo and
Giovanni da Pisa  are  the  greatest names handed  down
to  us, worked  upon  the  ornamentation  near the  base:
sixty-eight painters and ninety workers in mosaic gave life
to the glorious pictures of its upper stories. All the surroundings are harmonious-solemn old houses, with black
and white marble seats running along their basement, on
which  one may sit and gaze: a tower surmounted  by  a
gigantic bronze warrior, who strikes the hours with the clash
of his sword upon a great bell: an ancient oblong palace
with Gothic arches and flat windows, where thirty-four popes
have sought a refuge or held a court at different times *-all
* When Gardiner and Fox were sent on an embassy to Clement VII. here, they
wrote, " The Pope lieth in an old palace of the bishop's of this city, ruinous and decayed, where, or we come to his pryvey-chamber, we pass three chambers, all naked
and unhanged, the roofs fallen down, and as we can guess thirty persons, rif-raf and
others, standing in the chambers for a garnishment. And as for the Pope's bedchamber, all the apparel in it was not worth twenty nobles, bed and all." The first
Pope who resided at Orvieto was Adrian 1V.-the Englishman, Nicholas Breakspear,
-but the palace was built by Urban IV., I261-64.




CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO.                     121
serving as a dark setting to  make more resplendent the
glittering radiancy of the golden front of the temple in their
midst.
" Willingly would I descant on the matchless faFade of Orvieto, similar
in style, but more chaste and elegant than that of Siena-on the graces
of its Lombard architecture-on its fretted arches and open galleriesits columns varied in hue and form-its aspiring pediments-its marigold
window with the circling guard of saints and angels-its quaint basreliefs-its many-hued marbles-its mosaic gilding, warming and enriching the whole, yet imparting no meretricious gaudiness,-the entire
facade being the petrifaction of an illuminated missal-a triumphant
blaze of beauty obtained by the union and tasteful combination of the
three Sister graces of Art."-Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
No passing traveller, no stayer for one night, can realize
Orvieto. Hours must be passed on those old stone benches,
hours in reading the wondrous lessons of art, of truth, of
beauty, and of holiness which this temple of temples can
unfold. For Orvieto is not merely a vast sculpture-gallery
and a noble building, but its every stone has a story to tell
or a mystery to explain. What depths of thought are hidden
in those tremendous marble pictures between the doors!
First the whole story of Genesis; then the Old Testament
story, which followed Genesis, leading on to the birth of
Christ; then the story of our Saviour's life upon earth; and,
lastly, the lesson of His redemption wrought for us, in the
resurrection of the dead to the second life. Even the minor
figures which surround these greater subjects, how much
they have to tell us! Take the wondrous angels which
surround the story of Christ; the Awe-stricken Angel of the
Salutation, the Welcoming Angel of the Flight into Egypt, the
Praying Angel of the Temptation, the Suffering Angel of the
Betrayal, the Agonized Angel (and, oh, what a sublime figure,
with its face covered with its hands) of the Crucifixion, the




122                DAYS NEAR ROME.
Angel, rapt in entire unutterable beatitude, of the Resurrection. Or let us look at the groups of prophets, who,
standing beneath the life of Christ, foresee and foretell its
events,-their eager invocation, their meditation, their inspiration, their proclamation, of that which was to be.
Above these lower subjects is a great Mosaic of the
Virgin and Child as the centre of the whole, and, on either
side of it, the Baptism of Christ, and the Birth of the Virgin
between the bronze emblems of the Evangelists. Next we
have the Assumption, between the Annunciation and the
story of Joachim  and Anna.  Then the stupendous rose
window between the Spozalizio and the Presentation in the
Temple, and, highest of all, a grand representation of the
Coronation of the Virgin.
"The cathedral of Orvieto is the grand monumental record of dogmatic teaching as to the Holy Sacrament of the Altar; and the sublime
office for Corpus Domini, composed by S. Thomas Aquinas, does not
more impressively convey its meanings in orison or hymn, than does this
splendid cathedral in the various art-works adorning it-in the very
fact, indeed, of its existence.' In I344 Clement VI. granted an indulgence to all those who should
visit Orvieto for devotional purposes;, which spiritual favours were
doubled in an indulgence from Gregory IX., obtainable by all who
should assist at the works for this new cathedral. Then were seen
citizens of all classes co-operating, besides multitudes of pilgrims, who,
after attending religious services, would spend the rest of the day in
doing what they could to help the masons, stone-cutters, or other artizans
at the sacred building. Persons of good condition carried burdens on
their shoulders; and those who could not do rough work, brought
drink or food to the labourers, enabling them thus to refresh themselves
without leaving the spot. It is one of the proofs how utterly were
Sabbatarian notions foreign to the mediaeval mind, even while religious
influences were at the greatest height, that Sundays and other festivals
were marked by special activity (in the hours after the principal rites
were over) during the progress of these labours. Companies of artists
were sent to seek and to work the most suitable marbles at Rome,




CA THEDRAL OF ORVIE TO.                      123
Siena, and Corneto; and such prepared material used to be brought to
Orvieto by buffaloes, or (if from Rome) up the Tiber as far as Orte.
" This glorious cathedral was consecrated by the Cardinal Bishop of
the see, Nov. 13, 1677.  If it be surpassed by other examples of
Italian Gothic in architectural completeness or general harmony of
effect, its facade stands unrivalled, a sun amidst minor luminaries. No
description could do justice to that pomp of beauty, that concentrated
resplendence of art-the noble offering of man's genius, skill, and
labours, strained to the utmost during successive ages, to glorify the
Eternal in this wondrous structure."-Hemans' Hist. of MIediveval
Christianity.
"As regards the bas-reliefs on the front of the cathedral, which
Vasari ascribes to Niccola, Giovanni, and other artists whom  he
generalizes under the name of'Tedeschi,' it is at the present time impossible to fix either the date of their completion, or the names of the
numerous sculptors who assisted in producing them.... The greatest
sculptor employed at the cathedral in the first years after its foundation
in 1290, was Ramo di Paganello'de ultramontis,' a master who, after
the commission of some offence against the laws of Sienna, had been
exiled and then pardoned in 1281.  With Ramo di Paganello in I293
were Jacobo Cosme of Rome, Fra Guglielmo of Pisa, Guido, and a
number of other sculptors from Como.... The bas-reliefs of the front
sufficiently prove that sculptors of different periods executed various parts
of them; and as the labours of the edifice lasted till 1356 under Lorenzo
and his son Vitale Maitani, it is apparent that, in addition to works that
might have been completed in the loggia at an early time, others of
much later period were used.
"The principal ornaments of the front are four pilasters.... In the
first on the left, representing scenes from the creation to the settlement
of the children of Noah, the creation of Adam and Eve, in the lowest
course, is a fine composition, full of truthful and natural movement, no
longer in the conventional and sculptural forms peculiar to Niccola
and the continuators of his manner, but by one who sought to follow,
and, if possible, to improve upon, nature. They may therefore be by
Andrea Pisano. The Temptation, and Adam and Eve hiding at the
voice of our Lord,-the Expulsion, and our first parents labouring by the
sweat of their brow, —the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel, and the murder of
the latter, were of that advanced art which seemed to foreshadow the
manner of Pollaiolo.  Noah teaching his children, Tubal Cain and
Seth, in the uppermost course, were no longer in the same style, but
revealed, in their short and square figures, the manner of the followers
of Niccola. The second pilaster was devoted to the genealogy of the




124                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
house of David, and terminated at the upper part by a relief of the
Crucifixion. The third was occupied by incidents from the life of the
Saviour, admirably composed and grouped, but recalling, like the
second, the styles of Niccola and Giovanni's followers. In the fourth
pilaster, the upper course representing the Saviour in glory was of the
same class; but the lower compartment, far different, exhibited more
modern types, and seemed the perfection of the manner of Giovanni
Pisano. It would have been difficult to find a more fertile fancy, greater
skill in rendering form, more vigour or character, in the beginning of the
fourteenth century than were exhibited in the resurrection of the dead
from their graves, and in the agonies of tortured souls in the Inferno.
Here, Lucifer was no longer the quaint hybrid of Niccola and Giovanni,
but a monster in human form, writhing with bound hands, and supported
by hissing dragons, whose scaly frames were twined round his. The
most inexhaustible invention seemed hardly taxed by the variety of pains
inflicted and endured by the sinners; nor would it be easy to find more
truthful imitations of nature in the most varied motion than in the figures
of those in the grasp, or hanging from the jaws, of the devils. Such life
and motion might well have caused wonder in Signorelli when he laboured
in this very Duomo, and in Michael Angelo, whose imaginative mind
might be struck with the ingenuity of one in whom he could recognize a
spirit akin to his own."-Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
" Among the bas-reliefs of Orvieto is perhaps the most important
series of the Days of Creation existing. Here, in some measure doubtless owing to the conditions of sculpture, which does not admit of subjects requiring colour, the series commences with the Creation of Fishes
and Birds on the fifth day.
" Here the Creator is seen attended by two angels, who accompany
Him throughout, and seem, by their expression and actions, intended
to suggest the emotions proper to the scene. Thus they hover behind
Christ as he stands on the brink of a stream blessing the fish who are
disporting in it, while the birds stand on the opposite cliff in a stiff row,
as if awaiting the Divine mandate. In this scene the eagle and the goose
are easily recognizable; while some songster of the grove alights with
outspread wings on a bush close by, and in the distance a hawk stands
by itself.
" On the sixth day the same figure, attended by two angels in gestures
of admiration, is seen blessing the animals, who stand in two files before
them. In front are the smaller quadrupeds-the goat, the pig, and two
species of long-haired sheep, which remind us of similar fancy animals,
doubtless then cultivated in Italy, which appear in pictures by old
masters. Behind them are the ox, the horse, and, further from us, the




CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO.                       125
lion and the camel. A dog, that dumb friend of man, is seen beneath
the ox, his well-known companion." —ady Eastlake, History of Our
Lord.
"The happiest innovation (anticipated indeed in the mosaics of
Venice) is the introduction of two angels attendant on Our Lord
throughout the work of Creation and his subsequent intercourse with
man. "-Lord Lindsay's Christian Art.
After seeing the exterior, the interior of the cathedral
seems bare and colourless, yet it is full of beauty, though
occasionally the effect of the 13th-century work is destroyed
by later details. The pillars are striped with alternate black
and white marble as at Siena, and a strange lurid light is cast
by alabaster windows at the west end.  The east end is
fall of colour from early Umbrian frescoes, and has beautiful tarsia work of hermits and sainted bishops. The statues
which stand before the pillars in the nave are of gigantic
size and take away from  the effect of height: the best
are those by Ippolito Scalza of S. John and S. Thomas, and
the S. Roch near the entrance.
"The Annunciation is represented in front of the choir by two colossal
statues by Francesco Mochi: to the right is the Angel Gabriel, poised on
a marble cloud, in an attitude so fantastic that he looks as if he were
going to dance; on the other side stands the Virgin, conceived in a
spirit how difficult! yet not less mistaken; she has started from her
throne; with one hand she grasps it, with the other she seems to guard
her person against the intruder; majesty at once, and fear, a look of insulted dignity, are in the air and attitude,-"par che minacci e tema nel
tempo istesso,"-but I thought of Mrs Siddons while I looked, not of the
Virgin Mary."- aameson's Sacred Art.
"The frescoes in the choir of Orvieto are by Ugolino di Prete Ilario.
They represent the glory of the Trinity, the life of the Virgin, the
prophets, apostles, and fathers of the Church, with forty popes and
bishops in half-length figures." —Kugler.
"The paintings (in the choir) represent the life of the Virgin, in
twenty-eight compartments,-twenty-two, in two rows, circulating
round the chapel, carry the history from the Repulse of Joachim to the




126'DA YS NEAR ROME.
Dispute in the Temple; it is resumed above the Eastern window with
her dying interview with the Apostles, her Death, her Burial and
Resurrection, and concludes with her Assumption and Coronation, this
last occupying a large lunette on the vault of the chapel, the three
corresponding spaces being filled with personations of God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, each attended by angels; the
twelve prophets are depicted at full length on the north and south walls,
parallel to the Assumption, and below them again the Apostles, six on
either side, each holding a scroll containing the article which he contributed to the creed, within the jambs or hollows of the rose-windows,
attended to the right and left respectively by the Evangelists and
Doctors of the Church.  While, lastly, lowest of all, and immediately
above the wooden stalls of the choir, a line of forty half-figures represent
the Fathers and Doctors who have originated the honorary titles and
epithets of the Madonna.
" These frescoes are very faded, and in many places barely distinguishable; there is little beauty or force in them, but a degree of naivete and
simple feeling that is very pleasing; the compositions however are much
inferior to the execution, and frequently very novel and original; an(i
the conjecture naturally arises that the best of them may have been
borrowed from those of Pietro (di Puccio) at Arezzo, eulogized by
Vasari.  The chapel was painted in 1370."-Lord Lindsay's Christian
Art.
"Beneath the frescoes of the Calvary, Burial, and Resurrection, the
spectator may still read the words:' Hanc capellam depinxit Ugolinus
pictor de Urbereteris, anno domini MCCCLXIV. die Jovis VIII.
mensis Junii. Yet Vasari with characteristic carelessness assigns these
frescoes to Pietro Cavallini, finding, no doubt, some vague resemblance
of style between them and those of the transept at Assisi. This Ugolino,
not to be confounded with the goldsmith Ugolino di Veri, is called in
contemporary records'di Prete Ilario.' He was employed at the
same time with Orcagna and Andrea Pisano, and was assisted by
Maestro Giovanni Leonardelli, a glass painter and mosaist long employed
in Orvieto."-Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
To the left of the high altar is the Chaped of the Santissimo
Corporate, entirely covered with frescoes relating to the
Miracle of Bolsena and the institution of the festival of
Corpus Domini which resulted from it.  The famous relic
is preserved in a silver shrine of I338, ornamented with




FRESCOES OF SIGNORELL.                     127
twelve paintings in enamel by Ugolino Vieri, a goldsmith
of Siena.
A beautiful picture of the Virgin is by LZppo Memmi.
"Inscribed (in Latin) beneath the Virgin's feet is'Lippo, native of
the pleasant Siena, painted us.' The Virgin stands with her hands joined
in prayer, between fourteen angels, one of whom at each shoulder loops
back her mantle, beneath which kneels in three rows a noble crowd of
kings, princes, monks, and nuns. The Virgin has an oval face and
broad neck, the angels full faces and throats, and hair waving round
broached fillets in attitudes affecting grace. The colour is lively, rosy,
and flat, and the execution careful beyond measure."-Crowe and
Cavalcaselle.
On the other side of the nave is the more famous chapel
of the Madoznna di S. Brizio, a glorious gallery of I3thcentury art. Here one learns to appreciate the tremendous
power of Luca Signorelli (I440-I521), so little known elsewhere, following as the successor of Fra Angelico da Fiesole,
who painted the lovely groups of Christ, the Virgin, and
saints upon the ceiling.  The frescoes of Signorelli are a
regular series,-first, we have the teaching of Antichrist; no
repulsive figure, but a grand personage in flowing robes, and
with a noble countenance, who, at a distance, might easily
be mistaken for the Saviour, and who bears all His usual
pictorial attributes. To him the crowd are eagerly gathering
and listening, and it is only when you draw close, that you
can discover in his harder and cynical expression, and from
the evil spirit whispering in his ear, that it is not Christ.
Then we have the Resurrection-the vast angels of the
judgment blow their trumpets, and the dead arise, struggling,
labouring, out of the earth, to obey a summons which they
cannot resist. Then comes Hell, so filled with misery, that
the pictured suffering seizes upon your imagination, and will




128                DAYS NEAR ROME.
come back at intervals for ever-with the recollection of the
fiends of Signorelli, not monsters, but men filled with hatred
and vengeance, torturing the naked souls, or floating over
them on bat-like wings. And lastly we reach the Resurrection
of the Just, where the angelic choirs are welcoming a concourse of rejoicing souls, whose every attitude and expression
betokens the most unspeakable bliss.   Beneath are portraits of some of the Italian poets: that of Dante is quite
magnificent.' While the priest sings, and the people pray to the dance-music of
the organ, let us take a quiet seat unseen, and picture to our minds how
the chapel looked when Angelico and Signorelli stood before its plastered walls, and thought the thoughts with which they covered them.
Four centuries have gone by since those walls were white and even to
their brushes; and now you scarce can see the golden aureoles of saints,
the vast wings of angels, and the flowing robes of prophets through the
gloom.  Angelico came first, in monk's dress, kneeling before he
climbed the scaffold to paint the angry Judge, the Virgin crowned, the
white-robed army of the Martyrs, and the glorious company of the
Apostles. These he placed upon the roof, expectant of the Judgment.
Then he passed away, and Luca Signorelli, the rich man who'lived
splendidly and loved to dress himself in noble clothes,' the liberal and
courteous gentleman, took his place upon the scaffold. For all the
worldliness of his attire and the delicacy of his living, his brain teemed
with stern and terrible thoughts. He searched the secrets of sin and of
the grave, of destruction and of resurrection, of heaven and hell. All
these he has painted on the walls beneath the saints of Fra Angelico.
First come the Troubles of the last Days, the Preaching of Antichrist, and
the Confusion of the Wicked. In the next compartment, we see the
Resurrection from the Tomb, and side by side with that is painted Hell.
Paradise occupies another portion of the chapel.
"Look at the'Fulminati'-so the group of wicked men are called
whose death precedes the judgment.  Huge naked angels, sailing upon
van-like wings, breathe columns of red flame upon a crowd of
wicked men and women. In vain they fly from the descending fire. It
pursues and fells them to the earth. As they fly, their eyes are turned
toward the dreadful faces in the air. Some hurry through a portico,
huddled together, falling men, and women clasping to their arms dead




FRESCOES OF SIGNORELLI.                        129
babies scorched with flame.  One old man stares straight forward,
doggedly awaiting death.  One woman scouts defiance as she dies.  A
youth has twisted both hands in his hair, and presses them against his
ears to drown the screams and groans, and roaring thunder.  They
trample upon prostrate forms already stiff. Every shape and attitude of
sudden terror and despairing guilt is here. Next comes the Resurrection. Two angels of the judgment-gigantic figures, with the plumeless wings that Signorelli loves-are seen upon the clouds. They blow
trumpets with all their might; so that each naked muscle seems strained
to make the blast, which bellows through the air, and shakes the sepulchres beneath the earth. Thence rise the dead. All are naked, and a
few are seen like skeletons. With painful effort they struggle from the
soil that clasps them round, as if obeying an irresistible command.
Some have their heads alone above-ground. Others wrench their limbs
from the clinging earth; and as each man rises it closes under him.
One would think that they were being born again from solid clay and
growing into form with labour. The fully risen spirits stand and walk
about, all occupied with the expectation of the judgment; but those
that are in the act of rising have no thought but for the strange and
toilsome process of this second birth. Signorelli here, as elsewhere,
proves himself one of the greatest painters by the simple means by
which he produces the most marvellous effects. His composition sways
our souls with all the passion of the terrible scenes that he depicts. Yet
what does it contain?  Two stern angels on the clouds, a blank grey
plain, and a multitude of naked men and women. In the next compartment Hell is painted. This is a complicated picture, consisting of
a mass of human beings entangled with torturing fiends. Above hover
demons, bearing damned spirits, and three angels see that justice takes
its course. Signorelli here degenerates into no mediaeval ugliness and
mere barbarity of form.  His fiends are not the bestial creatures of
Pisano's bas-reliefs, but models of those monsters which Duppa has
engraved from Michael Angelo's' Last Judgment,'-lean, naked men, in
whose hollow eyes glow the fires of hate and despair, whose nails have
grown to claws, and from whose ears have started horns. They sail
upon bats' wings, and only by their livid hue, which changes from
yellow to the ghastliest green, and by the cruelty of their remorseless
eyes, can you know them from the souls they torture in Hell. Ugliness
and power of mischief come with length of years; continual growth
in crime distorts the form which once was human; and the interchange
of everlasting hatred degrades the tormentor and his victim in the same
demoniac ferocity. To this design the science of foreshortening, and
the profound knowledge of the human form in every posture, give its
VOL. II.                                            9




130                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
chief interest. Paradise is not less wonderful. Signorelli has contrived to throw variety and grace into the somewhat monotonous groups
which this subject requires. Above are choirs of angels, not like Fra
Angelico's, but tall male creatures clothed in voluminous drapery, with
grave features and still solemn eyes. Some are dancing, some are singing to the lute, and one, the most gracious of them all, bends down to
aid a suppliant soul. The men beneath, who listen in a state of bliss,
are all undraped. Signorelli, in this difficult composition, remains
temperate, serene, and simple; a Miltonic harmony pervades the movement of his angelic choirs. Their beauty is the product of their strength
and virtue. No floral ornaments, or cherubs, or soft clouds are found
in his Paradise. Yet it is fair and full of grace. Michael Angelo could
not have painted such celestial bliss, and Luca seems to have anticipated
Raphael."-7. A. Symonds.*
" Fra Angelico entered into an agreement with the rulers of Orvieto
on the 14th of June, 1447, to employ his summer recess of three months
every year in painting the chapel of S. Brizio, in the cathedral, in
fresco, for which he was to be paid two hundred gold florins per annum,
his pupil Benozzo seven per month, and two assistants three each.  He
began immediately, and worked without intermission till the 28th September, by which time the three most southerly compartments in the
groined roof of the chapel, overhanging the altar, were completed-two
by himself, and the third by Benozzo. Something, however, of an unpleasant nature-the death, probably, of Antonio Giovanelli, one of his
assistants, who fell from the scaffold and was killed-had occurred to
discompose him, and he returned no more, though expressly invited to
do so, and the chapel remained for fifty years unfinished, till completed
by Luca Signorelli.
" Meanwhile, the two compartments coloured by Fra Angelico would
of themselves repay a pilgrimage to Orvieto. In the lunette over the
altar, opposite as you enter, Our Saviour is seated in judgment, supporting the globe of the universe, as in the mosaics, a most majestic figure,
His face turned in reproof towards the reprobate, sorrowful wrath darkening the face of love; the vesica piscis surrounds Him, and He is
attended by angels blowing the summons.  But the'Prophetarum
laudabilis numerus,' the noble host of the Seers of Israel, on the left
hand of Our Saviour, are still given, rising in a pyramidal group till
they culminate in the swart-haired Baptist; the Moses especially is
magnificent, a prophet indeed.  For majesty these are certainly Era
Angelico's chef-d'oxuvre; they show how capable he was of expressing
* From " Sketches in Italy and Greece," which contain some of the most beautiful and poetical-yet true-word-pictures in the English language.




FRESCOES OF SIGNORELLI.                          3 I
the loftiest thoughts as well as the tenderest and softest-hell and sin
were alone too difficult for him."-Lord Lindsay's Christian Art.
" The upper part of the hinder wall, and a compartment of the vaulting, are adorned by Fiesole, I447.  The wall contains Christ as the
Judge of the world, surrounded by the loveliest angelic forms; the
Saviour is similar in action to that by Orcagna, but without the same
lofty expression of Divine wrath.  On the vaulting are seen the prophets,
one behind the other, in a pyramidal group, chiefly venerable forms,
full of dignity and beauty, in splendily-arranged drapery on a gold
ground.  This subject is like a vision of heavenly glory." -Kugler.
" The council of the cathedral, after waiting nine years for Perugino,
and after trying Pinturicchio, finally resolved that Luca Signorelli
should decorate the chapel of S. Brizio.
" It would be curious to ascertain what the painter's reflections may
have been as he contemplated the unfinished master-pieces of Angelico
on one of the ceilings of the chapel. The last great artist who embodied
the essentially religious element had left the traces of a mighty talent
behind.  How was the equally mighty representative of new principles
and of modern modes of thought, to reconcile his creations with those of
his precursor?  One can understand a debate in the Orvieto council, if
the members discussed the relative merits of Pinturicchio and Signorelli.  Would not the tender, perhaps affected, Perugian be better
suited to continue the work of the mystic Dominican than the fiery
follower of Piero della Francesca?  But Signorelli prevailed.  Pinturicchio, whose art is that of Perugino minus his best qualities, was not
fit to compete with the gigantic power of one whose opus following on
that of his teacher was necessary to the development of Italian painting;
-who left at Orvieto his mark for all time.
" Looking round him at Orvieto, Signorelli might see, not merely the
comparatively small production of a ceiling by Angelico; his imagination might feed on the examples of great bygone sculptors.  He
could leisurely examine the bas-reliefs of the time of the Pisan revival,
the Giottesque ones of Andrea Pisano.  He might perhaps still see
mosaics by Orcagna.  He certainly followed the ideas of Dante in the
conception of an Inferno.....   Here, then, on the classic ground
trod before by so many Italian artists, Signorelli, at the age of threescore, was enabled to satisfy his instincts to the full by delineating
scenes of a highly dramatic character.  Had it been the fortune of
Angelico to complete the chapel of S. Brizio, he would no doubt have
painted the same subjects in the grand but kindly solemn spirit which
pervades those in the ceilings,-a spirit the very reverse of that which
marks the colossal, and often vulgar, forms of the Cortonese. Both men




132                 DA YS NEAR ROMIE.
were great in their path; but they pursued different ways and aims; the
one wafting the spectators into an atmosphere of calm, the other with
difficulty convincing him that he is not hovering over a field of battle.
Unavoidable indeed is the reflection that Signorelli, whilst he challenges
our admiration, does so by a medley of conflicting and not always
pleasing impressions. The pleasure which he creates is not entirely unalloyed. Like Michael Angelo, he fascinates and crushes; he extorts
applause by his extraordinary vigour, and hardly leaves a moment for
the analysis of the sensations which crowd together at sight of his
master-pieces.  Cold reason supervenes. We admit the daring conception, and its successful realization, but we feel less sympathy than
surprise. The athlete has taken away our breath by the performance of
his feats; he has not touched one of the softer fibres of our heart."Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
The famous picture of the Madonna in this chapel, long
an object of pilgrimage, is very curious.
" In pictures, we rarely find the Virgin standing, before the end of the
14th century.  An almost singular example is to be found in an
old Greek Madonna, venerated as miraculous, in the cathedral of
Orvieto, under the title of La Madonna di San Brizio, and to which is
ascribed a fabulous antiquity. I may be mistaken, but my impression,
on seeing it, was, that it could not be older than the end of the I3th
century."-eameson's Legends of the Madonna.
Though it rather injures the effect of the chapel, the
famous Pietr of Ippolito Scalza ( 579), sculptor of several
other works in the cathedral, must not pass unnoticed. It
is a group of four figures larger than life, and is very grand
in its way.
The Signorelli Chapel should be seen in the colouring
of early morning, when the sun streams directly through its
windows upon the walls whence the living frescoes arise
from  the  dead gold of their ground-work, and upon the
polished floor of purple Apennine marble. Then the rest
of the church, which is separated from the chapel by a gor



IL POZZO DI S. PA TRIZIO.                  133
geous wrought-iron screen, is lost in its deep shadows, and
one seems to be alone with the spirits and the dead.
-tor, Oret
Bell-tower, Orvieto.
Many of the older churches of Orvieto are full of interest,
and have been too little noticed.  In  the  Church of S.
Bernardino is a good picture by Sinibaldo Ibi of the Virgin
enthroned between S.S. Peter and Paul, the kneeling Francis,
and Bernardino.  Leaving the more inhabited parts of the
town, one must visit, where it stands forlorn and deserted
on a grass-grown space, the old  Church of S. Domenico,
which was used as a fortress by the Guelfs in 1346, for it
contains a grand monument by Arnolfo to  Cardinal di
Braye, who died in 1282.
" Supported on brackets high up in the right transept of the church,
this monument is, like those of the Cosmati at Rome, a mixture of
mosaic, sculpture, and architecture. The body of the cardinal lies on
the slab of the sarcophagus, whose sides are adorned with mosaics. A
trefoil tabernacle, supported on twisted columns, is pointed at the apex
and sides with statuettes of a square Roman build." —Cowe andc Cavalcaselle.
Not far from this, at the eastern end of the town, is the
well called 11 Pozzo di San Patrizio, made by Sangallo to
supply the garrison in case of siege, when Clement VII. and
his court fled hither after the sack of Rome in 1527, the




I34              DA YS NEAR ROME.
last of a long series of popes who have sought a refuge in
Orvie;n. It is a hollow tower with two staircases of 248
steps, circling one above the other, one for ascent, the other
for descent.  The well was commemorated on the reverse
of a medal designed and struck by Benvenuto Cellini at the
command of Clement VII., who wished it to bear a figure
of Moses striking the rock, with the legend " Ut bibat populus."
Close by is the Castle, beneath which a hollow way
through the rocks leads under a postern gate in the walls.
Combined with the tall canes and the flocks of goats which
may frequently be seen here, it is a splendid subject for
an artist.
In the Casa Gualtieri (the house of Count Gualtieri the
historian) is a fine fresco of S. Michael trampling on the
dragon, by Eusebio, removed from the Gualtieri chapel in
the cathedral.
And no artist must leave Orvieto without rambling round
its walls, with their wide views over valley and mountains,
whose delicate tints contrast with the dark brown of the
crumbling houses and solid bastions of the town.  The
ramparts end in a triangle near S. 7uvenalis, a curious old
church, much spoilt by whitewash, but covered with beautiful decaying frescoes of the Umbrian school.




CHAPTER XXVI.
NARNI AND TERNI.
(There is now no decent inn at Narni, but tolerable lodgings may be
obtained there at a very low price, and good food from a trattoria. At
Terni there are several very good hotels, and plenty of carriages at the
station; Narni, however, is far the most beautiful place.)
SOON  after losing sight of Soracte, the railway to the
north passes Otricoli.  Two miles below this, in the
plain, are the ruins of Ocriculum, the southernmost city of Umbria, 44 miles from  Rome, on the Via Flaminia.  It was
here, in B.C. 217, that Fabius Maximus took the command
of the army of Servilius, after the battle of Thrasymene. In
4I3, the army of Heraclianus, Count of Africa, was defeated
here by Honorius. Ancient inscriptions speak of the place
as " splendidissima civitas Ocricolana," a description which is
borne out by the number of remains of important public
buildings discovered in I780. The famous mosaic floor of
the Vatican and a colossal head of Jupiter were found at
this time; but the existing ruins are unimportant. Ocriculum was an episcopal see after the fall of the Empire. It is
not known when the city perished or why the inhabitants removed to the present town, which is picturesquely situated
on a hill above the Tiber. Ariosto speaks of the windings
of the river here, but the trees he describes have disappeared:




136                DA S NEAR ROME.
"Ecco vede un pratel d'ombre coperto
Che si d'un alto flume si ghirlanda
Che lascia a pena un breve spazio aperto,
Dove l'acqua si torce ad altra banda,
Un simil luogo con girevol onda
Sott' Oticoli'1 Tevere circonda."
Cant. xiv. 38.
We now  reach  Orte, whence the railway to  Orvieto
diverges.  The town is picturesquely situated on a rocky
platform, and in its situation is something like a miniature
Orvieto, the houses rising close upon the edge of the tufa
rocks.
Here we leave the Tiber, which flows beneath Orvieto,
and follow the course of the Nera, the  Var of classical
times, which emerges from a wooded ravine, with white sulphurous waters,
" Sulfurea Nar albus aqua."
nEn. vii. 5I8.
and falls into the Tiber below Orte.
" Narque albescentibus undis
In Tiberim properans."
Si. Ital. viii. 453.
Few ravines are more full of beauty than the deep narrow
gorge below Nami, broken here and there by masses of grey
rock, elsewhere clothed with the richest green of ilex, cork,
phillyrea, arbutus, mastick, and flowering heath. Above, on
the right, rise the grey walls and the picturesque towers of
the town.  Just where the glen opens towards the plain on
the other side, the Via Flaminia is carried over the ravine
of the Nar by the famous Bridge of Augustus, which is considered to surpass all other bridges in boldness. Originally
it lad three arches, of which one on the right bank is entire,
and sixty feet in height.  Martial alludes to it as the pride




BRIDGE OF AUGUSTUS.                      137
of the place in his days, when he accuses Narni, by its
superior attractions, of taking away his neighbour Quintus
Ovidius from his Nomentan farm.
"Narnia, sulfureo quam gurgite candidus amnis
Circuit, ancipiti vix adeunda jugo.
Quid tam saepe meum nobis abducere Quinctum
Te juvat, et lenta detinuisse mora?
Quid Nomentani causam mihi perdis agelli,
Propter vicinum qui pretiosus erat?
Sed jam parce mihi, nec abutere, Narnia, Quincto;
Perpetuo liceat sic tibi ponte frui."
Ep. vii. 93.
The bridge is now a grand ruin, ivy and shrubs garlanding
its mighty parapets. Between the piers is a most picturesque
view of the ruined convent of S. Casciano, crowning a rock
amid the woods.
Roman Bridge, Narni.
Close to the Roman  ruin, is an old mediaeval bridge
guarded by a high gate tower, almost equally picturesque.
A  winding road leads up the hill to the town, which
occupies the site of the ancient Narnia, called Nequinum




138                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
by the Umbrians.  It was taken B. C. 299 by the consul
M. Fulvius, who was consequently honoured with a triumph
Mediaeval Bridge, Narni.
"de Samnitibus Nequinatibusque." During the 2nd Punic
War, Narni was the point at which an army was posted to
oppose the approach of Hasdrubal on Rome.  The town
owes its ruin, chiefly, not to Goths or Vandals, but to
soldiers in the pay of the Venetian Republic.
Most beautiful are the views of the glen and river from
the old walls. The situation is well described by Claudian
"Celsa dehinc patulum prospectans Narnia campum
Regali calcatur equo, rarique coloris
Non procul amnis adest urbi, qui nominis auctor,
Ilice sub densa sylvis arctatus opacis
Inter utrumque jugum, tortis anfractibus albet."
De Sext. Cons. Hon. 515.
and its rock-enthroned  position  is alluded  to by  other
poets:




AMELIA.                          139
".. duro monti per saxa recumbens
Narnia. "
Sil. Ital. viii. 458.
The Emperor Nerva was born at Narni, and in later times
Pope John XVIII., and the fifteenth-century chieftain Gattamelata, more properly called Erasmo da Narni.
The Cathedral of S. yuvenalis is dedicated to the memory
of its first bishop, A. D. 369, and is a most picturesque building, which no artist will fail to transfer to his sketch-book. The
church of S. Girolamo contains a fine altar-piece by a pupil
of Ghirlandajo, copied by Lo Spagna.
"The Saviour crowns the Virgin, on clouds supported by cherubs'
heads, under a conical canopy held up by seraphs, in the centre of a
company of angels, prophets, and sibyls. On the meadow below, S.
Francis kneels amid a crowd of saints, amongst whom are S.S. Jerome,
Louis, Bernardino, and John the Baptist. The arching of the upper
part is a border with cherubs' heads; and three niches in each pilaster
contain S.S. James, Mary Magdalen, Louis, Giovanni Capistrano,
Catherine, and Bernardino. "-Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
(It is a drive of 6 miles from Narni (carriage io francs)
to the old city of Amelia, beautifully situated on the side of
the Umbrian mountains.  This town is seldom visited, but
well deserves attention. It is now the seat of a bishopric,
but its chief interest is derived from its Cyclopean walls, of
which there are magnificent remains. As Ameria, it was
one of the most important cities of Umbria. Cato, quoted
by Pliny (iii. I4), says that the origin of Ameria was much
older than that of Rome, and that it was founded B. c. 1045.
The place is frequently mentioned by Cicero in his defence
of Roscius, in a manner which proves that it must then have
been  a flourishing municipal town.  It is mentioned by
Virgil:




lto                DAYS NEAR ROME.
" Aut Amerina parant lentae retinacula viti."
Georgics, i. 265.
and by Silius:
".. His populi fortes Amerinus."
viii. 462.
It is still, as in ancient times, celebrated for its delicious
plums, which flourish abundantly in its rocky soil, and are
dried and sold in great quantities.)
A very short railway journey, leaving the mountains and
crossing a richly cultivated plain, takes us to Terni (Inns;
Angleterre, Tre Colonne), a small, rather prosperous town,
with some manufactories. It occupies the site of one of the
many cities called Interamna, in this case, on account of its
situation near the meeting of the Nar and Velinus, and it is
said to have been founded B. c. 672. There is a tradition, without any foundation (though inscribed over the town-gate), that
Tacitus the historian was born here, but it was certainly the
patrimonial residence of his descendants, the Emperors Tacitus and Florianus. Here, in A. D. 253, the Emperors Trebonianus Gallus and Volusianus his son were put to death by
their own soldiers while marching against Emilianus. Some
insignificant remains exist of an amphitheatre (in the bishop's
garden) and of temples dedicated to Hercules and the Sun.
A number of Roman inscriptions are collected on the walls
of the Palazzo Publico. Terni is the seat of a very ancient
bishopric, but the dull Cathedral of S. Maria Assunta was
designed by Bernini.  The Church of S. Francesco has a
chapel with some interesting frescoes (c. I475) attributed to
Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, an admirable though little-known master,
whose principal works are at Perugia.
(It is a drive of about 4 miles from the town to the celebrated Falls of




THE  VELINO.                        14r
the Velino, La Caduta delle Marmnore.  A carriage costs from 5 to o1
francs, but a distinct agreement must be made. Plenty of small copper
coins should be taken, as various gates have to be opened, and various
points of view are exhibited, for which fees of from 2 to 5 soldi are amply
sufficient. There are two ways of seeing the Falls: either (I) by ascending the hills to the summit, a long and fatiguing drive, especially on
a hot day, and descending near the Fall on foot by a zig-zag path through
the rocks; or (2) driving through the valley to the gate leading to the
Villa Graziani, whence a donkey (52 to I franc) is usually taken to the
foot of the Fall, by those who do not like to walk: it is no great
distance.)
The first part of the road to the Falls leads through the
richly cultivated valley, described by Pliny* as so fertile,
that its meadows would produce four crops of hay in the
year. The picturesque village crowning the hill in front is
Papignia. Long before you reach the Falls the sound of the
rushing waters tells of your approach.
The source of the Velinus is close to the ancient Falacrinum, the birth-place of Vespasian, where an old church still
bears the name of S. Maria di Fonte Velino. Its waters are
so strongly impregnated with carbonate of lime, that they
constantly tend to form a deposit of travertine, and so to
block up their own channel. The result was, that unless the
course of the river was artificially regulated, the valley of the
Velinus was frequently inundated, while, if the waters were
allowed to descend with too great vehemence, the fertile
lands of Interamna shared the same fate.  Marcus Curius
Dentatus, the conqueror of the Sabines, in B. c. 27I, was the
first who attempted to make a permanent channel, which
should protect both the lower and upper valleys, and for
that purpose carried the river through a cutting in the cliff,
and formed the celebrated waterfall.  The channel of Den* xviii. 28, s. 67.




142                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
tatus was gradually filled up by time, and other beds formed
for the river, but the original course was re-opened by Pope
Clement VIII., in I598.  The regulation of the Fall has,
from its earliest existence, been a source of dispute between
the inhabitants of Reate and those of Interamna or Terni.
A statue was erected to Cicero by the people of Reate for
his legal services on this question.
The total height of the waterfall is more than 800 feet.
The best view of it is from below: no description is necessary but that of Byron:
" The roar of waters!-from the headlong height
Velino cleaves the wave-worn precipice;
The fall of waters! rapid as the light
The flashing mass foams shaking the abyss;
The hell of waters! where they howl and hiss,
And boil in endless torture; while the sweat
Of their great agony, wrung out from this
Their Phlegethon, curls round the rocks of jet
That gird the gulf around, in pitiless horror set,
"And mounts in spray the skies, and thence again
Returns in an unceasing shower, which round,
With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain,
Is an eternal April to the ground,
Making it all one emerald:-how profound
The gulf! and how the giant element
From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound,
Crushing the cliffs, which downward worn and rent
With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent
"To the broad column which rolls on, and shows
More like the fountain of an infant sea
Torn from the womb of mountains by the throes
Of a new world, than only thus to be
Parent of rivers, which flow gushingly,
With many windings, through the vale:-Look back I
Lo! where it comes like an eternity,
As if to sweep down all things in its track,
Charming the eye with dread,-a matchless cataract,




PIE DI LUCO.                        143
" Horribly beautiful! but on the verge,
From side to side, beneath the glittering morn,
An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge,
Like Hope upon a death-bed, and, unworn
Its steady dyes, while all around is torn
By the distracted waters, bears serene
Its brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn:
Resembling,'mid the torture of the scene,
Love watching Madness with unalterable mien."
Childe Harold.
The Villa Graziano, whose grounds contain  the best
view of the Falls, was once inhabited by Queen Caroline, as
Princess of Wales.
Those who have time may visit the lake of Pie di Luco in
the valley above the cascade.
"The beautiful expanse of water called Pie di Lugo, about a mile in
breadth, fills the defile, and meanders between the mountains for some
miles. The way to it from the Fall, is by a path winding along the foot
of the mountain, and leading to a cottage, where you may take a boat,
and cross to a bold promontory opposite.  There, seated in the shade,
you may enjoy the view of the waters, of the bordering mountains, of
the towns perched on their sides, the village Pie di Lugo, and, rising
behind it, the old castle of Labro, whose dismantled towers crown a
regular hill, while its shattered walls run in long lines down the declivity. We were here entertained with an echo the most articulate, the
most retentive, and the most musical I ever heard, repeating even a
whole verse of a song, in a softer and more plaintive tone indeed, but
with surprising precision and distinctness."-Ezustace's Tour.*
(From Terni an excursion may be made to Todi, an interesting episcopal city, occupying a very lofty position above
the valley of the Tiber in the direction of Perugia.  The
Gothic  Cathedral has  some  admirable frescoes  by  Lo
Spagna.  Several other churches are interesting: that of the
Madonna della  Consolazione is a fine work of Bramante.
* A project is entertained for entirely draining this beautiful lake.




144                DA YS NEAR ROME.
Todi occupies the site of the ancient Tuder, whose lofty
position is mentioned by Silius Italicus:
"Gradivicolam celso de colle Tudertem."
iv. 222.
*.. excelso summum qua vertice montis
Devexum lateri pendet Tuder."
vi. 645.
The walls of the city are in many parts very perfect, but
are much less rude than those of Volterra and other Etruscan cities, and  are evidently  Roman.  Remains  of an
ancient building have been supposed to be those of the
temple of Mars, which Silius alludes to:
"'Et haud parci Martem coluisse Tudertes."
viii. 464.)




CHAPTER XXVII.
SPOLETO AND THE CLITUMNUS.
B ETWEEN  Terni and Spoleto the railway winds by
cuttings and tunnels through the JMonle Somma, which
in vetturino days was a most picturesque and interesting
pass. It is said to derive its name from a temple of Jupiter
Summanus on its summit.
We emerge from  the mountains close to the grand old
archiepiscopal city of Sjoleto, which covers the sides of a
lofty hill, while, behind, rises its fortress, and then the great
Monte Luco, dotted with hermitages peeping out of the rich
foliage of evergreen woods. Carriages (50 centimes) are waiting at the station to take travellers into the town.  "La
Posta" is a very tolerable inn.
Spoleto was the ancient Spoletium, which is first mentioned
in history when a Roman colony was established here B. c.
240, after close of ist Punic War.  In B. c. 217, just after the
battle of Thrasymene, Hannibal advanced against Spoletium
and was repulsed, a fact proudly recorded on the gates of
the town. In the later part of the same war this was one of
the colonies which proved themselves most faithful and devoted to Rome. Florus speaks of Spoletium as "municipium
Italie splendidissimum," Cicero as " colonia Latinis in primis
firma et illustris." *  Here the Emperor IEmilianus was put
* Cicero pro Balb. 2I.
VOL. IL                                     IO




146                DA YS NEAR ROME.
to death by his soldiers after a three months' reign. The
fortifications of the town were partially destroyed by Totila,
but were restored by Narses.  The Lombards (c. A. D. 570)
made Spoleto the capital of a duchy, which in time became
entirely independent, and did not cease to exist till the
I2th century.
Spoleto.
Since the accession of the Sardinian Government, a quantity
of new streets, and a broad road winding up the hill, have
done much to annihilate the medieval aspect of Spoleto, but
have greatly added to its convenience. The new road leads,
by easy zig-zags, almost to the castle-La Rocca-on the hilltop. This fortress was originally built by Theodoric, but, as it
now stands, is chiefly the work of Pope Nicholas V. Just below it, is the entrance to the footway across the magnificent
Aqueduct of Della Torre, which unites the town to Monte
Luco.  Though often repaired in later times, it was built by
Theodelapius, first Duke of Spoleto, in 604.*
* Campello, Storia di Spoleto.




CA THEDRAL OF SPOLETO.                   I17
On the other side of the castle stands, on a lower level,
the Cathcdral of S. Maria Assunta, which was built in I 15,
when Frederic Barbarossa was attacking the town. It is ill
the transition style. In the gabled west-front are eight rose
windows.  Between these, a mosaic, bearing the name of the
artist, Salsernus, 1220, represents Christ throned between
the Virgin and St. John, a work mentioned by Lord Lindsay " as the earliest ascertained mosaic of the Italico Byzantine revival." ~  The beautiful renaissance portico, with five
arches, a rich frieze, and a stone pulpit at either end, is the
work of Bramante.  The door-frame is very richly sculptured.
The interior is modernized. A chapel on the right of the
entrance contains a ruined Pinturicchio of the Virgin between
St. Joseph and St. Lawrence. In the winter choir is a picture of the Virgin and Child between two aged saints. It is
generally ascribed to Lo Spagna, but is more probably the
work of Bernardino Camtiizius (c. I502), from  whose hand
many pictures remain at Spoleto. It serves as a monument to
the Blessed Gregory of Spoleto, "who died in converse with
angels, in extreme old age, in a hermitage on Monte Luco,
in I473."  On the stalls in this chapel are allegorical figures
of prophets and sibyls, the work of 7izopo Siculo, another
Spoletan artist, of the Lo Spagna school.
In the entrance of the chapel on the left of the high-altar,
is the tomb of the Florentine painter Fra Filippo Lippi
(I4I2-69), with his bust.
" Fra Filippo was requested by the commune of Spoleto, through the
medium of Cosimo de' Medici, to paint the chapel of their principal
church-that of Our Lady-and this work, with the assistance of his
pupil Fra Diarante, he was bringing to a successful termination, when
* Christian Art, ii. 55.




148                 DAY S NEAR ROME.
death prevented his completing it. It was believed that the profligacy
of his conduct was the cause of his death, and that he was poisoned by
persons who were related to the object of his affections."- Vasari, ii.
Lorenzo de' Medici was sent as an ambassador by the
Florentines to reclaim the body of their great fellow-citizen,
but was refused by the Spoletans, because their city was
"so poorly provided with ornaments, above all with distinguished men, and Florence, in her superfluity, might be content without this one." The epitaph is by Politian:
"Conditus hic ego sum picturze fama Philippus
Nulli ignota mete est gratia mira manus;
Artifices potui digitis animare colores
Sperataque animos fallere voce diu:
Ipsa meis stupuit natura expressa figuris,
Meque suis passa est artibus esse parem.
Marmoreo tumulo Medices Laurentius hic me
Condidit, ante humili pulvere tectus eram."
Lippi was always dabbling in imprudent love-affairs, and
already, many years before, had carried off a beautiful nun,
Lucrezia Buti, from a convent at Prato, and by her had become the father of Filippino.
Opposite the monument of Lippi are the tombs of Francesco Orsini and the Bishop Fulvio Orsini, I58I. In the
choir are the frescoes on which Lippi was occupied at his
death. At the sides of the Death of the Virgin, the Annunciation and the Nativity are depicted.
" The first is in the spirit of Angelico's conception of the same subject, and his pictures are conjured up before the beholder's eyes, when
he looks upon the angel presenting himself in the mouth of a portico in
the form of those common to the Dominican and to Masolino at Castiglione di Olona,-upon the Virgin's graceful surprise as she receives
the message,-or upon the Eternal, whose rays fall upon her through a
window that lights the gallery."-Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
" In spite of all injuries, the charming fulness of the composition, the




SPOLE TO.                        149
simple beauty of the figures, and the powerful colouring, produce an excellent effect."- Kugler.
In the roof of the apse the Coronation of the Virgin is represented, surrounded by angels, prophets, and sibyls.
Opening from  the portico of the Cathedral is the Baptistely, which is covered with interesting frescoes by 7ac/,o
Siculo.  On the roof are Adam, Noah, Moses, and Melchizedek; on the altar-wall, the Apostles; on the left wall,
Gabriel; on the right wall, St. Jerome.
In the Palazzo Communale, almost opposite the Cathedral,
is a beautiful fresco by Lo Spagna, removed from the citadel,
representing the Virgin between S.S. Jerome and Francis,
Catherine, and Brizio.
"Lo Spagna most retains his similarity to Perugino in this fresco."Kugtler.
Hence we may descend, turning to the left, to the Porta
Romana, outside which is a charming passeggiata-an avenue
of acacias with box hedges. It leads towards a convent on
a hill, whence there is the best view of Spoleto.  On the
left, approached by a long flight of steps, is the Church of
S. Pietro, the original cathedral dedicated to S. Brizio, who is
buried there.  The west front is most curious: between the
square-headed doors are reliefs of monsters, men in conflict
with lions, and angels and devils disputing over the dead.
Above are cows, and male figures, in high relief. Inside, is
a modern statue of the metropolitan S. Brizio, kneeling
before St. Peter.
" This church is mentioned as existing in the fifth century, and it continued to be the cathedral till o067, when the present cathedral was constructed. No record remains of the date of the very curious fagade, but




I50'DA YS NEAR ROME.
-he style of its decorations, the rudeness of the workmanship, and the
subjects which are introduced, give us reason to believe that this part
of the building must have been added in the course of the twelfth century. By that time, bas-reliefs, in compartments, had been adopted;
and at that time, knights in armour and allusions to the last judgment
were commonly introduced as the ornaments of ecclesiastical buildings.
In one of the bas-reliefs it will be observed that an imp has concealed
himself beneath the balance, and is pulling down the unfavourable scale.
"In the struggles between the Emperors and the Popes, Spoleto, by
adhering to the latter, drew upon itself the vengeance of Frederick Barbarossa. It is not improbable that the church of S. Pietro, which stood
in an exposed situation, may have been one of the buildings which was
injured on that occasion, and that the existing fagade may have been
added after the storm had subsided." —H. Gaily Knzight.
On the right of the Passeggiata are the Convents of S.'
Pao/o and the Madonna di Loreto.
The great striped red and white Church of S. Domnenico,
has a chapel covered with 14th-century frescoes, a Pieta
attributed to Lo Spagina, and a good copy of Raffaelle's
Transfiguration  by  Giulio Romano.  In  returning to  the
hotel from  hence we pass under the Porta della Fuga, a
Roman arch, formerly decorated with two lions, of which
one has lately (1874) been destroyed, and the other mutilated.  The adjoining conventual Church has a tabernacle
by Lo Spagna containing a Virgin and Child between S.S.
John Baptist, Jerome, Scholastica, and Antonio Abate. In
the Church of S. Ansano is another noticeable Lo Spaglna of
the Virgin and Child.
A walk should be taken in the early morning to La Rocca,
when the mists are rolling along the gorge and through the
narrow arches of the mighty aqueduct.  Most lovely is then
the first burst of sunshine over Monte Luco,-the whole
mountain like a most luxuriant garden, covered with box,
sage, arbutus, ilex, and juniper. Delightful. paths wind up



MONTE LUCO.'5I
wards through the woods, and present new views, each more
beautiful than the last. Scattered amongst the odoriferous
thickets are a succession of chapels, and buildings which
once were hermitages, for a perfect Thebaid was established
here in 528 by S. Isaac of Syria, and the Catholic Church
honours many saints who have spent a portion of their lives
here. At the top of the mountain, in a wood of chestnuts,
is the pilgrimage Church of La Madonna delle Grazie.  The
principal convent is that of S. Giuliano. No more beautiful
or heaven-inspiring retreat could well be found than the cells
in this flowery mountain-forest. Michael-Angelo, on Sept.
I8, I556, wrote to Vasari:
" I have just been visiting, with no small fatigue and expense, but
with great pleasure, the hermitages of the mountain of Spoleto. I have
scarcely brought the half of myself back to Rome, because one only
finds true liberty, peace, and happiness amid such scenes."
Those who stay long in Spoleto (and it is a delightful
summer residence) will find much to interest them in the
many minor works of Lo Spagna (ob. 1526), scattered through
the smaller churches and the desecrated convents both in the
town and in solitary situations in the neighbouring forests.
This painter, whose real name was Giovanni Spagnuolo di
Pietro, was a friend and fellow-pupil of Raffaelle in the
school of Perugino, and his works follow close in the footsteps of Raffaelle and  Pinturicchio.   He was made a
citizen of Spoleto, where he married and spent the chief part
of his life.
The most interesting works of Lo Spagna are in the poor
village of S. Giacomo, four miles from Spoleto, on the way
to the temple of the Clitumnus.  Here there is a small
church dedicated to St. James of Galitzin. The frescoes in




152                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
his honour for the most part relate to a picturesque legend
in the life of the Apostle.
" There was a certain German, who with his wife and son went on a
pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella. Having come as far as Torlosa,
they lodged at an inn there; and the host had a fair daughter, who,
looking on the son of the pilgrim, a handsome and a graceful youth, became deeply enamoured, but he, being virtuous, and, moreover, on his
way to a holy shrine, refused to listen to her allurements.
" Then she thought how she might be avenged for this slight put upon
her charms, and hid in his wallet her father's silver drinking-cup. The
next morning, no sooner were they departed, than the host, discovering
his loss, pursued them, accused them before the judge, and the cup
being found in the young man's wallet, he was condemned to be hung,
and all they possessed was confiscated to the host.
" Then the afflicted parents pursued their way lamenting, and made
their prayer and their complaint before the altar of the blessed Saint
Iago; and thirty-six days afterwards, as they returned by the spot where
their son hung on the gibbet, they stood beneath it, weeping and lamenting bitterly. Then the son spoke and said,' 0 my mother, 0 my father!
do not lament for me, for I have never been in better cheer: the blessed
apostle James is at my side, sustaining me and filling me with celestial
comfort and joy!'  The parents, being astonished, hastened to the
judge, who at that moment was seated at table, and the mother called
out,' Our son lives!' The judge mocked at them:' What sayest thou,
good woman? thou art beside thyself! If thy son lives, so do these
fowls in my dish.' And lo! scarcely had he uttered the words, when
the fowls (being a cock and a hen) rose up full-feathered in the dish, and
the cock began to crow, to the great admiration of the judge and his
attendants. Then the judge rose up from table hastily, and called
together the priests and the lawyers, and they went in procession to the
gibbet, took down the young man, and restored him to his parents; and
the miraculous cock and hen were placed under the protection of the
Church, where they and their posterity long flourished in testimony of
this stupendous miracle.
"In the vault of the apsis is the Coronation of the Virgin; she
kneels, attired in white drapery flowered with gold, and the whole
group, though inferior in power, appeared to me in delicacy and taste
far superior to the fresco of Fra Filippo Lippi at Spoleto, from which
Passavant thinks it is borrowed.  Immediately under the Coronation, in
the centre, is a figure of St. James as patron saint, standing with his




TEMPLE OF THE CLITUMNUS.                       I53
pilgrim's staff in one hand and the Gospel in the other; his dress is a
yellow tunic with a blue mantle thrown over it. In the compartment on
the left, the youth is seen suspended on the gibbet, while St. James with
his hand under his feet sustains him; the father and mother look up at
him in astonishment. In the compartment to the right, we see the judge
seated at dinner, attended by his servants, one of whom is briinging in a
dish: the two pilgrims appear to have just told their story, and the cock
and hen have risen up in the dish."-yt7amesolz's Sacred Art.
Three miles beyond  S. Giacomo, the road to  Foligno
reaches the hamlet of Le Vene, and passes immediately behind a small building which is none other than that which
poets have described as the Te'mple of the Clitumnus.
The "Temple " stands on a steep bank overlooking the
little river, here still called Clitumno, which has its source
near this, the name Le Vene being derived from the numerous springs or vents of water by which it is formed. In
classical times, as now, it was famous for its clear water, and
the beauty of the cattle on its banks:
"Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus
Victima, ssepe tuo perfusi flumine sacro,
Romanos ad templa Deum duxere triumphos."
Virgil, Geo. ii. I96.
" Qui formosa suo Clitumnus flumina luco
Integit, et niveos abluit unda boves."
PropYert. ii. El. xix. 25.
"Et lavat ingentem perfundens flumine sacro
Clitumnus taurum."
Sil. tal. viii. 452.
" Laeta sed ostendens Clitumni pascua sanguis
Iret, et a grandi cervix ferienda ministro"
vlU. Sat. xii. 13.
" Quin et Clitumni sacras victoribus undas,
Candida quae Latiis praebent armenta triumphis,
Visere cura fuit."
Claud. vi. Cons. Hon. 506.




154                  DAYS NEAR ROME.
" nec si vacuet Mevania valIes,
Aut priestent niveos Clitumna novalia tauros,
Sufficiam."
Stat. Sylv. i. 4.
We learn from  Pliny that this spot was not only one of
local veneration, but was visited by strangers. The Emperor
Caligula  travelled  here for this purpose.*   The building
which still exists was probably a successor of one of the
shrines or chapels (sacella) mentioned by Pliny, which were
scattered over the hill-side above the temple of the rivergod.  The little existing building is of the Lower Empire.
It will be interesting to read upon the spot the description
of C. Pliny, written to his friend Romanus:
"Have you ever seen the sources of the Clitumnus? If not (and I
think, if you had, you would have mentioned it to me), go and see them.
I saw them not long since, and I regret that I did not see them sooner.
There is a rising ground of moderate elevation, thickly shaded with
ancient cypresses. At the foot of this, a fountain gushes out in several
unequal veins, and having made its escape, forms a pool, whose broad
bosom expands, so pure and crystal-like, that you may count small
pieces of money that you throw in, and the shining pebbles. Thence it
is impelled forward, not by the declivity of the ground, but, as it were,
by its own abundance and weight.  Though yet at its source, it is
already a spacious river, capable of bearing vessels, which it transports
in every direction, even such as come upwards, and strive against the
stream; it is so powerful that oars give no assistance downwards, but
upwards oars and poles can scarce get the better of the current.  It is a
delightful recreation to those who amuse themselves with floating upon
its surface, to exchange alternately, as they alter their direction, labour
for ease, and ease for labour. Some parts of the banks are clothed with
the wild ash, some with poplars, and the transparent river gives back
the image of every one of them distinctly, as if they were submerged
beneath its waters. The coldness of the water is equal to that of snow,
and its colour nearly so. Hard by, is an ancient and venerable temple
There stands the God Clitumnus himself, not naked, but adorned with
* Suet. Cal. 43.




TEMPLE OF THE CLITUMNUS.                        155
the pbrtexta. The oracleq which are delivered there indicate, not only
the presence, but the prophetic power of the deity.  Several chapels are
scattered about the neighbourhood, each containing an image of the
god; each has a sanctity, and each a divinity peculiar to itself; some
also contain fountains. For besides the Clitumnus, who is, as it were,
the father of all the rest, there are some smaller streams, distinct at the
source, but which mingle with the river as soon as it passes the bridge.
There ends everything sacred and profane. Above the bridge, navigation only is allowed; below it, swimming is permitted. The inhabitants of Hispella, to whom Augustus made a present of the place, supply
a bath and an inn for the accommodation of the public. Along the banks
are a number of villas, to which the beauty of the stream has given birth.
In a word, there is nothing with which you will not be delighted. For
you may even indulge your propensity for study, and may read many
inscriptions written by different persons on every pillar and every wall,
in honour of the fountain and the god. Many you will applaud, some
you will laugh at, though, in fact, such is your good nature, you will
laugh at none. Farewell."-C. Plin. Lib. viii. Ep. 8, Eustace's Trans.
The scene is still one of unspoilt loveliness, as when Byron
visited it:
" But thou, Clitumnus! in thy sweetest wave
Of the most living crystal that was e'er
The haunt of river nymph, to gaze and lave
Her limbs where nothing hid them, thou dost rear
Thy grassy banks whereon the milk-white steer
Grazes; the purest god of gentle waters!
And most serene of aspect, and most clear;
Surely that stream was unprofaned by slaughtersA mirror and a bath for Beauty's youngest daughters!
"And on thy happy shore a temple still,
Of small and delicate proportion, keeps,
Upon a mild declivity of hill,
Its memory of thee; beneath it sweeps
Thy current's calmness; oft from out it leaps
The finny darter with the glittering scales,
Who dwells and revels in thy glassy deeps;
While, chance, some scattei'd water-lily sails
Down where the shallower wave still tells its bubbling tales."
Cailde Hlarold.




X126 DA YS NEAR ROME.
About 24  miles beyond the Temple of the Clitumnus is
Trevi (a station on the railway), the ancient Trebia, a mountain-town occasionally resorted to by Romans in summer,
and one of the steepest places imaginable, each house apparently rising on the hill-side almost where the roof of the
last comes to an end. It deserves visiting on account of the
pictures in its churches.
La Madonnma de/le Lagrime contains a large fresco of the
Adoration of the Magi by Perugino. In the same church are
a set of frescoes by Lo Spagna, among which Kugler notices
the Deposition as of peculiar excellence.
"In a lunette, S. Ubaldo in benediction sits between rows of kneeling monks, whilst an angel holds up an open book out of which he
reads, and others attend with his crozier and mitre. In the Deposition from the Cross, beneath the lunette, as in the chief personage of the
lunette itself, a distant reminiscence of Raphael may be discovered. The
Deposition is taken from that in the Borghese Palace at Rome, or from
one of the numerous drawings sketched previous to its completion.  On
the pilasters of the altar, two canvasses contain S. Catherine of Alexandria and S. Cecilia.  Had not Spagna renewed his companionship
with Raphael at Rome, he could scarcely have done anything so redolent of the great master."-Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
The Church of S. Marlino, outside the town, has a fine
altar-piece by LoSpagna, executed about I512.  It represents the Coronation of the Virgin, with S.S. Mary Magdalen and Catherine in the foreground, and in the distance a
view of the convent of S. Francesco at Assisi. In the deadhouse of the adjoining convent is an Assumption by the
same artist. A lunette of the Virgin and Child in the church
is a beautiful work of Tiberio d'Assisi.




CHAPTER XXVIII.
IN THE ABRUZZI (ABRUZZO ULTERIORE II.)
(This tour is easily made from  Rome, and will soon be rendered
extremely simple by the new lines of railway, branching off from
Terni. The excursion however should be postponed at least till
April, as the snow  lies long in the Abruzzi, or it may be more
pleasantly taken in October. The reports of brigands and alarming
adventures are almost entirely unfounded. No difficulties attend the
tour. The roads are excellent, the food generally very tolerable, and the
inhabitants simple and hospitable to a degree, and uniformly kind and
civil to strangers. The mediaeval costumes are preserved, and are highly
picturesque.
The Abruzzi have hitherto been unspoilt by a rush of English and
Americans, and the old Italian scale of prices is maintained. A journey
of 8 or 9 hours by diligence seldom costs more than 5 or 6 francs. Five
soldi are considered a handsome buonamano for a guide or facchino for
a short distance.  In the hotels, rooms cost from I to 2 francs, dinner
from 2 to 21 francs, breakfa  frfrom 6o to 85 centimes.  At present it is
quite unnecessary to make a bargain at the hotels, and would only lead
to suspicion and mistrust.
Those who travel in the Abruzzi should be as unencumbered as
possible with luggage, for which there is little or no accommodation in
the carriages or diligences.
The Abruzzi consist of three provinces.  Abruzzo Ulteriore, whose
principal towns are Ascoli, Teramo, and Civita di Penne; Abruzzo
Ulteriore II., which includes part of the Sabina, and contains Civita
Ducale, Aquila, Solmona, and  Avezzano; and Abruzzo Citeriore,
which includes the country around Chieti, Lanciano, and Vasto.  It is
only with the second of these, whose mountains are visible from
Rome, that we are now  concerned.  It is most easily approached
through the Sabine hills below Rieti.  There are two ways of reaching




158                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
Rieti from Rome by a public conveyance.  First, by the diligence
which meets the quick train from Rome to Florence at the station
of Corese, and arrives at Rieti at 3 p. m., having halted for 2
hours at a wayside inn; and, secondly, by the diligence which leaves
the market-place at Terni at 12, on the arrival of the same train, and
reaches Rieti at 5 p. m., without any halt.  A place in the diligence
from Terni to Rieti costs 3 francs; a two-horse carriage for the same,
6 francs. )
T   is a long ascent from Terni to Papigno, above the Falls.
Thence, avoiding Pie di Luco with its lake and echo, the
road follows the upland plain of the Velino, filled with vines
trained upon' the white mulberry-trees. The country is wonderfully rich.  Cicero * speaks of it as the Rheatine Tempe.
The banks of the river were the " Rosea rura Velini" of
Virgil.t The hills are limestone, and consequently incapable
of fine forms, and there is little beauty, till we reach Rieti
Roman Bridge, Rieti.
high in the upland, 1396 feet above the sea, but close under
* Ad Att. iv. 15.     t JEn. vii. 712.




RIETI.                        159
a mountain-side, surrounded by walls and approached by a
handsome passeggiata.  The town is very flourishing, and a
large Beet-root Sugar-Manufactory has been  established
there. The Croce Bianca is a clean and very tolerable hotel,
also La Campana in the piazza.
The Roman remains are the Bridge over the Velino, and
a handless and footless statue called Cicero, in one of the
streets. Ancient Rheate was celebrated for its mules and
asses, extolled by Strabo, and by Varro in his dialogues De
Re Rustica.  Silius Italicus pretends that the town derived
its name from Rheate, the Latin Cybele:.. magnaeque Rheate dicatum
Ccelicolum natri."
viii. 417.
Palazzo Vincentini, Rieti.
The principal Church of S. Maria has a wide portico. It
contains a statue of S. Barbara by Bernini.  There is a




x60                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
pleasant view from the platform outside, close to which is
the beautiful Palazzo  Vinzcentizi with open loggias, a most
graceful work of Vinola.  The churches of S. Pietro and S.
Agostino have fine doorways, and S. Pietro Afantine a richly
carved wooden roof.  The charm  of Rieti depends entirely
upon its pure air and surrounding vineyards.
"The Queen of the Sabine land, as its inhabitants sometimes proudly
call it, is built at the foot of the mountains, in a rich plain full of vineyards.  The swift Velino rushes by the town, which is a nest of quaint
red-roofed houses guarded by several towers and a citadel.  No more
joyous spot is there on earth than Rieti in the vintage season, when all
the population swarms forth from their hive to gather in the rich purple
and amber clusters and heap them into waggons drawn by great meekeyed oxen, or pile them up in panniers on the backs of asses, which the
children have crowned with leafy garlands snatched from  the vines.
Half-naked boys, graceful as fawns and brown as satyrs, perch themselves in the trees to which the vines cling, and throw down the grapes
with jest and song to the laughing girls below: matrons in picturesque
red boddice and snowy head-gear superintend; children frolic round
and steal grapes; spare and swarthy men complete the scene, and over
all is a turquoise sky - radiant sunshine - everywhere laughter and
song!
" But in winter Rieti assumes a wilder aspect; sudden storms dash
upon it and turn the clear Velino into a roaring torrent which sweeps
wildly away all that falls on its surface, and tears at the banks as if it
would drag them down after the large stones that it rolls along its bed."
-Mademoiselle Mori.
(From Rieti, a very interesting excursion on foot or on
horseback  may be made (I6 miles) to Lionessa, situated
under the mountain of the same name, and rich in Gothic
churches and fragments of domestic architecture.
Six miles further, near the source of the Nar, is Norcia,
the ancient Nursia.  Here Vespasia Polla, mother of the
Emperor Vespasian, was born.  The family had property




AMA TRICE.                         16i
near this, called Vespasie,* a memorial of which exists in
the name Monte Vespio.  Far more interesting natives of
Norcia were S. S. Benedict and Scholastica. The place is
said to be dangerous from  the brigand-tendencies of its
population, and it can scarcely be reached in winter from
the snow.  Virgil speaks of the coldness of its climate:
"Qui Tiberim Fabarimque bibunt, quos frigida misit
Nursia. "-AEn. vii. 715.
and Silius Italicus," nec non habitata pruinis
Nursia."-viii. 418.
Twelve miles hence by a bridle-path, is Amatrice, with
Gothic churches, and paintings by its especial artist Cola di
Amatrice. Eight miles from this, and two from Civita Reale,
is the village of Collicelli, close to which is the church of S.
Silvestro in Farlacrino, marking the site of Falacrinum, and
with ruins close by, supposed to be those of the Flavian
palace, where Vespasian was born, and to visit which he was
in the habit of returning.
"Locum  incunabulorum assidue frequentavit, manente villa qualis
fuerat olim, ne quid scilicet oculorum consuetudini deperiret."
Suetonius, viii. 2.
The hamlet of San Vittorino occupies the site of Amiternum, which  sent a cohort to  the assistance  of Turnus
against ~Eneas.
"Ecce, Sabinorum prisco de sanguine, magnum
Agmen agens Clausus, magnique ipse agminis instar;
Una ingens Amiterna cohors, priscique Quirites."
Virgil, E;n. vii. 706.
* Suet. Vesp. c. x.
VOL. II.                                         II




162                DA YS NEAR ROME.
Tlhe modern name is derived from a martyr-bishop, buried
in its church. Sallust was born at Amiternum.)
The road to Aquila is most dreary. It enters the mountains at Civita Ducale, where there is a picturesque piazza
with a fountain, and two remarkable churches, one with a
fine Lombard doorway, the other with a beautiful rose
window. The place was founded in I308, by Robert, Duke
of Calabria.
(Fearless pedestrians may make a wild but interesting
excursion from hence to the remains of the castle of Petrella,
famous for the sufferings of Beatrice Cenci * in the i6th
century.
"That savage rock the Castle of Petrella,'Tis safely wall'd, and moated round about:
Its dungeons under-ground, and its thick towers,
Never told tales: though they have heard and seen
What might make dumb things speak."
Shelley.
The village of Torano, in the same direction, has remains
of Cyclopean walls, supposed to belong to the Tiora of
Dionysius, and to the place called Thyra in the' Martyrologium Romanum,' where S. Anatolia was martyred under
Decius.)
There is nothing more of interest till we reach the Bagni
di Paterno, some sulphuric springs with a strong smell, boiling up close on the right of the road.  These were the
Aque Cutiliae, annually used by Vespasian, and here he
died, A. D. 79, perhaps in the Roman palace of which the
ruins remain upon the left.
" At Cutilike, though his disorder much increased, and he injured himself by too free use of the cold waters, Vespasian nevertheless attended to
* See Walks in Rome, voi. i.




ANTRODOCO.                        I63
the despatch of business, and even gave audience to ambassadors in his
bed. At last, being very ill, he cried out,'An Emperor ought to die
standing upright.' In endeavouring to rise, he died in the arms of those
who were assisting him, upon the eighth of the calends of July (June
24), being sixty-nine years, one month, and seven days old."
Suetonius.
Varro considered the Lacus  Cutiliae as the  centre"umbilicus "- of Italy.  The pool which formerly existed
here had a floating island, described by Dionysius as " four
hundred feet in diameter," formed by the incrustation of
carbonate of lime.  The Lake was consecrated to Victory
(Vacuna?), and was considered so sacred, that no one was
allowed to approach it, except on certain festivals.
Jolting through the narrow street of Borgo Velino, where
the houses almost meet overhead, we reach Antrodoco, a
dull town, more than half destroyed a few years ago by an
earthquake, in which a great portion of the inhabitants were
killed. On the hill above are fragments of a castle of the
Vitelli. This was the station Interocrea on the Via Salaria,
and was first destroyed by the people of Aquila in I364.
It is a dismal country of barren hill-sides till we come in
sight of Aquila, which occupies a platform rising above the
plain, with mountains all around. On the left is the Gran
Sasso d' Italia with its twin peaks of perpetual snow; on the
right is Rocca di Mezzo, and, beyond it, the grand outline
of La Maiella.
Aquila " La Roma degli Abruzzi" (Locanda del Solc,
good, reasonable, and clean) is a memorial of the great
Emperor Frederick II.  His idea was to make it the capital
of Italy, one of the most important places in the world, and
he built a grand palace here.  But his death cut short all
his projects, and left only the skeleton of his intentions.




164                DA YS NEAR ROME.
The mountains around Aquila are vast, but the situation
is bare and desolate, and almost devoid of vegetation. It
has eight months of pitiless winter, and four months of
scorching, life-blasting  summer.  Its  rocks, its soil, its
churches, are riven and rifted by constant earthquakes, for
even now nature suddenly often sets all the bells ringing
and the clocks striking, and makes fresh chasms in the old
yellow walls.  In the streets, low two-storied cottages often
stand side by side with handsome palaces, and few of the
churches remain entire. Yet in spite of the God-forsaken
look of everything, there is a sort of ghastly poetry about
Aquila, and there are many who will find a strange interest,
and experience many new sensations, on  its tawny hills,
and amid its deserted buildings.
"E 1' Aquila, citta degli Abruzzi fra altissimi monti posta, e dalle
rovine de'luoghi convicini tanto cresciuta, che di uomini, di armi, di
richezze era la prima riputata dopo Napoli."
Porzio.
Of the ninety churches which once existed here, a vast
number, or portions of them, remain.
S. Bernardino  (reached  from   the  hotel by  the Via
Principe Umberto and crossing the Corso), rises aloft in the
face of the snow, with a stately front by Cola da Amatrice
(1525-42).  On the right, is the tomb of the saint, covered
with reliefs by Silvestro Salviali (1505).
S. Bernardino, a native of Massa near Siena, was born in 1380, of
the noble family of the Albizeschi. lie was of great beauty and stately
presence.  At seventeen he began to devote himself to work in the hospitals, and ruined his health by his self-sacrifice during the plague at
Siena. At twenty-three he became a Franciscan monk, and henceforward his life was almost entirely that of an itinerant preacher.  " Of the
wonderful success of his sermons, many striking anecdotes are told. His




AQUILA.                          165
hearers were not only for the moment affected and melted into tears,
but in many instances a perfect regeneration of heart and life seems to
have taken place through his influence. Those who had defrauded,
made restitution; those who owed money, hastened to pay their debts;
those who had committed injustice, were eager to repair it. Enemies
were seen to embrace each other in his presence; gamblers flung away
their cards; the women cut off their hair, and threw down their jewels
at his feet; wherever he came, he preached peace; and the cities of
Tuscany, then distracted by factions, were by his exhortations reconciled
and tranquillized, at least fora time. Above all, he set himself to heal,
as far as he could, the mutual fury of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, who,
at that period, were tearing Italy to pieces."
Throughout his whole life, S. Bernardino despised worldly honours
and ideas, and three bishoprics were pressed upon him in vain. He
founded the Order of the Osservanti, which not only engaged to follow,
butfollowed, the strict rule of S. Francis. On May 20, 1444, he died
at Aquila, while on one of his journeys as a pedestrian preacher, and in
1450 he was canonized by Nicholas V.
In almost all representations of S. Bernardino, is introduced a tablet
with the monogram of the Saviour surrounded by golden rays, being a
device which he invented that it might be sold for the maintenance of
a poor man whom he had induced to abandon the sale of cards and dice.
-See yameson's Monastic Orders, and Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. v.
On the left of the high altar is the beautiful tomb of
Beatrice  Camponi:   She lies upon  a  richly decorated
sarcophagus and her child below it. In the second chapel
on the right is a fine Assumption by Luca della Robbia. The
second chapel on the left has an admirable wrought-iron
screen.
The steps of S. Bernardino are used as the cattle-market
of Aquila.  Goats perch upon the higher part, sheep and
oxen lie in the sun on the broad platforms below. Descending the stairs between the ruined chapels of a Via Crucis,
we reach-passing (left) a ruined Gothic house-the Porta di
Collemaggio.
About half-a-mile outside this gate, on a dust-laden, wind



I66                DA YS NEAR ROME.
stricken platform, is the beautiful church of S. Maria di
Collemaggio. Only the front of the original building of c.
I260 remains-of white marble inlaid with red marble.  It
has three splendidly-wrought portals and three rose-windows
above them.  Over the doors runs a beautiful gallery of
wrought-iron, with cressets. Hence, once in every year, the
Bishop of Aquila reads the bull of Ccelestine V., with the
advantages he conferred upon the town. On a line with the
fatade, rises the low very heavy machicolated bell-tower.
S. Maria di Collemaggio, Aquila.
The inside of the church was destroyed by earthquake in
1703 and has been modernized, but is bare and desolate to
a degree.  A curious series of animal-pieces lines the walls,
introduced apropos of the saintly legends connected with
them.  They are by Andrew  Ruter, a Flemish monk, who
was a pupil of Rubens. In the pavement are a number of
curious incised monuments of abbots and bishops. In this
church the hermit Coelestine V. was crowned Pope in I294.
" Over his shaggy sackcloth the hermit had put on the gorgeous
attire of the Pontiff; yet he would not go to Perugia to receive the
homage of the conclave. Age and the heat of the season (lie had been




AQUILA.                           167
accustomed to breathe the mountain air) would not permit him to take
the long unwonted journey. lie entered the city of Aquila riding on an
ass, with a king on each side of him to hold his bridle. Some of the
indignant clergy murmured at this humiliation of the Papal majesty (the
successor of S. Peter was wont to ride a stately palfrey), but they suppressed their discontent.
"If there had been more splendid, there never was so popular an
election. Two hundred thousand spectators crowded the streets. In
the evening the Pope was compelled again and again to come to the
window to bestow his benediction; and if hierarchical pride had been
offended at the lowliness of his pomp, it but excited greater admiration
in the commonalty: they thought of Him who entered Jerusalem'riding
on an ass's colt.' Miracles confirmed their wonder: a boy, lame from
the womb, was placed on the ass on which the Pope had ridden; he
was restored to the full use of his limbs.
"The Cardinal Napoleon Orsini assisted at the inauguration, gave to
the Pope the scarlet nilntle, the mitre set with gold and jewels; he announced to the people- that Petei had taken the name of Coelestine V.
The foot of the lowly hermit was kissed by kings, cardinals, bishops,
nobles. He was set un high to  he adored by the people. The numbers of the clergy ca ised singular astonishment; but the cardinals,
though reluctant, wou d not allow the coronation to proceed without
them; they came singly and in unwilling haste.  Yet still, though all
assisted at the ceremony, the place of honour was given to the French
cardinal: he anointed the new Pope, but the Pontiff was crowned by
Matteo Rosso, probably the elder of the cardinals present.
"A few months showed that meekness, humility, holiness, unworldliness, might make a saint; they were not the virtues suited to a Pope.
The utter incapacity of C(elestine for business soon appeared; he
lavished offices, dignities, bishoprics, with profuse hand; he granted and
revoked grants, bestowed benefices, vacant or about to be vacant. He
was duped by the officers of his court, and gave the same benefice over
and over again, but the greater share of all fell to his brethren from the
Abruzzi.  He shrank from publicity; he could only speak a few words
of bad Latin. "-Milman's Hist. of Latin Christianity.
The tomb which contains the body of Coelestine, stolen,
after his canonization, from the cathedral of Ferentino, is at
the end of the left aisle. His skull is preserved here, secured
under eight keys, four of which are in the hands of the civil




I63               DAYS NEAR RcOME.
authorities.  Once a year it is publicly shown.  Over the
left temple is a square hole, said to have been made by the
nail by which he was murdered.
Besides these two great churches, many others are worth
visiting. The causeway from the Collemaggio leads to the
gate towards Solmona, near which is S. Marco, with a fine
Lombard door.  A little behind, is S. MAarcianzo, also with a
remarkable door.  Between this and the Porta Romana is
S. Domienico, a vast simple Gothic church with two admirable
doorways; and, close by, the plain but picturesque front of
S. Pietro di Sasso.  Several old houses and convents near
this have Gothic fronts, especially in the Via Porta Romana.
In Spain, their windows would be called Ajimez. The best of,. ~,,.,'- _ ---
S. Nicolo d'Anza, Aquila.
these fronts is so ruinous, that it will soon be quite lost. if
pains are not taken to preserve it.




AQUILA.                      I69
Left of the Porta Romana, between it and the Corso, is
S. Nicolo d'Anza, beautifully situated, with a most picturesque
gateway to its little garden. Near it, in a square, is S. Silvestro, with a splendid rose-window.  Inside its west door
are two frescoes by some very good early Umbrian master,
one pourtraying the Virgin and Child throned with saints,
the other the Baptism of Constantine-the emperor being
represented as Christ. In a street on the right, beyond this,
is S. Maria Paganica, which has a stately west front, with a
rich doorway, approached by a flight of steps: outside are
tombs with reclining figures.
The tall tower which rises close to the inn, and which is
adorned with a grand eagle-" Aquila "-is a remnant of the
Palace of Margaret of Austria, natural daughter of Charles
Castle of Aquila.
V., and widow of Ottavio Farnese, who was governor of tie
province.




170              DAYS NEAR ROME.
At the upper end of the Corso is an open space, beyond
which is the Citadel, built in 1543 on the site of Frederick's
palace.  Its massive walls are guarded by a wide moat.
From its ramparts there is a grand view of the mountains,
especially of the Gran Sasso d'Italia.
The great fountain, called La Riviera, is very curious,
and dates from I272. It is a quadrangular court surrounded
by ninety-nine little fountains, in memory of the different
communities which were united to form the city.
A diligence, drawn by four horses with their manes tied
up into plumes, took us to Popoli along the dreary hideous
road, which runs for many hours through a dusty waste
between two lines of parched mountains.  Our only entertainment was the extraordinary harness of the animals we
met, the central horse being generally surmounted by a perfect pagoda of brass, rising story above story, each separate
landing having a peal of bells, with generally a sort of little
windmill at the top to keep off the flies, and in front a figure
of S. Antonio, standing detached, and in an attitude of
benediction. At length, at the top of a weary pass, we came
upon a grand view over the snowy Maiella, and then began
to descend by rapid zig-zags to Popoli, a small, crumbling,
earthquake-stricken town, overlooked by the ruined castle of
the Cantelmi.  The principal church has a very interesting
facade. Its upper story is of the I7th century, but is surmounted by an old figure of S. George on horseback, and
the lower story has a curious rose-window with smaller roses
springing out of it, and a platform guarded by huge lions.
A tower, built by the Counts Resta of the Marsica, has been
half buried in an earthquake.  The branch line of railway




SOLMONA.                       171
from Pescara to Solmona runs through Popoli, and as the
town is filthy, we were glad to take refuge at the station,
where there is an excellent caffe, till the train came to carry
us the pleasant half-hour's journey through the valley to
Solmona.  Here there are three inns; Albergo della Stazione
(in the piazza), with a good view; Albergo del Toscano, perfectly filthy; and  the "Casa de Monsieur Raffaelle," 43
Corso Ovidii.  We chose the last, and found its owners
most civil and obliging; and a kind of rough comfort, though
the cocks and hens shared our sitting-room, and fresh eggs
were laid for us, almost at our feet.
On approaching Solmona, you pass out of the desert into
a cultivated valley, at the end of which, on an isolated
platform reached by viaduct, is the stately town, crowned by
many towers and backed by grand masses of snow.  On the
left, the monastery of Ccelestine is seen beneath the mountain, and his more famous hermitage, clinging, eyrie-like, to
one of its ridges..- _i"; ~-\ x,-                       _'s' ~ 
Solmona.
Solmona is a perfectly mediaeval city, many of its iron




172               DA YS NEAR ROMIE.
balconies and Gothic house-windows being worthy of the
best Venetian palaces. Being the birth-place of Ovid, the
principal street is called Corso Ovidii, and is adorned with a
poor statue of the poet, who was tenderly attached to his
native city.' Sulmo mihi patria est, gelidis uberrimus undis."
Trist. iv. 9.
"Sulmonis gelidi, patria, Germanice, nostre;
Me miserum, Scythico quam procul illa solo est."
Fast. iv. 81.
The Corso crosses a small square containing a cinquecento  palace, Casa  Communale, of marvellous beauty,
adorned with statues of sainted popes and cardinals ranged
along its facade, between the richly-traceried windows. In
one of these, the pilasters, which imitate palm-trees, rest
upon lions, while the rose above is upheld by floating
angels.
The great piazza, where snow mountains are seen on all
sides above the houses, is one of the largest in Italy, and is
rendered exceedingly picturesque by the aqueduct which
crosses its upper extremity, and beneath  the arches of
which a broad flight of steps, ever crowded with figures,
descends from the street. Behind the aqueduct, rises the
front and the grand Gothic portal of S. Francesco. The inside
of the church, and its cloisters, ruined by an earthquake, are
now used as the market.  Another church, S. Maria della
Tomba has a fine entrance and rose-window.  The daily
costume  of the male peasantry is most becoming and
picturesque, and much like that of Murcia in Spain: —
white shirts and full breeches of white linen fastened close
at the knee, blue stockings, and an open sleeveless jacket of




SOLMONA.                          173
blue cloth, with a scarlet sash.  On Palm-Sunday, when we
were at Solmona, the female costume was perfectly magnificent, the women wearing red cloth over their whitepanlni,
and a profusion of gold and coral ornaments. In preparation
for Holy Week, immense coloured rosaries of sugar were
selling, gaily decorated with feathers and ribbons, and thus
religion was sweetened, as people were to suck off a sugarplum for every prayer they said.
We had  a steep  and  exhausting walk up to the wild
mountain cell where Ccelestine V. lived as the hermit Pietro
Murrone from  I239 to 1294, and we could not but pity the
archbishop and bishops, who in a time of even worse or no
foot-paths scrambled up thither to announce his strange
election to the  Papacy, and carry him  off, more like a
frightened wild beast than a human being, to his splendid
coronation at Aquila.  No transition has ever been more
extraordinary.
"Suddenly a solitary monk was summoned from his cell, in the
remote Abruzzi, to ascend the Pontifical throne. The Cardinal of Ostia,
Latino Malebranca, had admired the severe and ascetic virtues of Peter
Murrone, a man of humble birth, but already, from his extraordinary
austerities, held by the people as a man of the highest sanctity. He had
retired from desert to desert, and still multitudes had tracked him out in
vast swarms, some to wonder at, some to join his devout seclusion. He
seemed to rival, if not to outdo, the famous anchorites of old. His dress
was hair-cloth, with an iron cuirass; his food bread and water, with a
few herbs on Sunday.
" Peter Murrone has left an account of his own youth.  The brothers
of his Order, who took his name, the Ccelestinians, vouched for its
authenticity. His mother was devoutly ambitious that one of her eleven
children should be dedicated to God. Many of them died, but Peter
fulfilled her most ardent desires. His infancy was marked with miracles.
In his youth he had learned to read the Psalter; he then knew not the
person of the Blessed Virgin, nor of St. John. One day they descended
bodily from a picture of the Crucifixion, stood before him, and sweetl)




174                   DA YS NEAR ROME.
chaunted portions of the Psalter. At the age of twenty he went into the
desert: visions of Angels were ever round him, sometimes showering
roses over him. God showed him a great stone, under which he dug a
hole, in which he could neither stand upright, nor stretch his limbs, and
there he dwelt in all the luxury of self-torture among lizards, serpents,
and toads. A bell in the heavens constantly sounded to summon him to
prayers. He was offered a cock, he accepted the ill-omened gift; for his
want of faith the bell was thenceforth silent.  He was encircled by a
crowd of followers, whom he had already formed into a kind of Order
or Brotherhood; they were rude illiterate peasants from the neighbouring mountains.
"Either designedly or accidentally the Cardinal Malebranca spoke of
the wonderful virtues of the hermit, Peter MIurrone: the weary Conclave
listened with interest. It was in that perplexed and exhausted state,
when men seize desperately on any strange counsel to extricate themselves from their difficulty.... Peter Murrone was declared supreme
Pontiff by unanimous acclamation.
" The place of Murrone's retreat was a cave in a wild mountain above
the pleasant valley of Solmona.  The ambassadors of the Conclave
having achieved their journey from Perugia, with difficulty found guides
to conduct them to the solitude. As they toiled up the rugged ascent,
they were overtaken by the Cardinal Peter Colonna who had followed
them without commission from the rest. The cave, in which the saint
could neither sit upright nor stretch himself out, had a grated window
with iron bars, through which he uttered his oracular responses to the
wondering people. None even of the brethren of the Order might penetrate into the dark sanctuary of his austerities.  The ambassadors of the
Conclave found an old man with a long shaggy beard, sunken eyes overhung with heavy brows, and lids swollen with perpetual weeping, pale
hollow cheeks, and limbs meagre with fasting: they fell on their knees
before him, and he before them.
" So Peter Murrone the Hermit saw before him, in submissive attitudes, the three prelates, attended by the official notaries, who announced his election to the Papacy. He thought it was a dream, and
for once assuredly there was a profound and religious reluctance to
accept the highest dignity in the world.  He protested with tears his
utter inability to cope with affairs, to administer the sacred trust, to become the successor of the Apostle.  The news spread abroad; the
neighbouring people came hurrying by thousands, delighted that they
were to have a saint, and their own saint, for a Pope. The hermit in
vain tried to escape; he was brought back with respectful force,
guarded with reverential vigilance. Nor was it the common people only




HER MI TA GE OF PIE TRO MVURRONE.                 175
who were thus moved. The King of Naples, accompanied by his son,
now in right of his wife entitled King of Hungary, hastened to do honour to his holy subject, to persuade the hermit, who perhaps would be
dazzled by royal flatteries into a useful ally, to accept the proffered dignity.  The hermit-pope was conducted from  his lowly cave to the
monastery of Santo Spirito, at the foot of the mountain. He still refused
to be invested in the pontifical robes. At length arrived the Cardinal
Malebranca: his age, dignity, character, and his language urging the
awful responsibility which Peter Murrone would incur by resisting the
manifest will of God, and by keeping the Popedom longer vacant (for
all of which he would be called to give account on the day of judgment),
prevailed over the awe-struck saint. Not the least earnest in pressing
him to assume at once the throne were his rude but not so unambitious
hermit brethren: they too looked for advancement, they followed him
in crowds wherever he went. "-Milman's Hist. of Latin Christianity.'...,!,
d1 Ii,    -
Hermitage of Pietro Murrone.
The mountain is savage to a degree, and its pathlets are




176 (DAYS NEAR ROME.
guarded by huge sheep-dogs, against which stones are the
only protection.  Shepherds sit contentedly to see you
devoured, and play prettily on their reed-pipes as in classical
times. " Will you come up and show us your pipe," we said
to a boy in rags who was sitting on a rock beneath us.
" Certainly not," he answered, with true mountain independence, " if you want to see it, you can come down to me."
The original cell of Pietro Murrone is a cave, but, above
it, a hermitage in two stories has been built long ago and is
adorned with rude frescoes. A sort of brotherhood of hermitmonks was established here, and here " the blessed Roberto
de Salie " died in the odour of sanctity, having first been
favoured with a vision of the soul of Ccelestine in bliss.
We could not but wonder if Ccelestine was at all like the
poor hermit, the last of the brotherhood-who still lingers
here-utterly filthy-absolutely ignorant-coarse, and uncivilized. Yet with a sort of rude courtesy he offered us the
poor hospitality of his smoke-blackened den. "Would we
have an egg boiled or fried-a little black bread, not such
as Signori like, Ah no / dunque io gli racconmando a a cariti
di Dio."
Beneath the hermitage is the great monastery founded in
honour of S. Pietro Celestino, rather like the Escurial in its
proportions and situation.  It is ghastly ugly.  Under the
Papal Government it was a hospital and orphanage.  The
present Government have turned out the children and made
it a prison. The church has a picture of Celestine by
Raphael Mengs. Built into a small chapel above the convent, are a few Roman fragments from Corfinium.
It is said that Rienzi, the last of the Tribunes, lived here
in retreat as a monk, when he fled from Rome, but the her



LA GO DI SCANNO.                   177
mitage of S. Spirito in the Maiella is also pointed out as tile
Hermit of the Abruzzi.
place where he lived " come fraticello, con romiti e persone
di penitenza."
(An excursion may be made (14 miles) from Solmona to
the Lago di Scanno, but it must be performed partly on horseback and partly on foot, and in winter it is impossible from
VOL. II.                                    12




I78                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
the snow, or the swelling of the Sagittario in the narrow pass
called Gli Stretti di S. Luigi.
"The Lago di Scanno is really one of the most perfectly beautiful
spots in nature, and the more so for being in so desert a place. Its dark
waters slumber below bare mountains of great height; and their general
effect might recall Wast Water in Cumberland, but that every craggy hill
is of wilder and grander form. At the upper end of the lake, which
may be a mile and a half in length, an avenue of beautiful oaks, dipping
their branches into the water, shades the rocky path, and leads to a
solitary chapel, the only building in sight, save a hermitage on the
mountain beyond.  The beauty and stillness of this remote lake are
most impressive.
" The costume of the women of Scanno is extremely peculiar, and
suggests an oriental origin, particularly when (as is not unusually the
case with the elder females) a white handkerchief is bound round the
lower part of the face, concealing all but the eyes and nose. In former
days, the material of the Scannese dress was scarlet cloth richly ornamented with green velvet, gold lace, &c., the shoes of blue worked satin,
and the shoulder-straps of massive silver, a luxury of vestments now only
possessed by a very few. At present both the skirt and bodice are of
black or dark blue cloth, the former being extremely full, and the waist
very short; the apron is of scarlet or crimson stuff.
" The head-dress is very striking: a white handkerchief is surmounted
by a falling cap of dark cloth, among the poorer orders; but of worked
purple satin with the rich, and this again is bound round, turbanwise, by
a white or primrose-coloured fillet, striped with various colours, though,
excepting on festa days, the poor do not wear this additional band.
" The hair is plaited very beautifully with riband; and the ear-rings,
buttons, necklaces, and chains are of silver, and in rich families often
exceedingly costly."-Lea's Excursions in Italy.
Another savage excursion, impossible in winter snows, may
be made from  Solmona, by Pettorano, Rocca Valloscura,
and Roccarasa, to Castel di Sangro (so called from its river),
a picturesque old town with a castle of the Counts of the
Marsica.  There is a path hence through wild mountain
passes, by Barrea, Alfidena, and the Passo del Monaco
over the mountain of La Meta, to the pilgrimage-chapel of




CORFINIUM.                    179
S. Maria del Canneto. A road also leads from  Castel di
Sangro to Isernia, a very interesting old town, with a curious
aqueduct, a beautiful fountain, and a round church with a
shrine of S.S. Cosmo and Damian, of great repute for the
cure of disease in all the neighbouring country. Hence there
is a road to Naples by Venafro, where are fine polygonal
walls and an old castle of the Caraccioli.
There is a direct road, traversed by a diligence in summer,
from Solmona to Celano on the Lago Fucino, which saves an
immense detour.  It passes by Pentima. Near this are the
remains of the ancient Corfinium, many fragments of which
are built into the curious Church of S. Pelino, where S. Alexander I. is buried. But in winter and spring this road is
wholly impassable from snow, and we were reluctantly compelled to return through the moonlight to Aquila, by the
diligence which leaves Popoli at 7 P.M. and arrives at 2 A M.




CHAPTER XXIX.
IN THE MARSICA-THE LAGO FUCINO.
T HE  morning after reaching Aquila (March 3I) we
took the Avezzano diligence (9 francs 50 c.) which
left Aquila at IO A. M. It was a long ascent for several
hours after Aquila, and then we reached the upland plains of
snow.  The driver had many stories to tell of the perils of
that way, and how once he and his four horses were nearly
lost, and only rescued by a whole village turning out at the
sound of his alarm bell. We did not wonder, for the scenery
was that of Lapland; fields, hedges, mountain-sides entirely
concealed under a snow-mantle, and for hours our road was
a mere track cut in the snow, which rose in walls on either
side, where it had drifted, to the height of the diligence.
If they ceased talking, the coachman and the postal-guard
sang in parts, and for hours, one of the wild melancholy
songs of the Abruzzi.
"Sa vi digo, Maria, dij vui,
Povir amur!
V' Anvid a le mie nossi.Resignurin;
V' Anvid a le mie nossi.-A le vostri nossi an j ven nent,
Povir Amur!




CELANO.                         I8S
Ch'i sun titti le vostri,
Resignurin
Ch'i sun titti le vostri "
and so on, through at least fifty stanzas.
We paused to change horses at a dismal village in the
snow, Roca di Mezzo, halting under a gateway so completely
out of the perpendicular from earthquakes that it requires a
buttress almost as big as itself to keep it up.
At Camindoli the  road begins to descend  into  the
Marsica by a series of frightful and unguarded precipices,
and, passing beneath a village with the singular name of
Sant' Appetite, emerges from the mountains at Celano. As
we approach this town by a long defile, patches of pale blue
water under the abrupt cliffs on the opposite side of the
valley, indicate how beautiful the scene must have been,
before the Lago Fucino, which once completely filled the
intervening plain, was dried up.
Celano itself has a glorious castle, rising in three tiers of
battlements and towers against the mountain-side. It was
built in the time of the unhappy Countess Covella dei
Ruggieri, imprisoned by her own son Ruggierotto, who
was anxious to seize her estates, and only let out of prison
to plead the cause of her unnatural oppressor, and to
see her property confiscated by Ferdinand of Arragon to his
son-in-law Antonio Piccolomini, nephew of Pope Pius II.
The town, which has a chapel of the Piccolomini painted by
Giulio Romano, is the birthplace of the Beato Tomaso di
Celano, who is reputed to have written the Dies Ir&e, c. I250.
" Its situation is said to be near that of Cliternum. Count Tomaso of
Celano appears to have been a turbulent subject of the Emperor
Frederick II., who, in 1223, took and destroyed the town, exiling its




182                DA YS NEAR ROME.
inhabitants to Calabria, Sicily, and Malta; whence they returned, and
rebuilt their dwellings in the following reign. There is a poetical tradition of a palace in the old town, containing a marble staircase famous
for curing anybody who was in love, by the simple remedy of walking to
the top of it.
"The castle of Celano, a splendid fortress, and till recently in good
preservation, was built about 1450, by one of the three husbands of the
Countess Covella; but whether Lionello Acclozamuro, or Giacomo
Caldora, or Odoardo Colonna, it is not easy to state, as historians disagree as to the order in which the lady's husbands succeeded each other.
But as, in I430, a son of Lorenzo Colonna, Count of Alba and Celano,
was made Duke of Amalfi by Queen Giovanna II., it is most probable
the castle is of Colonna origin."-Lear's Excursions in Italy.
The district upon which we have now entered, still called
the Marsica, was the country of the Marsi, who, after their
subjugation by Rome in 45 A. u. c., became its firm allies.
Their legendary founder was Marsus, son of Circe, whence,
perhaps, they are frequently represented as magicians, who
had the power of rendering harmless the venom of serpents.
Virgil alludes to this in the passage in which he gives his
beautiful one-line description of the Lago Fucino.
"Quin et Marrubia venit de gente sacerdos,
Fronde super galeam et felici comtus oliva,
Archippi regis missu, fortissimus Umbro:
Vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris
Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat,
Mulcebatque iras, et morsus arte levabat.
Sed non Dardaniae medicari cuspidis ictum
Evaluit; neque eum juvere in vulnera cantus
Somniferi, et Marsis quaesitae montibus herbae.
Te nemus Anguitiae, vitrea te Fucinus unda,
Te liquidi flevere lacus.".En. vii. 750.
And  Silius Italicus speaks  in  the  same  terms  of the
Marsi:




A VEZZAANO.                        183
"At Marsica pubes
Et bellare manu, et chelydris cantare soporem,
Vipereumque herbis hebetare et carmine dentem.
JEctae prolem Angitiam mala gramina primam
Monstravisse ferunt, tactuque domare venena
Et lunam excussisse polo, stridoribus amnes
Frenantem, et sylvis montes nudasse vocatis.
Sed populis nomen posuit metuentior hospes,
Cum fugeret Phrygios trans xquora Marsya Crenos."
Sil. Ital viii. 497.
Below Celano, a road leads beneath the mountains along
what was once the basin of the lake (6 miles) to Avezzano,
a dull country town, with a fine old castle of the Barberini at one end of it, originally built by the Colonna. Here
we found a tolerable little inn with a good mountain view,
which is a pleasant centre for excursions.
Castle of Avezzano.
Only about three miles from Avezzano, crowning one of
the lower hills, is Alba Fucinensis, once a very important
place, the head-quarters of the Legio Marsica, which Cicero
praises in his Philippics, and the stronghold where Syphax,




I84               DA YS NEAR ROME,
king of Numidia, Perseus of Macedonia, and other captive
sovereigns were imprisoned by the Romans. It continued to
be a strong fortress after the fall of the Empire, and its final
ruin is due to Charles I. of Anjou, who destroyed the city, to
punish its adherence to Conradin. Beneath the present town
arevery perfect polygonal walls, and there are some remains
of an amphitheatre. It looks down upon the ancient territory
of Alba, fruitful from early times.
".. interiorque per udos
Alba sedet campos, pomisque rependit aristas.'
Sil. Ital. viii. 508.
Standing quite on a separate height, is the interesting
Church of S. Pietro, occupying the site of a temple, portions
of which are incorporated in its walls.  It has an ancient
mosaic pavement.  The position is most beautiful, backed
by Monte Velino and overlooking the plain of Tagliacozzo.
In the valley, near the present village of Scurcola, Conradin, the unhappy son of Manfred, was defeated (August 26,
1268) by Charles I. of Anjou, a victory which established the
power of the Guelphs in Italy. It is said to have been due to
the advice given to Charles by Alard de St Valery, who was
then returning from the Holy Land.
" E la da Tagliacozzo
Ove senz' arme vinse il vecchio Alardo."
Dante, If.xxviii. 17.
Hence Conradin fled with a few faithful attendants to
Astura, where he was betrayed by the traitor Frangipani,
and hurried by Charles to Naples, where he was executed.
The ruined Church of S. Maria della Vittoria was built by
the conqueror to commemorate his victory.
It is about  o miles -from Avezzano to Tagliacozzo, which




TA GLIA COZZO.                       185
for savage picturesqueness-" gli orrori," the natives call
it-is almost unrivalled.
"I have never seen anything more majestic than the approach to
Tagliacozzo.  It is a precipitous ravine, almost artificial in appearance;
and by some, indeed, considered as having been partly formed by the
Romans, for the transit of the Via Valeria. A monastery, with a Calvario, or range of shrines, stands at the entrance of this extraordinary
gorge, the portals of which are, on one hand, huge crags, crested with
a ruined castle; on the other, perpendicular precipices: between them
is placed the town, receding step by step to the plain below, while the
picture is completed by the three peaks of the towering Monte Velino,
entirely filling up the opening of the ravine.
"The lines of Dante have rendered the name of this town familiar to
the reader of Italian poetry; not that the battle between Conradino and
Charles was fought within a considerable distance, and one wonders
why the celebrated though decayed city of Alba, or the modern Avezzano, near which the engagement actually took place, did not rather
connect their names with so great an historical event. Tagliacozzo was
then, perhaps, the more important place. At present, the town contains upwards of three thousand inhabitants, and is the most thriving in
all the Marsica.
" There is no record of Tagliacozzo having been the site of any ancient
city; though Tagliaquitum, Taleacotium, have called forth a great deal
of ingenuity from various antiquarian ety nologists.  It seems to have
been a stronghold of importance, and its possession was often contested
during the divisions of the middle ages, as commanding a passage between the Papal and Neapolitan dominions: the counts, or dukes ot
Tagliacozzo, were consequently powerful barons. In 1442 A. D., it was
bestowed on the Orsini by King Alfonso: and, in I497, Fabrizio
Colonna received it from King Ferrante; and the Colonnesi still hold
much of the territory round the town. Tagliacozzo is much resorted to
by the devout, from its containing the remains of the Bishop Tommaso di Celano, whose bones rest in the church of S. Francesco.
The Madonna, called dell' Oriente, is also an object of great veneration. "-Lear's Excursions in Italy.
There is a bridle road from hence to Arsoli, which is only
a short distance off the high road between Tivoli and Subiaco.
Tivoli is only about 30 miles distant, so that this is the short



186               DA YS NEAR ROME.
est way of returning to Rome; but it is necessary to ride for
some hours.  The path, for the most part, follows the
ancient Via Valeria: and it passes Carsoli, on the site of
Carseoli, where the Equi sacrificed foxes to Ceres, and
where Bitis, son of the king of Thrace, was imprisoned
by the Romans. Ovid speaks of the coldness of its climate:
"Frigida Carseoli, nec olivis apta ferendis,
Terra, sed ad segetes ingeniosus ager.
HIac ego Pelignos, natalia rura, petebam;
Parva, sed assiduis uvida semper aquis.
Fast. iv. 683.
Cavaliere, beyond this, was built by a Cavaliere of the
Colonna family, who was nearly lost on these desolate hills
in the snow.
A third excursion, and one which should on no account
be omitted, may be made from  Avezzano to Luco.  The
road passes along the shore of what once was the Lago
di Fucino, sometimes called the Lago di Celano.  It is
2I8I feet above the level of the sea, had an area of 36,315
acres, and was 35 miles in circumference. Having no natural outlet, the villages on its banks were subject to
frequent inundations, and, as early as the time of Julius
Caesar, the Marsi petitioned help and advice for carrying off
the superabundant waters.  The Emperor Claudius undertook the construction of an emissary at his own cost, on
condition of receiving all the land reclaimed by the drainage. It was the intention to carry the waters into the Liris
by a tunnel 31 miles in length, and hewn, for a great part of
the way, out of the solid rock. For this work, 30,000 men
were employed for eleven years.




THE EMISSARIUM.                          187
The Emissary was opened by Claudius and  Agrippina
with a great gladiatorial display in A. D. 52.
"A passage having been cut through the mountain between the lake
Fucinus and the river Liris, in order that a greater number of persons
might be induced to come and see the magnificence of the work, a seafight was got up on the lake itself; in the same manner in which
Augustus before exhibited one on an artificial pool on this side the Tiber,
but with light ships, and fewer men. Claudius equipped galleys, of
three and four banks of oars, and manned them with I9,ooo mariners;
surrounding the space with a line of rafts, to limit the means of escape,
but giving room enough, in its circuit, to ply the oars, for the pilots to
exert their skill, for the ships to be brought to bear upon each other,
and for all the usual operations in a sea-fight.  Upon the rafts, parties
of the praetorian guards, foot and horse, were stationed, with bulwarks
before them, from which catapults and balistas might be worked: the
rest of the lake was occupied by marine forces, stationed on decked
ships. The shores, the adjacent hills, and the tops of the mountains,
were crowded with a countless multitude, many from the neighbouring
towns, others from Rome itself; impelled either by desire to witness the
spectacle, or in compliment to the prince; and exhibited the appearance of a vast theatre. The emperor presided, in a superb coat of
mail, and, not far from him, Agrippina, in a mantle of cloth of gold.
The battle, though between malefactors, was fought with the spirit of
brave men; and, after great bloodshed, they were excused from pressing the carnage to extremities.
" When the spectacle was concluded, the channel through which the
water passed off was exhibited to view, when the negligence of the workmen became manifest, as the work was not carried to the depth of the
bottom or centre of the lake. The excavations were, therefore, after
some time, extended to a greater depth; and, to draw the multitude
once mre together, a show of gladiators was exhibited upon bridges
laid over it, in order to display a fight of infantry. Moreover, an
erection for the purpose of a banquet, at the embouchure of the lake,
caused great alarm to the assembly; for, the force of the water rushing
out, carried away whatever was near it, shook and sundered what was
further off, or terrified the guests with the crash and noise. At the same
time, Agrippina, converting the emperor's alarm to her own purposes,
accused Narcissus, the director of the work, with avarice and robbery;
nor did Narcissus repress his anger, but charged Agrippina with the
overbearing spirit of her sex, and with extravagant ambition."- Tacitus,
xii. 56, 57.




188              DAYS NEAR ROME.
Owing to various errors in its construction, the Emissary
of Claudius continued to be practically a failure, and though
Hadrian and Trajan attempted to improve it, it soon became
choked up.  Frederick II. vainly attempted to re-open it.
In I852 the lake was granted by the government to a Swiss
company, on condition that they would undertake to drain
it, and their rights were purchased by Prince Torlonia, who
at his sole cost-about ~I,40oo,ooohas carried out the
work.  One engineer after another has perished from fever
while employed in its construction, and the expense has
been so enormous, that it has become a popular saying,
0 Torlonia secca il Fucino, o il Fucino secca Torlonia."
After all, the work may still in one sense be esteemed a
failure. Though the redeemed land is wonderfully rich, it is
considered that the profits of a thousand years will not repay
the Torlonias for the expenses they have undergone; the
inhabitants of the towns along the lake, who formerly gained
an abundant livelihood as fishermen, are reduced to the
utmost poverty; and, while the air was formerly extremely
salubrious, the natives are now a constant prey to fevers from
the exhalations of the marshy land. It is hoped that this experience may preserve the beautiful lakes of Thrasymene
and Bolsena.
About two miles from Avezzano, at the spot called Incile,
we pass the works of the Emissario. The modern work has
destroyed the whole of the interesting remains of the time of
Claudius, and though the mountains cannot be spoilt, there
is little else to remind us of the scene of a few years ago,
which Lear has beautifully described:
"The plain of Avezzano; the clear blue lake; Alba, and Velino,
with its fine peaks, alternately in bright light, or shaded by passing




S. MARIA Dl LUCO.                        189
clouds; the far snow-covered mountains beyond Solmona; the bare pass
of Forca Carusa; the precipitous crag of Celano,-all these at once,
brilliant with the splendour of Italian morning, form a scene not to be
slightly gazed at, or lightly forgotten-the utter quiet of all around! the
character of undisturbed beauty which threw a spell of enchantment over
the whole!
" A herd of white goats blinking and sneezing lazily in the early sun;
their goatherd piping on a little reed; two or three large falcons soaring
above the lake; the watchful cormorant sitting motionless on its shining
surface; and a host of merry flies sporting in the fragrant air,-these are
the only signs of life in the very spot where the thrones of Claudius and
his Empress were placed on the crowd-blackened hill: a few fishingboats dotted the lake where, eighteen centuries ago, the cries of combat
rent the air, and the glitter of contending galleys delighted the Roman
multitude.
" The solitary character of the place is most striking; no link between
the gay populous past, and the lonely present; no work of any intermediate century breaks its desolate and poetical feeling. "-Excursions in
Italy.
About 51 miles from Avezzano we reach Luco.  There is
nothing to see in the town, except a miraculous Madonna in
the principal church. But on the right, just before reaching
the town, we pass the Church of S. Maria di Luco which
occupies the site and looks down upon the  walls of the
ancient city of Angutia, identified by inscriptions.  Here
also, at an earlier time, was the sacred grove (the Lucus
Angutice of Virgil) of Angutia, the sister of Circe and Medea.
The church, which rises on the ancient walls, is of great
age, having been given to the Benedictines, by Doda, Contessa de' Marsi, in A. D. 930. It is a very interesting building with round-headed  doorways.  The interior has been
used as a Campo Santo, and there is a chapel filled with
skulls and  human  bones.  The situation, surrounded by
oak-trees, is lovely, and must have been surpassingly so,
when it looked out upon the vast expanse of lake-waters.




I90                DA  S NEAR ROME.
Lear mentions how the rope of the church bell was carried
through the window of the sacristan's house, so that he might
ring it without leaving his room, and it is so still.
About three miles beyond Luco is Trasacco (formerly
Transaqua) built on the site of the palace of Claudius, afterwards inhabited by Trajan.  Here the Church of S. Rufino
is said to have been built in A. D. 237, by the first Bishop of
the Marsi, who suffered martyrdom, with S. Cesidio, under
Maximin.
Beyond, on the former shore, are several other villages,
Ortucchio, with an old castle, standing near the supposed site
of Archippe, which Pliny describes as having been swallowed
up by the lake; Pescina, the see of the bishop still called
" Il vescovo de' Marsi; " and San Benedetto, occupying the
site of Mlfarruvium, the capital of the Marsi:
"Marruvium, veteris celebratum nomine Marri,
Urbibus est illis caput."
Silius Ital. viii. 507.
Many remains of ancient buildings may be seen, and
during the drought of 1752, several statues of Roman emperors, now in the museum at Naples, were discovered here
in the lake.




CHAPTER XXX.
SORA, AND THE LAND OF CICERO.
(An uncomfortable and frequently crowded diligence leaves Avezzano
at 8 P. M., arriving at Sora about I A. M.
Sora is easily reached from Rome, by the station of Rocca-Secca,
from which it is a pleasant drive of about 3 hours, and a railway will
shortly bring it within the range of an even easier excursion from the
capital.
The Albergo di Roma at Sora is an admirable country inn, with exceedingly moderate prices. Carriages may be obtained at Sora for the
day.  To Arpino and Isola with S. Domenico, 12 francs: to Isola
alone 2Y2 francs: to S. Germano, staying some hours at Atina, 20 francs:
to Rocca-Secca, from 12 to 15 francs.)
O   N  leaving Avezzano the road immediately begins the
ascent of the Monte Salviano, so called from the wild
sage with which it is covered. The views are beautiful, of the
valley, and the opposite heights of Monte Velino. Crossing
the mountain, we reach, in a savage situation on the right,
Capistrello, beneath which is the mouth of the Emissary of
the Lago Fucino.  About three miles beyond the village of
Civita di Roveto, a road on the left leads (2 miles) to Civita
d'Antino, cresting a hill, and occupying the site of the
ancient Antinum  of which some polygonal walls remain.
Near this is the waterfall of La Schioppo, a beautiful cascade
of the river Romito.




192                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
On  the left, four miles before  reaching Sora, we pass
beneath  the town of Balzorano, crowned by a grand old
castle of the Piccolomini. It is a glorious subject for an
artist.
Sora, a bright well-paved town on the river Liris, was
originally a Volscian city colonized by the Romans. In
modern times it was the birthplace of Cardinal Baronius. It
has a ruined castle, which, after having passed through the
hands of the Cantelmi and Tomacelli, now  gives a ducal
title to the Buoncompagni.
" During the earlier portion of the middle ages Sora is often mentioned as a frontier town, which the Lombard dukes of Benevento
attacked and plundered. It may have been then Byzantine. From time
to time governed by counts of Lombard race (for the whole region near
the Liris was once filled with Lombards), it fell into the hands of the
emperor Frederick II., who destroyed it. Afterwards it belonged to the
powerful counts of Aquino, who possessed almost all the land between
the Vulturnus and the Liris. Then Charles of Anjou made the Cantelmi, relations of the Stuarts, counts of Sora, and Alfonso of Arragon
raised Sora to a duchy, of which Nicolo Cantelmi was the first duke. The
Popes had long coveted the possession of the beautiful border-land, and
they obtained it under Pius II., whose captain Napoleone Orsini conquered Sora.  Ferdinand I. of Naples confirmed the possession; but
Sixtus IV. separated it from the church in I47I, when he married his
nephew Leonardo della Rovere to the king's niece, who received the
duchy of Sora as a dowry. Afterwards Gregory XIII. bought Sora, in
1580, from the duke of Urbino for his sork Don Giacomo Buoncompagni,
and seldom has a Roman'nipote' had a more charming possession.
This property remained in the hands of the Buoncompagni-Ludovisi till
the end of the i8th century, when it returned to Naples, and of the
splendour of that Roman nepotism there only remains in Rome the
Palazzo di Sora and the title of Duke of Sora, which is now borne by
the eldest son of Prince LudovisihPiombino."-Gregorovius.
The present interest of Sora arises entirely from the fact
that here Italian costume reaches its climax. The dress is
purely Greek, and so are the ornaments, and so, indeed, is




VALLEY OF THE LIRIS.                     193
the wonderful beauty of the women.  The best peasant
jewels, of designs such as are seen in Greek sculpture, are
all bought and sold here.  Owing to the factories of the
Liris and the great care which their owner, M. Lefebvre,
bestows upon his workmen, the people are all most thriving
and prosperous, and the valley of the Liris may be regarded
as "the Happy Valley " of Central Italy.
Contadina, Valley of the Liris.
"The modern factories, mostly paper-mills, bn a large scale and on
the newest system, owe their rise chiefly to Frenchmen of the time of
VOL. II.                                        I3




194                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
Murat, among them  M. Lefebvre. [This man arrived poor, but the
banks of the Liris became to him an Eldorado, for he drew pure gold
from the power of water. He left to his son manufactures and millions.
The king of Naples, I think Ferdinand II., ennobled his family; they
richly deserved this honour, for a hitherto scarcely cultivated region
owes to the inventive genius of this one man an abundant life which
will not disappear but increase. The creative action of a man in a certain circle of industry belongs to those manifestations of human activity
which we may contemplate with the purest interest; if such (action) is
frequent in England, Germany, or France, and rare in Naples, we
may easily imagine how highly merit of this kind is to be esteemed."Gregorovius.
As in the days of Juvenal, Sora may be looked upon as
a pleasant retreat for respectable old age:
"Si potes avelli Circensibus, optima Sorxe,
Aut Fabrateriae domus, aut Frusinone paratur,
Quanti nunc tenebras unum conducis in annum."
Sat. iii. 223.
It is only two miles from Sora, descending the valley of
the Liris, to  the old  conventual church of S. Domenico
Abate. It stands on an island in the Fibreno, close to its
junction with the Liris. The nave is of very good and pure
Gothic. In the adjoining convent S. Domenico Abate died.
These buildings occupy the site, and are built from the
remains of the beloved villa of Cicero.   In Cicero "de
Legibus" * Atticus asks why Cicero is so much attached to
this Villa, and Cicero answers:
"Why, to tell the truth, this is the real home of myself, and my
brother here.  Our family, a most ancient one, had its rise here, our
household-gods are here, our clan, and many a relic of our ancestors.
Well, and you see this Villa, it was enlarged to its present form by my
father, who, as his health failed, spent his latter years here in study, and
in this very spot, my grandfather being still alive, and the Villa still
*II. I. 3.




THE ISLAND  OF CICERO.                     195
small and old-fashioned, like the one at Cures on my Sabine estate, I
was born.  So that deep down in my heart I cherish a singular feeling
and affection for the place: just as we read of that most cunning hero,
who to see his Ithaca renounced immortality."
Contadina, Sora.
Afterwards the island became the property of Silius Italicus.
"Silius hac magni celebrat monumenta Maronis,
Jugera facundi qui Ciceronis habet.
Martial, Ep. xi. 49.
As we enter the plot of garden ground behind the convent, we cannot wonder at the affection which the great
orator entertained for the place. On all sides it is sur



I96                DAYS NEAR ROOME.
rounded by clear glancing water. The Fibrenus is lovely,
with wooded banks, and abounding in trout.  Through the
trees we have exquisite mountain views.  In  spring  the
banks are one sheet of violets, and primroses-which are very
rare in Italy. Amid the rich vegetation lie fragments and
capitals of columns; a tall pillar with some Roman masonry
grouped around it, stands at the west end of the church,
and the crypt is supported by low massive pillars of granite
and marble, evidently taken from the ruins of the villa.
Remains of Cicero's Villa, S. Domenico.
" It was here that Cicero, Quintus, and Atticus held those conversations which we possess as the three books'de Legibus.' They wander
on foot from Arpinum to the river Fibrenus, they arrive at the'insula
quae est in Fibreno,' here they will sit and philosophise further. Atticus
wonders at the beauty of the place, and Cicero, who remarks that he is
fond of meditating, reading, or writing here, says that the place has a
peculiar additional charm for him from having been his own cradle:




THEI ISLAND OF CICERO.                     197' uia haue est mea et hujusfratrs mei germana patria; hinc enim ortz
stirpe antiquissima, hic sacra, hic gens, hic majorum multa vestigia.' He
relates that his grandfather possessed this villa; that his sickly father,
who enlarged it, there became old in his studies.  At the sight of his
birthplace Cicero confesses that the same feeling came over him which
Ulysses experienced, when he preferred the sight of Ithaca to immortality. lie avows that Arpinum is his home, as'civitas,' but that he
properly belonged to the country round Arpinum; and Atticus now
paints the lovely position of the island in the arms of the Fibrenus,
which refreshes the waters of the Liris, and is so cold that he scarcely
dared to bathe his feet in it.  They sit down to converse further about
the laws, and we prefer the sight of these three men of Roman urbanity,
and of the highest education of their day, to that of the company of
monks in cowls, where Gregory VII. sits by some holy man with a
tangled beard, in the eleventh century, the epoch at which Rome was
lost in the deepest barbarism both of manners and civilization. How
Cicero, Atticus, and Quintus would have stared at the Romans of the
eleventh century.
" So the chattering poplars of the Fibrenus surrounded the cradle of
Cicero-and one still listens with pleasure to the ceaseless whispers
of these quivering branches, whose leaves are as busy and talkative as
the tongues of women. Yes! Cicero certainly had an enviable birthplace, but what good is there in talking of it to those who can never give
one glance at this land of nymphs, of unfading flowers, and an eternal
spring? Around it, what a panorama of hills, brown, or hyacinthineblue in the still majesty of aerial distance! Cicero was a child of'the plain,
not of the hills, and his great intellect accumulated to itself all the
learning of his time, as a mighty stream  receives the brooks: but
Marius was a child of the mountain, born above in Arpinum within
the walls of the Cyclops, and hither we will now turn our steps."Gregorovius.
If we cross the river Liris, in front of the convent, by the
ferry-boat-which is in itself a picture, when filled with
women in  their bright costumes, accompanied  by  their
donkeys with panniers full of vegetables-we may visit, below
the gardens, the ruin of a Roman bridge, called Ponte di
Cicerone. Only a single arch remains.
The most famous of the monks of S. Domenico was Hildebrand, afterwards Pope Gregory VII.




198                DAYS NEAR ROME.
"This wonderful man may often have sat under the poplars on this
charming island of Cicero in dreamy meditation, but he would never
have dreamt that an emperor should one day stand before his do6r in
the dress of a penitent, and that it was reserved for him to play a greater
part in Rome, indeed in the history of the world, than either Marius or
Cicero. "-Gregorovius.
Below  S. Domenico we reach the Cartiera, the papermanufactory, of M. Lefebvre, in whose gardens are some
charming little cascades-cascatelle-of the Fibreno.
Here, turning to the left, we ascend the olive-clad hills,
by a beautiful terraced road of about three miles, to Arpino.
The country is rich and smiling, and the people prosperous
and well cared for.  Men and women alike wear sandals,
pointed at the toe. Arpino stands finely on twin hills, one
summit occupied by the Cyclopean, the other by the Roman
city.
" There is a great charm in seeing for the first time, in the mysterious
distance, a place to which belong two celebrated names, which mark
epochs in the world's history, and have been known to us from childhood. Memories of youth return to strengthen the impression-school
scenes when Cicero was explained, even the look of the well-worn
school-book in grey paper, Cicero's Orations, above all the declaiming
of the never-to-be-forgotten'Quousque tandem Catilina.' And there
before us is Cicero's birthplace."-Gregorovius.
The Roman city of Arpino is entered by a gateway with
Roman masonry.  Near it is a tomb, which the local antiquary Clavelli describes as that of King Saturnus, the
legendary founder of the city.
Arpinum was an ancient city of the Volscians, from whom
it was taken by the Samnites, and from them, B. c. 305, by
the Romans, under whom, in B. C. I88, it obtained the Roman
franchise, and was enrolled in the Cornelian tribe. C.
Marius was born here, being of ignoble birth.




ARPIVO.                           199
"Arpinas alius Volscorum in monte solebat
Poscere mercedes alieno lassus aratro;
Nodosam post haec frangebat vertice vitem,
Si lentus pigra muniret castra dolabra.
Hic tamen et Cimbros, et summa pericula rerum
Excipit; et solus trepidantem protegit urbem."
7uvnal/, Sat. viii. 245.
And M. Tullius Cicero, whose father was of equestrian
rank.
"Hic novus Arpinas, ignobilis, et modo Romoe
Municipalis eques galeatum ponit ubique
Pr-esidium attonitis, et in omni monte laborat.
Tantum igitur muros intra toga contulit illi
Nominis et tituli, quantum non Leucade, quantum
Thessalixe campis Octavius abstulit udo
Caedibus assiduis gladio. Sed Roma parentem,
Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit."
yuvenal, Sat. viii. 237.
Cicero constantly speaks, in his works, of his native Arpinum.  He describes its inhabitants as rustic and simple,
as was appropriate to the rugged district in which they lived,
but with all the virtues of mountaineers, and he applies to
Arpinum the lines in the Odyssey about Ithaca:TpqrlX, aXX' ciyaOr} Kovporp6oog' oVire eoywy
S' )yair)c vvaaila yXviKCpbrepTov aXXo idfOat.
Odyss. ix. 27.
When Arpino rebelled against Pius II. and was taken by his
general, the Pope desired that it might he spared "for the sake
of Marius and Marcus Tullius."  Arpino itself has always
been very proud of its distinguished citizens, whose busts
adorn its little Casa Communale. The sites of houses are
pointed out which are reputed to have belonged to them,
though there is no reason to suppose that Cicero lived nearer




200                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
than the Fibrenus.  The church of St. Michaele is shown
as occupying the position of a Temple of the Muses; and
that of S. Maria di Civita, on the apex of the hill, of a Temple
of Mercury Lanarius.
The painter Giuseppe Cesari, commonly known as the
"Cavaliere d'Arpino" (1560 — 640), was born here, in a
house which is still pointed out.
" The Cavaliere d'Arpino formed a great school, by means of which
he directed the Roman practice, and formed a decided opposition to
other masters, particularly the school of the Caracci."-Kugler.
" The Cavaliere d'Arpino left behind him pJrogeniem vitiosiorem. He
was born a painter, and in so vast and difficult an art, had endowments
sufficient to atone, in part, for his defects. His colouring in fresco was
admirable, his imagination was fruitful and felicitous, his figures were
animated. His works are almost innumerable." Lanzi.
Mounting above the houses on the left of the town, a
stony  path  over glaring steeps of limestone rock  thinly
planted with olives, leads to the Citta Vecchia.  It has considerable remains of Cyclopean walls, and behind a church
on the citadel is one of the earliest architectural monuments
in Europe, a most remarkable arch of gigantic rough-hewn
stones without cement, projecting in different courses till
they meet. It is said to resemble the gates at Tiryns and
Mycene.
"It may be mentioned that the Cyclopes assisted in making the gate
at Mycenae (vide Pausanias in Argol), and there they cut and even squared
their blocks; and that Diomede, who of course had often seen that gate,
founded the city of Arpi, in Apulia. Query: Did any of that or any
other Greek colony reach Arpinum, the name of which seems a derivative?-for the gate of Arpinum, now called Acuminata, remains in such
a state, that the size, the form, and even the number of stones seem
almost a copy of the gate of Mycenae. The blocks also on each side of
the portal advance, in the same manner, as if to embrace a triangular
stone above the opening.  The triangular stone, with the two jambs, and




ARPINO.                            201
the architrave, unfortunately do not remain, but the upper part of the
opening could have been closed in no other manner."-Gell,
" I stood high on the Cyclopean walls and gazed with rapture upon
the Latian landscape, for the citadel being in such a lofty situation, the
view around is grand and extensive.  The hill of Sora looked like a
little pyramid, like one of those in Egypt; and, in its black shadow, lay
Gate of Arpinum.
the town; and fully exposed to view was the valley of the Liris, majestically surrounded by high hills. There is La Posta from whence the
Fibrenus flows; there Sette Frati (Seven Brothers) dedicated to the sons
of Felicitas, where that strange Alberic had the vision, which preceded
that of Dante and may perhaps have been the foundation of it.  Many
other places and castles glimmer in the blue atmosphere of these most,




202                 DA YS NEAR ROJME.
glorious mountain ranges.  On the Roman side we see Veroli, Monte
San Giovanni, Frosinone, Ferentino, and at the side rises an obelisk-like
hill surmounted by the castle of Arce, and another on which stands the
solitary and very black tower of Monte Negro. All these castles are of
Saturnian origin, and strange is the scene upon which one gazes, when
sitting upon these ivy-covered Cyclopean walls, over which the elements
have swept for thousands of years.
" It is a historical panorama which surrounds Arpinum, and I shall not
leave its citadel without first recalling that short and true picture into
which Valerius Maximus compressed the career and origin of Marius.
From that Marius, he says, a low-born Arpinian, an obscure man in
Rome, who was even as it were disliked as a candidate, rose that
Marius, who subjugated Africa, drove King Jugurtha before his chariot,
annihilated the armies of the Teutons and the Cimbri, whose two-fold
trophies were seen in the city, whose seven consulships are registered in
the Fasti, who, from an exiled Consul and a proscribed man, became a
proscriber. What is more full of contrasts than his career? Yes, this
is a man who, regarded as miserable, seems most miserable, or, as fortunate, most fortunate."-Gregorovius.
On regaining the high road, we must (before returning to
Sora) turn to the left for about half a mile, to visit the wonderfully beautiful Falls of the Liris at Isola. The cascade
(greatly increased by the draining of the Lago Fucino) falls
in a mass of water, encircled by smaller streams, from beneath
an old castle, almost into the midst of the picturesque town
of Isola. The colour is really glorious, and the Iris is even
more beautiful than that of Terni.
(It is a pleasant drive of I3 miles from Isola down the
valley of the Liris to the station of Rocca-Secca on the line
from  Naples to Rome.  Arce (seven miles from Arpino) is
seen upon the left: it is supposed to be identical with
Arcanum, where Quintus Cicero had a villa.*   Rocca-Secca,
high on the mountain-side, is falsely mentioned by many
authors as the birthplace of S. Thomas Aquinas, who was
* Cicero ad Q. Fr. iii. I, 9. Ad Att. v. i.




A TINA.                       203
born in the family house at Aquino. The Counts of Aquino
had a fortress at Rocca-Secca, but it was never used as a
residence.)
It is a delightful drive of about five hours from Sora to
S. Germano.  Four miles from Sora, on the left, was once
the little Lake of La Posta, but it has been entirely drained,
to the great detriment of the scenery.  As we approach
Atina many ruined tombs appear near the road-side.
Atina occupies a striking position on a hill, and is approached by a beautiful ascent through rocks and trees. It
has an old castle, with a Roman statue and other fragments
built into its walls. The position strikingly resembles that
of Arpino.  The Volscian city occupied the other apex of
the double hill, and is approached by a very steep rocky
path, almost a staircase, beginning behind a convent, opposite the gate of the later town. It has a double platform,
guarded by two ranges of ancient walls, and at the summit is
the citadel. Antiquaries suggest fragments of masonry as
representing temples, &c., but they are very obscure. The
situation is most imposing, girt in by rocks and with views
into the depths of wild mountain gorges.
Pietro Diacono declares Atina to have been the oldest of
cities, having been "built by King Saturnus, after he was
expelled by his son Jupiter." Martial speaks of its age in his
epigram on Marius Atinates.
"Mari, quietae cultor et comes vitae,
Quo cive prisca gloriatur Atina."
x. 92.
In some of its old inscriptions the town is called " Atina
Saturni filia." The place must have been of great strength,




204              DAYS NEAR ROME.
and is mentioned as "Atina potens" by Virgil (2En. vii.).
After leaving this ancient city, there is nothing more to be
seen, till, on descending to the plain, and turning the
shoulder of the hills, the great convent of Monte Cassino
and the castle of Rocca Janula below it are discovered upon
the light.




CHAPTER XXXI.
MONTE CASSINO.
T HE great monastery of Monte Cassino is now brought
within a few hours of Rome by the station of S. Germano on the Naples railway.  Though it is bereaved of its
former splendours, strangers are still hospitably received within its walls. All travellers should visit it, for those who are
careless of its sacred memories and historical associations,
will find sufficient to delight them in its architectural
features, and in its position, which is one of the finest in
Europe.
The railway to S. Germano has been already described in
preceding chapters as far as Frosinone.  The next station,
Ceccano, is at the foot of a town which is, externally, perhaps
the most picturesque on the whole line. On the left bank of
the river was the site of Fabrateria Vetus.
Ceprano (distant 24  miles from the station) has an old
castle which was the scene of several events in Papal history.
Paschal II. lived here while he was quarrelling with Henry
IV.: here Lucius II. had his interview with Roger of Sicily;
and hither the cardinals came to welcome Gregory X. as
Pope. Here, in 1266, the Count of Caserta, left by Manfred




206                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
to defend the passage of the Garigliano, fled at the approach
of Charles of Anjou.
"E l'altra, il cui ossame si accoglie
A Ceperan, la, dove fu bugiardo
Ciascun Puglicse.
Dante, Inf xxviii. I5.
Crossing the Liris, we pass near the site of the Volscian
Fregel/l, which wits colonized by Rome B. c. 328.  It was
destroyed in consequence of a rebellion in B.c. I25, and
Fabrateria Nova founded in its stead.
We now  pass Rocca-Secca (described Ch. XVII.), and
leave, to the right, the ruins of Aquino (see Ch. XXIX.).
From a great distance, the convent of Monte Cassino is
visible, rising on the hill-top above the plain of the Garigliano.  As we come nearer, we see the splendid old castle
of Rocca Janula, half-way up the ascent, surrounded with
towers, embattled and crenellated, and connected by a long
line of turretted wall with the town of San Germano at its
feet.
San Germano * is wonderfully picturesque.  It occupies
the site of the Roman Casinum, which Strabo describes as
the last town of Latium on the Latin way. Livy (XXII.)
tells how  Hannibal intended occupying it to prevent the
consul Fabius from  advancing on Campania; but was led
by a mistake of his guide to Casilinum. Silius Italicus speaks
of its springs:
"Nymphisque habitata Casinis
Rura evastantur."
xii. 527.
and of its foggy climate:
* The inn is the Albergo Pompei, a very clean, comfortable, pretty little hotel in
a garden, indeed one of the best country inns in Italy. Double-bedded rooms 3
francs, single rooms 2 francs, dinner 3 francs. These prices should be maintained.




AMPHI7THEA TRE OF S. GERMANO.                207' et nebulosi rura Casini."
iv. 227.
Casinum continued to flourish under the empire, but was
destroyed by the Lombards in the 6th century. Its modern
name of S. Germano is derived from a holy bishop of Capua,
a contemporary and friend of S. Benedict.
About half a mile from the town, just above the high road
from S. Germano to Rome, is the principal relic of Casinum,
an Amphitheatre, small, but very perfect externally, built, as
an inscription " narrates, at the private expense of Numidia
Quadratilla, whose life and death are celebrated by Pliny
the younger.t The interior is an utter ruin.
Above the Amphitheatre is the little Church ofthe rocvcifsso,
occupying an ancient tomb which is shown as that of Numidia Quadratilla. It is cruciform with a dome in the centre,
and much resembles the tomb of Galla Placidia at Ravenna.
The blocks of stone in the entrance-walls are colossal. At
the head of the steps in front of the church is a sacrificial
altar. The hermit who takes care of the tomb has a school
above it. Immediately beneath are the vast remains of the
Seminary of Monte Cassino, occupying the site of the historical convent Plumbariola. They enclose a courtyard, with a
well and an old fig-tree. The surrounding corridors remind
one, on a small scale, of the Coliseum before the spoliations
of Rosa.  A little beyond, on the side of the mountain, is a
garden of Indian figs, with quite a settlement of small houses
amongst the great cactus plants. The view in returning to
S. Germano is most beautiful.
Near the town, on the banks of the river Fiume Rapido,
* Now at Monte Cassino, let into the wall of a gallery.
t Ep. vii. 24.




208                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
are some ruins of a Roman villa, supposed to be that of
Varro (called by Cicero " a most conscientious and upright
man " ), of which he has left us a detailed description in his
Res Rust. III. 5.   It was here that Marc Antony indulged
in the orgies, against which Cicero poured forth his eloquence.
" How many days did he spend in that villa in the most scandalous
revels. From morning onwards it was one scene of drinking, gambling,
and vomiting. Unhappy house! unhappy indeed in its change'of
masters. For Marcus Varro it was a place of studious seclusion, not a
theatre for his lusts. What noble discussions, what high thoughts, what
works originated there! The laws of the Roman people, our ancestral
traditions, every kind of scientific and learned theory! but with you as
its denizen (no master you) the place resounded with drunken voices;
the floors were flooded, and the walls dripped with wine.."
Cic. Phil. ii. 41.
The churches of San Germano, though modernized, are
full of interest.  The Collegiata was built by the Abbot Gisulf
in the 9th century, and, though greatly altered in the   7th
century, retains its twelve ancient marble columns.
Donkeys may be obtained, if desired, for the ascent to the
Monastery, price 2 francs each.   The steep and stony path
winds above the roofs of the houses, leaving to the right the
ruins of the castle of Rocca Janula, which was twice besieged
and taken by Frederick II. At each turn of the path the view
is fresh; at each it is more beautiful. We look down upon the
purple valley through which winds the silver thread of the
Garigliano, and in which Aquino, Pontecorvo, and many other
towns are lying. Beyond, girdling in the plain on every side,
are chains of mountains, broken into  every  conceivable
form, every hue of colour melting into the faintest blue,
tossing far away  in  billow  upon  billow  of rocky surge,




ASCEA~T TO MONTE CASSINO.               209
crested or coated with snow. Sometimes, as you turn a corner, a promontory of rock juts out like a vast buttress,
covered with wood; sometimes, the path itself is lost in the
deep thickets where only the blue sky can be seen through
the twisted boughs of the dark ilexes, which open again to
admit a new snow-peak, or a fresh vista of purple mountains. Small oratories by the wayside offer shelter from
Castle of Rocca Janula.
the wind and sun, and commemorate the Benedictine story.
First we have that of S. Placidus, the favourite disciple of
the patriarch; then that of S. Scholastica, the beloved
sister; then a triple-chapel where one of the Benedictine
miracles occurred.  Beyond these, a cross upon a platform marks the final meeting-place of Benedict and Scho]astica.  It is not known that the beloved twin-sister of S.
Benedict ever took any vows, though she privately dediVOL. Ii.                                  14




210                DAYS NEAR ROME.
cated herself to God from  childhood. When her brother
came to his mountain monastery, she followed him, and
founded a religious house in the valley below (it is supposed at the spot called Plumbariola), where she devoted
herself to a life of prayer with a small community of pious
women her companions.
"There is something striking in the attachment of the brother and
sister, the human affection struggling with the hard spirit of monasticism. S. Scholastica was a female Benedict. Equally devout, equally
powerful in attracting and ruling the minds of recluses of her own sex,
the remote foundress of convents, almost as numerous as those of her
brother's rule. With the most perfect harmony of disposition, one in
holiness, one in devotion, they were of different sexes and met but once
a year." —Milman.
It was here that they met for the last time and passed the
day together in pious exercises. At this last interview Scholastica implored Benedict to remain with her till the morning,
that they might praise God through the night; but the saint
refused, saying that it was impossible for him to be absent
from his convent. Then Scholastica bent over her clasped
hands and prayed, and, though the weather was beautiful
and there was not a cloud in the sky, the rain began immediately to fall in such torrents, accompanied by thunder and
lightning of such a terrific kind, that neither Benedict nor the
brethren who were with him  could leave the place where
they were.  "The Lord be merciful to you, my sister," said
the Abbot, " what have you done."  " You have rejected my
prayers," answered Scholastica, " but God has been more merciful," and thus the brother and sister remained together till the
morning.  St. Gregory the Great, who tells the story, says
that one must not be surprised that the wish of the sister
was heard by God rather than that of the brother, because, of




ASCENT TO MONTE CASSINO.                      211
the two, the sister was the one who loved him the most, and
with God the one who loves the most is always the most
powerful.
As we draw nearer the convent, we find a cross in the
middle of the way. In front of it, a grating covers the mark
of a knee which is said to have been left in the rock by St.
Benedict when he knelt there to ask a blessing before laying
the foundation-stone of his convent.
Benedict came hither from Subiaco, when he had already
been 36 years a monk, led through the windings of the
Apennines, says the tradition, alternately by two angels and
two birds, till he reached this spur of the mountain above Casinum, which had then already been ruined by Genseric.
Strange to say, the inhabitants of this wild district were, in
the sixth century of Christianity, still Pagan, and worshipped
Apollo in a temple on the top of the mountain, where also
was a grove sacred to Venus. Gregory the Great wrote that
which he was told by four of Benedict's disciples, three of
whom  succeeded him in the government of the monastery,
and one of whom, Honoratus, was abbot at the time:
"The holy man (Benedict) in changing his home changed not his
foe. Nay, rather his conflict grew the more severe, inasmuch as he
found the author of evil himself openly warring against him. The
strong place called Cassino is situated on the side of a lofty mountain
which enfolds the fort in a broad hollow; the mountain itself rears its
peak three miles into the air.  Here stood a very ancient temple,
in which Apollo was worshipped in heathen fashion by the foolish
country folk.  Groves too, devoted to devil-worship, had grown up on
every side, in which even still the folly of a crowd of misbelievers kept
up blasphemous sacrifices. Hither came the man of God, brake in
pieces the idol, overthrew the altar, burnt down the grove, and in
Apollo's own temple set up a chapel to St. Martin, and, where the
altar of the god had stood, a chapel to St. John. Here he tarried, and
by preaching the gospel far and near brought over a host of converts to




212                DAYS NEAR ROME.
the Faith. This was more than his old enemy could quietly bear. So
now, not secretly, nor in dreams, but quite openly he presented himself
before the saint, and with great shouts complained that violence was
being done him. To whom the holy man answered never a word, tho'
the fiend taunted him  saying, " No Benedict, but Maledict thou!
What hast thou to do with me, why persecutest thou me?"
S. Gregory Ihe Great, ii. 8.
Dante writes in allusion to this:
"Quel monte, a cui Cassino e nella costa,
Fu frequentato gia in su la cima
Dalla gente ingannata e mal disposta.
Ed io son quel che su vi portai prima
Lo nome di Colui che'n terra addusse
La verita, che tanto ci sublima;
E tanta grazia sovra me rilusse,
Ch'io ritrassi le ville circostanti
Dall'empio culto che'l mondo sedusse."
Par. xxii.
Seated on the greensward in front of the convent, with
the glorious view before us, it will be interesting, before we
enter the monastery, to go back to its story.
According to a bull of Pope Zacharias of 748, the abbey was
built on land of Tertullus, father of the young Placidus, one
of the favourite disciples of S. Benedict. The Patriarch was
probably attracted to that especial spot by the desire of
attacking Paganism in one of its last strongholds, by cutting
down the grove of Venus, and destroying the temple of
Apollo. He worked with his own hands at the building, and
he is said to have fought in person with the Evil One, who
tried to interfere with his work, and to have subdued him
when he had successfully disinterred unhurt one of his monks
whom the arch-enemy had buried under a fallen wall.
On the site of the temple, Benedict built two oratories,
one to St. John Baptist the first hermit, the other to St. Mar



RULE OF S. BENEDICT.                     213
tin the famous monk-bishop of Gaul.  Around them, he
erected dwellings for his disciples, with mills, store-houses,
and all necessary buildings, so that everything required for
daily life might be found within the walls of the monastery.
" Here the monastic life," according to the expression of
Pope Urban II., " flowed from the heart of Benedict as from
the fountain of Paradise," * for here he composed the famous
Rule of his Order.
The Rule of S. Benedict was founded on the original
observance of poverty, chastity, and obedience, said to have
been delivered to Pachomius for the use of the. eastern hermits by an angel, but to this he added many details to fit it
for a community residing together.
The Rule is divided into 73 chapters; 9 are on the
respective duties of the abbot and monks; 13 on divine
worship; 29 on discipline-offences and their punishments;
io upon the internal administration of the monastery; 12
on different subjects, such as the reception of strangers, the
conduct to be observed by the brethren when travelling, &c.
The Rule had two great principles-constant action and
implicit obedience. S. Benedict did not wish that his monks
should confine themselves to meditation or the internal
action of the soul, but insisted upon constant outward action
either of manual or literary labour. Idleness, he averred,
was the great enemy of the soul. Every hour of the day was
to be employed as the seasons permitted, and as the praises
of God were to be sung seven times a day, so seven hours
of the day were to be devoted to active labour.  If any
* " Ipse omnium monachorum pater, et Casinense monasterium caput omnium perpetuo habeatur et merito, nam ex eodem loco de Benedicti pectore monastici ordinis
religio quasi de Paradisi fonte emanavit."-Bulla Urbani, ad cale. Chron. Casinen.




214              DA YS NEAR ROME.
monk boasted of his own proficiency in any occupation, that
occupation was to be changed, that it might not be a snare
to him. Those who sold the produce of the lands of the
convent, were always to sell a little cheaper than their
neighbours, for the love of God. The patrician youths who
joined the community were in all things to live on equal
terms with the peasant monks: there was to be no distinction of persons. Obedience in the eyes of Benedict was a
work-" obedientiae laborem."  A monk only entered the
convent by a voluntary sacrifice of self, he renounced self
utterly, to fix his soul entirely on God. To the monk
his superior was to be God's earthly representative: to
him his obedience was to be prompt, perfect, absolute.
Obedience was the first step of humility. "Our life in
this world," said Benedict, "is like the ladder which Jacob
saw in his dream: in order that it may reach heaven,
it must be planted by the Saviour in a humbled heart: we
can only mount by the different steps of humility and
discipline." Difficult as it may seem to others, the founder
asserted that he believed his Rule contained nothing too
hard or too difficult to follow, and ended by saying that it
was but "a little beginning, a modest introduction to
Christian perfection."-" Initium  conversationis... hanc
minimam inchoationis regulam."
Thirteen hundred years have passed away since the Rule
of Benedict was laid down, yet no change has been made in
it by his followers. The only reforms have led back to a
more exact observance of the code which the founder drew
up.
St. Gregory the Great, who has left us a biography of S.
Benedict, describes his life at Monte Cassino, how he




CHARACTER OF S. BENEDICT.                      215
devoted himself to the sick; how  he paid the debts of
honest people oppressed by their creditors; how in a year
of famine (A. D. 539) he distributed the wealth of the convent to the poor, and how, when the monks murmured at
being deprived themselves, he said-" You have not enough
to-day, but to-morrow you will have too much "-and on the
morrow so much corn was brought to the convent doors by
unknown hands, that they had not room to stow it away.
The real feeling of humility which actuated the life of
Benedict, often impelled a line of conduct very different to
that which in later and more corrupt times has found favour
with his followers.   Thus, when he heard that Martino, an
old hermit, in a cave on the mountain-slope, not content
with shutting himself up in a narrow cell, had chained himself to the rock, he went to him and said-" If you are
indeed a servant of God, you will not be satisfied with a
chain of iron, but will seek rather for the chain of Christ."
It is said that the wonderful ascendancy which S. Benedict obtained over his followers was greatly assisted by his
gift of second-sight.
" Habitue a se vaincre en tout et a lutter avec les esprits infernaux,
dont les tentations et les apparitions ne lui manquerent pas plus qu'aux
anciens Peres du desert, il avait acquis le don de lire dans les ames et de
discerner leurs plus secretes pensees.  Il n'en usait pas seulement pour
diriger les jeunes religieux, dout l'affluence etait toujours grande aupres
de lui, dans leurs etudes et dans les travaux d'agriculture et de ma9onnerie qu'il partageait avec eux: dans les courses lointaines qu'ils avaient
parfois a accomplir il les suivait par un regard interieur, decouvrait leurs
moindres manquements, les reprimandait au retour, les astreignait en
tout a la stricte observance de la regle qu'ils avaient acceptee.  II
exigeait de tous lobeissance, la sincerite, l'austere regularite dont il
donnait le premier exemple. "-Montalembert, Les Moines d Occident.
Thus, when a. patrician youth, whose business it was to




2 6              DAYS NEAR ROME.
hold a candelabrum before the abbot while he was at supper, complained inwardly, saying to himself, "Who is this
man before whom I must hold a candle; was I made to
be his slave,"-Benedict, reading his heart, rebuked his
pride, and, bidding him deliver the candle to another, sent
him  humbled to his cell. The fame of this apparently
supernatural power of Benedict reached the ears of Totila,
the Ostrogoth (in 542), and he determined to test it. He
dressed up one of his chieftains, Riggo, in his royal robes,
and sent him to the monastery with a large suite. Benedict, seated here before the convent door, saw the party
approaching, and looking up from his book said, " My son,
take off those robes which you are wearing, for they are not
thine." Riggo, overwhelmed with amazement, knelt before
the monk, and then returning to Totila, brought him to the
abbey, where he also fell prostrate before Benedict and
implored his blessing. The Abbot having thrice in vain bade
him arise, lifted him up, and then, having reproached him
with his outrages, addressed him in prophetic tones, saying,
" Thou shalt enter Rome, thou shalt pass over the sea, thou
shalt reign for nine years, but in the tenth year thou shalt
die and be summoned before the judgment-seat of God."
All this came to pass, and the greater humanity of Totila
during the last years of his life is attributed to this interview.
In the same way Benedict prophesied to Sabinus, Bishop
of Can.ossa, the awful storm which should nearly destroy
Rome in 559; and when the patrician Theoprobus, finding
him overwhelmed with grief, asked the cause, he foretold,
with many tears, the destruction of his own monastery by the
Lombards 40 years after his death.




ENTRANCL OF MONTE CASSINO.                     217
Of the many stories of S. Benedict, one is especially connected with the gate of Monte Cassino.
"One day the Patriarch was seated at the gate of his monastery
reading, when a Gothic captain rode up with a poor peasant, whose
arms were tightly bound, and whom the soldier fiercely drove before
him.'There (said the peasant) is father Benedict,' and the Goth insolently commanded him to give up the property of the poor man, which
the captive, hoping to procure respite from torture, declared to have
been committed to his keeping. The saint made no answer, but calmly
looked up from his book, fixing his eyes on both; before that gaze the
peasant's bonds fell off; before that gaze the soldier trembled, repented,
and at last knelt on the ground, beseeching pardon from the aged saint,
who raised him up, admonished him to turn from evil and use mercy,
then gave him food and drink in the monastery, and dismissed him with
a blessing. There are few scenes in hagiography more fraught with moral,
or that suggest so fine a subject for the artist-the monastic buildings
on the mountain, the Abbot seated outside with his scroll, the barbaric
captain and the frightened peasant, and the serene glory of Italian sunset above."-Hemrans' Ancient Christianity.
We enter the abbey by a gate guarded by two lions, and
ascend a low vaulted staircase, the only portions of the building which can be assigned to the time of Benedict.
On the right a lamp burns before an old marble statue of
Benedict: at the top Benedict and Scholastica kneel before
the Virgin and  Child.   Here the poor peasants of the
neighbourhood  in  their wonderful costumes,-some quite
Egyptian-looking, assemble to receive the dole of the convent.
The low  vault of the entrance was intended to show
the yoke of humility to which the entering monk must bend.
It is inscribed: Fornicern saxis asperum  ac depressum tantev
moli aditum  angustum  ne mireris, hospes, angustum fecil patriarchA  sanctitas: venerare potius et sospes ingredere.  Above
the gate is a square tower (modernized externally) of which




218                DAYS NEAR ROME.
the lower portion at least is of the same age. It contains
two chambers inscribed: Pars inferior turris, in qua S. P.
V. Benedictus dun viverat habitabat: and, Vetustissimnum
habitaculum in quo SSmipatriarchs discipuli quiescebant.
This then at least occupies the position of the cell where
S. Benedict dwelt for 23 years (520-43), and which, as the
source of monastic law, Pope Victor III. has not hesitated
to compare to Sinai.
Hxec domus est similis Sinai sacra jura ferenti,
Ut lex demonstrat hic quze fuit edita quondam.
Lex hinc exivit, mentes quze ducit ab imis,
Et vulgata dedit lumen par climata szecli.*
The room in the upper part of the tower is shown as that
in which Benedict saw in a vision the death of the bishop St.
Germano. Here also, only two days after his last and miraculously-prolonged interview with her, he saw the soul of his
sister Scholastica ascending as a dove to heaven, and becoming thus aware of her death and translation "was filled with
joy, and his gratitude flowed forth in hymns and praises to
God."  He then begged the monks to fetch her body that
it might be laid in the tomb in which he should rest himself.
The brother only survived the sister for forty days, days
spent in the most austere observance of his own monastic
rule. Feeling his end approaching, he bade the monks to
carry him to the oratory of S. John Baptist, where he caused
the tomb of his sister to be opened. Resting by its side, at
the foot of the altar, he received the viaticum, and then, extending his hands to heaven, he died in the arms of his companions, March 2I, 543, at the very hour, which, according
to the legend, he had foretold. Benedict was laid by Scho* Leo Ostiensis. Chron. Casinen. iii. 27.




STORY OF MONTE CASSINO.                    219
lastica, " so that death might not divide those whose souls
had been united in God."
The death of Benedict is said to have been miraculously
revealed, at the very moment, to his disciple Maurus, then at
Auxerre, who fell into a trance and beheld a path of stars
making a luminous way from Monte Cassino to heaven, while
a mysterious voice announced that by that shining way the
soul of the Patriarch had passed into bliss.
"Le recit legendaire ajoute que plusieurs religieux de saint Benoit,
en ce moment eloignes du Mont-Cassin, furent avertis de la perte qu'ils
venaient de faire par une revelation, et qu'ils virent une multitude
d'etoiles former un long chemin, qui montait vers l'Orient. Vive et
fidele image du sillon lumineux que devait tracer le genie benedictin,
en eclairant tour a tour les tenebres du moyen age et la civilisation des
temps modernes. " —Alphonse Dantier.
Forty years after the death of S. Benedict, Monte Cassino
was laid in ruins by the Lombards, and lay waste for more
than I50 years, during which time the monks took refuge in
Rome, where a house was allotted them  near S. John
Lateran.  In 73I the Abbot Petronax rebuilt the monastery,
and the Duke of Beneventum  restored its lands which had
been confiscated. The new church was consecrated by Pope
Zacharias in 748, when he freedd the patrimony of Monte
Cassino from all episcopal jurisdiction, and gave its abbot
the first rank after the bishops, in all councils and public
assemblies. A diploma, still preserved at Monte Cassino,
tells how at this time the Pope looked with veneration upon
the uncorrupt bodies of S. Benedict and Santa Scholastica,
but did not venture to touch them with his hand.
In this same year of 748, Carloman, brother of Pepin
king of France, having first made a retreat on Soracte,




220             DA YS NEAR ROME.
became a monk of Monte Cassino. To test his humility, the
Abbot made him the shepherd of a flock of goats on the
mountain-side.  He left this humble occupation to act as
mediator between his brother Pepin and Astolphus king of
the Lombards, and died in a monastery at Vienne, though his
remains were transported, by his own desire, to Monte
Cassino.
Another monarch was at this time a monk of Monte
Cassino, Ratchis, king of the Lombards, who had resigned
his crown in 742. His wife Tasia and his daughter Rattrudis followed him, and refounded in the valley the monastery
of Plumbariola, which had been first set on foot by Scholastica. The monk-king occupied his leisure moments in the
cultivation of a garden on the western side of the mountain,
which was long known as "the vineyard of Ratchis."
At the end of the same century, Charlemagne visited
Monte Cassino, and accorded it a variety of privileges mentioned in a document in the archives. He gave to the monks
the title of " Chaplains of the Empire."  The Abbot was to
be called "Arch-chancellor " and " Custos of the Imperial
Palace "; he was entitled to drink out of gold, to have his
bed covered with purple, and to have the imperial Labarum,
or a gold cross studded with gems, carried before him. On
his return to France, Charlemagne addressed to the Abbot a
poetical letter in 25 hexameters, which is preserved in the
monastic library. It is said in proof of the prevalence of the
Benedictine Rule at this time, that when Charlemagne asked
if in any parts of his vast dominions monks of other Orders
existed, none were to be found.
Under the Abbot Gisulf, the community became so
numerous that it was necessary to provide for them by large




STORY OF MONTE CASSINO.               221
buildings at S. Germano, and the church built at this time
still remains.  But this prosperity was of short duration,
for the convent was attacked and taken by Saracens in
884, shortly after the Emperor Louis II. and his wife Engelburga (coming against the Saracens in Calabria) had been
magnificently received there. All the monks who were defending the walls were put to the sword. The Abbot Berthaire was absent at the time, but when the enemy had retired
for a time, he returned to bury his slaughtered brethren.
Shortly afterwards the Saracens returned to attack the convent in the valley, where many monks flying from other monasteries had taken refuge.  S. Berthaire refused to desert
them, and he and all his monks were massacred in the
church, as he was elevating the Host, and the convent was
pillaged and destroyed.
The small remnant of monks took refuge at Teano, where
their misfortunes seemed to come to a climax, when the
manuscript Rule of S. Benedict was destroyed by fire.
But in 949 Monte Cassino was rebuilt by the Abbot
Aligerus, and became richer than ever, the Emperor Otho
the Great, Henry II. (cured of an illness by intercession of
S. Benedict), Conrad II., and Henry III. (pilgrims to Monte
Cassino), having increased its privileges and added to its
donations. Puffed up by his vast wealth, the Abbot Manson
lived like a prince, hunted with a vast retinue of knights,
and dressed all his servants in silk. To visit him came
S. Nilus the hermit, but, while waiting for the abbot in the
conventual church, he heard the gay sounds of a harp and
singing from the hall where the monks were at dinner, and
said to his companions, "Come, let us leave this house
upon which the wrath of God must shortly fall." Within the




222             DA YS NEAR ROME.
year, Alberic, Bishop of Marsia, having determined in those
licentious times to give up his episcopal see to one of his
illegitimate sons, wished to compensate himself with the
abbey of Monte Cassino. So, with Ioo pieces of silver, he
bribed the inhabitants of Capua, who had a spite of their
own against Manson, to put out his eyes, and to seize the
monastery for him. They beguiled the abbot into the
church of S. Benedetto at Capua, and, gouging his eyes, sent
them wrapped in a linen cloth to Alberic, who died suddenly, while he was waiting to receive them.
Pope Leo IX. visited Monte Cassino accompanied by the
Duke Godfrey of Lorraine and his brother Frederic, who,
taking the monastic habit, was elected abbot in the reign of
Victor II., whom, in 1057, he succeeded upon the Papal
throne as Stephen X., but continued for some time to reside
at Monte Cassino. In 107I Alexander II., assisted by the
Cardinals Hildebrand and Peter Damian, consecrated the
new church of Desiderius. This abbot was the great friend
of Hildebrand, and to him the great Pope wrote his first letter
announcing his election to the Papacy. In the Norman wars
of this reign Monte Cassino played a conspicuous part. The
Bishop of Rosella had taken a great treasure to the tomb of
St. Benedict for protection, and it was seized by the Prince
of Capua. Hildebrand was so furious at the feeble defence
the abbey had made, that he placed it under interdict,
but the Prince of Capua restored the treasure under the
terrors of excommunication.  It was Desiderius who called
in Robert Guiscard to the aid of Hildebrand. When the
Pope was compelled to leave Rome, Desiderius received him
at Monte Cassino, with all his fugitive cardinals and bishops.
That night the Pope and abbot watched in prayer beside the




STOORY OF MONTE CASSINO.             223
tomb of the founder, and as the morning dawned, Hildebrand cried in the voice of prophecy,-" Abbot of Monte
Cassino, thou wilt be my successor." In the following year
(io86) Desiderius was elected to the Papal throne as Victor
TII. For a whole year he refused the dignity, then the
Papal insignia were forced upon him in the church of Sta.
Lucia. Four days after, he fled, and laid them aside at
Monte Cassino. The great Matilda of Tuscany herself had
to come to insist upon his allowing himself to be re-installed.
After a short but momentous reign, he returned to die at
Monte Cassino.  In his time the abbey may be considered
to have reached the climax of its glory.
Under Urban II. (1088-99), Monte Cassino was visited
by Robert of Normandy, Eustace de Bouillon, and other
crusading chiefs on their way to Brindisi, who came to
impart virtue to their swords by touching with them the
shrine of the saint.  In the library of the convent are two
curious letters written about this time by the Emperor
Alexander Comnenus to the Abbot Oderiscus, in answer to
letters of his beseeching the favour of the Emperor towards
the Frankish army.
In the time of Paschal II. (og99g-I oo), the abbey was
the scene of internal war, because Bruno, Bishop of Segni,
elected abbot, when warned by the Pope that he could not
hold both dignities together, tried to insist upon choosing
his own successor. On the death of Paschal, John of Gaeta,
a monk of Monte Cassino, was chosen Pope as Gelasius II.
In the succeeding reigns the want of internal harmony in the
convent, and the fact of the abbot siding with the antipope
Anacletus, led to the spoliation of Monte Cassino by Roger
of Sicily.  In II99 San Germano was pillaged by the Ger



224              DAYS NEAR ROME.
mans under Lile Seneschal Markwald d'Anneweiler; but the
abbey was successfully defended by the warlike Abbot Roffedo. In I208 a general assembly was convoked at S.
Germano by Innocent III., who loaded Monte Cassino with
benefits.
Up to this time the sciences and high theological studies
had not ceased to be cultivated at Monte Cassino. The
best professors of the newly-established university of Naples
were chosen amongst its monks. But a few years later the
university of Naples would have vainly asked for theological professors from  hence.  The abbey and its neighbouring fortress of Rocca Janula were entirely occupied by
imperial troops, and the monks nearly dispersed. Their
school was dissolved and the monastic buildings turned into
a manufactory of arms.* In the words of the abbot Bernardo, " the house of God became truly a den of thieves."
In I25I Pope Alexander IV. hoped to resuscitate the fame
of the abbey, by persuading S. Thomas Aquinas, who had
been educated within its walls, to become its head, but the
"Seraphic Doctor" never would accept any ecclesiastical
promotion. The captivity of Monte Cassino was brought to
an end by the victory of the French over Manfred at S.
Germano (Feb. i, I266) for which Charles of Anjou returned public thanks at the tomb of S. Benedict.
It is in allusion to this time of suspended learning at
Monte Cassino, and to the years of luxurious living which
followed, that Dante represents S. Benedict in Paradise as
lamenting that his Rule remains on earth only to fill so much
waste paper, for no one observes it.
* See Dantier, i. 323.




LIBRAR Y OF MONTE CASSIATO.                  225
" La regola mia
Rimasa e giu per danno delle carte.
Le mura, che soleano esser badia,
Fatte sono spelonche, e le cocolle
Sacca son piene di farina ria.
Ma grave usura tanto non si tolle
Contra'1 piacer di Dio, quanto quel frutto
Che fa il cuor de' monaci si folle."
Parad. xxii.
Benevento da Imola commenting on this passage says:"To the clearer understanding of this passage, I will repeat what my
venerable preceptor, Boccaccio of Certaldo, pleasantly narrated to me.
He said, that when he was in Apulia, being attracted by the fame of
the place, he went to the great monastery of Monte Cassino of which
we are speaking. And, being eager to see the library, which he had
heard was very noble; he, humbly, gentle creature that he was I besought a monk to do him the favour to open it. Pointing to a lofty
staircase, he answered, stiffly,' Go up; it is open.' Joyfully ascending,
he found the place of so great a treasure without door or fastening, and,
having entered, he saw the grass growing upon the windows, and all the
books and shelves covered with dust. And, wondering, he began to
open and turn over, now this book and now that, and found there many
and various volumes of ancient and rare works. From some of them
whole sheets had been torn out, in others the margins of the leaves were
clipped, and thus they were greatly defaced. At length, full of pity that
the labours and studies of so many illustrious minds should have fallen
into the hands of such profligate men, grieving and weeping he withdrew. And coming into the cloister, he asked a monk whom he met,
why those most precious books were so vilely mutilated. He replied,
that some of the morks, wishing to gain a few ducats, cut out a handful
of leaves, and made psalters which they sold to boys, and likewise of
the margins they made breviaries which they sold to women. Now,
therefore, O scholar, rack thy brains in the making of books!"
In I326, John XXII., declaring, from Avignon, that he
wished to do honour to S. Benedict, raised the abbacy into
a bishopric, and the monks into a chapter of canons. Nine
bishops succeeded thus, but the honour was never welcomed
VOL. II.                                       15




226              DA YS NEAR ROME.
at Monte Cassino, as it was found to afford an excuse for
interference with monastic election, and it came to an end in
I370.
In the 15th century the power of Monte Cassino began
steadily to decline: its fall being greatly due to its being
made an Abbey in commendam. The Abbot Caraffa played
into the hands of his own family: the Abbot Scarampa (the
first Abbot Commendator) spent the wealth of the abbey in a
crusade.  Paul II. made himself abbot of Monte Cassino
in order to abstract its revenues: Giovanni de' Medici, afterwards Leo X., was made abbot when he was only eleven
years old, and was besieged at Monte Cassino (which successfully resisted) by Gonsalvo da Cordova.
In I649 the abbey began to be entirely rebuilt in the
style of the Renaissance under the Abbot Squarcialupi, and
was reconsecrated by Benedict XIII. in 1729.
The last flicker of prosperity for Monte Cassino was in
1798, when the abbatial palace of S. Germano was occupied
ior a time by King Ferdinand and Queen Caroline of
Naples. Soon after, the French army, becoming victorious,
occupied S. Germano, and laid tremendous requisitions upon
Monte Cassino, upon pain of its immediate destruction. The
ransom was paid, but the fate of the convent was only warded
off for a time, and it was soon after completely pillaged, a
young monk named Erasmus being cruelly murdered in attempting to defend the archives. In I806 all the Houses of
the Benedictine Order were suppressed in the kingdom of
Naples; Monte Cassino, La Cava, and Monte Vergine, being
preserved simply as Libraries, with a few monks to guard
them. After the return of the Bourbons, Monte Cassino had
a temporary recovery, and since the Sardinian occupation its




COURT-YARD OF M/ONTE CASSINO.              227
services to literature have exempted it from the entire confiscation which has fallen on all other religious houses. But
the poor monks have a bare subsistence, and times are
indeed changed since the Abbot of Monte Cassino was the
first baron of the kingdom of Naples, administrator of a
diocese (created I321) composed of 37 parishes; while
amongst the dependencies of the abbey were 4 bishoprics,
2 principalities, 20 countships, 250 castles, 440 towns and
villages, 336 manors, 23 sea-ports, 33 islands, 200 mills, 300
tracts of land, and i662 churches. Its revenues at the end
of the i6th century, were valued at 500,000 ducats.
But we have lingered too long over the history of the
abbey, and as yet have only visited the cell of S. Benedict,
which, indeed, unbelievers say only dates from the time of the
restoration under Desiderius.
A beautiful and spacious court-yard, by Bramante, adorned
with statues of the chief benefactors, and with a noble fountain in the midst, occupies the centre of the building. Open
arcades, on either side, display other courts, now used as
gardens, where, amid the flowers, are preserved many
portions of the granite pillars from  the  church  which
Desiderius built in the eleventh century. Colossal statues of
Benedict and Schoiastica guard the ascent to the upper
quadrangle, which is surrounded by the statues of the great
benefactors of the convent, those on the right being royal,
those on the left papal. Near the entrance of the church are
the parents of Benedict, of Placidus, and of Maurus. The
living raven which hops about here, and which is quite a
feature of the monastery, commemorates the ravens which
miraculously guided the patriarch hither from Subiaco.
Accurate descriptions still exist of the church of Desi



228              DA YS NEAR ROME.
derius, which was approached by a wide atrium, and divided
by 20 granite columns. Both the atrium and the interior of
the church were covered with mosaic representations of New
Testament subjects, by artists imported from Constantinople.
Over the present entrance is an inscription relating the story
of the church.  The present gates have the plates of the
original bronze doors, inlaid in silver letters with a list of all
the possessions of the abbey in io66, when they were made
at Constantinople for Desiderius.
The present Church was built in 1640 in the form of a
Latin Cross.  It is of, the most extreme magnificence,
exceeds S. Peter's, and rivals the Certosa of Pavia in the
richness and variety of its marbles. The roof of the nave is
painted by Luca Giordano, and by the same painter is a great
fresco over the doors, of the consecration of the first basilica
by Alexander II.
The stalls of the choir, though renaissance, are splendid
specimens of carved wood-work; in the centre of each is a
Benedictine saint. Here hang four great pictures by Francesco Solinus.  In the left transept is the tomb of Pietro
de' Medici, who was drowned in the Garigliano, Dec. 27,
1503, by the overcrowding and sinking of a boat, in which
he was taking flight after the defeat of the French by Gonsalvo da Cordova. The bas-reliefs are by San Gallo.  In
the opposite transept is the tomb of Guidone Fieramosca,
last Prince of Mignano.  In the side chapels are several
works of Marco Mazzaroppi, the best being S. Gregory the
Great, and the martyrdom  of S. Andrew.  Beneath the
high altar and surrounded by a chain of lamps, repose
Benedict and Scholastica, with these words only over their
grave:




LIBRARY, MONTE CASSINO.                  229' Benedictum et Scholasticam,
Uno in terris partu editos,
Una in Deum pietate ccelo redditos,
Unus hic excipit tumulus
Mortalis depositi pro aeternitate custos."
In the crypt below, where Tasso, on his last journey to
Rome, knelt by the founder's tomb, are some ruined frescoes
by the rare master Marco da Siena.  In the sacristy a
number of magnificent old copes are preserved. Here are a
curious old brazier and a stone lavatory.
The Refectory contains an immense picture by Francesco
and Leandro Bassano.  In the upper part, Christ is represented performing the miracle of the loaves and fishes; in
the lower, S. Benedict is distributing the symbolical bread
of the Benedictine Rule.  The painter Leandro has introduced his own figure to the left of the saint.  In the corner
is John Calvin, livid with disgust.
The Library, built in the i6th century, by the _bbot
Squarcialupi, still contains about 20,000 volumes. Its origin
mounts up to the foundation of the abbey, for S. Benedict
mentions it in one of the rules of his Order. 800 original
diplomas remain, containing the charters and privileges
accorded to the abbey by popes, emperors, and kings. The
collection of Lombard charters deserves especial notice on
account of the miniatures placed at the head of each, a contemporary portrait-gallery rudely executed, but at least
interesting, as displaying the costume of the time. The
earliest charter, bearing date 884, is of a Prince of Beneventum, and begins —"Ajo Dei providentia Longobardorum
gentis princeps." The earliest bull is that of Pope Zacharias
of the beginning of the 8th century.  Amongst the MSS. is




2.0                DA YS zVEAR ROME.
a co-eval MS. of Dante.  Most of the pictures at Monte
Cassino were removed to form  the gallery at Naples.  A
few sketches by old masters, which remain, are collected in
the cell of S. Benedict.
It requires more than a passing visit to Monte Cassino in
order really to appreciate it. The views are such as grow
upon one daily and are full of interest. The highest peak is
Monte Cairo, near the foot of which is the patriarchal castle
of the family of S. Thomas Aquinas.   Through the valley
winds the Garigliano. In the plain between it and the sea
the great battle was gained by Gonsalvo da Cordova, in
which Pietro de' Medici perished, to whom his uncle Clement VII. gave a tomb here.   Between the mountains the
Mediterranean may be descried, glittering in the bay of Gaieta.
"Au sommet de sa montagne le moine benedictin, degage des vains
hruits de la terre, peut, du fond de sa cellule, contempler Dieu dans la
plus admirable de ses oeuvres, et par suite 6prouver de ces ravissements
intimes qui font oublier aux ames reveuses les douleurs de la passion et
les amertumes du sacrifice. On l'a remarqu6 souvent, et c'est le lieu de le
rappeler ici, la plupart des fondateurs d'ordres religieux ont montre une
connaissance profonde du coeur humain, en choisissant pour y batir leur
premiere demeure les sites a la fois les plus beaux et les plus recueillis.
C'etait un dedommagement offert a la faiblesse et aux tendances
naturelles de l'homme, qui sent toujours le besoin de retremper sa foi
aux sources vives de la nature, pour remonter ensuite du spectacle de la
creation a la sublime idee du Createur."-Alphonse Dantier.
In  the evening, delightful walks may be taken to the
different ruins and old chapels in the neighbourhood. In the
old Collegiata of S. Germano it will be interesting to recall
the picturesque legend of " Le Suore Morte."'Two ladies of an illustrious family had joined the sisterhood of S.
Scholastica.  Though in other respects exemplary and faithful to their
religious profession, they were much given to scandal and vain talk;




S. GERMANO.                          231
which being told to S. Benedict, it displeased him greatly; and he
sent to them a message, that if they did not refrain their tongues and set
a better example to the community he would excommunicate them. The
nuns were at first alarmed and penitent, and promised amendment; but
the habit was too strong for their good resolves; they continued their
Boy of S. Germano.
vain and idle talking, and, in the midst of their folly, they died. And
being of great and noble lineage, they were buried in the church near
the altar; and afterwards, on a certain day, as S. Benedict solemnized
mass at that altar, and at the moment when the officiating deacon
uttered the usual words,'Let those who are excommunicated, and for



232                 bA YS NEAR ROMIE.
bidden to partake, depart and leave us'; behold, the two nuns rose up
from their graves, and in the sight of all the people, with faces drooping
and averted, they glided out of the church. And thus it happened every
time that the mass was celebrated there, until S. Benedict, taking pity
upon them, absolved them from their sins, and they rested in peace."
— ameson's Monastic Orders.
Monte Cassino is still (1874) the residence of the learned
and venerable Padre Tosti, who vies with his brethren in
kindness shown to strangers and the hospitality with which
they are received.  Though " spogliati "-say the monks" Providence still watches over the children of S. Benedict,
and has preserved this, his most important convent, from
destruction: " they are constantly occupied in education, and
there is a great college in the convent.
Monte Cassino  should be  visited after Subiaco.  At
Subiaco, S. Benedict is seen as a Monk; at Monte Cassino, as
a Prince.




CHAPTER XXXII.
AQUINO AND PONTECORVO.
(This delightful excursion may easily be made from the comfortable
hotel (Albergo Pompei) at S. Germano. A carriage for the day, with
two horses, costs o1 francs, and a buono-mano of z francs.)
W     E left S. Germano on a lovely April morning, when
the effect of the mountains was greatly enhanced by
the mist which underlaid them, and wrapped the " Nebulosi
rura Casini " in a soft veil of haze. The road passes beneath
the amphitheatre, and continues uDder the mountains, with
their towns of Piedemonte and Palazzuolo. Oaks are allowed
to grow here for the sake of the acorns, and form avenuesmost beautiful in a country where timber is so scarce. By
the way-side, shepherdesses in whitepanni sit spinning with
distaffs, while they watch their goats, and form beautiful
pictures, as the light falls through the branches upon their
gold ornaments and scarlet embroidered aprons.  In this
land of strong light and shadow, how wonderful an effect is
given by the massy folds of the projecting headdress and the
simple lines of the costume.
At the mediaeval tower of S. Gregorio, the road to Aquino
turns off to the left through the brilliant plain of young corn,




234              DA YS NEAR ROME.
and the carriage stops near the desolate Church of Santa
Marf-ia Libera.
S. Maria Libera, Aquino.
It is a most lovely spot.  A gigantic flight of massive
marble steps, worthy of the Acropolis of Athens, was once
the approach to a temple, and now leads to a church which
is built out of its ruins, and encrusted with fragments of its
carving. The great door is surrounded by glorious friezes
of acanthus in the highest relief, which it was intended to
remove to the Museum at Naples, but which have fortunately
been permitted to remain here. In front was a portico like
that of Civita Castellana: its pillars remain, and its restoration is intended. Over the principal door is a mosaic of the
I 2th century-" of the best style," says Salazzaro, " and like
that of Capua." It represents the Virgin, in a blue tunic,
with the Child holding a scroll, and below, on either side, a
sarcophagus, with a female head projecting from  it, one
inscribed  "Ottolina," the  other "Maria."   The introduction of these sarcophagi in the mosaic, is believed to




REMAIANS OF AQUINO.                235
render it certain that the persons alluded to were the
founders, and are buried in the church, where two stone
coffins have been found and are ascribed to them. Ottolina
has been identified with the wife of Adinolfo, son of Landolfo of Aquino, first Count of Alsito, and sister of Gregorio
and Aimone of Isola.  She was sister-in-law to S. Thomas
Aquinas.  Nothing certain is known of Maria, but she is
believed to have been either the mother or the daughter of
Ottolina.
The interior of the church was very curious, having six
pillars on one side of the nave and only three on the other.
It has till lately been roofless and used as a Campo Santo.
Now, Mgr. Paolo de Niguesa, the venerable and much honoured bishop of Aquino, is restoring it for use, but, alas, from
a love of uniformity, is destroying its interest, by making one
side exactly like the other.
Close to the church is a beautiful little Triumphal Arch,
Triumphal Arch, Aquino.
with Corinthian columns. A mill-stream has been directed




23b               DA YS NEAR ROME.
through it, and it stands reflected in the clear water, which
falls below it in a series of miniature cascades. It it a subject unspoilt by Rosa and his followers, and which would
entrance an artist.
Descending the great marble staircase, we find a lane
following the Via Latina, which retains some of its ancient
lava pavement, but in other places this is torn up to make
the walls at the sides.  Passing a succession of Roman
fragments, we reach the ruined Church of S. Tomaso, in
which are several beautiful pieces of frieze from the temples.
A little beyond, the Via Latina is crossed by the massive
Porta S. Lorenzo, a Roman gateway in perfect preservation,
Z#
by which we enter the circuit of the ancient city, passing
through the still existing line of the old walls.
Aquino was once a most important place. Strabo speaks
of it in his time as " a great city, chief amongst the Volscian
cities," and Cicero mentions it as "frequens municipium."
Tacitus says that Dolabella was exiled and put to death here.
The Emperor Pescennius Niger was born here. Now, the




REMAINS OF AQ UINO.                237
circuit of the town is filled with vineyards and gardens,
amid which gigantic fragments of ruin appear at intervals.
The Volscian city was destroyed by the Lombards, when the
inhabitants took refuge at Castro Cielo, on the top of the
mountain, where only a church and castle now remain.
Thence, after a time, they descended to Palazzuolo, where
their descendants probably exist still. The ancient coins of
Aquino bore a head of Minerva on one side and a cock on
the other.
Following further the Via Latina, we see a succession of
buildings in ruins-a theatre, some colossal blocks shown as
having belonged to a temple of Diana and now called S.
Maria Maddalena, and a huge mass of wall believed to have
been a temple of Ceres, afterwards converted into the basilica
of S. Pietro Vetere. All the ruins are embedded in vineyards, and surrounded by the most radiant loveliness of
vegetation.
Returning through the Arco S. Lorenzo, and following
the little stream in the valley, we find a strange old church
supported upon open arches, through which there are most
picturesque views of the present town scrambling along the
edge of tufa rocks, crested and overhung by fig-trees.
This is the city which rose in the middle-ages under the
powerful Counts of Aquino, but it now only contains 2700
inhabitants.  It is however the oldest bishopric in the
Roman Church, its bishops sign all ecclesiastical documents
immediately after the archbishops, and the whole cathedral
chapter of Aquino have still the right to wear mitres and full
episcopal robes.
The long single street, for the width of the cliff allows no
more, presents a charming diorama of the most thoroughly




238              DA YS NEAR ROMRE.
Italian life. Every now and then the walls open and leave
a little landing, with glimpses of purple mountains, of snowy
distance, or of green depths of orchard and vineyard, kept
ever fresh by the abundant streams of crystal water which
are described by Italicus.  There are dark archways, grimly
overhung by massive vaulting, yet which seem quite illuminated by the stocks and valerians which fill their projecting
cornices, and still more by the glorious costume of the
people, whose blaze of colour catches and concentrates every
flash of light as it falls. Now, we come upon the gateway of
an old palazzo, built from the remains of temples, and with
two huge Morgiana-pots filled with flowering oleanders, the
last remaining of twelve Roman pots which were discovered,
the rest having been broken up by the contadini, who believed them to be filled with treasure. Now, a pale olive
hangs over a broad balustrade. Here, there is a ruined castle
used as a bacon-shop, and beside it a palace with Venetian
Gothic windows (the veritable " Casa Reale" in which S.
Thomas was born, and where a kitchen is shown in which
he fought with demons), now let out in poor tenements.
There, a grand old marble lion, with a ring through his nose,
stands in the piazza, amid a collection of Roman millstones
and bases and capitals of columns. The winding street,
with its pitilessly rugged pavement, is the place where all
the business of life is carried on. The barber is shaving his
patients in the street, the Friggilore is tossing up afritt/ra.
One group of women is spinning, another is making lace.
There are babies being rocked in baskets, and there are
others-the "creatures "-being carried in baskets on their
mothers' heads, taking the place of the grand painted vases
with the twisted handles, so huge and heavy when filled with




S. THOMAS AQUINAS.                239
water, and which yet the women here poise so lightly. A
boy is climbing up a wall to pick the golden oranges which
are hanging over it; beneath, a flock of chickens are pecking
at a sieve filled with almost more golden Indian maize; and
through all this collection of life when we were there, the
priest, in purple cassock and white pellerine, was moving
from house to house, pronouncing his Easter benediction
upon the furniture and cooking utensils, and followed by a
man with a large basket to receive the dole of eggs, saffroncakes, andfenocchi, which he expected in return.
S. Thomas Aquinas was born in the old palace of Aquino,
March 7, 1224, being the son of Count Landolfo and his
wife Teresa Caracciolo. His grandfather married the sister
of the Emperor Frederick I., and he was therefore greatnephew of that prince. It has been the custom to say he
was born at Rocca-Secca, which however was never more
than a mere " fortezza " of the Counts of Aquino, and never
used by them as a residence, and all uncertainty has been
cleared by the late discovery of a letter of the saint in the
archives at Monte Cassino, saying that he was coming to
seek the blessing of the Abbot Bernard before setting out
upon a journey, and that he intended to visit his birthplace
at Aquino on the way.  Here the youngest sister of S.
Thomas was killed by a flash of lightning while sleeping in
the room with him and her nurse. At five years old S.
Thomas was sent to school at Monte Cassino, but at twelve
his masters declared themselves unable to teach him any
more. On account of his stolid silence, he obtained the
nickname of " the dumb ox," but his tutor Albertus Magnus,
after some answers on difficult subjects, said-" We call him
the dumb ox, but he will give such a bellow in learning as




240               DA YS NEAR ROME.
will astonish the whole world." At seventeen he received
the habit of S. Domenico at Naples.  His mother, the
Countess Teodora, tried to prevent his taking the final vows,
and he fled from her towards Paris. At Acquapendente he
was intercepted by his brothers Landolfo and Rinaldo, who
tore off his habit, and carried him to his father's castle of
Rocca-Secca.  Here his mother met him, and finding her
entreaties vain, shut him up, and allowed him to see no one
but his two sisters, whose exhortations she hoped would
bend him to her will. On the contrary, he converted his
sisters, and, after two years' imprisonment, one of them
let him down from a window, and he was received by some
Dominicans, and pronounced the final vows.
Gradually S. Thomas Aquinas became the greatest theological teacher and writer of his time. When he refused a
bishopric, the Pope made him always attend his person, and
thus his lectures were chiefly given in the different towns of
Papal residence —Rome, Viterbo, Orvieto, Fondi, and
Perugia.  Clement IV. tried hard to make him  an archbishop, but he refused all preferment, and died at Fossanuova
in 1274.
S. Thomas composed the office for the festival of Corpus
Domini.  His crowning work was the Summa iTheologice,
which may be called, "The Christian religion thrown into
scientific form, and the orderly exposition of what man
should be."
"The whole movement of the Summa Theologzia is towards the
Beatific Vision of God, which will be the occupation of man's eternity;
and to tend towards it is the permanent duty and the one supreme interest of man on earth."-Roger Bede Vaughan.
But to ordinary readers S. Thomas is perhaps less known




LORE TO AND PONTECORVO.                        241
by his philosophy than by his hymns, of which the most celebrated are " 0 Sacrum Convivium," " Pange Lingua," " Tantum Ergo," " 0 Salutaris," and " Lauda Sion." His character
is well summed up in an inscription beneath an old portrait
of the saint in a church at Naples:
"0 sapientiae coelestis optatissimum auspicium!
0 integerrimoe vitae jucundissimum exemplum!
Salve Thoma sanctissime custos,
Salve sapientissime magister,
Salve benevolentissime pater,
Macte gloria; macte laudibus; macte virtutibus."'C'est surtout depuis sa mort, que Dieu a glorifie Saint Thomas, et
qu'il l'a rendu un docteur universel..... Vous dirai-je que l'oracle
du monde chretien, Rome meme a vu souvent ses pontifes descendre du
tribunal sacre, et y faire monter les ecrits de notre saint pour prononcer
sur les differends qui troubloient l'Eglise; que les conciles eux-memes,
ces juges venerables da la doctrine, ont forme leurs decrets eur ses decisions; que les partisans de lerreur n'ont jamais eu de plus redoutable
ennemi, et que comme les Philistins, ils ont desespere de pouvoir exterminer l'armee de Dieu vivant, tandis que cette arche residerait au milieu
d'elle: Tolle Thonamn, et dissipabo Ecclesiam Dei."-Massillon, Sermonis.
Not far from  Aquino is the mountain castle of Loreto,
which belonged to the parents of S. Thomas. It was while
they were staying here, that he, a boy, stole all the contents
of the family larder to distribute to the poor. His father
intercepted him  and sternly commanded  him  to give up
what his cloak contained-when a shower of roses is said to
have fallen from it upon the ground.
Three miles beyond Aquino, the road which passes under
the Arco S. Lorenzo leads to Pontecorvo, which was once an
independent state like Monaco, a sort of little kingdom of
its own.  In the middle ages it belonged alternately to the
VOL. II.                                            16




242              DA YS NEAR ROME..
great family of Tomacelli, and to the Abbey of Monte
Cassino. Napoleon gave it as a Duchy to Bernadotte.
Pontecorvo has a beautiful position on a plateau backed
by soft swelling hills. It is approached by a triumphal arch
surmounted by a figure of Pius IX. in the act of benediction.
Some of the ancient walls remain. The streets are uninteresting. At the end of the town, overhanging the bridge over
the Garigliano, is the Cathedral, standing on the substructions of an ancient temple and approached by a wide flight
of steps. The magnificence of the costumes here, especially
the scarlet draperies which are let down behind, make a
blaze of colour during the church services.




CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE PONTINE MARSHES.
(This curious district may easily be visited from Velletri. A diligence
leaves Velletri for Terracina on the arrival of the quick train from Rome
at I  A. M. Carriages may be engaged at Velletri for the whole excursion, going the first day to Terracina, with a divergence of some hours
to Ninfa; the second day remaining at Terracina and visiting S. Felice
and the Monte Circello; the third day diverging to Piperno and Fossanuova and returning to Velletri or Rome; or, it may be better to sleep
the third day at Piperno, when Sonnino may be visited. )
T is a dull descent from Velletri towards the levels. The
road runs through low woods of oaks, once much frequented by brigands,-even indeed from classical times:
" Interdum et ferro subitus grassator agit rem,
Armato quoties tutae custode tenentur
Et Pomptina palus et Gallinaria pinus."
fuvenal, Sat. iii. 305.
During the later years of the Papal dominion, no danger
was ever to be apprehended, but as the present Government
have opened the prisons and set loose the savage gang of
Gasparoni, long secured at Civita Castellana, " casualties"
are now possible, though they occur at very rare intervals:
and those who are content to go without any ostentation and
very simply dressed, may travel without any risk.




244               DA YS NEAR ROME.
About nine miles from Velletri we reach Cisterna, the Cis.
terna Neronis of the Middle Ages, and the Three Taverns
(Tres Taberne) of the New Testament.
"And so we went towards Rome. And from thence, when the
brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum and
the Three Taverns; whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took
courage. "-Acts xxviii. 15.
The Three Taverns, probably three Osterias for travellers
on the Via Appia, are frequently mentioned by Cicero and
other classical authors. But St. Gregory the Great in one of
his letters (to John, Bishop of Velletri), says that no remains
existed in his time of Appii Forum, or that if any such did
exist, the Pontine Marshes made them inaccessible; he adds
that the Three Taverns were identical with the place then
known as Cisterna.  The antiquarian Ricchi * proves that
this must be the place where the Christian martyrs Abondio
and Abondantio were buried by the matron Teodora in her
own vineyard.
The town of Cisterna clusters around the vast, gloomy,
decaying Palace of the Gaetani, built at intervals, and without
any regularity of design, around their old machicolated
tower, The whole of this district still belongs to the Gaetani,
whose Countships, Duchies, and Principalities, with  the
cities, lands, and castles belonging to them, would at one
time have made a very considerable kingdom. Their name
is supposed to have been assumed when  the absolute
sovereignty of Gaieta was conferred upon them by the Greek
Emperor Basil.,wmsfucs Gaieta their southern Signories included Itri, Teano, Sessa,
* Regia de' Volsci.




SERMONE TA.                         245
S. Germano, Sperlonga, Telesco, Rocca-Guglielma, S. Donato, Garigliano, Avella, Aquino, Calvi, Castiglione, Castroforte, Cerreto, Dragone, Fondi, Gioja, Cajazzo, Arezze, Matalone, Pontecorvo, the Principality of Caserta, the Countship of Mucrone, the Duchy of Trajetto,
the Principality of Altamura, of the cities of Monte-Peluso, Minervino,
and Mottola, and of the lands of Piedemonte, Grottula, Masafro, Monterodune, and Maccia.
Their more northern possessions were Monte-Argentino, Ansedonia,
Porto-Ercole, Orbetello, Marsigliano, Alticosta, Cap'Albia, MonteAcuto, Monte-Genti, the islands of Giglio and Giannuti, Montalto,
Ronciglione, Nepi, Trevi, Mareno, Zaucanto, Anagni, Rocca-Gorga,
Norma, Ninfa, Sonnino, Posi, Vallecorsa, Ceccano, S. Lorenzo, Sculcula, La Torte, Vallepietra, Filettrio, Carpineto, Montelanico, Majena,
Gigliano, Campagnano, Collemezzo, Vaccone, Podio, Sommavilla, S.
Angelo, Amendeclara, Castro, Rocca-Astura, Castello di Selva Molle,
Castel di Giove, Bassiano, Acqua Pudrida, S. Felicita, Monte-Circello,
Cisterna, and Sermoneta.
In the plain to the right of Cisterna, in the direction of
Porto d' Anzio, is Campo Aforte, where the Papal generals
Malatesta and Riario gained a victory in 1482 over the
troops of Naples and Ferrara commanded by Alfonso Duke
of Calabria.
A  short distance beyond  Cisterna, a road on the left
turns off 2 miles to the mysterious ruined city of Ninfa (see
chapter XV.), and proceeds to Sermoneta, 6 miles further, occupying the summit of a hill projecting from the mountains, and
separated from them on one side by a beautifully wooded
ravine. At the foot of the hill we pass on the left an old
Basilica with a fine rose-window, interesting as having been
built in fulfilment of the vow of Agnesina Gaetani (a sister
of Marc-Antonio Colonna and wife of Onorato Gaetani), that
if her husband returned in safety from the battle of Lepanto, she would build and endow a church in honour of S.
Francis, on the spot where she met him.




246              DA YS NEAR ROME.
The earliest mention of Sermoneta is in I222, in a bull of
Honorius III.  In 1297 it was bought from the Annibaldeschi by Pietro Gaetani, Count of Caserta, nephew of
Boniface VIII. In 1500 Alexander VI. besieged and took
the town, putting to death Monsignor Giacomo Gaetani, and
Bernardino Gaetani, who was only aged seven. Till this
time there were no titles in Italy, the great personages were
only " Seigneurs " of their own lands, but with the Spanish
Borgias this was changed, and Alexander VI. made his own
son Duke of Sermoneta. In his time the prisons here were
erected, and were well filled. When Julius II. came to the
throne, he restored Sermoneta with all their other confiscated possessions to the Gaetani, and also bestowed upon
them the title which his predecessor had attached to the
property. The Gaetani retained their complete feudal rights,
even the power of life and death, until the present century.
]                   m
Sermoneta.
The castle is exceedingly imposing externally, and encloses a vast courtyard. Ricchi, writing in the beginning of
the last century, dilates upon the splendours of its furniture,




THE PONTINE MARSHES.                         247
but the Duke of Sermoneta who lived in the time of the
great French  Revolution  was so  dreadfully afraid  of an
attack, that he voluntarily opened his gates for pillage, and
invited all the townspeople to come in and help themselves;
which they did, leaving nothing whatever behind them. Only
a small part of the building is now habitable. There are
one or two fine old chimney-pieces, but the parts of the
castle in best preservation are the prisons, which were built
by the Borgias, and which occupy an entire wing, one below
another, beginning with well-lighted rooms, and ending in
dismal dungeons. There is a fine view from the top of the
tower.  The little town was the birthplace of the painter
Girolamo Siciolante. There are several large convents on
the neighbouring hills: that of the Bernardins belonged to
the Knights Templars.
We now enter the Pontine Marshes.
" Ceux qui n'ont pas vu les Marais Pontirns se representent une vaste
etendue de marecages steriles et nauseabondes, aussi desagreable aux
yeux que repugnante a l'odorat. Rien n'est plus loin de la verite. Les
marais Pontins sont un des plus beaux pays de l'Europe, un des plus
riches, un des plus charmants, durant les trois quarts de l'annee.
"Figurez-vous une longue plaine bordee d'un cote par la mer, de
l'autre par un rang des montagnes pittoresques.  Les montagnes sont
cultivees avec soin et plantees sur tous leurs versants: c'est un grand
jardin couvert d'oliviers dont le feuillage bleuatre semble en toute saison
baigne d'une vapeur matinale. Les premiers versants protegent des
bois de vieux orangers bien portants. La plaine se partage en forets, en
prairies, et en cultures. Les forets, hautes et vigoureuses, attestent
l'incroyable f6condite d'un sol vierge.  Elles nourissent les plus beaux
arbres de I'Europe et les lianes les plus puissantes. La vigne sauvage
et leglantier grimpant colorent et parfument le feuillage toujours vert de
lieges.
"Les prairies sont peuplees de troupeaux innombrables: on n'en
trouverait d'aussi beaux que dans l'Amerique ou dans l'Ukraine. Des
bandes de chevaux demi-sauvages galopent en liberte dans des enclos




248                   DA  YS NEAR ROME.
immenses; les vaches et les buffles ruminent en paix lherbe haute et
touffue.  Les gardiens de ce betail, cloues sur la selle de leurs chevaux.
le manteau en croupe, le fusil en bandouliere, la lance au poing, vetus
de velours solide et guetres jusqu'au genou d'un cuir epais et brillant,
galopent autour de leurs eleves.  Les jeunes poulains, haut perch6s sur
leurs pattes greles, decoupent a l'horizon leurs silhouettes fantastiques.
"Les cultures sont rares, mais gigantesques. Au printemps on voit
jusqu'a cent paires de boeufs occupes a labourer le meme champ.  A la
fin de juin, il n'est pas rare de rencontrer une piece de ble qui dore une
lieue de terrain. Les bles sont beaux, les mais sont si grands qu'un
homme a cheval y est aussi invisible qu'une perdrix dans nos sillons.
Les foins, partout ou l'eau ne fait pas foissonner le jonc et le carex,
sont bien longs, bien sains et bien parfumes.  La culture maraichere
trouve meme une place dans cette fecondite de toutes choses.  C'est
dans les Marais Pontins qu'on cultive, par pieces de plusieurs hectares,
ces artichauts demi-sauvages dont le peuple de Rome se nourrit en ete.
"Cependent tout n'est pas fait pour les Marais Pontins, puisqu'ils ne
sont point habitables. La population qui les cultive descend des montagnes, laboure, fauche ou moissonne et s'enfuit aussit6t, sous peine de
mort.
"C'est d'abord que les eaux ne s'ecoulent pas assez vite.  Il faudrait quelques canaux de plus.
" C'est aussi que les detritus de matieres vegetales qui composent ce
sol f6cond subissent, dans les grandes chaleurs, une fermentation terrible.  Il s'en degage des poisons subtils, insaisissables a l'odorat, mais
funestes a la sante.  La decomposition des produits animaux est fetide,
mais inoffensive et presque salubre; tandis que ces prairies embaumees
engendrent la peste.  Quand le soleil de juillet a mis en liberte les gaz
deleteres qui couraient sous l'herbe de ces campagnes, le vent les emporte ot bon lui semble, et l'on voit a dix lieues de distance, dans la
montagne, en pays naturellement sain, les hommes mourir empoisonnes."
-A bout, Rome Contemporaire, p. 307.
There is an Osteria at Ap4pii Forum, of sacred memories.
It is also the place where Horace took the canal-boat:" Inde Forum Appi,
Differtum nautis, cauponibus atque malignis."
Sat. I. v. 3.
The next Osteria, Mesa, is supposed to mark the station!




THiE PONTINE MARSHES.                       249
Ad AMedias on the Via Appia. Near it are a tomb and some
ancient mile-stones. Beyond the next post-house, of Ponte
Maggiore, we cross a river formed by the union of the Ufente
and Am4asena.
"Many people imagine that the Pontine Marshes are only marshy
ground, a dreary extent of stagnant, slimy water, a melancholy road to
travel over: on the contrary, the marshes have more resemblance to the
rich plains of Lombardy; yes, they are like them, rich to abundance;
grass and herbage grow here with a succulence and luxuriance which the
north of Italy cannot exhibit.
"Neither can any road be more excellent than that which leads
through the marshes, upon which, as on a bowling-green, the carriages
roll along between unending alleys of trees, whose thick branches
afford a shade from the scorching beams of the sun. On each side the
immense plain stretches itself out with its tall grass, and its fresh, green
marsh-plants. Canals cross one another, and drain off the water which
stands in ponds and lakes covered with reeds and broad-leaved waterlilies.
" On the left hand, in coming from Rome, the lofty hills of Abruzzi
extend themselves, with here and there small towns, which, like mountain castles, shine with their white walls from the grey rocks. On the
right the green plain stretches down to the sea where Cape Circello lifts
itself, now a promontory, but formerly Circe's Island, where tradition
lands Ulysses.
"As I went along, the mists, which began to dissipate, floated over
the green extent, where the canals shone like linen on a bleachingground.  The sun glowed with the warmth of summer, although it was
but the middle of March. Herds of buffaloes went through the tall
grass. A troop of horses gallopped wildly about, and struck out with
their hind feet, so that the water was dashed around to a great height;
their bold attitudes, their unconstrained leaping and gambolling, might
have been a study for an animal painter. To the left I saw a dark monstrous column of smoke, which ascended from the great fire which the
shepherds had kindled to purify the air around their huts. I met a
peasant, whose pale, yellow, sickly exterior contradicted the vigorous
fertility which the marshes presented. Like a dead man arisen from the
grave, he rode upon his black horse, and held a sort of lance in his hand
with which he drove together the buffaloes which went into the swampy
mire, where some of them laid themselves down, and stretched forth
only their dark ugly heads with their malicious eyes.




250                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
"The solitary post-houses, of three or four stories high, which were
erected close by the road-side, showed also, at the first glance, the
poisonous effluvia which steamed up from the marshes.  The limewashed walls were entirely covered with an unctuous grey-green mould.
Buildings, like human beings, bore here the stamp of corruption, which
showed itself in strange contrast with the rich luxuriance around, with
the fresh verdure, and the warm sunshine."-Hans Christian Andersen,
The Imnprovisatore.
Three miles before reaching Terracina, we pass the site of
that fountain of Feronia, which Horace describes as the
place where travellers quitted the canal through the marshes,
and began the ascent to Anxur.
"Ora manusque tua lavimus, Feronia, lympha,
Millia tur pransi tria repimus, atque subimus
Impositum saxis late candentibus Anxur."
Sat. i. 5. 23.
The sacred grove of Feronia (a Sabine goddess) is mentioned by Virgil:"Viridi gaudens Feronia luco."
Efn. vii. 800.
The situation of Terracina is most picturesque and beautiful.
" Close before me stood Terracina in the fertile, Hesperian landscape.
Three lofty palm-trees, with their fruit, grew not far from the road. The
vast orchards, which stretched up the mountain-sides, seemed like a
great green carpet with millions of golden points. Lemons and oranges
bowed the branches down to the ground. Before a peasant's hut lay a
quantity of lemons, piled together into a heap, as if they had been
chestnuts which had been shaken down.  Rosemary and wild dark-red
gillyflowers grew abundantly in the crevices of the rock, high up among
the peaks of the cliffs, where stood the magnificent remains of the
castle of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, and which overlook the city
and the whole surrounding country.
" My eyes were dazzled with the beautiful picture, and, quietly dreaming, I entered Terracina. Before me lay the sea,-the wonderfully




7ERRA CINA.                        251
beautiful Mediterranean.  It was heaven itself in the purest ultramarine, which, like an immense plain, was spread out before me. Far
out at sea I saw islands, like floating clouds of the most beautiful lilac
colour, and perceived Vesuvius where the dark column of smoke became
blue in the far horizon. The surface of the sea seemed perfectly still,
yet the lofty billows, as blue and clear as the ether itself, broke against
the shore on which I stood, and sounded like thunder among the mountains."-Hans Christian Andersen.
The Volscian name of Terracina was Anxur, but it was
always known as Terracina to the Latins and Romans. The
ancient name is used by the Latin poets, because " Terracina" could not be introduced in verse, but Livy and Cicero
speak of Terracina.
The town is first mentioned in history B. c. 509. It was
first taken from the Volscians, B. C. 406, but was temporarily
reconquered by them. In B. C. 329, it was secured by a
Roman colony.  Horace says that the ancient Anxur stood
upon the rock at the foot of which the present town is situated.
Ovid calls it Trachas:
"Trachasque obsessa palude."
Metam. xv. 717.
but the Greek derivation of Strabo from  TpaXLvn (from its
rugged situation), is a mere etymological fancy.
It was colonized by Rome, to which it became of importance as a naval port. The Latin poets constantly extol its
beauty and position.
"Jamque et przecipites superaverat Anxuris arces."
Lucan. iii. 84.
".. scopulosi verticis Anxur."
Sil. tal. viii. 392.
".. arcesque superbse
Anxuris. "
Stat. Silv. 1. 3.




252                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
"Seu placet IEneae nutrix, seu filia Solis,
Sive salutiferis candidus Anxur aquis."
Mart. v. Ep. I.' O nemus, o fontes, solidumque madentis arena?
Littus, et oequoreis splendidus Anxur aquis."
Id...Ep. 51.
"Scarcely had we congratulated ourselves at the sight of the rockbuilt Terracina, than we came in view of the sea beyond it. Then, on
the opposite side of the mountain city, a new vegetation was presented
to us. The Indian figs were pushing their large fleshy leaves amidst the
grey-green of dwarf myrtles, the yellow-green of the pomegranates, and
the silvery-green of the olives.  Many new flowers and shrubs grew by
the way-side.  In the meadows the narcissus and the adonis were in
flower. For a long time the sea was on our right, while close to us on
the left ran an unbroken range of limestone rocks."-Goethe.
The whole circuit of the ancient port can still be traced,
and also that of the town walls of "opus incertuml" (i. e.
recent polygonal).
The Cathedral of S. Pietro stands on the site of an ancient
temple, supposed to be that of Jupiter Anxur, and many
ancient fluted columns, and other fragments, are enclosed
within  its buildings.  In  the vestibule are ten  of these
ancient columns, resting upon lions. A Roman sarcophagus
is shown as the bath of boiling oil in which some Christian
martyrs suffered. The pulpit is inlaid with mosaics and
supported by pillars resting on lions. The first bishop is
said to have been S. Epaphroditus, a disciple of S. Peter,
A. D. 46.  Two other churches are interesting.  We know
from a letter of Gregory the Great to Agnellus, Bishop of
Terracina, that paganism lingered very long in this country.
" Now as to those who worship idols and trees: we have heard that certain persons there (it is a shame even to speak of it) pay worship to trees,
and perform many other rites blasphemous to the Christian faith, and
we wonder why you, my brother, have delayed to visit them with condign




MONTE CIRCELLO.                        253
punishment. Wherefore by this letter I exhort you to make diligent
search concerning them, and when you know the truth to visit them
with such a vengeance that their punishment may appease the divine
wrath, and be an example to others. We have written also to Maurus,
our lieutenant, to bid him give your Reverence every assistance in the
matter, if so be that you can find no sufficient excuse for clemency."Greg. Mag. E2p5. viii. 20.
The rocks overhang Terracina most picturesquely.  On
the summit of the cliff is an immense pile of ruins of the
Palace of Theodoric.  The path is difficult to find, and the
ascent scarcely repays the fatigue, though there is a fine
view.
The Emperor Galba was born in a villa near Terracina.*
The narrow pass beyond the town, between the cliffs and the
sea, is Lautule, occupied by the Roman troops who mutinied
after the ist Samnite war and intended marching to Rome,
when their insurrection was quelled by Valerius Corvus.t
The defile was secured by Fabius Maximus in the second
Punic war to prevent Hannibal from advancing by the Appian Way.+
A little beyond Terracina, the high-road to Naples passes
through the arched gateway called Portella, which was once
the frontier of the kingdom.
An excursion should certainly be made from Terracina to
the Circean Mount (Monte Circello), which, in distant view,
is so like Capri, and which is always so beautiful a feature,
looming above the long flat lines of the marshes.
"Vedi quel monte, ove si digiuna
Circe piu volte fece i suoi incantesmi
Al lume del sole, e della luna."
Uberfo.
A  road of ten miles leads to S. Felice, a town on the
* Suetonius, Galb. iv.    t Livy, vii. 39.  t Livy, xxii. 15.




254              DA YS NEAR ROME.
southern slope of the mountain, and the rest of the ascent
must be accomplished on foot.
Up to III 8 the Roman city of Rocca Circea existed, and
was then considered to be the strongest fortress in the possession of the Church. It belonged to the Frangipani from
1185 to I203, but soon after that time must have perished,
when S. Felice arose in its place. This was sold to Pietro
Gaetani, nephew of Boniface VIII., by the Annibaldeschi in
I301, was confiscated by Alexander VI. in I500 with the
other Gaetani property, and was restored to that family in
1506 by Julius II. In 17I3 it was finally sold to Prince
Ruspoli by Duke Michael Angelo Gaetani.
Behind the town one must ascend the hill to visit the huge
remains, which are supposed to belong to the city of Circe
the Enchantress. Few places in Italy are more romantic,
few situations more striking; none have been more frequently
celebrated by the Latin poets. Towards the sea the promontory is a precipice, and on the other sides it is cut off
from  all else by the Pontine Marshes. Several ancient
writers suppose that it was originally an island, and Homer
thus represents it, if this place was in his mind when he
told the adventures of Ulysses.  Many authors mention
that the tomb of Elpenor, a companion of Ulysses, was
shown on the Circean Mount, and Strabo tells of the cup of
Ulysses (from which, when his companions drank, they were
changed into beasts), being preserved here as a relic, and this
Dionysius says continued to be shown even in the age of
Augustus.
At the summit of the mountain are fragments supposed to
belong to the Temple of the Sun. Here was the abode of
Circe, described by Virgil:



MONVTE CIRCELLO.                        2;
"Proxima Circeae raduntur litora terrse:
Dives inaccessos ubi Solis filia lucos
Assiduo resonat cantu, tectisque superbis
Urit odoratam nocturna in lumina cedrum,
Arguto tenues percurrens pectine telas.
Hinc exaudiri gemitus, iraeque leonum
Vincla recusantum, et sera sub nocte rudentum:
Saetigerique sues, atque in presepibus ursi
Saevire, ac formae magnorum ululare luporum.,En. vii. Io.
The priestesses of Circe are said to have kept a number
of dried herbs gathered on the mountain in the portico of
the temple, for the cure of the bites of venomous serpents.*
" Funestarumque potestas
Herbarum, quidquid letali germine pollens
Caucasus, aut Scythioe vernant in carmina rupes,
Quas legit Medea ferox, et callida Circe."
Claudian, In Rufin. I. I50.
Aristotle (De Mirab.) seems to have heard of the Circean
Mount as producing some deadly poison, but Strabo says
that the descriptions of the poisonous herbs here are probably
only invented to confirm the claim of the promontory to be
the abode of the witch Circe.
The situation of the town of Circeii is uncertain, but it
probably stood on the site now occupied by S. Felice. It is
first mentioned in the time of Tarquinius Superbus, who
colonized it at the same time as Signia.t  It was taken by
Coriolanus and restored to the Volsci. In B. C. 340 it was
one of the cities of the Latin league. After, it fell again into
the hands of the Romans; it was never very faithful to them.
At the time of the second Punic War it had declined, and
was one of the twelve cities which declared themselves
* See Ricchi, Regia de' Volsci.  t Livy, i. 56.




256                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
unable to contribute to the supplies of the army. It is called
a small town (7roXit'Lov) by Strabo.  Many wealthy Romans
however resorted to it under the empire, and both Tiberius
and Domitian had villas here. Its oysters were celebrated.*
"Ostrea Circaeis, Miseno oriuntur echini."
Horace, Sat.  I. iv. 33.
"Circoeis nata forent, an
Lucrinum ad saxum, Rutupinove edita fundo
Ostrea, callebat primo deprendere morsu."
Yuvenal, Sat. iv. I40.
The triumvir Lepidus was banished hither by Augustus,
after his deposition.t
The port of Circeii was probably on the west of the promontory, at the spot called Porto di Paolo.
Immediately under the promontory of this side is the
Lago di Paolo. The tower called Torre di Paolo was built by
the Gaetani under Pius IV.
On the other side, Monte Circello is the point of a bay
which is closed at the other end by Gaieta.  It is the
" Sinus Amyclanus " of Pliny, and was the southern boundary
of Latium.
The number of strange sea-birds on the Monte Circello
will form an attraction to the ornithologist. There is a
curious stalactite cavern, called Grotta della Maga.
In returning to Velletri, a divergence should be made from
Foro Appio (a public conveyance is said still to run in connection with the diligence) to Sezza, the Setia of the Volscians, which is beautifully situated on a hill above the
marshes.  Some ruins here are shown as those of a temple
* Pliny, xxii. 6.   t Suetonius, Aug. i6.




FOSSANUO VA.                   257
of Saturn. The women of Sezza have a very pretty and
peculiar costume.
From the base of the hill of Sezza, a road to the right
leads (6 miles) to Piperno, the ancient Privernum, a most picturesque place, with manyr fragments of Gothic domestic
architecture, and a charming  piazza adorned with  old
orange-trees.  It has been celebrated in all ages for its
brigands.  In the early history of Rome, it made common
cause with Fondi, was conquered, and its chief, Vitruvius
Vacca, was beaten to death at Rome.  His house on the
Palatine was razed, and the neighbourhood of its site received
the name of Campo-Vaccino.
Three miles north is the famous monastery of Fossanuoova,
which was founded by Benedictines, and existed in the
beginning of the ninth century.  In II35 it passed to the
Cistercians, who were succeeded by Carthusians, after the
suppression under the French. In the twelfth century the
monastery was restored by Frederick Barbarossa, and in the
thirteenth century it was rebuilt under Frederick II. The
fatade of Italian-Gothic is extremely handsome, the interior
is exceedingly simple and pure, like that of Casamari.
Hither S. Thomas Aquinas came on his way from Naples
to the General Council at Lyons in I224, and here he died.
He lay sick for some weeks, and during this last illness
dictated a commentary on the Song of Solomon.  When the
last Sacrament was brought to him he desired to be taken
from his bed and laid upon ashes strewn upon the floor.
His body was taken hence, first to Fondi, then to Toulouse,
except the head, which is preserved in the cathedral of
Piperno.  On that which was intended for his tomb is
inscribed:
VOL. II.                                  17




258                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
"Occidit hic Thomas, lux et fax amplior Orbi,
Et candelabrum sic Nova Fossa foret,
Editus ardenti locus est, non fossa lucerna,
Hanc igitur Fossam, quis neget esse Novam?"
" Entering the monastery of Fossanuova, he went first to pray before
the Blessed Sacrament, according to his custom.  Passing thence into
the cloister, which he never lived to go out of, he repeated these words:
This is smy rest for ages without end. He was lodged in the abbot's
apartment, where he lay ill for nearly a month.
"While lying ill, he had continually in his mouth these words of S.
Austin,'Then shall I truly live, when I shall be quite filled with you
alone, and your love; now I am a burden to myself, because I am not
entirely full of you.' In such pious transports of heavenly love he never
ceased sighing after the glorious day of eternity. In his last moments
one of the monks asked him by what means we might live always faithful in God's grace.  He answered,'Be assured that he who shall
always walk faithfully in his presence, always ready to give him an
account of all his actions, shall never be separated from him by consenting
to sin.' These were his last words to man, after which he only spoke
to God in prayer." —Alban Buler.
" In his last illness, the monks, notwithstanding his feeble condition,
could not refrain from asking him to expound to them the Canticle of Canticles, which has wholly to do with the mystic marriage of the soul with
Christ. The Angelical looked at them with unutterable gentleness and
said,'Get me Bernard's spirit, and I will do your bidding.' Finally,
he gave way to them, and surrounding the bed on which he lay, they
heard from the lips of the dying Theologian how there is no strength, or
peace, or light for man, in earth or heaven, without the charity of Christ
and the merits of his Cross.
"Growing weaker, Thomas became conscious that his hour was
drawing very nigh.  He sent for Reginald, his socius, and with deep
contrition, made a review of his entire life, which, in reality, was simply
a manifestation of the abiding and angelic purity of his heart and spirit.
Having done this, he begged the brethren to bring him the body of our
Lord, and the Abbot, accompanied by his community, proceeded to the
chamber of the dying man, bearing the Blessed Sacrament. Immediately
the great Angelical perceived his Master's presence, with the help of the
brethren he rose from his pallet, and, kneeling upon the floor, adored
his King and Saviour. When the Abbot was on the point of administering to him he exclaimed:'I receive Thee, the price of my soul's redemption, for the love of whom I have studied, I have watched, and I




S. THOIMAS AQUINAS.                        259
have laboured! Thee have I preached, Thee have I taught, against
Thee have I never breathed a word, neither am I wedded to my own
opinion. If I have held aught which is untrue respecting this Blessed
Sacrament, I subject it to the judgment of the Holy Roman Church, in
whose obedience I now pass out of life.' Then as the Abbot lifted up
the spotless Element he uttered his favourite ejaculation:'Thou, 0
Christ, art the King of glory; Thou art the Everlasting Son of the
Father'
"He was taken from exile on the early morning of March 7, I274, in
the prime of manly life, being scarcely eight and forty years of age.
"It is but natural, it is but beautiful, that he, who in early boyhood
had been stamped with the signet of S. Benedict, should return to S.
Benedict to die.  He had gone forth to his work and to his labour in
the morning, and he returned home to his brethren in the evening-tide."
— Vaughan's Life of S. Thomas Aquinas.
"L'ceuvre etait achevee.  Prince, moine, disciple, Saint Thomas
d'Aquin pouvait monter sur le trone de la science divine; il y monta en
effet, et depuis six siecles qu'il y est assis, la Provilence ne lui a point
envoye de successeur ni de rival. II est demeure prince comme il etait
ne, solitaire comme il s'etait fait, et la qualite seule de disciple a disparu
en lui, parcequ'il est devenu le maitre de tous."-Lacordaire, Cozferences de Toulouse.
" If we now hear the name of scholasticism we think not unjustly of
a labyrinth which a prosaic, petty, and musty understanding, dissecting
things and classifying them again, has built up in centuries of barren
leisure. Who would now dive into the' summa theologie' of Thomas
Aquinas? who would venture into this dark forest of spirits, in the midst
of which lies the Aristotelian-Christian Minotaur of thought?  This
colossal edifice of philosophy we look upon now as an astonishing
antiquity, and its hair-splitting distinctions, its moral and speculative investigations, its problems which lie far away from every object of life,
no longer occupy a race which has grown more practical or material, or
freer and more simple in thought.  But let us not forget that even those
systems were foundations for the science of thought, besides which we
must confess that man in the nineteenth century is just as helpless, with
reward to the highest problems which the mind cap. propose, as a
scholastic of the middle ages, or as the first man in paradise."-Gregorovius. 
The valley of Fossanuova is watered by the Amasena, the
Amasenus of Virgil:



260                   DA YS NEAR ROME.
"Ecce, fugae medio, summis Amasenus abundans
SFuniabat ripis; tantus se nubibus imber
Ruperat; ille innare parans infantis amore
Tardatur, caroque onere timet."
2En. xi. 547.
It is only four or five miles from hence to Sonnino, in a
most picturesque situation.
"Sonnino se voit de loin sur la pointe d'un rocher. Les batiments sont
uniformement gris, couleur de ruines. On distingue la base de quelques
tours a moitie demolies; c'est tout ce qui reste de lenceinte fortifiee.
Deux ou trois constructions neuves, d'un blanc cru, font tache dans le
paysage et troublent l'harmonie triste du lieu. La route elle-meme me
parut sinistre, quoiqu'elle fut toute en fleurs.  Les oliviers, les vignes,
les clematites, les ronces, les genets, fleurissaient a qui mieux mieux; les
boutons du myrte allaient s'ouvrir, et pourtant ce luxe vigoureux d'un
printemps d'Italie ne vous parlait ni d'amour ni de plaisir.  Nous
sondions la profondeur des ravins qui bordaient l'escarpement des
rochers arides, nous plongions dans l'epaisseur impenetrable des halliers.
Quelques champs larges comme la main, appuyes sur les contreforts de
pierres seches, nous expliquaient la vie nouvelle des indigenes, leur
travail opiniatre et le maigre fruit de leurs sueurs.  Ca et la sortait de
terre une poignee de froment, d'avoine ou de mais: mais la principale
culture est celle des oliviers, et l'ceil se promenait tristement sur leur
feuillage bleuatre."-About, Rome Conltemporaine, p. 312.
" Le Cardinal Antonelli est ne dans un repaire. Sonnino, son village,
etait plus celebre dans l'histoire du crime que toute l'Arcadie dans les
annales de la vertu. Ce nid de vautours se cachait dans les montagnes
du Midi, vers la frontiere du royaume de Naples.  Des chemins impracticables ia la gendarmerie serpentaient a travers les maquis et les
halliers. Quelques forets entrelacees de lianes, quelques ravins profonds, quelques grottes tenebreuses, formaient un paysage ia souhait pour
la commodite du crime.  Les maisons de Sonnino, vieilles, mal baties,
jetees les unes sur les autres et presque inhabitables a l'homme,
n'etaient que les dep6ts du pillage et les magazins de la rapine.  La
population, alerte et vigoureuse, cultivait, depuis plusieurs siecles, le vol
a main. armee et gagnait sa vie ia coups de fusil. Les enfants nouveau-nes
respiraient le mepris des lois avec lair de la montagne, et suqaient,
avec le lait de leurs meres, la convoitise du bien d'autrui. Ils chaussaient
de bonne heure les mocassins de cuir crout, ces clOches (cioccie) avec
lesquelles ou court legerement sur les rochers les plus escarpees,




SOA37IN.O.                            261
Lorsqu'on leur avait enseigne l'art de poursuivre et d'echapper, de
prendre et de n'etre point pris, la valeur des monnaies, l'arithmetique des
partages et les principes du droit des gens tel qu'il se pratique chez les
Apaches ou les Comaches, leur education etait faite. Ils apprenaient
tout seuls a jouir du bien conquis et'a satisfaire leurs passions dans la
victoire.  En lan de grace I8o6, cette race appetente et rusee, gratifia
l'Italie d'un petit montagnard appele Jacques Antonelli." —About, La
Question Romaine, p. I39.




CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE LATIN SHORE.
(A public carriage leaves the Albano station every morning for Porto
d'Anzio, I8 miles distant, on the arrival of the first train from Rome. The
extortionate vetturini at Albano itself charge from 50 to 60 francs for a
carriage to go and return. It is about three hours' drive. There is no
regular inn at Porto d'Anzio, but comfortable rooms may be obtained,
and there is a good restaurant with a private room for breakfast and
dinner. At both a most strict bargain should be made, as the natives
are most exorbitant in their charges to strangers, and assert that the
want of more custom obliges them to make the most of that they have.)
A   FTER  leaving the Albano station, the road runs at
L  first through a richly cultivated plain, leaving the hill
of Mont Giove (Corioli) on the left: but soon it reaches a
Corioli.
wilderness of the deadly asphodel, which eats up the whole
country for many miles. The latter part of the drive is through




POR TO D'ANAZIO.                 26,
forest-a continuation of the beautiful wood we have seen
at Castel Fusano-which here skirts the coast for so great a
distance.  The road is excellent the whole way, and the
descent upon the white houses of Porto d'Anzio, ranged
along the blue sea, and backed by swelling hills, reminds one
of many an English watering-place.  On entering the town,
we pass, on the left, the desolated Villa of the Pope.
Xenagoras, a Greek writer quoted by Dionysius, ascribes
the foundation of Antium to Anthias, son of Circe and
Ulysses: Solinus refers it to Ascanius. It was one of the
Latin cities which united against Rome before the Battle of
Regillus, but was afterwards taken by the Volscians, under
whom it rose to great power and wealth. Hither Coriolanus
retired when banished from Rome, and here he is said to
have died. Dionysius speaks of Antium as " a most splendid
city of the Volscians."  During the latter days of the Republic, and under the Empire, Antium was most prosperous,
and it became the favourite resort of the emperors. Here
Augustus received the title of " Pater Patrime," and here Caligula was born. Nero, who was also born at Antium, was
greatly devoted to it, and constructed a magnificent port here.
He was staying at Antium when he received the news of the
burning of Rome. Antoninus Pius built an aqueduct for the
town, and Septimius Severus added largely to the imperial
palace.  Cicero had a villa here, and amused himself by
"counting the waves" (Ad Att.  i. 6). The place declined
with the Empire. It has been much injured of late years by
the filling up of its port, which is quite useless now except
for very small vessels.
The existing Roman remains of Porto d'Anzio are very
obscure, and offer the merest suggestion of its former




264                DA YS NEAR ROME.
grandeur. There is no trace of the temple of Equestrian
Fortune, commemorated by Horace, who invokes the favour
of the goddess for the expedition of Augustus to Britain;
it is also alluded to by Martial:"Seu tua veridicae dicunt responsa sorores,
Plana suburbani qua cubat unda freti."
v. Ep. I.
A temple of Esculapius was famous as the place where
the Epidaurian Serpent rested on its way to Rome.
Ovid speaks of a temple of Apollo:"Et tellus Circzea, et spissi litoris Antium.
Huc ubi veliferam nautae advertere carinam,
(Asper enim jam pontus erat,) Deus explicat orbes,
Perque sinus crebros et magna volumina labens,
Templa parentis init, flavum tangentia litus."
Metam. xv. 718.
The Villa of Nero (opposite the modern barracks), described by Murray as a fine ruin retaining its mosaic pavements and painted walls, has never, within the memory of
man, presented more than some stumpy brick walls, scarcely
projecting above the turf, yet here, in the reign of Julius II.,
the Apollo Belvidere was found, and, a century afterwards,
the Borghese Gladiator of the Louvre. The size of the old
Antium  is attested by the marble columns and pieces of
pedestal scattered over the fields for miles around, and by
the opus-reticulatum work which often lines the cliffs on the
sea-shore. Projecting far into the sea, worn and caverned
by the waves, are the picturesque remains of the two moles
of Nero, which enclosed the ancient harbour.
The town is very small, merely a knot of modern houses
grouped around a square (in which stands the new church of
S. Antonio), with a few more ancient fishermen's cottages.
These line one side of a pier, constructed by the architect




PORTO D'ANZIO.                         265
Zinaghi, for Innocent XII., at a cost of 200,000 scudi, upon
one of the old moles of Nero, of which he filled up the arches,
and thus caused the accumulation of sand which has destroyed the harbour. The lighthouse at the end of the pier
is picturesque. Behind the town are open downs, strewn
here and there with fragments of ruin. The sands in either
direction are delightful for walking, and the views towards
Nettuno are most attractive.
"When you sit in the window of your chamber, before which the
Neapolitan fishermen are seated on the white sands mending their nets,
the whole of the glorious gulf stretches before you, and you see the
lovely shore as far as the Circean promontory.  On the coast near
Anzio rises the noble villa of Prince Borghese in a wild park of ilexes
and olive-trees, further off are the castle and town of Nettuno, brown
and picturesque, built into the sea, and celebrated through all the world
for the beauty of its women, and their splendid costume. The lines of
the coast become now ever softer, more delicate, and more drawn out,
till, at the end, a little white-glimmering castle rises in the dreamy distance. This castle lends a melancholy tone to shore and sea, such as
the Circean cape sheds over the Homeric poetry. To the eyes of every
German it has a magical attraction, and his heart is moved to sorrow
and tears, for it suggests one of the greatest landmarks in the history of
his fatherland. It is yet the same tower of Astura, whither Conradin,
the last of the Hohenstaufens, fled after the lost battle of Tagliacozzo,
and where the traitor Frangipani took him prisoner, and delivered him
into the hands of the blood-thirsty Charles of Anjou. At that tower
the sun of the Hohenstaufens sank into the sea."-Gregorovius, The
Latin Shore.
From Porto d'Anzio.
From Porto d'Anzio.
The fishing boats and the fishing operations are a great
amusement to those who stay long at Porto d'Anzio.




266                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
" It is the custom of the fishermen to go out towards Ave Maria, and
to fish through the night. That which is caught will be brought with
the morning into the straw-roofed sheds, but in the evening it will be
registered and packed up, and by night it will be carried in carts to
Rome. Evening brings with it an exciting scene. The clerks sit at a
table with a lantern and register the fish; all around fishermen are occupied in bringing in fish in baskets, while others pound pieces of ice,
and lay the fish upon this frozen surface. The variety and wonderful
forms of these creatures of the sea is astonishing. There is the long
Grongo, the great and handsome Palomzbo, the beautiful spotted Murena,
the flounder-like prickly Ray, the great multitude of glittering Triglie
and Sardines, and the well-tasting Merl-uzzo. Sometimes a Dolphin
is brought up, and once I saw in a fish-basket two Pesce-cane, which
had been found here.  They were from eight to ten feet long, their
black-steel blue colour had something uncanny about it. - Gregorovius.
To the left of the town, the cliffs are covered with Mesembryanthemum, hanging in huge festoons and making a grand
mass of purple colour with their great sun-like flowers, like
large sea anemonies. Aloes form the hedges of the cottagegardens.
"Precious marbles of every kind are found here.  One might fill
carts with gleaming wave-polished marble, which is sprinkled over the
shore, go as far as one will. One can pick up Verde Antico, Giallo
Antico, the gorgeous oriental Alabaster, Porphyry, Pavonazzetto, Serpentino, and blue Smalt. Wherever these rare stones exist, a glance into the
waves tells us where they come from. For out of the sea rise the foundations of ancient Roman water-palaces, and at a quarter of an hour's distance from Antium, the shore is nothing less than a ruin of continuous
masonry. They look like masses of rock and the over-throwings of a
cliff, and if one examines one finds that they are simply Roman walls of
Peperino stone, and the imperishable Pozzolano, and delicate Roman
reticulated work.  Now the whole weird coast yawns with grottoes
and halls of old baths and villas, and the foundations of temples and
palaces crop up along the line of the shore.  Here stood once the
beautiful marble villas of the Emperors.  Here Caligula besported
himself, who particularly liked Antium, and had even formed a plan of
making it his residence; here he celebrated his nuptials with the beautiful Lollia Paulina.  Here Nero. who was born in Antium and planted




NE TTUNO.                         267
a colony there, held his Bacchanalia; here he made his triumphal entry
with white horses after his return from his debut in Greece.
" Also in earlier days Antium was the beloved holiday resort of the
Romans; Atticus, Lucullus, Cicero, Mecoenas, and Augustus, had here
their villas; and where, on what charming hill, on what lovely Italian
shore, had not these lucky fellows their villas! How this shore must
once have shone with all the stones, the historic fragments, which the
waves have constantly been tossing to and fro for centuries. These
ruins bring a singular elegiac-historical character into the delightful
Idyll of Antium, and the voice full of memories which here everywhere
accompanies the wanderer, heightens not a little the attractions of the
shore.... In Italy one cannot give oneself up to the quiet influence of
Nature, without a grave spirit of the classical past taking possession
of the soul, and leading one to meditate upon the recollections of its
great men. So that one can sit upon the ruined palaces of the Romans,
and, the waves murmuring round, may exclaim with Horace:
"0 diva, gratum quge regis Antium,
Prasens vel imo tollere de gradu
Mortale corpus, vel superbos
Vertere funeribus triumphos!"
And again the sight of the beautiful Cape of Circe leads to the song of
Homer, while the ever-conspicuous but distant Astura draws one to
other associations and poems; so that three periods of the world's
poetry and the world's culture surround one, Homer, Horace, and the
Hohenstaufen poet Wolfram von Eschenbach."-Gregorovius.
The chief feature in the views from Porto d'Anzio is the
wonderfully picturesque little town of Nettuno, which juts out
into the sea about i  mile to the south. A broad road lined
with trees leads to it from Porto d'Anzio, but the pleasantest
way is to follow the shore as far as the sea allows, and then
clamber up the winding path beneath the villa of Prince
Borghese, which, since the change of government at Rome,
has been the principal residence of his family.
" Porto d'Anzio possesses scarcely even a remnant of female beauty
and no national costume, because it is made up of a growing and miscellaneous population.   But both noble female beauty and unique




268                DA YS NEAR ROME.
national character adorn the little town of Nettuno, which stands picturesquely upon the eastern shore, the black walls of its castle sinking
down into the waves. One reaches it in three quarters of an hour, by
a straight well-made road from Porto d'Anzio, one of the most beautiful on this coast. On the pleasantly wooded shore, half-way between
the two villages, stands the handsome villa of Prince Borghese, who is
the feudal lord of all the land in the district. In the far distance rise
the Volscian hills, and the Cape of Circe soars up in its still shining
form so enchantingly painted in light and shadow, that it would recall
in its outline and appearance the most beautiful rocks in Europe-the
island of Capri and the mountain of San Pellegrino near Palermo."
-Gregorovius.
At the entrance of Nettuno is a machicolated but now
decaying fortress begun by Alexander VI. and finished by
Alexander VII.  The town is supposed to occupy the site
of the ancient Caeno mentioned by Dionysius as a dependency of Antium.  Nettuno is surrounded with walls and
Guelphic battlements, and is full of picturesque nooks and
corners, and fragments, probably of the temple of Neptune,
whence its name is derived. The number of women passing
with brazen conche upon their heads guided us to a quaint
well, near which is a beautiful old Gothic house, with twisted
columns dividing its windows, and a pig on the coat of
arms which adorns it.  Beneath the town a wave-beaten
terrace forms a wall only accessible in calm weather; in
storms the waves beat furiously against the  old houses
themselves.
The magnificent Saracenic dress, described by Murray as
still existing here, has long ceased to be worn. The people
were persuaded that a great visitation of cholera was a judgment from Heaven for their barbaric costume, and it was left
off by universal consent! Those who wear any costume
here now, adopt that of the towns in the Volscian Hills.
It is a charming drive from hence to Astura, but for pedes



EXCURSION TO ASTURA.                269
trians the walk is somewhat dangerous owing to the vast
herds of buffaloes and bovi which come down every day
In the Church at Nettuno.
through the forest, with the early morning, to the sea,
and spend the day upon the shore. They are generally
unattended by herdsmen, and lie in black battalions on the
white sand between the forest and the waves. Some of the
bulls are most magnificent, with horns three feet long. They
are very fierce, and can only be kept in order by the Guardia
della Campagna, who rides after them and manages them
wonderfully with his long lance. But far more to be feared
are the savage red-eyed buffaloes, which when they pursue a
man, do not attempt to toss him, but knock him down, and
tread upon him till they have beaten all the breath out of
his body. They give the milk from which the Provatura,
or buffalo-cheese much eaten by the peasantry, is derived.
The flesh is coarse and hard, and is for the most part sold
to the poor Jews in the Ghetto.
The shore is lined bythe forest-arbutus, juniper, phillyrea,
tall flowering heath, and myrtles which have grown into




270                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
great trees, and are all tangled together with garlands of
smilax and honeysuckle.
" But now all sign of civilized life ceases with Nettuno, for immediately behind the town begins the Pontine wilderness. The brushwood
extends from this to Terracina. Not a single human dwelling exists
again upon the coast, only solitary towers rise out of the romantic solitude, at distances of about two miles from one another. The melancholy desolation of this shore and the impressiveness of its time-honoured
solitude is great. One feels as if one were no longer on the classic
shore of Italy, one seems to be wandering on the wild coasts of the Indian America. The constant murmur of the sighing sea-waves, the
summer breeze breathing over the  ever-smooth, ever-white-sanded
shore, the endless deep green wood, which follows the sea on and on at
a hundred paces distant, the shrill cry of the hawks and falcons, the quiet
and high-hovering eagle, the stamping and bellowing of the herds of
wild cattle, air, colour, sound, every existence and element is in unison
with the most entire impression of an old-world wilderness." —GregoroviZus.
It is seven miles from  Nettuno to Astura, whose tall
tower is visible from so great a distance. This and a little
chapel are the only buildings which rise out of the vast
solitude. Cicero, who had a favourite villa at Astura, describes it, in writing to Atticus, as "a pleasant place, standing in the sea itself, and visible both from Antium and Circeii."  A  marble pavement on the shore, and the massive
foundations on which the tower is built, are remains of the
villa of Cicero, but the latter is no longer an island, but connected  with  the mainland  by a causeway  of masonry.
Nothing can be more picturesque or romantic than this
utterly solitary wave-beaten castle; nothing more melancholy
than its associations. Hither, in Nov. B.c. 44, Marcus Cicero
fled from his Tusculan villa, upon hearing that his name
was upon the proscription-list of the triumvirate, hoping to
join Brutus in Macedonia. His brother Quintus accompanied




ASTURA.                       271
him.  They were carried in litters, and conversed as they
went.  On the way they remembered that they had not
taken sufficient money with them, and Quintus, as being the
brother least in danger, returned to Rome to fetch it, and
was there taken and put to death with his son.  Marcus
Cicero embarked at Astura in safety, but sea-sickness induced
him to land for the night at Formiae (Mola di Gaeta), where
he had a villa, and he was murdered there, while endeavouring to escape, within a mile of his own house.  Augustus Caesar is said to have been first attacked at Astura
by the illness-a dysentery-of which he died (August, A.D.
14) at Nola. Strange to say it was also at the fatal Astura
that his successor Tiberius was stricken with his last illness.*
Strangest of all, Caligula also received at Astura the fatal
omen of his approaching end, when about to sail from
thence to Antium.
But these ancient associations of Astura are less sad than
those which cling around the octangular mediaeval tower,
which was built by the great family of the Frangipani upon
the Roman foundations.  Hither (I268), after the lost battle
of Tagliacozzo, fled the brave young Conradin of Hohenstaufen, with his faithful friends Frederick of Austria, Count
Lancia and his sons, and the two Counts of Gherardesca.
The people of Astura gave Conradin a vessel in which his
party embarked in safety for Pisa, when the Lord of Astura,
Giovanni Frangipani,t returning to his castle, heard what
had happened, and roused by the hope of a reward from
Charles of Anjou, pursued them in a larger vessel and brought
them  back.  Conradin  implored  Frangipani, who  had
received great benefits and even the honours of knighthood
* Suetonzus, ixxii.     t Not Jacopo, as Murray says.




272                DA YS NEAR ROME.
from his father, to save his life, and not to deliver him up
to Charles.  He even promised to give his hand to the
daughter of Frangipani if he would permit him to escape.
But the Lord of Astura, unmoved by the misfortunes of
the prince, began at once to propose terms for his surrender
to Robert of Lavena, who had appeared before the walls to
demand the prisoners for Charles, and only concealed them
in a remote tower that he might make better terms. Conditions were soon after agreed upon with the Cardinal of
Terracina, and Conradin and his companions, sold for large
estates in the princedom of Benevento, were hurried through
the hills to Palestrina, and thence to Naples, where they
were cruelly executed, Conradin, with his last breath, saying:
" I cite my judge before the highest tribunal, my blood shed
on this spot shall cry to Heaven for vengeance."
The Frangipani did not long enjoy their ill-gotten gains,
and the only son of Giovanni perished in the very castle of
Astura, where he had betrayed his friend.
"In I286, quatre ans apres les Vepres Siciliennes, un amiral de
Jacques d'Arragon emporta Astura, qu'il reduisit en cendres. Les biens
des Frangipani furent ravages; Jacob, le fils de Jean, perit dans le
combat. Sa posterite s'eteignit, et, de cette branche, dont le blason
etait tache du sang royal, il ne reste qu'un souvenir de deshonneur."
Cherrier, iv. p. 212.
The castle afterwards became a fortress of the Gaetani, then
of the Malabranca, the Orsini, and of the Colonna, whose
arms still appear upon its walls, and who sold it to Clement
VIII. in I594.  It now belongs to the Borghese, and its
little garrison of eight men spend here a life of isolation like
that of a desert island, while a single cannon stands upon
the ramparts.




THE  TORA CCIO.                        273
" Quand Ciceron disait d'Astura: lieu agre'able, il montrait ce lieu tel
que la civilisation et el'legance romaine l'avaient fait.  Aujourd'hui, en
presence de la tour solitaire d'Astura, si notre regard se promene sur.
cette plage triste, inhabitee, funeste k Auguste, k Tibere, a Conradin,
nous n'apercevons que la foret, les sables et la mer. De nos jours cet
endroit sinistre ressemble, mieux qu'au temps de Ciceron, a ce qu'il
etait avant la naissance du premier Romain." —Ampjre, Hist. Rom. i.
51I
Near the castle the little river Fiume Conca, formerly called
the Astura, flows into the sea. It rises in the Alban Hills.
On its banks the last great battle between the Romans and
Latins was fought in B. c. 338, when C. Maenius the consul
totally defeated  the united forces of Antium, Lanuvium,
Aricia, and Velitrae.
Three miles inland from Astura is a curious Roman tomb
now called II Toraccio. It has been supposed, without the
slightest foundation, to be the tomb of Tullia daughter of
Cicero, who died at Astura.*
The shore beyond Astura is girt by the strip of forest
which divides it from the Pontine Marshes.  Three lakes
break the inland expanse,-the Lago Fogliano, the Lago di
Caprolace, and the Lago  di San  Paolo.  They are much
frequented by the peasants for the fishing they afford, but
few strangers will venture into this plague-stricken region,
and will rather go round by Velletri and Terracina to visit the
grand Circean Promontory which rises so gloriously at the
end of the flats, out of the blue waters.
We were at Porto d'Anzio on Good Friday, when, in the
dark evening, the town was illuminated, every fisherman's hut
along the pier lighting its rows of tiny earthenware lamps,
* Middleton (Life of Cicero, vol. ii. 365), on authority of Plutarch, says she died
in the orator's house at Rome. Murray (Handbook, 453), on no authority at all, says
she died at Astura. Drumann proves from Cicero's letters that she died at Tusculum.
VOL. II.                                          I8




274               DA YS NEAR ROME.
whose rays were reflected a thousand-fold in the water of the
bay.  Then, when all was ready, the church doors were
Good Friday, Porto d'Anzio.
thrown open, and amid a clash of music, and loud chanting
of priests, the dead Christ was borne through the town,
followed by the figure of " Our Lady of Sorrow" and the
images of all the favourite local saints, surrounded by flashing torches. The streets were thronged, cannon fired, and
all the people knelt as the procession passed, many praying,
some weeping.
The coast between Porto d'Anzio and Ostia is very difficult to visit except on horseback, and then leave must be
obtained to sleep in the old Chigi Palace of Castel Fusano.
obtained to sleep in the old Chigi Palace of Castel Fusano.




THE SILVA LAUREXTI7NA.                    275
The greater part of the way leads through the grand immemorial forest of Silva Laurentina, part of which was sacred to
Good Friday, Porto d'Anzio.
Picus and Faunus, where the spirit of Virgil still seems to
pervade the silent depths of the wood, and where, while the
buildings have passed away and the very sites of the towns
whose foundation he describes are forgotten or disputed,
Nature remains absolutely unchanged-the same pines raise
their vast umbrella-like heads on the stars (iEn. xi. 36i), the
same thickets of brambles and impervious brushwood are
ready to mislead the wanderer (ix. 38I), the same springs
sparkle in its deep recesses (vii. 85).




276                DAYS NEAR ROME.
The easiest way of reaching Ardea is from  Albano  or
Rome.  The traveller who follows the track of the charcoal
burners near the coast from Porto d'Anzio will in turn pass
Torre Caldana, Torre di S. Anastasia, and Torre di S. Lorenzo.  Then, crossing the stream  Fosso della Moletta, he
at length sees Ardea rising before him on the top of a rock,
three miles from the sea, and 20 miles from Rome.
Desolate and forlorn as it is now, and almost totally deserted by its plague-stricken inhabitants during the summei
months, Ardea was once one of the most important as wel
as one of the wealthiest cities of Latium. Tradition ascribes
its foundation to Danai, the mother of Perseus.
"Protenus hinc fuscis tristis dea tollitur alis
Audacis Rutuli ad muros: quam dicitur urbem
Acrisioneis Danae fundasse colonis
Praecipiti delata Noto. Locus Ardea quondam
Dictus avis; et nunc magnum manet Ardea nomen."
Virgil, En. vii. 408.
Livy and Silius Italicus mention the tradition of Ardea having
largely contributed to the foundation of the Spanish Saguntum:
"... misit largo quam dives alumno,
Magnanimis regnata vivis, nunc Ardea nomen."
Sil. Ital. i. 291.
In the story of AEneas, Ardea appears as the capital of the
Rutuli and the residence of their king Turnus, who was
dependent on the Latin king, Latinus, though holding a sovereignty of his own. It was during the siege of Ardea by
Tarquinius Superbus that the tragedy of Lucretia occurred,
which led to the overthrow of the monarchy.
"Cingitur interea Romanis Ardea signis,
Et patitur lentas obsidione moras."
Ovid, Fast. ii. 721,




ARDEA.                          277
It was at Ardea that Camillus took refuge in his exile; and
its people are said to have contributed greatly to victories
which the Romans gained over the Gauls.  From this time
Ardea lapsed into the condition of an ordinary Roman colony, and was one of the twelve which declared themselves
unable (B. c. 209) to furnish supplies of provisions and men
to Rome during the second Punic war.  The unhealthiness
of the situation hastened its decay.  Martial alludes to it:
"Ardea solstitio, Castranaque rura petantur,
Quique Cleonaeo sidere fervet ager."
iv. 60.
Many great Roman personages however had villas here,
among them  Atticus the friend of Cicero; and the town
spoken of as "castellum Ardeae," in the Middle Ages, has
never quite ceased to exist, but has continued to occupy the
rocky platform, which gained its name from Ardua-the cliffgirt.
The existing village and its castle, which belongs to the
Duke Cesarini, occupy an isolated rock, evidently the ancient citadel, which is joined by a narrow neck of land to a
larger platform, still called Civita Vecchia, and once covered 
by the ancient city, of which not a vestige remains.  The
citadel was surrounded by walls built of tufa in square blocks.
"The isthmus (uniting the citadel to the town), having been cut through
in a very singular manner, has left three deep and broad ditches, separated by two piers of natural rock. This is the more curious, as it does
not appear that these piers could have served as a bridge to the citadel,
on account of their distance from each other; and though the ditch
added to the strength of the fortress, yet this cannot be supposed to
have been completely separated from the city. Moreover, the rock of
the citadel is much higher than these two natural piers.
" Two streams, one of which is evidently derived from the Lake of
Nemi, had, long before Ardea was built, worn valleys, which had left




278                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
an eminence between them as a site for the city. At the western side
of the city, these valleys approach each other, leaving a narrow isthmus
for the entrance to the city from the east; this isthmus is considerably
strengthened by a high mound, or agger, extending from valley to valley,
which supported, or rather backed, a wall, whence, in all probability,
the idea of the Roman agger of Servius Tullius was originally taken. A
gap or cut exists, through which was the ancient entrance to the city; and
in this is the ruin of a tower, fixing the site of the gate towards Aricia.
Still more distant from the city is another similar mound, stretching
also from valley to valley. These mounds are so high that when the
sun is over the Mediterranean they are distinguishable from Albano by
the naked eye."-Sir W. Gell.
Half a mile from Ardea, in the direction of the sea, at a
spot called Rudera, the rock is full of caverns, and is supposed to have been the necropolis of the ancient city. There
are no remains of the temple of Juno mentioned by Pliny,
who describes it as adorned with ancient paintings of great
beauty, so much esteemed that the artist, a Greek,-" Marcus Ludius Elotas CEtolia oriundus "-was rewarded with
the freedom of the city. Not far from Ardea, probably in
the direction of Antium, was the Aphrodisium or shrine of
Venus, mentioned by Strabo (v. 232) and Pliny (iii. 5). The
site of the Castrum Inni, or of Pan, is supposed by Nibby
to  be  somewhat  identified  by  the  name  Fosso  dell'
Incastro applied to one of the streams which flow by Ardea.
Martial mentions it, in the lines already quoted, and Silius
Italicus:"Sacra manus Rutuli, servant qui Daunia regna,
Laurentique domo gaudent, et fonte Numici,
Quos Castrum, Phrygibusque gravis quondam Ardea misit."
viii. 359.
On leaving Ardea we pass through  the country where
Juvenal says that the Roman emperors used to breed their
elephants.




THE RIO  TOTO.                        279
" Elian gives an account of the elephants bred and disciplined in the'Roman territory.'They marched in troops into the amphitheatre, scattering flowers, and were, to the number of six of each sex, feasted in
public on splendid triclinia, their food being spread on tables of cedar
and ivory, in gold and silver dishes and goblets. Pliny (Nat. Hist. viii.
2) says, that four of them even carried on a litter a supposed sick companion, walking like a dancer upon a rope. "-Sir W Gell.
Four miles and a half from Ardea, at the church of Santa
Procula, the road crosses the frequently dry bed of the Rio
Torto. which has been identified with the Numicius, on the
banks of which the great battle was fought between the Trojans and Rutulians, in which. IEneas fell, and whose waves
are supposed to have carried away his body, which was
never found. The descriptions which the poets give answer
to the present appearance of the river.  In the Metamorphoses, Ovid says:"Litus adit Laurens, ubi tectus arundine serpit
In freta flumineis vicina Numicius undis."
xiv. 598.
and Silius Italicus:
"Haud procul hinc parvo descendens fonte Numitus
Labitur et leni per valles volvitur amne."
viii.  79.
Near the coast the Numicius still spreads into a marshthe Stagna Laurentia of Silius. On its banks IEneas was
honoured in a temple under the name of Jupiter Indiges.
"Impiger zEnea volitantis frater Amoris,
Troia qui profugis s:cra vehis ratibus,
Jam tibi Laurentes assignat Jupiter agros,
Jam vocat errantes hospita terra Lares.
Illic Sanctus eris, cum te veneranda Numici
Unda Deum ccelo miserit Indigetem."
Tibullus, ii. El. 5.




280                 DA Yf NEAR ROME.
The Sugareto, which flows into the Rio Torto, is believed
to be the stream of Anna Perenna, in which Anna, the unhappy sister of Dido, is said to have been carried away, when
flying from the palace of zEneas, and to have been borne
into the "horned Numicius."*
"Corniger hanc cupidis rapuisse Numicius undis
Creditur, et stagnis occuluisse suis.
Ipsa loqui visa est,'Placidi sum Nympha Numici:
Amne perenne latens Anna Perenna vocor."
Ovid, Fast. iii. 646.
Eight miles from Ardea we reach La Solfatara ( 5 miles
from Rome), with sulphur springs, identical with the " Fons
in Ardeatino," which Vitruvius mentions as cold, sulphureous,
and of an unpleasant smell. It is probably also the site of
the oracle of Faunus consulted by Latinus, king of Laurentum, on the coming of AEneas, who is hardly likely to have
gone so far as the Albunea near Tibur.
"At rex sollicitus monstris, oracula Fauni,
Fatidici genitoris, adit, lucosque sub alta
Consulit Albunea: nemorum quae maxima sacro
Fonte sonat, soevamque exhalat opaca mephitim."
Virgil, zEn. vii. 8I.
Hitherto we. have followed the ancient Via Ardeatina
from Ardea, the paving-blocks of the old road remaining in
many places.  From  hence it turns off inland to Rome,
by the Tor di Nona, Cicchignola (a medieval tower added
to and turned into a villa by Leo XII.), and Tor Narancia,
till it joins the Via Appia near the church of Domine quo
Vadis.
A road practicable for carriages leads from La Solfatara,
* From its windings.




PRA TICA.                          281
passing the church of Sta. Petronilla and through a forest, to
Pratica, the ancient Lavinium, I7 miles from  Rome, and
3 from the sea-coast.
According to the tradition, the city of Lavinium  was
founded by ~Eneas, shortly after his landing in Italy, and
was called by him after the name of his wife Lavinia, daughter of king Latinus. This, from a resemblance of names, has
been confused with Lanuvium, now  Citta-Lavinia, where an
absurd tradition, regardless of geographical possibilities,
shows, fixed in a wall, the iron ring to which the vessel of
AEneas was attached.
" The coast of Latium is a sandbank, where nothing grows but firs;
and AEneas might well be sorry that his fate had brought him to so poor
a country. But he was reminded of the oracle, that his colony should
be guided, like those of the Sabellians, by an animal to its promised
abode, when a pregnant sow designed for sacrifice broke loose, and
escaped to the bushes on a more fruitful eminence. Here it farrowed
thirty young ones, and thus not only signified the spot where Lavinium
was to be built, but also the number of years that were to elapse before
Alba became the capital in its stead, as well as the number of the
Latin townships.
" At the founding of Lavinium the gods gave signs of their presence.
The forest on the site of the future city caught fire of itself. A wolf
was seen bringing dry sticks in his mouth to feed the flame: an eagle
fanned it with his wings. But along with them came also a fox, that
dipped its tail in water, and tried to extinguish the fire; and it was not
till they had driven him away several times, that the other two were able
to get rid of him. This indicated that the people, whose mother city
was building, would have hard struggles to establish their power against
its obstinate enemies. Bronze images of the three fated animals were
set up in the market-place of Lavinium. "-Niebuhis Hist. of Rome.
"Aujourd'hui meme les souvenirs locaux d'Enee n'ont pas entierement peri.  Aux environs de Lavinium une petite riviere s'appelle
encore rio di Turno, ruisseau de Turnus, et une colline pres d'Ardee a
ete indiquee a M. Abeken par un jeune gargon, qui confondait les
Troyens et les Rutules, comme portant le nom de montagne de Troie,
monte di Troja."-Ampere, Hist. Rom. I. 215.




282                 DA YS NEAR ROME
When, thirty years after its foundation, Ascanius, the son
of AEneas, removed the political capital of the Latins to
Alba, the household gods persistently returned at night to
their old dwellings, so that he was obliged to allow them to
remain there, and to send back their priests to the number
of six hundred. Thus Lavinium not only continued to exist,
but grew to be regarded as a kind of religious metropolis, its
gods, to a very late period, being regarded as equally the
property of Rome and of all Latium.
"La culte des Penates aurait pu nous offrir un rapprochement frappant entre une legende antique et une legende moderne.  On raccontait
que les Penates ayant ete transport's par Ascagne dans la ville d'Albe,
quitterent leur nouveau sejour et revinrent a Lavinium.  C'est ainsi
que le celebre enfant Jesus de cire, si venere a Rome sous le nom de
Bambino, ayant ete enleve, revint, le lendemain matin, frapper a la
porte de l'eglise d'Ara-Cceli."-ArApere, Hist. Rom. I. 218.
Dionysius speaks of Lavinium as the " metropolis of the
Latins." Tatius, the colleague of Romulus, was killed by
the  cooks with their spits during  a solemn sacrifice at
Lavinium, in revenge for depredations which his followers
had made upon  the Lavinium  territory.   Collatinus, the
husband of Lucretia and the first Roman consul, retired with
all his family to Lavinium, when he was banished from Rome
on account of his parentage, because he was son of Aruns
and brother of Tarquinius Priscus. Lavinium was besieged
and taken by Coriolanus.
"Strabo speaks of Lavinium as presenting the mere vestiges of a city,
but still retaining its sacred rites, which were believed to have been
transmitted from the days of 2Eneas. Dionysius also tells us that the
memory of the three sacred animals-the eagle, the wolf, and the foxwhich were connected by a well-known legend with the foundation of
Lavinium, was preserved by the figures of them still extant in his time in
the forum of that town; while, according to Varro, not only was there a




PRATICA.                          283
similar bronze figure of the celebrated sow with her thirty young ones,
but part of the flesh of the sow itself was still preserved in pickle and
shown by the priests.*.... We learn from a letter of Symmachus that Lavinium was still existing as a municipal town as late as
A.D. 39I, and still retained its ancient religious character. Macrobius
also informs us that in his time it was still customary for the Roman
consuls and praetors, when entering on their office, to repair to
Lavinium to offer certain sacrifices there to Vesta and the Penates,a custom which appears to have been transmitted without interruption
from a very early period. The final decay of Lavinium was probably
produced by the fall of paganism, and the consequent extinction of that
religious reverence which had apparently been the principal means of
its preservation for a long while before. "-Smith's Diet. of Griek and
Roman Geography.
The town is situated, like Ardea, upon an almost isolated
hill, united to the table-land by a little isthmus, and surrounded everywhere else  by deep ravines.   The natural
fortifications of tufa rock appear to have been strengthened
by artificial cutting away, and some remains of ancient walls
may be traced.  The area of the town must always have
been very small, and its principal building is now a great
castle of Prince Borghese, with a tall tower. There are no
remains of the temple of Venus which is mentioned by many
classical authors, but it is supposed to have occupied the
corner of the platform at the end nearest the sea. The
place is almost deserted owing to the malaria, and the description of Mrs. Eaton's visit to the neighbouring Ostia
would now apply even better to this place.
"It presented the strange spectacle of a town without inhabitants.
After some beating and hallooing at the shut-up door of one of the houses,
a woman, unclosing the shutter of an upper window, presented her
ghastly face; and having first carefully reconnoitred us, slowly and reluctantly admitted us into her wretched hovel.
* Compare the relic of S. Januarius at Naples.




284               DA YS NEAR ROME.
"'Where are all the people of the town,' we inquired.
"'Dead,' was the brief reply."
Rome in the Nineteenth Century.
An inscription tells that the modern name of Pratica was
given at the cessation of a pestilence, when the inhabitants
were again admitted to communication (pratica) with the
neighbouring towns. Other inscriptions, speaking of " Laurentes Lavinates," refer to a union which the inhabitants made
with the people of Laurentum, after they had received a
fresh colony in the time of Trajan.
The best way of reaching Pratica from Rome is by a road
which branches off to the left from the Via Ostiensis beyond
S. Paolo, and, ascending the hills, leaves the Tre Fontane on the left, and crossing another hill to the Ponte del
Butero passes the valley of Velerano, and proceeds by Tor
di Sasso, Schizzanello, and Monte Migliore to Solfatara.
A beautiful forest road of five miles leads from Pratica to
Tor Paterno, a lonely tower, joining a farm-house half a mile
from the coast, which is usually regarded as marking the site
of the famous Laurentum, though  Nibby  (followed  by
Murray's Handbook) places it at Capo Cotto, three miles
distant, and inland, in contradiction of Pliny and Pomponius
Mela, who describe it as near the coast. There are no ruins
at Capo-Cotto, those described by Murray being entirely
fictitious, but plenty at Tor Paterno, though they are all of
imperial date. Near Tor Paterno, also, are still remains of the
marsh spoken of by Virgil:"Atque hinc vasta palus, hinc ardua mcenia cingunt."
-En. xii. 745.
and whose frogs are celebrated by Martial:



TOR PA TERNO.                       285
"An Laurentino turpes in littore ranas,
Et satius tenues ducere credis acos? "
Ep. x. 37.
The Via Laurentina, which leaves the Via Ostiensis to the
left about three miles from the gates of Rome, leads almost
direct to Tor Paterno, and may be traced in many places by
its ancient pavement.
Laurentum  was the ancient capital of King Latinus,
and  according  to  the  legend  was his residence when
LEneas and his Trojan colony landed on this shore, though
upon the death of Latinus the seat of government was transferred.first to Lavinium and then to Alba. Laurentum was
never afterwards a place of much importance, though, because
it was the only Latin city which took no part against Rome
in the great war of B. C. 340, the treaty which had previously
existed with them  was "renewed always from year to year
on the ioth day of the Feriae Latinze."* But Lucan speaks
of Laurentum as among the deserted cities-" vacuas urbes"
-in his time.
For the seven miles which separate Tor Paterno from
Castel Fusano, we wander through the depths of the great
forest of the Silva Laurentina, which still covers the coast here
as at the time when the Trojans landed and made a raid
upon its timber:-' Bis senos pepigere dies, et, pace sequestra,
Per sylvas Teucri mixtique impune Latini,
Erravere jugis. Ferro sonat icta bipenni
Fraxinus; evertunt actas ad sidera pinus;
Robora nec cuneis et olentem scindere cedrum,
Nec plaustris cessant vectare gementibus ornos.".En. xi. 133.
* Livy, viii. 2.




286                 DA YS NEAP ROME.
Amid the huge stone pines grow  gigantic ilexes and baytrees, descendants of the "laurels" which, says Aurelius
Victor, gave its name to Laurentum, and whose scent was
considered so salubrious that the Emperor Commodus was
advised to retire to a villa in the wood during a pestilence at
Rome.'  Here Varro says that the orator Hortensius had a
villa, and a park full of wild boars, deer, and other game; t
and near the shore, where remains of buildings may be
discovered here and there, was the favourite villa of the
younger Pliny.    Still, as in ancient times, the forest is
beloved by sportsmen, and famous for its wild boars.
"Ac velut ille canum morsu de montibus altis
Actus aper, multos Vesulus quem pinifer annos
Defendit, multosve palus Laurentia, silva
Pastus arundinea, postquam inter retia ventum est,
Substitit, infremuitque ferox, et inhorruit armos;
Nec cuiquam irasci propiusve accedere virtus;
Sed jaculis tutisque procul clamoribus instant:
Ille autem impavidus partes cunctatur in omnes,
Dentibus infrendens, et tergo decutit hastas."
zEn. x. 707.
Here is still the thick pathless wood in which Virgil describes
the tragic fate of the friends Nisus and Euryalus, the forest
which:"late dumis atque ilice nigra
Horrida, quam densi complerant undique sentes;
Rara per occultos lucebat semita calles."
-~n. ix. 381.
The most beautiful of forest-tracks leads from Tor Paterno
to Porcigliano, passing at intervals the remains of an aqueduct
which probably led to the villa of Commodus, and frequently
* Herodian, i. 12.   t Varro, R. R. iii. I3.  t Pliny, ~p; ii. I7.




PORCIGLZA AO.                  287
following the ancient Via Laurenatina, of which some of the
pavement remains.
At Porcigliano or Castel Porciano is a castle which lately
belonged to the Duca di Magliano, but has been bought by
Victor Emmanuel.  Campo Bufalaro, near this, is supposed
to mark the site of the station " Ad Helephantas." From
Porcigliano two roads lead to Rome, falling into the Via
Ostiensis, one by Decimo, the other by the Osteria di Mala
Fede.




CHAPTER XXXV.
THE DESCENT OF THE TIBER-PORTO AND
FIUMICINO.
(A steamer leaves the Ripa Grande every morning, and reaches Fiumicino in two hours: it leaves Fiumicino again at 3 P.M., and the return
journey is very long and tedious. It is a drive of about 2,2 hours from
Rome to Fiumicino, and a carriage with two horses for the day ought
not to cost more than 20 francs.)
T HE road to Porto, after leaving the Porta Portese,
passes for some distance through a hilly district, far
more wooded and cultivated than is usual in the neighbourhood of Rome.  The only point calling for attention is
Magliana, seven miles from  Rome, which is seen near the
Tiber on the left of the road.
Those who wish to make a more intimate acquaintance
with the Tiber itself should take the steamer to Fiumicino.
The descent is flat and ugly, but it introduces one to a
curious and new phase of country, and one which is filled
with classical associations. Though melancholy and monotonous, this excursion is not one to be omitted.
The Tiber (Tevere) rises in the Apennines near Citta di
Castello, and has a winding course of about I50 miles before reaching Rome, forming in ancient times the eastern
boundary of Etruria.




THE TIB ER.                        289
"It receives numerous confluents or tributaries, of which the most
important are-the Tinea, an inconsiderable stream which joins it from
the E., a little below Perusia, bringing with it the waters of the more
celebrated Clitumnus; the Clanis, which falls into it from the right
bank, descending from the marsshy tract near Clusium; the Nar, a much
more considerable stream, which is joined by the Velinus a few miles
above Interamna, and discharges their combined waters into the Tiber,
a few miles above Oriculum; and the Anio, which falls into the Tiber
at Antemnae, three miles above Rome. These are the only affluents of
the Tiber of any geographical importance, but among its minor tributaries, the Allia on its left bank, a few miles above the Anio, and the
Cremera on the right, are names of historical celebrity, though very
trifling streams, the identification of which is by no means certain. Two
other streams of less note, which descend from the land of the Sabines
and fall into the Tiber between Oriculum and Eretum, are the Himela
(Aia) and the Farfarus (Farfa)."-Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman
Geography.
There was a Roman tradition that the original name of the
Tiber was Albula, and that it was changed because Tiberinus,
one of the fabulous kings of Alba, was drowned in its waters.
Hence the Latin poets frequently call it Albula..... "amisit rerum vetus Albula nomen."
Virgil, /En. viii. 332.
The name Albula was applied to all sulphureous waters,
but it does not apply to the Tiber, which is yellow, and is
so called by Virgil in other places" Hunc inter fluvio Tiberinus amceno,
Vorticibus rapidis, et multa flavus arena,
In mare prorumpit."
Ezn. vii. 30.
" suo cum gurgite flavo."
AEn. ix. 8I6.
and by Horace:"Vidimus flavum Tiberim."
I Car. II.
VOL. II.                   i*




290              DA YS NEAR ROME.
" Cur timet flavum Tiberim tangere."
I Car. viii. 8.
"Flavus quam Tiberis lavit."    II Car. iii. I8.
Virgil at one time flatters it as blue:" Coeruleus Thybris ccelo gratissimus amnis.",En. viii. 64.
The river-god or tutelary divinity of the Tiber was invoked by the augurs under the name of Tiberinus.
The distance between Rome and the mouth of the Tiber,
27 miles, was always navigable in imperial times for the
largest rowing vessel and ships of war; but large merchant
vessels discharged their cargoes at the mouth of the river,
and sent them to Rome in barges.
After we emerge in the steamer from the walls of Rome,
close to the Porta Portese on the right and passing on the
left the Marmorata beneath the declivity of the Aventine,
we pass under the Civita Vecchia railway. Before reaching S. Paolo, the Tiber receives, on the left, the Almo,
the "cursu brevissimus Almo" of Ovid, at the spot where
the famous statue of Cybele was landed, when it was brought
from Pessinus in B. C. 204. The stream, a mere brooklet, is
now generally called Aquataccia.
After leaving the ugly mass of buildings enclosing the grand
basilica of San Paolo to the left, the Tiber receives (left) the
stream of the Acque Salvie, which is supposed to be the
Petronia, described by Festus as formed by the Fons Cati.
A little further, also on the left, a brook flows into the
Tiber which has its source at the famous Aqua Ferentina in
the Alban Hills.
On the right is Magliana, in a situation so dismal that
one wonders how it could possibly have been the favourite




MA GLIA VA.                       291
palace of Leo X. It is like the moated grange of Mariana,
and has crumbling embattled walls. In its courtyard is a
beautiful fountain.   The rooms  contain  some  decaying
frescoes.. Several have  been  removed.   Those of the
Annunciation and Visitation, the Martyrdom of S. Felicitas,
and God the Father in benediction (a very grand worl) were
probably designed by Raphael, but executed by Lo Spagna.
"Leo X. was at his villa of Magliana, when' he received intelligence
that his party had triumphantly entered Milan; he abandoned himself
to the exultation arising naturally from the successful completion of an
important enterprise, and looked cheerfully at the festivities his people
were preparing on the occasion.' He paced backwards and forwards till deep in the night, between the
window and a blazing hearth-it was in the month of November.
Somewhat exhausted, but still in high spirits, he arrived in Rome, and
the rejoicings there celebrated for his triumph were not yet concluded,
when he was attacked by a mortal disease.'Pray for me,' he said to
his servants,'that I may yet make you all happy.' We see that he
loved life; but his hour was come, he had not time to receive the viaticum nor extreme unction. So suddenly, so prematurely, and surrounded
by hopes so bright-he died —' as the poppy fadeth.'
" The Roman populace could not forgive their pontiff for dying without
the sacraments-for having spent so much money and yet leaving large
debts. They pursued his corpse to its grave with insult and reproach.'Thou hast crept in like a fox,' they exclaimed;'like a lion hast thou
ruled us, and like a dog hast thou died.' "-Ranke's Hist. of the Popft.
The Tiber now winds sluggishly through a flat desert overgrown with thistles and asphodel, porazzi the Italians call
them, on account of their abominable smell. On the left,
near Dragoncello, where Nibby imagines the original mouth
of the Tiber to have been, begin the chain of low hills called
Montedi Decimna, which extend in a slanting direction to the
sea near Porto d'Anzio, and which he believes to have been
once the coast-line of Latium.  On the right is an open
wilderness, where great herds of buffaloes graze undisturbed.




292                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
It is the country where the peasant-sufferings of the summer
are described in the Improvisatore.
"The stranger from beyond the mountains, who, full of love for art
and antiquity, approaches the city of the Tiber for the first time, sees a
vast page of the world in this parched-up desert; the isolated mounds
are all -holy ciphers, entire chapters of the world's history.  Painters
sketch the solitary arch of a ruined aqueduct, and the shepherd who sits
beneath it with his flock figures on the paper; they give the golden
thistle in the foreground, and people say that it is a beautiful picture.
With what an entirely different feeling my companion and I regarded
the immense plain! The burnt-up grass; the unhealthy summer air,
which always brings to the dwellers of the Campagna fevers and malig
nant sickness, were doubtless the shadow side of his passing observations.  To me there is something novel in all; I rejoiced to see the
beautiful mountains, which in every shade of violet-colour inclosed one
side of the plain; the wild buffalo, and the yellow Tiber, on whose
shore oxen with their long horns went bending under the yoke, and
drawing the boat against the stream.  Around us we saw only short
yellow grass, and tall, half-withered thistles. We passed a crucifix,
which had been raised as a sign that some one had been murdered there,
and near to it hung a portion of the murderer's body, an arm and a foot;
it was frightful to me, and all the more so as it stood not far from my
new home.  This was neither more nor less than one of the old decayed
tombs, of which so many remain here from the most ancient times.
Most of the shepherds of the Campagna dwell in these, because they find
in them all that they require for shelter, nay, even for comfort. They
excavate one of the vaults, open a few holes, lay on a roof of reeds, and
the dwelling is ready. Ours stood upon a height, and consisted of two
storeys. Two Corinthian pillars at the narrow doorway bore witness to
the antiquity of the building, as well as the three broad buttresses to its
after repairs. Perhaps it had been used in the Middle Ages as a fort; a
hole in the wall above the door served as a window; one half of the
roof was composed of a sort of reed and of twigs; the other half consisted of living bushes, from among which the honeysuckle hung down
in rich masses over the broken wall. The house was, as has been
already said, in the very ancient times, a family burial, place, which,,nsisted of a large room, with many small niches, side by side, in two
rows, one above the other, all covered over with the most artistica.
mosaic.  Now each was put to very different purposes; the one was a
lore-room, another held pots and pans, and a third was the fire-place,
wnere the beans were cooked.




THE OSTIAN CAMPAGNA.                        293
"When rain began, it sometimes continued for a whole week, and imprisoned us in the narrow room, in which was a half twilight, although
the door stood open when the wind blew the rain the other way. I had
to rock the baby which lay in the cradle. Domenica spun with her
spindle, told me tales of the robbers of the Campagna, who, however,
did no harm; sang pious songs to me, taught me new prayers, and related to me new legends of saints which I had not heard before.
Onions and bread were our customary food, and I thought them good;
but I grew weary of myself shut up in that narrow room; and then
Domenica just outside the door dug a little canal, a little winding Tiber,
where the yellow water flowed slowly away.  Little sticks and reeds
were my boats, which I made to sail past Rome to Ostia; but, when
the rain beat in too violently, the door was obliged to be shut, and we
sate almost in the dark.  Domenica spun, and I thought about the
beautiful pictures in the convent church; seemed to see Jesus tossing
past me in the boat; the Madonna on the cloud borne upwards by
angels, and the tombstones with the garlanded heads.
"When the rainy season was over, the heavens showed for whole
months their unchangeable blue. I then obtained leave to go out, but
not too far, nor too near the river, because the soft ground might so
easily fall in with me, said Domenica; many buffaloes also grazed there,
which were wild and dangerous, but, nevertheless, these had for me a
peculiar and strange interest. The something demon-like in the look
of the buffalo-the strange, red fire which gleamed in its eyeballs, awoke
in me a feeling like that which drives the bird into the fangs of the
snake.  Their wild running, swifter than the speed of a horse, their
mutual combats, where force meets with force, attracted my whole
attention.
" The sun burnt hotter day by day: its beams were like a sea of fire
which streamed over the Campagna.  The stagnant water infected the
air. We could only go out in the morning and evening.  I thought
about the delicious green water-melons which lay one on another,
divided in halves, and showed the purple-red flesh with the black seeds:
my lips were doubly parched with thinking of these. The sun burned
perpendicularly: my shadow seemed as if it would vanish under my
feet. The buffaloes lay like dead masses upon the burnt-up grass, or,
excited to madness, flew, with the speed of arrows, round in great circles.
Thus my soul conceived an idea of the traveller's suffering in the burning
deserts of Africa.
"During two months we lay there like a wreck in the world's sea. Not
a single living creature visited us. All business was done in the night,
or else in the early hours of morning. The unhealthy atmosphere and




.294                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
the scorching heat excited fever-fire in my blood: not a single drop of
anything cold could be had for refreshment; every marsh was dried up.;
warm, yellow water flowed sleepily in the bed of the Tiber; the juice
of the melon was warm; even wine, although it lay hidden among
stones and rubbish, tasted sour and half-boiled, and not a cloud, not a
single cloud, was to be seen on the horizon, —day and night always the
everlasting, never-changing blue.  Every evening and morning we
prayed for rain, or else a fresh breeze; every evening and morning
Domenica looked to the mountains to see if no cloud raised itself, but
night alone brought shade-the sultry shade'of night; the sirocco alone
blew through the hot atmosphere for two long, long months.
"At the sun's rise and setting alone was there a breath of fresh air;
but a dulness, a death-like lethargy, produced by the heat, and the
frightful weariness which it occasioned, oppressed my whole being.
Flies and all kind of tormenting insects, which seemed destroyed by the
heat, awoke at the first breath of air to redoubled life. They fell upon
us in myriads with their poison-stings: the buffaloes often looked as if
they were covered over with this buzzing swarm, which beset them as if
they were carrion, until, tormented to madness, they betook themselves
to the Tiber, and rolled themselves in the yellow water. The Roman,
who in the hot summer days groans in the almost expiring streets, and
crawls along by the house-sides, as if he would drink up the shadow
which is cast down from the walls, has still no idea of the sufferings in
the Campagna, where every breath which he draws is sulphurous,
poisonous fire; where insects and crawling things, like demons, torment
him who is condemned to live in this sea of flame."-Hans Christian
A ndersen.
This  is  perhaps  the  best word-picture  of  peasant
life during a Campagna summer.  It is a life of absolute
solitude, so thin is the population, so widely scattered the
huts of the peasantry. Yet the scenes amid which they live,
and the picturesqueness of that part of religion which forms
their sole idea of literature and art, make their life poetical
in spite of all its misery, and the Italian peasant has a keen
perception of the beauties of Nature, which would be quite
incomprehensible to an English agriculturalist. This is seen
in nothing so much as in the songs, which are for ever on




THE OSTIAN CAMPAGNA.                       295
the lips of the people as they work. Here is a specimen
given in the Pilgrimage of the Tiber.
" La prima volta che m' innamorai
Piantai lo dolce persico alla vigna,
E poi gli dissi, Persico benigno,
S' amor mi lassa, ti possi seccare!
A capo all' anno ritornai alla vigna;
Trovai lo dolce persico seccato;
Mi butto in terra e tutta scapiglio:
Questo e segno ch' amore m' ha lassato.
Albero che lavevo tanto a caro,
E t' innacquavo co li miei sudori,
Si son seccate le cime e le rame
I frutti han perso lo dolce sapore.
Morte vieni da me quando ti pare,
Giacche il mio bene ha mutato pensare.
When first the sweet pleasure of loving I knew,
I planted a peach in my vineyard one day,
And prayed, if my loved one should e'er prove untrue,
My beautiful peach-tree might wither away.
In the spring I returned to my vineyard, and found
My peach-tree was drooping, all faded and dried;
Then weeping, I threw myself down on the ground;
For this is a sign she is faithless, I cried.
My beautiful peach, that to me was so dear,
So anxiously tended and nourished with pain,
Its branches are withered, its leaves are grown sere,
Its fruits tfeir sweet savour no longer retain.
Come, Death, when thou wilt; all my pleasures are o'er,
Since she who once loved me, now loves me no more."
As we approach the salt-marshes of Ostia
"Dove 1' acqua di Tevere s'insala."
Dante, Purg. II. IoI.
the river bends considerably to the right, leaving, three
miles to the left, Ostia, which already in the days of Strabo




296                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
was called "a city without a port, on account of the alluvial
deposits continually brought down by the Tiber."  Julius
Caesar was the first to form a plan for a new artificial port,*
but it was Claudius who carried out the work, and who,
finding it hopeless to attempt to cleanse the original port of
Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, constructed an entirely new
harbour two miles north of the old one, opening upon the
sea, and protected by two moles, which had an insulated
breakwater between them, supporting.a lighthouse.
" Claudius formed the harbour at Ostia, by carrying out circular piers
on the right and on the left, with a mole protecting, in deep water, the
entrance of the port. To secure the foundation of this mole, he sunk
the vessel in which the great obelisk t was brought from Egypt, and built
upon piles a very lofty tower, in imitation of the Pharos at Alexandria,
on which lights were burnt to direct mariners in the night. "-Suetonius,
Claud. xx.
This harbour is described by Juvenal: —
"Tandem intrat positas inclusa per aquora moles,
Tyrrhenamque Pharon; porrectaque brachia rursum
Quae pelago occurrunt medio, longeque relinquunt
Italiam. Non sic igitur mirabere portus
Quos natura dedit."
Sat. xii. 75and by Valerius Flaccus:"Non ita Tyrrhenus stupet Ioniusque magister
Qui portus, Tiberine, tuos, claramque serena
Arce Pharon princeps linquens, nusquam Ostia, nusquam
Ausoniam videt."
Argon. vii. 83.
In course of years the port of Claudius was also choked
up, and a new harbour was begun in A. D. 103, by Trajan,
* Plutarch, Caes. 58. There is no authority for saying it was the plan of Augu.st,.
as stated by Murray, &c.
t Now in front of S. Peter's.




PORTO.                      297
united with the port of Claudius on the W., and with the
Tiber by a canal, Fossa Trajana, which, since the increasing
filling up of the old bed of the river, has become the Tiber
itself, and is now the only branch which is navigable.  The
port was surrounded by warehouses.  The new harbour
became known as Portus Ostiensis, Portus Urbis, or, more
simply, Portus. It was chiefly used for the importation of
corn for the supply of the capital, which was almost entirely
dependent on foreign produce as its population increased.
Its importance was realized when Rome was attacked by
barbarian forces, and especially in A. D. 409, when the Gothic
king Alaric, by making himself master of Portus, and so
cutting off the supplies, obliged the Roman senate to accept
whatever terms he chose to dictate. Rome was in similar
distress under Belisarius, when Vitiges, in 537, seized Portus.
In the ioth century, the port of Trajan had been so neglected and allowed to fill up, that it had become a mere
pool, entirely separated from the sea, and only connected
with the Tiber by a ditch. This drove trade for a time into
the older branch of the river, and gave a passing importance
to mediaeval Ostia, where a fortress had been built by
Gregory IV., in the preceding century. In I6I2 the canal
of Trajan was once more cleared out by Paul V., and connected with Fiumicino, and has ever since been the only
way by which vessels can ascend the Tiber, the other branch
having been almost entirely closed up by sand near its
mouth.
The port of Trajan, still called II Trajano, is now a bason
of still blue water, surrounded by low underwood; along its
sides the quays and warehouses by which it was once surrounded may still be traced. Near it, by the road-side close




298               DA YS NEAR ROME.
to the Villa Torlonia, is placed an inscription recording
the cutting of the canals of Claudius in A. D. 49.
This inscription has generally been understood to convey
that the work of Claudius was due to his anxiety to relieve
the inundations of the Tiber; but Burn, in his Rome and the
Campagna, explains that the words "operis portus caussa"
would show that the primary object of the fossae was to
supply the port with water, and that the advantage of preventing inundations at Rome was only subordinate.
Arco di Nostra Signora, Porto.
Through a picturesque gateway, now called Arco di Nostra
Signora, we reach the little group of buildings which is all
that remains of the mediaeval town of Porto, consisting of
the Bishop's Palace, and the little Cathedral of Santa Rufina,
with a ioth-century tower. The place was ruined at a very
early period, owing to the Saracenic invasions, and though
many popes have made attempts to recolonize it, they have
always failed. As early as Io09 there were no inhabitants
save a few guards in the tower of Porto, though it was the
seat of a bishop, and though it has always continued to give
a title to the sub-dean of the College of Cardinals.




THE ISOLA SACRA.                       299
The meadows near Porto, which are encircled by the two
branches of the Tiber, form the Isola Sacra, a name first
given to it by Procopius, who describes it:"Tum demum ad naves gradior, qua fronte bicorni
Dividuus Tiberis dexteriora secat.
Laevus inaccessis fluvius vitatur arenis:
Hospitis AEneze gloria sola manet.
i. I69.
The island is described by Aethicus, who wrote in the
fifth century, as most beautiful and fertile-" Libanus Almae
Veneris; " now'it is in great part overgrown with asphodel and
mallow.  The name of its church with the tall mediaeval campanile-S. Ippolito-will recall the famous Bishop of Porto.
In the first half of the third century, during the troubled
pontificates of Zephyrinus and Callistus, when various heresies on minute points of Christian doctrine were agitating
and dividing the Church, the great defender of the faith, the
author of The Refutation of all the Heresies, who did not
hesitate to resist and condemn one Pope, and actually excommunicate another, was Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto,
who was afterwards (under Maximin) banished to Sardinia,
and eventually, according to the poetic legend in Prudentius,
suffered martyrdom in the suburbs of Rome.
"The Roman Church comprehended, besides its Bishop, forty-six
Presbyters, and seven Deacons, with their subordinate officers. Each
Presbyter doubtless presided over a separate community, each with its
basilica, scattered over the wide circuit of the city; they were the
primary Parish Priests of Rome. But besides these were suburbican
Bishops of the adjacent towns, Ostia, Tibur, Porto, and others (six or
seven), who did not maintain their absolute independence on the metropolis, each in the seclusion of their own community; they held their
synods in Rome, but as yet with Greek equality rather than Roman
subordination; they were the initiatory College of Cardinals (who still




300                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
take some of their titles from these sees), but with the Pope as one of
this co-equal college, rather than the dominant, certainly not the despotic, head.
" Of all these suburban districts at this time Portus was the most considerable, and most likely to be occupied by a distinguished prelate.
Portus, from the reign of Trajan, had superseded Ostia as the haven of
Rome.  It was a commercial town of growing extent and opulence, at
which most of the strangers from the last who came by sea landed or set
sail. Through Portus, no doubt, most of the foreign Christians found their
way to Rome.  Of this city, Hippolytus was the bishop, Hippolytus
who afterwards rose to the dignity of saint and martyr, and whose
statue, discovered in the Laurentian cemetery, now  stands in the
Lateran.   Conclusive internal evidence indicates Hippolytus as the
author of the Refutation of all Heresies.  If any ohe might dare to
confront the Bishop of Rome, it was the Bishop of Portus."-A-linan's
jfist. of Latin Christianity.
Here Dante makes the rendezvous of the happy souls,
whom  the celestial pilot is presently to transport to Purgatory.
"sempre quivi si ricoglie,
Qual verso d'Acheronte non si cala."
Purg. ii. I04.
The mouth of the Tiber is very different now  to that
which Virgil describes:"Atque hic AEneas ingentem ex aequore lucum
Prospicit. Hunc inter fluvio Tiberinus amceno,
Vorticibus rapidis, et multa flavus arena,
In mare prorumpit.  Varioe circumque supraque
Assuetae ripis volucres ex fluminis alveo
IEthera mulcebant cantu, lucoque volabant.
Flectere iter sociis terroeque advertere proras
Imperat; et letus fluvio succedit opaco.",En. vii. 29.
"Les tourbillons du fleuve, le sable qui le jaunit caracterisent
aujourd'hui l'aspect du Tibre comme au siecle de Virgile; mais on ne
peut plus parler de son cours gracieux, le bois a disparu et les oiseaux
se sont envoles; on ne voit aux embouchures du Tibre qu'une plaine




FIUMICINO.                          301
<nsn arbres, comme sans habitants, ou des buffles palsent parmi les
marecages.  Aux buffles pres, qui sont modernes, ce lieu devait etre
ainsi avant que le voisinage d'Ostie y'eut fait naitre une vegetation
qui s'en est allee avec Ostie.  Aujourd'hui c'est une plage sterile plus
semblable qu'au temps de Virgile a ce qu'elle etait au temps d'Enee."Ampere, Hist. Rome, i. I93.
From Porto, two miles of road, or river, take one to
Fiumicino, which derives its name from its situation on the
smaller branch of the Tiber, and which stands at the present
mouth of the river. A row of modern houses was erected
by the late government, but have little view of the sea,
owing to the sand-banks. The handsome castellated tower,
with a lighthouse on the top, was built by Clement XIV. in
I773.
Fiumicino.
On the shore, half way between Fiumicino and Palo, the
site of the ancient Fregelle is marked by the tower and
tarm  of Maccarese, at the mouth of the river Arrone.   The
marsh called  "Stagno di Maccarese" answers to the description of Silius Italicus.
"Obsessoe campo squalente Fregelle."
viii. 477.
It was hence that Tarquinius Priscus summoned Turri
anus, a native artist, to make a terra cotta statue of Jupitei
for his temple on the Capitol.*
* Pliny, xxxv. 45



CHAPTER XXXVI.
CERVETRI.
(The best way of reaching this wonderful place is to go to Palo, on
the Civita Vecchia line, by rail, and walk from thence. Sometimes it is
possible to obtain a hired gig at Palo, especially if one can write beforehand to order it from Cervetri. Seven francs is the proper price, to
which the vetturini agree for going and returning, but the bargain must
be made before leaving Palo. The sights of Cervetri must be visited in
time to return to Rome by the evening train, for the only inn at Cervetri
is so utterly wretched, it would be scarcely possible to pass the night
there.)
P    4ALO consists now of a tiny hamlet, with a seventeenthcentury fortress on the sea-coast, marking the site of
Alsium, where Pompey had a villa, to which he retired in disgust when refused the dictatorship. Julius Caesar possessed
a villa here, where he landed on his return from Africa, and to
which all the nobles of Rome hastened to greet him. The
Emperor Marcus Aurelius also had a villa here, to which
several of the epistles of Fronto are addressed, who speaks
of the place as "maritimus et voluptarius locus."  Nothing
now remains of the ancient town but some foundations of
the villas  near the  sea-shore.  The origin of Alsium  is
ascribed by Silius Italicus to Halxsus:"Necnon Argolico dilectum litus Haleso
Alsium. 
viii. 476.




APPROACH TO CERVETRI.                       303
The Via Aurelia passed through Alsium.
Even from the station, the white walls of Cervetri may be
discovered under the low-lying grey hills upon the right.
The distance by the fields is about four miles, but by the
high-road it is nearly six. The former path turns off to the
right, just after the road has crossed the Vaccina rivulet, and
is not difficult to find, but it is impervious in times of flood,
as near Cervetri another brook  has to be crossed  upon
stepping-stones. This is the " Caeretanus Amnis " of Pliny
(iii. I5), which is mentioned by Virgil:"Est ingens gelidum lucus prope Caeritis amnem,
Religione patrum late sacer; undique colles
Inclusere cavi et nigra nemus abiete cingunt.
Silvano fama est veteres sacrasse Pelasgos.",En. viii. 597.
"It is the Caeritis Amnis on whose banks Tarcho and his Etruscans
pitched their camps, and AEneas received from his divine mother his
god-wrought arms, and the prophetic shield eloquent of the future glories
of Rome,'  - clypei non enarrabile textum.
Illic res Italas, Romanorumque triumphos,
Fecerat Ignipotens.'
The eye wanders up the shrub-fringed stream, over bare undulating
downs, the arna lata of ancient song, to the hills swelling into peaks
and girt with a broad belt of olive and ilex. There frowned the dark
grove of Silvanus, of dread antiquity, and there, on yon red cliffs-the'ancient heights' of Virgil-sat the once opulent and powerful city of
Agylla, the Caere of the Etruscans, now represented, in name and site
alone, by the miserable village of Cervetri. All this is hallowed ground
-religionepatrum lat? sacer-hallowed, not by the traditions of evanescent creeds, nor even by the hoary antiquity of the site, so much as by
the homage the heart ever pays to the undying creations of the fathers
of song. The hillocks, which rise here and there on the wide downs,'
are so many sepulchres of princes and heroes of old, coeval, it may be,
with those on the plains of Troy; and if not, like them, the standing
records of traditional events, at least the mysterious memorials of a prior




304                DA YS NEAR ROME.
age, which led the poet to select this spot as a fit scene for his verse.
The large mound which rises close to the bridge may be the celsus collis
whence iEneas gazed on the Etruscan camp. No warlike sights or
sounds now disturb the rural quiet of the scene. Sword and spear are
exchanged for crook and ploughshare; and the only sound likely to
catch the ear is the lowing of cattle, the baying of sheep-dogs, or the
cry of the pecorajo as he marches at the head of his flock, and calls them
to follow him to their fold or to fresh pastures. Silvanus,'the god of
fields and cattle,' has still dominion in the land."-Dennis' Cities of
Etruria.
The most conspicuous feature in distant views of the
town is the ugly castle of Prince Ruspoli, who is Prince
of Cervetri, and to whom most of the land in this neighbourhood belongs.  The people all work in gangs, long lines of
men and women in their bright costumes digging the land
together.  Most travellers who come upon them  thus, will
be struck with the rude songs with which they accompany
their work, one often leading, and the rest taking up the
chorus in melancholy cadences.
Cervetri was called Agylla by the Pelasgi, and Caere by
the Etruscans.   Tradition says that the latter name was
given to it because when the Etruscan colonists were about
to besiege it, they hailed it, demanding its name, and a
soldier on the walls answered Xa~ip —" hail!" which they
afterwards chose, upon its capture, for the name of the city.
The earliest mention of Agylla is to be found in Herodotus
(i. I66). Its Tyrrhenian inhabitants, having conquered the
Phocseans in battle, cruelly stoned to death the prisoners
they brought back with them. Afterwards every living creature who approached the spot where this tragedy had been
enacted was seized with  convulsions or paralysis.   The
oracle of Delphi was consulted how the wrath of the gods
might be appeased, and the people of Caere were commanded




CERE.                          305
to celebrate the obsequies of the slain, and annually to hold
games in their honour, which, says Heirodotus, was done up
to his time.
Virgil indicates the early importance of Agylla, by describing that its ruler Mezentius sent iooo men to assist Turnus
against ~Eneas.
"Haud procul hinc saxo incolitur fundata vetusto
Urbis Agyllinse sedes; ubi Lydia quondam
Gens, bello praeclara, jugis insedit Etruscis.
Hanc multos florentem annos rex deinde superbo
Imperio et saevis tenuit Mezentius armis."
En. viii. 478.
In the time of the Roman monarchy Caere was one of the
chief places in Etruria, and it became one of the twelve cities
of the league. When Tarquinius Superbus was expelled from
Rome, Livy relates that, with his two younger sons, he took
refuge at Caere. In 365, during the Gaulish invasion, Caere
became  the refuge of the vestal virgins and the Flamen
Quirinalis, and its people are said to have successfully attacked the Gauls who were returning with the spoil of Rome,
and to have taken it from them. From the belief that the
Etruscan priests of Caere first instructed the Romans in
their mystic religious rites has been deduced the word ceremony-" Caeremonia."
In the early times of the Empire the town is described
by Strabo as having already lost all signs of its ancient
splendour, but in the time of Trajan its medical watersAquae Caeritanae, the same which Livy mentions as flowing
with blood-led to some return of its ancient prosperity.
From  the fourth  to the eleventh century it possessed a
cathedral and a bishop, but since then it has increasingly decayed, part of the inhabitants removing to a town on another
VOL. II.                                       20




306               DAYS NEAR ROME.
site-Ceri Nuova-and leaving to the old city the name
of Caere Vetus-Cervetri. As we pass the ruined church of
"La Madonna dei Canneti " in the reedy hollow, and ascend
the hill of Cervetri, the walls built by its Orsini barons rise
picturesquely along the crest of the hill, constructed with
huge blocks of orange-coloured tufa taken from the Etruscan
fortifications. They end in a picturesque mediaeval gateway.
Gate of Cervetri.
Here we must enter the town to engage the custode of
the tombs and insist upon his accompanying us, which,
with true Italian love of'far niente,' he is not always very
willing to do. Lights must also be taken. The ancient city,
which was of oblong form, was nearly five miles in circuit,
and filled the promontory, one small corner of which is
occupied by the mediaeval town. Of all this scarcely anything, except a few fragments of wall rising upon the tufa
cliffs, can be discovered; but it is not so with the Necropolis.
One must descend the path which turns to the right outside the gateway, leading immediately under the walls over
some waste ground covered with the Virgin's thistle, and
down a steep path into the ravine of "La Buftllareccza,"




CER IE TR.                      307
watered by the stream called " Ruscello della Madonna de'
Canneti."  Mounting the opposite hill, we find ourselves on
high breezy downs overgrown with sweet basil and violets,
and with a delightful view towards the sea, as well as to
the medieval city rising on its orange crags, half-buried
Cervetri.
in bay and ilex.  This hill-side is now  called La Banditaccia-from  being terra-bandita, land set apart by the
commune, while the final syllable of the name is due to its
unproductive character-and this was the Necropolis of Caere.
Many of the tombs were hollowed in the cliffs as in Northern
Etruria, but the largest and most remarkable are burrowed
out of the tufa beneath the upland turf, and are often quite
unmarked  externally, but in other cases indicated by a
tumulus.
Many of the tombs are worth visiting, but that which is
far the most striking is the furthest in the line, the Grotta
dei Bassi-Relievi, which is often filled with water, and
difficult of access.  When we first visited Cervetri, we




308               DA YS NEAR ROME.
considered this vast sepulchral chamber, adorned with huge
shields and other. weapons, sculptured in the boldest relief
out of the solid rock, and casting long shadows in the glare
of the torchlight, one of the most striking sights we ever
looked upon.  But during our last visit the tomb  was
quite inaccessible from the water with which it was filled.
The Grotta de' Tarquinj, the tomb of the Tarquins, the
family of the last of the Roman kings, is most interesting.
It consists of two stories, the lower chamber is reached from
the upper, and is covered with inscriptions rudely cut and
painted in red or black, in which the name of Tarchnas
occurs at least thirty-five times.
The Grotta del' Architettura is supported by two huge
fluted columns. It is surrounded by a shelf, with divisions
all round for two bodies in each, and has an inner chamber
for the heads of the family.
The Grotta de' Sarcophagi still contains three large tombs
of alabaster-" a kind from the Circean Promontory."  Two
of these support grand figures of warriors.  One lies flat
upon his back like a Templar, the other has turned away
upon his side towards the wall.   The third sarcophagus
has no figure, and is beautifully  transparent.  It is so
seldom  that monumental effigies can still be seen in siit
in the Etruscan  sepulchres, that this tomb  is most interesting, as well as wonderfully impressive and picturesque.
It is often filled with water, but it is still possible to enter,,y creeping round the couches upon which the sarcophagi
are laid, and the refection of the torches in the water adds
to the effect of the scene.
The Grotta del Triclinio is covered with nearly-effaced
paintings of a very archaic character, banquetting scenes,




GROTTA REGULINI-GALASSI.                     43
repeated again and again, and animals. This tomb takes
its name from  the benches of rock, to support the dead,
which surround it.   Bas-reliefs of a boar and a panther
are sculptured  near the entrance.   The paintings in this
tomb are especially interesting, because Pliny mentions
ancient paintings, believed to be of earlier date than the
foundation of Rome, as existing in his time at Caere.*
These are the most remarkable of the tombs on "La
Banditaccia," but there is another tomb on the other side of
the road, leading up to Cervetri, which should be visited,
not so much for what it is now, but as the place where the
most remarkable of the  Etruscan ornaments now  in the
Vatican were discovered. This tomb is called the Grotta
Regulinzi-Galassi from its discoverers, the arch-priest Regulini of Cervetri and General Galassi. The opening to the
tomb is a rude arch surmounted by a block of nenfro, under
a low bank in a ploughed field.  This gives entrance to two
chambers.
"In the outer chamber, at the further end (when the tomb wa.
opened), lay a'bier of bronze, formed of narrow cross-bars, with an
elevated place for the head. The corpse which had lain on it had long
since fallen to dust.  By its side stood a small four-wheeled car, or tray
of bronze, with a basin-like cavity in the centre.  On the other side of
the bier lay some twenty or thirty little earthenware figures, probably
the lares of the deceased. At the head and foot of the bier stood a
small iron altar or tripod. At the foot lay also a bundle of darts, and a
shield; and several more shields rested against the wall. All were of
bronze, and beautifully embossed, but apparently for ornament alone.
Nearer the door stood a four-wheeled car, which, from its size and form,
seemed to have borne the bier to the sepulchre. And just within the
entrance stood, on iron tripods, a couple of cauldrons, with a number of
curious handles terminating in griffons' heads, together with a singular
vessel,-a pair of bell-shaped vases, united by a couple of spheres.
* Pliny, xxxv. 3, s. 6.




310                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
Besides these articles of bronze, there was a series of vessels suspended
by bronze nails from each side of the recess in the roof. The tomb had
evidently contained the body of a warrior.
" The door of the inner chamber was closed with masonry to half its
height, and in it stood two more pots of bronze, and against each doorpost hung a vessel of pure silver. There were no urns in this chamber,
but the vault was hung with bronze vessels, and others were suspended
on each side of the entrance. Further in, stood two bronze cauldrons
for perfumes, as in the outer chamber: and then, at the end of the
tomb, on no couch, bier, or sarcophagus, not even on a rude bench of
rock, but on the bare ground, lay-a corpse?-no, for it had ages since
returned to dust, but a number of gold ornaments, whose position
showed most clearly that, when placed in the tomb, they were upon a
human body.  The richness, beauty, and abundance of these articles,
all of pure gold, were amazing. There were, a head-dress of singular
character-a large breastplate, beautifully embossed, such as was worn
by Egyptian priests-a finely-twisted chain, and a necklace of very long
joints-earrings of great length-a pair of massive bracelets of exquisite
filagree-work-no less than eighteen fibuzw or brooches, sundry rings,
and fragments of gold fringes and laminae, in such quantities, that there
seemed to have been an entire garment of pure gold. Against the inner
wall lay two vessels of silver with figures in relief."-Dennis' Cities of
Etruria.
"Now comes the grand wonder,-this had been a woman! Whether
a warrior queen or a priestess, none can tell. Greatly honoured and
sovereign in power she had certainly been, and her name was' Larthia,'
which, as'Lars' means'sovereign or greatly exalted man,' probably
means'sovereign or greatly exalted woman.' A quantity of vases were
in the tomb, some of them bearing the names of'Larthia,' and others of'Mi Larthia.' It is the opinion of Canina that this tomb was constructed many years before the Trojan war, and Troy fell in 1187
before the Christian era. We therefore read the language, and scan
the dress and furniture, and see the very dust, of those who were contemporary with Jeptha and the older judges of Israel, long before
the times of Saul and of David. "-Mrs Hamilton Gray's " Sepltchzres
of Etruria."
On the edge of Monte Abatone, where Canina places
the sacred wood of Silvanus mentioned by Virgil, is the
tomb called Grotta Canpana, a single chamber, divided into
three parts by Doric columns. In the first division is a re



TOLFA.                        3 1
markable fan-like ornament on the ceiling.  On the walls
are reliefs in stucco, and the number of curious vases found
here are preserved in their places.
Three miles east of Cervetri is Ceri Nuovo, a mediaeval
town fortified by the Orsini.
(In the hilly country between Corneto and Civita Vecchia,
picturesquely situated in a wild district, is Tolfa, much
resorted to in summer on account of the mineral baths in its
neighbourhood for the cure of rheumatism, gout, and neuralgia.  A little to the west of this is Aluminiera, with very
remunerative alum-mines.)




CHAPTER XXXVII.
CORNETO.
(Corneto may easily be seen in the day from Rome by taking the
earliest train on the Leghorn railway, and returning by the latest: or
it may be combined with an excursion to Ponte del Abbadia, by sleeping at Montalto, or Civita Vecchia. The inn at Corneto is filthy and
most wretched.
A visit to the magnificent Etruscan collection in the Vatican ought
both to precede and follow an excursion to Corneto, and will give it a
double interest. In fhe Vatican are copies of the most important paintings in the Corneto tombs, which, having been taken when the originals
were less injured than they are now, will explain much that is of necessity
hastily and ill seen by the flickering torchlight.  The careful study of
Dennis' Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria will also add greatly to the
pleasure of seeing the places he describes, and a reference to the
Sepulchres of Etruria of Mrs Hamilton Gray, who gives coloured engravings from several of the more remarkable paintings, should not be
omitted.
The first care of every one on arriving at Corneto, should be to
secure the services of the custode of the tombs on the Monterozzi, who
will also supply lights, though wax tapers-" cerini "-may with advantage be taken out from Rome.)
T    HE journey as far as Palo has already been described.
Beyond Palo, passing on the left the square tower called
Torre Fiavia, we reach the station of Santa Severa, with
a  picturesque  mediaeval castle  projecting into the  sea,
and built upon a foundation of irregular polygonal blocks
of masonry, being a remnant of the Pelasgic walls which




CIVI TA VECCHIA.                    313
may be traced for some distance enclosing a quadrangular
space about half a mile in circuit, and which marks the site
of Pyrgi, the " Pyrgi veteres " of Virgil (.En. x. 184), and the
port of Cere, from which it is six miles distant.
Pyrgi was famous for its temple of Eileithyia,* or Leucothea,t founded by the Pelasgians, and so exceedingly
wealthy, that when in B. c. 384 Dionysius of Syracuse descended upon Pyrgi, he carried off treasure from it to the
amount of iooo talents.   There are no remains of the
temple existing. Strabo speaks of the town as a small one,
and in the time of Rutilius it was only a large villa.
" Alsia praelegitur tellus, Pyrgique recedunt;
Nunc villxe grandes, oppida parva prius.".
Itin. i. 223.
We next reach the station of Santa Marinella, with a
medieval castle overhanging the sea, and a palm-tree in its
garden.  It is supposed to mark the site of the Roman
station of Punicum. An ancient bridge remains, by which
the Via Aurelia crossed a stream. A mile from hence in the
direction of Civita Vecchia is the Puntone del Castrato, where
some Etruscan tombs, lined and roofed by large slabs of
stone, were opened by the Duchess of Sermoneta in I840.
The tower called Chiaruccia now marks the site of Castrum Novum, another station on the Via Aurelia, and soon
after Civita Vecchia comes in sight. This, the ancient Centumcellae, is a place utterly devoid of interest, and in the
eyes of those who arrive at Rome by sea, is only connected
with much discomfort and an ardent desire to get away.
The origin of the place was entirely due to the construction
of its port by Trajan, of which Pliny has left an account. 
* Strabo, 1. c.  t Arist. 1. c.:  E  3. vi. 31.




314                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
"Ad Centumcellas forti defleximus Austro;
Tranquilla puppes in statione sedent.
Molibus sequoreum concluditur amphitheatrum,
Angustosque aditus insula facta tegit;
Attollit geminas turres, bifidoque meatu,
Faucibus arctatis pandit utrumque latus.
Nec posuisse satis laxo navalia portu,
Ne vaga vel tutas ventilet aura rates.
Interior medias sinus invitatus in tedes
Instabilem fixis aera nescit aquis."
Rutilius, i. 237.
" Whoever has approached the Eternal City from the sea must admit
the fidelity of the above picture. As Civita Vecchia was I400 years
since, so it is now. The artificial island, with its twin-towers at the
mouth of the port; the long moles stretching out to meet it; the double
passage, narrowed almost to a closing of the jaws; the amphitheatre of
water within, overhung by the houses of the town, and sheltered from
every wind-will be at once recognized.  It would seem to have remained in statu quo ever since it was built by Trajan. Yet the original town was almost utterly destroyed by the Saracens in the ninth
century; but when rebuilt, the disposition of the port was preserved,
by raising the moles, quay, and fortress on the ancient foundations,
which are still visible beneath them."-Dennis' Cities of Etruria, ii. I.
Monotonous plains, covered with lentisc, cork, and myrtle,
separate Civita Vecchia from  Corneto.   Half-way between
the two the railway crosses the little river Mignone, anciently
the Minio, mentioned by Virgil.
"Qui sunt Minionis in arvis."
E'n. x. 183.
At its mouth stands the solitary tower of Bertaldo, marking the site of the Roman station Rapinium.  It is popularly called S. Agostino from the charming story of the
Bishop of Hippo which is associated with this spot.
"While busied in writing his Discourse on the Trinity, S. Augustine
wandered along the sea-shore lost in meditation. Suddenly he beheld
a child, who, having dug a hole in the sand, appeared to be bringing




CORNE TO.                       315
water from the sea to fill it. Augustine inquired what was the object
of his task? He replied, that he intended to empty into this cavity all
the waters of the great deep.'Impossible!' exclaimed Augustine.'Not more impossible,' replied the child,'than for thee, O Augustine!
to explain the mystery on which thou art now meditating." —ameson's
Sacred Art.
Soon, on the right, Corneto-" the Queen of the Maremma"
-crowns a long ridge of hill with its towers, and, beyond it,
rises another and barren ridge, which was the site of the
ancient Tarquinii.
A  winding road ascends from  the station to Corneto,
about I'  mile distant."  As we near the town its battlemented walls are very picturesque. Close to the gate is the
magnificent old Gothic palace of Cardinal Vitelleschi, whose
splendid flamboyant windows are so little appreciated by
the inhabitants of Corneto, that it has obtained the name of
1/ Palazzaccio-the great ugly palace. The court-yard has
a beautiful cloister, with open galleries above, but it is
lamentably neglected, and the palace is now turned partly
into a barrack, and partly into a most miserable inn.
Cardinal Vitelleschi, who built this palace, is mentioned
by a contemporary chronicler as " the most valorous captain
of his time," and was strangely rewarded with a Cardinal's
hat by Eugenius IV. (I431-47), for his services as General
of the Papal armies.  In his honour, also, an equestrian
statue was erected in the Capitol by the Roman Senate, with
the title of Pater Patrice, which had been bestowed upon
Augustus; and, at the same time, because they were his fellowtownsmen, the Roman citizenship was conferred upon all the
inhabitants of Corneto. After rising to the highest point
of prosperity, Cardinal Vitelleschi was suspected of treason
* There are seldom any carriages at the Corneto Station.




316               DA YS NEAR ROME.
by Pope Eugenius, and he was arrested as he was passing the castle of S. Angelo, but received so many wounds
in attempting to defend himself and escape, that he died
in the fortress after only four days of imprisonment, in
I440.  His shield of arms, with two heifers in allusion to
his name, still hangs over his palace gate, and Corneto still
possesses the great bells of Palestrina, which he carried off,
when he took and totally destroyed that famous fortress of
the Colonnas.
A lane, behind the palace, leads to the Cathedral, S. Maria
di Castello-a good specimen of twelfth-century architecture.
It contains a curious pulpit of I209, with lions on its staircase, a beautiful opus-alexandrinum pavement, an altar with
a baldacchino inscribed 1060, and some tombs of bishops.
The baptistery is octagonal, surrounded  with  slabs  of
different-coloured  marble.  Separated  from  the  church
Cathedral, Corneto.
stands its massive square campanile, shorn of one third of
its original height, and of the statues of horses from Tar



CORNE TO.                        31 7
quinii, which are said once to have stood on the angles at
the summit.
At the opposite end of the town is the Palazzo Bruschi,
containing many Etruscan  antiquities, and  possessing  a
beautiful garden of cypresses, decorated with Etruscan vases
and tombs, and with a glorious view over the sea and its
islands and towards the promontory of Argentara.
In one of the convent churches in the town, of which
they had been patrons in their lifetime, the body of Letitia
Buonaparte-' Madame Mere' —(who died at Rome) with
that of her brother, Cardinal Fesch, reposed for some years,
but they are now removed to Corsica, to a church which the
cardinal had founded.
The hill of Turchina, separated from that of Corneto by a
deep valley through which flows the brook Sarriva, was the
site of Tarquinii itself. It derives its name from Tarchon, a
legendary companion of AEneas in two wars against Turnus
and Mezentius, who is said to have founded the city I200
B. c., and to have been possessed of such wonderful wisdom,
even from childhood, that he was born with a hoary head.*
Silius Italicus (viii. 473) speaks of'superbi Tarchontis
domus;' and Virgil says:
"Ipse oratores ad me regnique coronam
Cum sceptro misit, mandatque insignia Tarchon
Succedam castris, Tyrrhenaque regna capessam."
Enz. viii. 505.
Other authorities attribute the foundation of the city to
Tages.
"Here, in the neighbourhood of Tarquinii, and about the period
of its foundation, it came to pass, said the Etruscan tradition recorded
* Strabo, v. 2I9.




318                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
in the sacred books of the nation, that as a certain peasant was ploughing the land, and chanced to make a furrow deeper than usual, up
sprang a wondrous being, a boy in appearance, but a patriarch in wisdom, Tages by name, the son of a Genius, and grandson of Jove. The
peasant, amazed at this apparition, uttered a loud cry; a crowd
gathered round; and,'in a short time,' says Cicero, who relates the
story,'all Etruria was assembled on the spot.' The mysterious boy
then made known to them the practice of divination by the inspiration
of entrails and the flight of birds; they treasured up all he had said or
sung, and committed it to writing; and these records formed the code
of the sacred Discipline of the Etruscans, which regulated their entire
polity, civil and religious, and was by them transmitted to the Romans."
-Dennis' Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria.
" Haud aliter stupuit, quam quum Tyrrhenus arator
Fatalem glebam mediis aspexit in arvis,
Sponte sua primum, nulloque agitante, moveri;
Sumere mox hominis terraeque amittere formam,
Oraque venturis aperire recentia fatisIndigence dixere Tagen; qui primus Etruscam
Edocuit gentem casus aperire futures."
Ovid, AMet. xv. 558.
From  its connection with the legend of Tages and his
mystic rites, Tarquinii became the religious metropolis of
Etruria, and continued to be regarded as the city especially
honoured by the gods.
In the first century of Rome, Demaratus, a rich Corinthian
merchant, migrated to Etruria, owing to political dissensions
in his own country, and settled at Tarquinii, where he married
an Etruscan lady, by whom he had two sons. He first taught
the Etruscans alphabetical writing, and he brought with him
Cleophantus the painter, and Euchir and Eugrammus, workers
in terra-cotta, who instructed the people in their respective
arts.  The younger son of Demaratus, Lucumo or Lucius,
married a noble Etruscan lady named Tanaquil, but nevertheless found every avenue to distinction closed to strangers




THE MONTEROZZI.                   319
amongst the Etruscans. Thus, after he had succeeded to his
father's wealth, on his elder brother's death, his wife Tanaquil,
who had the national gift of reading the future, urged him to
emigrate to Rome.  An augury confirmed her words; for
when they reached the top of the Janiculan, an eagle swooped
down, lifted the hat of Lucumo into the air, and, returning,
replaced it on his head.  He was welcomed to Rome, received the rights of Roman citizenship, changed his name
into Lucius Tarquinius, was made guardian of the king's sons,
and was eventually himself raised to the throne as Tarquinius
Priscus.
The people of Tarquinii continued mindful of their consanguinity to the Tarquins, and joined with the people of
Veii in attempting to re-instate the last king when he was
exiled.  After this they were frequently at war with Rome,
success alternating pretty equally between the two cities. In
the fifth century of Rome, Tarquinii fell completely under
its dominion. In the eighth and ninth centuries of the
Christian era it was devastated by the Saracens, and in 1307
it was entirely deserted and its buildings were utterly destroyed
by the people of Corneto, then called Cortuessa, when the
seat of the bishopric (founded in 465) was removed, under
its fifth occupant, to the new town.
Behind and beyond Corneto stretch the barren rugged
heights of the Monterozzi, the Necropolis of old Tarquinii.
Nothing is to be seen above-ground but low  mounds
scattered over the table-land. The number of tombs it contains has, however, been computed at not less than two millions, and the Necropolis is considered to be sixteen miles
in extent! Above 2000 tombs have been opened, but only
a few can now be visited. Of these, the most remarkable are:




320'DA YS NEAR ROME.
The Grotta Querciola, so called from  its owner, surrounded by double frieze of frescoes, representing, in the
upper series, a banquet with musicians and dancers, and, in
the lower, a boar-hunt in a forest, with horses and dogs, and
men brandishing spears for the attack and axes for cutting
their way through the thickets.  The latter fresco has sometimes given the name of " Grotta della Caccia del Cignale"
to this beautiful tomb, which is much injured by damp. It
was discovered in April, I 83.
The Grotta del Tricliizio, or Del Convito Funebre, was discovered in I830.  Five figures at the upper end of the
chamber are reclining at a banquet, attended by a boy with
a wine jug, while a man is piping to them. Above, are vines,
with men gathering the grapes. Along the walls are figures,
male and female, violently dancing, in different attitudes,
and separated by trees and flowers, with birds on their
branches, and rabbits beneath, perhaps indicating that the
feast took place alfresco.  On either side of the entrance is
a man on horse-back, and, above them, two panthers.  The
sloping sides of the ceiling are painted with chequers of
colour, and its broad central beam is adorned with ivy and
lotus leaves.
The Grotla del Morto, opened 1832, is one of the most
interesting of the series of tombs, though one of the smallest.
In its frescoes an aged Etruscan lies on his death-bed, while
his daughter is about to give him a last kiss: other figures
stand near in attitudes of grief. The word " Thanarsela " is
written above the head of the lady, and "Thanaueil" over that
of her father. On the opposite side of the chamber naked
figures are dancing and drinking at a feast in honour of the
dead.  Funeral wreaths hang round the walls of the tomb.




TOMBS OF CORNETO.                      321
In this, as in all the tombs, the flesh of the males is painted
red, but that of the women left uncoloured. The paintings
here are greatly effaced.
The Grotta de' Pompei, or Grotta del Tifone, discovered
1832, is deeper than the others, and of great size. The roof
is supported by a great square pillar, like those at Cervetri,
and a triple tier of stone seats surrounds the chamber. On
these are a number of stone sarcophagi, once surmounted
by recumbent figures, of which two only remain perfect.
One of the paintings which decorate the walls, considered
by Dennis to be "of much later date and higher style of
art " than those in the other tombs, represents a miniature
procession, in which the dead, a youth and a girl, are driven
by demons to Hades.  One of them has his claw upon the
shoulder of the youth, and brandishes a hammer, the emblem
of supernatural power, in the other hand. The heads of
both are twined with serpents:"Serpentelli e ceraste avean per crine
Onde le fiere tempie eran avvinte."
Dante.
There is something very attractive in this picture, with its
lost story.  Mrs Hamilton Gray thinks that Dante must
have seen it before he wrote of Francesca da Rimini, and
that in the agonized faces of those who are led away he
read:
"Nessun maggior dolore
Che ricordarsi del tempo felice
Nella miseria."
Inferno v.
In front of the central pillar is a square mass of rock, which
is supposed to have been an altar, on which sacrifices were
VOL. IT.                                          21




322                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
made to the Manes.  The front of the pillar itself bears an
Etruscan inscription of nine lines, almost obliterated. Three
sides of the pillar also are painted, one with a female figure
ending in foliage, the others with Typhons.
"One of these two figures is particularly fine. The attitude of the
body-the outspread wings-the dark massy coils of the serpent-limbs
-the wild twisting of the serpent-locks-the countenance uplifted with
an expression of unutterable woe, as he supports the cornice with his
hands-make this figure imposing, mysterious, sublime. In conception,
the artist was the Michael Angelo of Etruria." —Dennis.
The Grotta del Cardinale, in a hollow which leads towards
the site of the city, was discovered in 1699, and finally
opened in 1780 by Cardinal Gerampi, Bishop of Corneto.
This is the largest of the tombs, being fifty-four feet square,
with a low flat ceiling, divided by concentric squares, and
supported by four massy pillars of the natural rock.
The paintings in this tomb have been greatly injured by
the shepherds, who used to light their fires here, before it
was protected by the Papal government.  Only the outlines
can be traced, and that with difficulty. The figures represent, for the most part, a contest of good and evil spirits for
the souls of the departed, like those which so long after were
depicted by Orcagna at Pisa, and  by Luca Signorelli at
Orvieto. In one striking part of the series a soul is being
wheeled in a car before the judge by good and evil genii,
who try to draw different ways. The evil genii are all black.
"There is one scene from this tomb of.very remarkable character,
delineated by Byres,* which is not now to be verified, as it has too
much perished.  It represents two children, Cupid and Psyche, the
latter with butterfly-wings, embracing each other; with a good genius
on one side, and an evil one on the other. They appear to have the
* Hyjpogai, or the Sepulchral Caverns of Tarquinia, by James Bvres, 1842.




TOMBS OF CORNETO.                       323
same symbolical meaning as the Cupid and Psyche of the Greeks, for
the evil genius is drawing Cupid, i.e. the bodily appetites and passions,
towards the things of this world, represented by a tree and a labourer'hurrying along with a huge stone on his head, as if to intimate that man
is born to trouble, and his lot below is all vexation of spirit; while, on
the other hand, Psyche, or the more exalted part of human nature, draws
him back, and her persuasions are seconded by the good genius, who,
be it remarked, does not seize the soul, like the antagonist principle,
but tries, with outstretched arms and gentle looks, to win it to herself.
Behind her is a gate, through which a soul is calmly passing, as if to
contrast the tranquil bliss of a future existence with the labour, unrest,
and turmoil of this. It is a simple truth, eloquently and forcibly told."
-Dennis.
These are the most important of the tombs. The next
group of sepulchres is further on across the Montarozzi, two
miles from Corneto.
The Grotta delle Bighe is covered with much-injured but
once brilliant frescoes, representing on the end wall a banquet, on the side walls dances. The paintings are in a
double frieze, the lower and larger of the two having a red
ground.  The smaller frieze is crowded with figures, and
among them are several bigw, or two-horse chariots, whence
the name given to the tomb.  In the pediment over the
door are two leopards and two geese, in the pediment above
the banquet is a large amphora with a small naked figure on
either side, and, beyond these, seated figures crowned with
myrtle and olive.
The Grotta del Mare consists of two small chambers measuring fifteen feet by ten, and derives its name from four
sea-horses painted upon the pediment of the outer chamber.
The Grotta del Barone, so called from Baron Stachelberg,
by whom it was discovered in 1827, is decorated by a single
narrow frieze, with a border of coloured stripes.  The subject seems to be a race and the distribution of prizes.




324                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
The Grotta Francesca, discovered by Chevalier Kestner
in 1833, is decorated with representations of a funeral dance,
with pipes and castanets.
The Grotta delle Iscrizioni, discovered in I828, is unlike
the others.  It is not situated in flat table-land, but is entered from the face of the cliff opposite the hill of Turchina.
It is sometimes called the " Grotta delle Camere Finte" from
the false doors, which form part of its decorations, one in
each wall. Between these are different pictures, games and
dances being the subjects. Two figures seem to be playing
at dice, two naked men are boxing, two others are wrestling.
In another compartment is a horse-race, in another a Bacchic
dance.  On the right of the entrance is a boy sacrificing a
fish upon an altar, before which stands the divinity with a
rod in his hand. Over his head is written " Welthur." Above
the entrance are two panthers, and beyond them, on either
side, a recumbent fawn and a goose.   On the opposite
pediment are panthers, lions, and stags.
"The inscriptions in this tomb give us some insight into its history.
The first is a long semicircular line of letters, and may be translated-'The Priestess Caesanna Matuessa calls these games in honour of the
Lar deceased, the glory of his age, the protector of our temples and our
commerce.' Following this comes the funeral procession. First, the
newly-elected Lar Matuesius, perhaps brother to the priestess,-then
the families of the Lucumones, who are his nearest of kin, or whose
offices oblige them to bear a part in his funeral train. One individual
only is given of each family, on account of the confined space in which
they are represented. Here we see (identified by the names inscribed
on the walls) the Lenea and the Pompey, both very noble houses of
Tarquinii. Following them, the Prince Aruns Athvinacna representing
the younger branches of the ruling house. Aruns means a cadet prince.
After this come the Laris Phanuris or sacred mourners for the king, and
the Velthuri or presidents of the various games and sacrifices. The
races are contested by the royal guard, here called'Laris Larthia' or




TOMBS OF CORNE TO.                       325'Guardia Nobile.' The wrestling is between Nucertetes, or Nicotetes,
and'the Greek' perhaps some celebrated freedman or slave. The
boxing is between Anthasi and Verenes the son of Mea. This at least
is a probable version of the story, and satisfied us after a very long and
careful study of this tomb. The deceased Lar himself is not mentioned
amongst the inscriptions, for his name and simple epitaph would be
deeply engraved upon his ponderous coffin, which lay, with his likeness
in full length upon the lid of it, on one side of this painted chamber."Mrs Haamilton Gray.
" To recapitulate these painted tombs in the order of their antiquity.
First, I should place the Grotta delle Iscrizioni.  Second-the Grotta
del Barone, as partaking of the same archaic character, yet with advancement in certain of the figures. Third-the Camera del Morto, as
being of very similar style, yet with less rigidity. Fourth-Grotta del
Triclinio, which, though retaining certain archaicisms in attitude and
design, shows much of Greek feeling. Fifth-Grotta Francesca, which,
though of inferior merit to the last-named tomb, shows more freedom,
its defects being rather the result of carelessness than of incompetence.
Sixth-Grotta della Scrofa Nera (almost impervious to visitors), which,
though of less pure Greek feeling than the Grotta Triclinio, betrays
more masterly design, and less of that conventionality which in various
degrees characterizes all the preceding. Seventh-Grotta Querciola,which
displays great advancement in correctness and elegance, and much of the
spirit of Hellenic art. Eighth-Grotta delle Bighe, whose upper band
shows al improvement even upon the Querciola.  All these must be
referred to the time of Etruscan independence, for not one arrives at the
perfection of the later painted vases, which date as far back as the fifth
century of Rome.  To a subsequent period belong-Ninth-the Grotta
Cardinale; and, tenth-the Grotta Pompei, which can hardly be earlie
than the latter days of the Roman Republic.
"It is worthy of remark, that all the painted tombs now open are
beneath the level surface; not one has a super-incumbent tumulus,
though such monuments abound on that site.   More than six hundred, it is said, are to be counted on the Montarozzi alone; and they
may be considered to have been originally much more numerous. They
seem to have been all circular, surrounded at the base with masonry,
on which the earth was piled up into a cone, and surmounted probably
by a lion or sphinx in stone, or by a cizpuzs, inscribed with the name of
the family beneath. After the lapse of so many ages, not one retains
its original form, the cones of earth having crumbled down into shapeless mounds, though several have remains of masonry at their base.
One (popularly known as " II Mausoleo ") is nearly perfect in this re



326                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
spect. It is walled round with travertine blocks, about two feet in
length, neatly fitted together, but without cement; forming an architectural decoration which, from its similarity to the mouldings of Norchia and Castel d'Asso, attests its Etruscan origin.  It rises to the
height of five or six feet, and on it rests a shapeless mound, overgrown
with broom and lentiscus. The entrance is by a steep passage, leading
down to a doorway beneath the belt of masonry. The sepulchral
chamber is not in this case remarkable; but beneath a neighbouring
tumulus is one of very peculiar character. The rock is hollowed into
the shape of a Gothic vault, but the converging sides, instead of meeting
in a point, are suddenly carried up perpendicularly, and terminated by
a horizontal course of masonry.  The form is very primitive, for it is
precisely that of the celebrated Regulini tomb at Cervetri, one of the
most ancient sepulchres of Etruria, and also bears much resemblance to
the Cyclopean gallery of Tiryns in Argolis. "-Dennis.
Beneath one of the tumuli of the Montarozzi, the Gonfaloniere of Corneto, Signor Carlo Avvolta, opened, in 1823,
the wonderful virgin tomb, whose discovery led to all the
other excavations near Corneto. He was digging for stones
for road mending, when he came upon a large slab of nenfro.
Gazing through a crevice beneath it, he says:" I saw a warrior stretched on a bed of rock, and in a few minutes I
saw him vanish, as it were, under my eyes; for, as the atmosphere entered the tomb, the armour, entirely oxydized, crumbled away into the
most minute particles; so that in a short time scarcely a vestige of what
I had seen was left on the couch... Such was my astonishment, that
it would be impossible to express the effect produced upon my mind by
this sight; but I may safely affirm that it was the happiest moment of
my existence.'
Turning down from  the Montarozzi by the Grotta del
Cardinale into the valley, the tourist should not fail to
mount the opposite heights of Tuirchina, or Piano di Civita,
for, though there are no remains of the city except a few
blocks of the masonry which formed the foundations of its
walls, the view is most beautiful of the orange-coloured cliffs




LA MERCARECCIA.                   327
which are crowned by the towers of Corneto, and, beyond,
of the wide expanse of blue sea with the beautiful headland
of Monte Argentaro, its neighbouring islets of Giglio and
Giannuti, and, in the distance, Elba, and even Monte Cristo.
Corneto.
Some extraordinary caverned tombs, once adorned with
bas-reliefs, which may still be traced here and there, exist at
the spot called La Mercareccia, about a mile from Corneto,
reached by a lane which turns off to the left above the road
to Civita Vecchia.




CHAPTER XXXVIII.
VOLCI (PONTE DEL ABBADIA).
(It is possible for those who wish to visit Volci to find rooms at Montalto, not in the miserable inn, but in a private house. But those who
are not greatly pressed for time will do better to return from Corneto to
sleep at Civita Vecchia, and go by the first morning train to Montalto,
whence it is a drive or walk of five miles to Volci.
Volci (Ponte del Abbadia) should only be visited in the winter or
early spring. It is one of the most fever-stricken places in the whole
country.  A rough country cart is the only conveyance to be obtained
at Montalto.)
SOON  after leaving Corneto the railway crosses the little
river Marta, close to the mouth of which, on its northern
side, are some remains of Roman buildings, and a large arch
of Etruscan masonry, with traces of a quay and port, which
have been identified by Dennis  with Graviscae, the port of
Tarquinii.  The place is still as fraught with fever as in
classical times, but its pine trees have disappeared.
" Inde Graviscarum fastigia rara videmus,
Quas premit xestivae soepe paludis odor.
Sed nemorosa viret densis vicinia lucis,
Pineaque extremis fluctuat umbra fretis."
Rutilius, Itin. i. 279.
A  little south of this is the little malaria-stricken port of
* Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, ii 393.




THE RIVER FIORA.                   329
San Clementino, whence corn and salt are exported in large
quantities.  Here Gregory XI., brought from Avignon by
the remonstrances of S. Catherine of Siena, landed Oct. I8,
1376, thus ending what was termed." the Babylonish captivity of the popedom."
At Montalto there is nothing to be seen.  The dismal
town stands on a hill around its castle about I0 mile from
the station, and is only remarkable as having given a Cardinal's title to Sixtus V., whose father, Peretto Peretti, a gardener, had lived there in the utmost poverty, till driven by
his debts to Fermo, shortly before the birth of the future
Pope.
A most desolate track leads from Montalto to Ponte del
Abbadia, exposed to every wind, and, when we visited it in
March, to driving snow storms.  The country is piteously
bare, and owing to the prevalence of malaria is entirely uninhabited.  A tumulus called the Cucumella is the only
feature which breaks the bare outline of the treeless moors.
This dismal prelude makes the transition all the more
striking, when a path, turning down a hollow to the right,
leads one into the beautiful ravine of the sparkling river
Fiora, which forces its way through a rocky chasm overhung
with a perfect wealth of ilex, arbutus, and bay, and is one of
the most beautiful streams in Italy. The views near the
bridge no one will omit, but there is a most lovely spot about
a mile lower down the river called " II Pelago" (where an
Etruscan bridge is said once to have existed), at which the
river forms a deep rocky pool overhung by rocks and evergreens, which should also be visited, and, if possible, be
painted.
Hence an ill-defined path along the edge of the cliffs




330                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
leads to the Ponte del Abbadia, which is one of the most
glorious scenes in this land of beauty. A gigantic bridge
spans the river at a height of ninety-six feet, striding from
one great orange-coloured cliff to another by a single mighty
arch, while on the other side, close to the bridge, rises a most
picturesque mediaeval castle with a tall square * tower.
From  bridge and rocks alike, hang stupendous masses of
stalactites, often twenty feet in length, giving a most weird
character to the scene, and formed by many centuries of
dripping water, "charged with tartaric matter."  The whole
view  is filled with colour;  the smoke of the large fires
which the guards at the castle burn to keep off the malaria
adds to the effect, and the utter desolation of the surrounding country only renders it more impressive.
Ponte del Abbadia, Volci.
"The bridge is of different dates. It has three projecting piers of
red tufo, much weather-worn, which are obviously of earlier construction
than the neat and harder nenfro masonry which encases them. Both
are in the same emplecton style, like the walls of Sutri, Nepi, and Fal* Not round, as in the engraving in Dennis' book.




VOL CZ                          33I
leri; and the nelfro portion is, in part, rusticated.  The return-facing
of the arch, however, is of travertine, and may with certainty be referred to that people, as it possesses features in common with bridges of
undoubted Roman origin-the Ponte d'Augusto at Narni, and the celebrated Pont du Gard. The aqueduct, also (which occupied the parapet of the bridge), I take to be Roman, simply because it passes over
arches of that construction; for the skill of the Etruscans in hydraulics
is so well attested, as to make it highly probable that to them were the
Romans indebted for that description of structure.  The tufo buttresses
are very probably Etruscan, for they are evidently the piers of the original bridge. The nenzfro and travertine portions are, in any case, of
Roman times, whatever be the antiquity of the tufo piers." —Dennis.
Scarcely anything is known of the history of Volci, beyond
the fact of the defeat and conquest of its people, together
with those of Volsinii, in B. C. 280, by the Roman Consul
Titus Coruncanius.  The city, however, was not destroyed
then, and continued to exist in imperial times, as is proved
by inscriptions which have been found there, including even
some early Christian epitaphs. Now, however, scarcely a
trace of the ancient city remains, and only a few fragments
of wall, of imperial date, stand here and there above-ground
on the table-land which it once occupied upon the right bank
of the Fiora, and which is still known as the " Pian di Voce."
Comparatively little also is now to be seen in the famous
Necropolis of Volci, which occupied the summits of the cliffs
on both sides of the Fiora about a mile below the Ponte del
Abbadia, for though they are absolutely inexhaustible in the
treasures they have afforded and continue to afford, the proprietors of the soil are so greedy of space, that a sepulchre
is no sooner rifled of its contents, than it is filled up again.
The tombs were first discovered by the earth falling in when
some men were ploughing, in 1828.  After that, Lucien
Bonaparte, who had bought the Principality of Canino on




332              DAYS NEAR ROME.
the advice of Pius VII., made considerable scavi, appropriating the riches they afforded, and these excavations were
afterwards continued by his family.
The points best worth visiting are on the left bank of the
Fiora.  Here is the great sepulchral mound of La Clculmella,
200 feet in diameter and above 40 feet high, once encircled
by a wall of masonry. It was opened in 1I829, but has been
closed again. Two towers, one round and the other square,
have been disclosed in the upper part of the mound, and it
is supposed that there may have been once five of these
towers on cones, as in the tomb of Aruns at Albano.
Beneath the towers were found two chambers approached
by long passages, guarded by the sphinxes which are now at
IMusignano.
Very near this is a walled tumulus called La Rotonda; and
beyond it, near the Fiora, another smaller mound, called La
Cucumelletta, which was opened in 1832.  Near these an
enormous tomb was discovered in 1857, consisting of a
principal chamber with a pyramidal roof, surrounded by a
series of smaller crypts, and approached by a passage Ioo
feet long. The principal tomb is surrounded by paintings:
-Achilles sacrificing to the Manes of Patroclus: Ajax and
Cassandra at the altar of Minerva: Masarna releasing Caeles
Vibenna from his bonds, and other subjects, in good preservation.  A tomb, opened in I840, and reclosed, called the
"Grotta d' Iside," was very curious, as containing painted
ostrich-eggs, vases, and ointment pots decorated with figures
of Isis, all evidently of Egyptian origin, as well as the effigies
of the two ladies in whose honour it was constructed, one a
miniature full-length marble figure, the other a bronze bust.
On the opposite side of the Fiora, a tumulus, opened by




VOLCI.                           333
Campanari in I835, contained the skeleton of a warrior, with
helm  on his head, ring on his finger, and a confused mass of
broken and rusted weapons at his feet.  The "Grotta del
Sole e della Luna," opened in 1830, consists of eight chambers, with walls and ceilings carved in regular patterns.
Beyond that part of the Necropolis known as La Polledrara, the little river Timone flows under a natural arch
called the Ponte Sodo, a miniature of that at Veii.
"On the painted pottery, found at Volci, it were needless to expatiate.  Every museum in Europe proclaims its beauty, and, through
it, the name of Volci, never much noised in classic times, and well-nigh'forgotten for two thousand years, has become immortal, and acquired a
wider renown than it ever possessed during the period of the cities' existence. Volci has none of the tall black ware with figures in relief, which
is peculiar to Chiusi and its neighbourhood; but of painted vases there is
every variety-from the earliest, quaintest efforts, through every grade in
excellence, to the highest triumphs of Hellenic ceramographic art.  Of
the early, so-called Doric, pottery, little is found at Volci; nor of the
Perfect style, which is predominant at Nola, is there so great an abundance here; the great mass of Volcian vases being of the Attic style-of
that severe and archaic design, which is always connected with black
figures on a yellow ground.  The best vases of Volci, in the chaste
simplicity of their style, closely resemble those of Nola and Sicily; yet
there are characteristic shades of difference, in form and design, which
can be detected by a practised eye.  On this site, more than on any
in Etruria, have been found those singular vases painted with eyes, so
commnon also in Sicily, the meaning of which continues to perplex
antiquaries.
"Although thousands on thousands of painted vases have been redeemed from oblivion, this cemetery still yields a richer harvest than any
other in Etruria.  No site has been so well worked by the excavatornone has so well repaid him; yet it seems far from exhausted.  Nor is it
rich in vases alone.  Bronzes of various descriptions, mirrors with
beautiful designs, vessels, tripods, candelabra, weapons-are proportionally abundant, and maintain the same relative excellence to the pottery.
That exquisite cista, or casket, now in the Gregorian Museum, and
which yields not in beauty to any one of those very rare relics of ancient
taste and genius, was found at Volci. No site yields more superb and'




334               DAYS NEAR ROME.
delicate articles in gold and jewellery-as the Cabinets of the Vatican
and of Cavaliere Campana (now in the Louvre) can testify; none more
numerous relics in bone-spoons, needles, dice, to wit-or more beautiful specimens of variegated glass."-Dennis.
A visit to Volci finds its natural sequel at the Palace of
Musignano, five miles distant, the property of Prince Torlonia, who bought it in I854 from the Roman Bonapartes,
with whom it was a favourite residence.  It is an  ordinary villa built on the site of the Franciscan Abbey
("Abbadia") which gave a name to the bridge at Volci.
The gate and court-yard are adorned with griffins and lions
from La Cucumella, but the collections of antiquities within,
formed by Lucien Bonaparte and his widow, has been long
since dispersed.  The gardens and shrubberies, which are
of great extent, are now overgrown and neglected. There is
a lake with an island planted with willows from the grave at
S. Helena.
The little town of Canino, which gives a princely title to
the descendants of Lucien Bonaparte, is about two miles
from the villa, at the foot of the hill called Monte di Canino.
In the church is a monument by Pampaloni to Prince
Lucien, who died at Viterbo and is buried here, with
his second wife.  The Monte de Canino is I380 feet in
height, and, in its lonely position and lime-stone formation,
greatly resembles Soracte.  It is possible to proceed in a
carriage from Canino to Toscanella, about nine miles distant,
but as it is difficult to sleep there, and impossible to pass
the night in the wretched locanda of Canino, it will be
better to return to the inn at Civita Vecchia, or to a lodging at Corneto, and make the excursion from the latter place.




CHAPTER XXXIX.
TOSCANELLA AND CENTRAL ETRURIA.
(Toscanella is most easily reached, either from Viterbo, 18 miles by a
good road; or from Corneto, 17 miles distant. There is a very humble
inn, but if possible the visitor should take an introduction to some
private family in the town. The Etruscan sites beyond Toscanella are
seldom visited, and can only in some instances be approached on horseback or on foot. The accommodation is of the humblest description.)
T    OSCANELLA  is visible from  a great distance, on a
height above the valley of the Marta.
"Vedemo Toscanela tanto anticha
Quanto alcun altra de questo paese."
Fazio degli Uberi.
Toscanella was the Etruscan Tascania, mentioned by Pliny
as amongst the municipal communities of Etruria, but otherwise unknown to history. Its early importance has probably
been much exaggerated, owing to the discovery of a single
tomb of great magnificence, which ought rather to be considered
to attest the wealth and importance of an individual family.
There are scarcely any traces of the Etruscan city, and only
small vestiges of reticulated walling to mark the Roman
settlement which followed it.  The mediaeval remains of
Toscanella are far more important.  The hill of San Pietro,
which is outside the later town, was probably the arx of the




336                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
Etruscan city. It is surrounded by a band of square mediaeval towers, which are double,-" a tall, slender tower being
encased, with no intervening space, in an outer shell of
masonry."  On this height also is the Cathedral (S. Pietro),
a most interesting building, partly of the seventh, partly of
the eleventh century. The wonderfully rich central division
of the facade is covered in its upper story with figures of
men, devils, and beasts, possible and impossible, in high
relief.  Within, the church is a museum of pagan relics, the
columns which divide the nave from the aisles are evidently
Roman, the font rests on a pagan altar, and the crypt beneath
the high-altar, said to have been a Roman bath, has twentyeight ancient pillars.
" The date of the interior is known. It forms part of a church which
was built, about the middle of the seventh century, when the bodies of
the saints Secundiano, Marcellino, and Veriano, were discovered (at
Celli in 628) and brought to Toscanella. A splendid crypt was, as
usual, prepared for their reception beneath the sanctuary.
" The front must have been rebuilt at much later times. The style is
very peculiar. In the works of the Lombards we find an abundance of
dragons and serpents, but we do not find them coursing down the front,
from the eaves to the portal, as in the present instance. At Viterbo,
however, which is at the distance of only a few miles from Toscanella,
traces of the same peculiarity exist. The same extraordinary animals,
though injured by time, and half-concealed by whitewash, may still be
perceived on the front of the Church of San Giovanni in Zoccoli in that
city. That church is known to have been complete in 1037. It may
therefore be safely assumed that the existing front of San Pietro of Toscanella was built in the first half of the eleventh century.
" The ruined building, which adjoins the church, is the remains of the
episcopal palace. The bishop's chair, which had been removed from
Santa Maria to San Pietro in the seventh century, was again removed to
the church of S. James in the sixteenth century, when Toscanella had
shrunk to its present limits." —H. Gaily Kntit.
Very near S. Pietro is the still older and exceedingly




TOSCANELLA.                       337
curious church of Sta. Maria, whose front of the tenth century
is also decorated with monsters.  The church ends in an
apse which has a fresco of the Last Judgment, and over the
high-altar is a baldacchino. The richly-decorated pulpit is
a beautiful work of the I3th century.  Ughelli (Italia Sacra)
mentions that the episcopal chair was removed from  Sta.
Maria to S. Pietro in the middle of the seventh century,
which proves that at least in the early part of the seventh
century this church must have been in existence, and it is
almost certain to have been in existence in the sixth century
also, as the signature of a bishop of Toscanella occurs in 595.
The church was reconsecrated in i206.
"We may conclude that Santa Maria was a finished building at the
close of the sixth century: and the style of the interior of the church
corresponds with that time. It is a studious, and not an unsuccessful,
imitation of the Roman. All the pillars have foliage capitals, with no
admixture of imagery; but, in the cornice, are seen a few of the symbolical figures which, at that period, began to make their appearance in
churches."-Gaily  znight.
After the churches, the chief attraction at Toscanella is
the Etruscan museum and garden of the brothers Carlo and
Secondiano Campanari, to whom the excavations of Tuscania
are due, and who have largely contributed by the sale of
their antiquities to all the important Etruscan collections of
Europe.  In the garden is a facsimile of an Etruscan tomb,
opened by the Campanari, and inscribed "Ecasuthinesl"
over the entrance. It contains the ten sarcophagi found in
the original tomb. On each lies the owner, half reclining as
if at a banquet, and each seems to be pledging his neighbour
with the goblet in his hand. The flower-beds are fringed by
sarcophagi, with Etruscans, male and female, reclining on the
VOL. II.                                      22




338              DA YS NEAR ROME.
lids, leaning upon their left arms, and looking at the spectator, and most strange is the effect! In the tomb called II
Calcarello, opened by the Campanari in I839, no less than
twenty-seven sarcophagi were found, those of the women
forming an inner circle, outside which lay their husbands.
All the sarcophagi are of nenfro.
The tombs of Tuscania are chiefly hewn out of the clifis
in the neighbouring ravines.  They have no architectural
decorations.  The most remarkable is that called Grotta
della Regina, half a mile from the town, beneath the Madonna
dell' Olivo. A long passage opens upon a square chamber
supported by two columns, and behind it winds a labyrinthine
passage, which leaves the tomb on one side, and, after many
twists and turns, returns to it on the other. To visit this,
lights are necessary.
Few travellers will penetrate beyond Toscanella, yet, beyond it, lie a collection of Etruscan sites, one at least of
which, Sovana, is well worth seeing, though it is 30 miles
distant.
Fourteen miles north of Toscanella is Ischia, an Etruscan
site, with ravines full of ordinary tombs. Two miles west of
this is Farnese, also of Etruscan origin. Two or three miles
further is Castro, where the hill-side is covered with the ruins
of a flourishing city, utterly destroyed by Pope Innocent X.
in I647, because its bishop had been murdered by Farnese,
Lord of Castro! The see was at the same time removed to
Acquapendente. Castro is a beautiful place with ravines overhung with ilexes, two ruined bridges, and tombs and columbaria hewn in the cliffs.
Five miles west of Ischia is Valentano, looking down upon
the lake of Bolsena, whence a bridle-path leads I2 miles to




SO VANA.                        339
Pitigliano, passing on the way the little Lake of Mezzano,
supposed to have been the Lacus Statoniensis, mentioned by
Pliny and Seneca.  Pitigliano is a large place, picturesquely
situated like Civita Castellana on a tongue of land, surrounded  by ravines.  Close outside the city gate, called
Porta di Sotto, is a fine fragment of the ancient wall in eight
courses of huge tufa blocks. The neighbouring ravines are
exceedingly beautiful, especially near the little waterfall called
"La Cascatella."  The height called Poggio Strozzoni was
once occupied by a castle of the Counts Orsini, said to have
been ruined after the last count, in a fit of jealousy, flung his
wife into the ravine from the bridge above the Cascatella.
Two strange figures lie here hewn out of the rock.  The
people call them "Orlando and his wife."  Unfortunately
they are only of cinque-cento origin, colossal ornaments of
the Orsini villa.
Five miles N. E. of Pitigliano is Sorano, also an Etruscan
site, and a most picturesque place.
"In the centre of the town rises a precipitous mass of rock, whose
summit commands one of the most romantic scenes in this part of Italy.
The town clustering round the base of the height-the grand old feudal
castle, with its hoary battlements, crowning the cliffs behind-the fearful
precipices and profound chasms at your feet-and the ranges of mountains in front, rising in grades of altitude and majesty, to the sublime
icy crest of Monte Amiata."-Dennis.
Only 2- miles from Pitigliano is Sovana, one of the most
interesting spots in Etruria, and possessing a greater variety
of sculptured tombs than any other place.  The site was
afterwards occupied by the Roman colony of Suana mentioned by Ptolemy and Pliny. The existing village stands on
a tongue of land, ending on one side in the square tower of the




340                DA YS NEAR ROME.
cathedral, for it is still the see of a bishop; and, on the other,
in a picturesque medieval castle. It was the birthplace of
Hildebrand-Gregory VII., and in 1240 sustained a siege
from Frederick II.
Sovana can only be visited with safety in the winter or
early spring: it is ruined by the malaria.
"Such is the summer scourge of'ariaccia,' that even the wretched
hamlet to which the city has dwindled is well-nigh depopulated, and
most of its houses are ruined and tenantless. It may well be called, as
Repetti observes,'The city of Jeremiah.' It is but the skeleton, though
a still living skeleton, of its former greatness. Pestilence, year after
year, stalks through its long, silent street. The visit of a stranger is an
epoch in the annals of the hamlet. "-Dennis.
The finest of the tombs at Sovana is that called La Fontana,
discovered by Mr Ainsley in I843, till which time Sovana
was utterly unknown to Englishmen. It is on the opposite
side of the ravine which is reached by the western gate of
the town.  Above an arched recess, is a Doric frieze, and
then a pediment sculptured in bold relief with figures of a
mermaid and a winged genius.  The tomb is about 17 feet
wide and 17 high, the pediment occupying seven feet. A
long line of tombs, of Egyptian character, occupies the face of
the cliff (Poggio Prisca) beyond La Fontana, but they are
almost concealed by the brushwood. On the opposite side
of the valley is the Grotta Pola, with a front cut in the tufo
like the portico of a temple, having once had apparently
four columns, of which only one now remains. In the same
cliff (Poggio Stanziale) are many more Egyptian-like tombs,
and some " house-tombs " with ribbed and ridged roofs, one
of them decorated with a colossal head on its pediment.




SA TURNIA.                          341
Sovana may be reached from Acquapendente or Orbetello
as well as from Toscanella.*
Eight miles west from Sovana is Saturnia, reached by a
bridle-path which fords the Fiora. It occupies a striking
position above the valley of the Albegna, and is surrounded
by fortifications of the fifteenth century. The present city
however only covers a small part of the ancient area, of
which fragments of the walls, of polygonal masonry, may still
be seen. Near the Porta Romana, by which the Via Clodia
passed through the town to Rome, is a curious mass of
travertine in which steps have been cut to the top, where are
three graves or sarcophagi sunk in the level summit.
The Necropolis of Saturnia is io miles distant from the
city, on the opposite bank of the Albegna, at the spot called
by the people Pian di Palma.  The tombs here, for which
the native appellation is not sepolch/ri or grotte, but depositi.
differ from all others in Etruria, being more like the cromlechs of Cornwall, and are supposed to be the work of the
Aborigines, to whom Dionysius attributes the foundation of
Saturnia.
" They are quadrangular chambers, sunk a few feet below the surface,
lined with rough slabs of rock, set upright, one on each side, and roofed
over with two large slabs resting against each other so as to form a rude
pent-house; or else with a single one of enormous size, covering the
whole, and laid at a slight inclination, apparently for the same purpose
of carrying off the rain. Not a chisel has touched these rugged masses,
which are just as broken off from their native rock, with their edges all
shapeless and irregular; and if their faces are somewhat smooth, it is
* The Author has never been able in person to visit Pitigliano, Sovana, or Saturnia.
He is indebted entirely for his information to the same source from which the account in Murray's Handbook is evidently copied-Dennis's Cities and Cemeteries of
Etruria-to which all-important work he refers the reader for details, if he has any
idea of penetrating into Central Etruria.




342                  DA YS NEAR ROM.E.
owing to the tendency of the travertine to split in laminar forms. They
are the most rude and primitive structures conceivable; such as the
savage would make on inhaling his first breath of civilization, or emerging from his cave or den in the rock.  Their dimensions vary from
about sixteen feet square to half that size, though few are strictly of that
form.  Many are divided into two chambers or compartments for bodies,
by an upright slab, on which the cover-stones rest. In most there is a
passage, about three feet wide, and ten or twelve feet long, leading to
the sepulchral chamber, and lined with slabs of inferior size and thickness
"These tombs are sunk but little below the surface, because each is en
closed in a tumulus; the earth being piled around so as to conceal all
but the cover-stones, which may have been also originally buried. In
many instances the earth has been removed or washed away, so as to
leave the structure standing above the surface." —Dennis.




CHAPTER XL
THE ETRUSCAN SHORE.
(Few, except thorough-going Etruscan antiquarians, will care to
examine the shore of Etruria, owing to the difficulties which beset such
an excursion; partly from the risks of fever, partly from the miserable
accommodation for travellers in this part of Italy. There have been
tolerable inns at Orbetello, Grosseto, and Campiglia, but they frequently
change hands, so that it is not safe to give any definite recommendations. )
T    RAVELLERS from  Rome to Leghorn are generally
quite oppressed by the ugliness of the country through
which they travel. The malaria, which drives away the inhabitants, naturally causes the greater part of the country to be
left untilled and neglected, and it is for the most part covered
with low brushwood, or left to the dank grass and thistles,
which grow where they will over the windstricken uplands.
The wood which covers other districts is such as Dante
describes:
"Noi ci mettemmo per un bosco
Che da nessun sentiero era segnato.
Non frondi verdi, ma di color fosco,
Non rami schietti, ma nodosi e involti,
Non pomi v'eran, ma stecchi con tosco.
Non han si aspri sterpi ne si foltid
Quelle fiere selvagge che in odio hanno
Tra Cecina e Corneto i luoghi colti."
Dante, IZf xiii. 3.




344                 DA YS NEAR ROME.
In summer, when the country is less ugly, few see it, for it
is more dangerous.  Then it is:"The green Maremma!A sunbright waste of beauty-yet an air
Of brooding sadness o'er the scene is shed;
No human footstep tracks the lone domainThe deseit of luxuriance glows in vain."
Hr-manzs.
Once, before the mysterious pestilence was known, this
dismal country was thickly populated, and those who have
patience, in the safe winter months, to search for its hidden
cities, and endurance to undergo a certain amount of hardship while seeking for them, will not be unrewarded. Yet
while many excursions are made to seek strange ruins in
Persia and Arabia, or to lay bare the buried cities of Bashan,
the lost cities of the Maremma, so much nearer at hand, remain unheeded and unthought of.
"' In the Maremma,' saith the proverb,'you get rich in a year, butyou die in six months'-in Mareznma s'arricchisce in un anno, si muore
in sei mesi. The peculiar circumstances of the Maremma are made the
universal excuse for every inferiority of quantity, quality, or workmanship. You complain of the food or accommodation. My host shrugs his
shoulders, and cries,' Ma chze-cosa vuole, signor? siamo in Maremmz a?'
-what would you have, sir? we are in the Maremma. A bungling
smith well-nigh lamed the horse I had hired; to my complaints he replied,' Cosa vuole, signor?? roba di Iarenmma.'' Maremma-stuff' is a
proverbial expression of inferiority. These lower regions of Italy, in
truth, are scarcely deemed worthy of a place in a Tuscan's geography.'Nel mondo, o in Maremma,' has for ages been a current saying. Thus
Boccaccio's Madonna Lisetta tells her gossip that the angel Gabriel had
called her the handsomest woman' in the world or in the Maremma.' "
Dennis.
While the country is a desert, even the later cities are half
deserted and ruined.




ANSEDON1IA.                       345
Guarda, mi disse, al mare; e vidi piana
Cogli altri colli la Marema tutta,
Dilectivole molto, e poco sana.
Ivi e Massa, Grossetto, e la distructa
Civita vecliia, e ivi Populonia,
Che a penna pare tanto e mal conduta.
Ivi e ancor ove fue la Sendonia.
Questa cita e altre chio non dico,
Sono per la Marema en verso Roma,
Famose e grande per lo tempo antico."
Fazio degli Ubertz.
The one picturesque point between Ieghorn and Rome
is where the salt lake of Orbetello opens upon the right of
the railway, reaching in a shimmering expanse of still water,
studded with fishing-boats, to the abrupt purple cliffs of
Monte Argentaro.  On either side it is enclosed by sandbanks.  Strabo (v. 225) mentions this lagoon as the "seamark," and it adds greatly to  the unhealthiness of the
country, which it abundantly supplies with fish. Orbetello
is surrounded by walls built in the I7th century by the
Spaniards. On the side towards the sea they rest upon huge
Pelasgic blocks of polygonal masonry.  Several Etruscan
tombs have also been found, but to what lost city these remains belonged has never been discovered.
At the point where the Feniglia, the southern sand-bank
extending from Monte Argentaro, joins the mainland, stand
the ruins of Ansedonia, the ancient Cosa. It is a drive of
five miles from Orbetello to the foot of the hill which is
crowned by the ruins, and here, in a lane on the right of the
high road, is the house called "La Selciatella," where a
guide may be procured.
The conical hill which is occupied by the remains of Cosa




346                  DA YS NEAR ROME.
rises 600 feet above the sea. The ancient road may be
traced all the way up the ascent.
" The form of the ancient city is a rude quadrangle, scarcely a mile
in circuit.  The walls vary from  12 to 30 feet in height, and are
relieved, at intervals, by square towers, projecting from  I I to 15
feet, and of more horizontal masonry than the rest of the fortifications.
Fourteen of these towers, square and external, and two internal and
circular, are now standing, or to be traced; but there were probably
more, for in several places are immense heaps of ruins, though whether
of towers, or of the wall itself fallen outwards, it is difficult to determine.
" Of gates there is the orthodox number of three; one in the centre
of the northern, southern, and eastern walls of the city respectively.
They are well worthy of attention, all of them being double, like the
two celebrated gateways of Volterra, though without even the vestige of an
arch. The most perfect is that in the eastern wall.  It is evident that it
was never arched, for the door-post, still standing, rises to the height of
nearly 20 feet in a perfectly upright surface; and as in the Porta di
Diana of Volterra, it seems to have been spanned by a lintel of wood,
for at the height of I2 or 14 feet is a square hole as if for its insertion."
-Dennis.
The interior of the walls of Cosa is now a mere thicket of
thorns and brambles. The view from the ramparts is most
beautiful-Elba is visible, and, in the near distance, the
island of Giannutri, the ancient Artemisia. Cosa is believed
to have become a Roman colony B. c. 280; afterwards the
fidelity of its people to the Romans, during the second
Punic war, is spoken of by Livy (xxvii. io). Rutilius mentions the tradition that the inhabitants were finally hunted
away from the town by an army of mice:
"Cernimus antiquas nullo custode ruinas,
Et desolatae moenia fceda Cosae.
Ridiculam cladis pudet inter seria causam
Promere; sed risum dissimulare piget.
Dicuntur cives quondam migrare coacti,
Muribus infestos deseruisse lares.




MONTE ARGENTARO.                        347
Credere maluerim Pygmeae damna cohortis,
Et conjuratas in sua bella grues."
I. 285.
A  delightful excursion may be made from  Orbetello to
Monte Argentaro, the ancient Mons Argentarius.  On the
summit of one of its two peaks is the Passionist Convent
called II Retiro.
"Necdum decessis pelago permittimur umbris,
Natus vicino vertice ventus adest.
Tenditur in medias Mons Argentarius undas,
Ancipitique jugo caerula rura premit.
Transversos colles bis ternis millibus arctat,
Circuitu ponti ter duodena patet.
Qualis per geminos fluctus Ephyreius isthmus
Ionias bimari litore findit aquas."
Rutilius, i.
At the base of the mountain on its south-eastern shore is
Porto a'Ercole, the ancient Portus Herculis, in  a most
beautiful situation.
" Haud procul hinc petitur signatus ab Hercule portus;
Vergentem sequitur mollior aura diem."
Rut. i.
This was the port of Cosa (Portus Cosanus), in the territory of which town the whole of the Mons Argentarius was
included.  Thus Tacitus (Ann. ii) speaks of-" Cosa, a
promontory of Etruria."   Hence  Lepidus embarked for
Sardinia, when driven from Italy by Catulus in B. c. 78.
It is about eight miles inland from Orbetello to Magliano,
a miserable village with an old castle, lying between the Osa
and the Albegna.  Near this place, Dennis was led by the
descriptions of Tommaso Pasquinelli, an engineer, to make
researches, which have resulted in the identification of an
undoubted Etruscan site (round which the circuit of walls,




348                DA YS NEAR ROME.
41 miles in circumference, may with difficulty be traced),
with the long-lost and much-sought city of Vetulonia, a place
of first-rate magnitude, one of the five cities which undertook to assist the Latins against Tarquinius Priscus, one of
the twelve great towns of Etruria," and the place whence
Rome derived its lictors and fasces and the use of brazen
trumpets in war.
"Moeonizeque decus quondam Vetulonia gentis.
Bissenos haec prima dedit praecedere fasces,
Et junxit totidem tacito terrore secures;
Hxc altas eboris decoravit honore curules,
Et princeps Tyrio vestem prsetexuit ostro;
Haec eadem pugnas accendere protulit zere."
Sil. Ital. viii. 485.
Several painted  tombs have  been  opened  near this,
though they have been reclosed; and many small Etruscan
ornaments have been found.
"To those who know Italy, it will be no matter of surprise that the
existence of this city should have been so long forgotten.  Had there
even been ruins of walls or temples on the site, such things are too
abundant in that land to excite particular attention; and generation
after generation of peasants might fold their flocks or stall their cattle
amid the crumbling ruins, and the world at large remain in ignorance
of their existence. Thus it was with Pcestum; though its ruins are so
stupendous and prominent, it was unknown to the antiquary till the las'
century.  Can we wonder, then, that in the Tuscan Maremma, not
better populated or more frequented, because not more healthy, than
the Campanian shore, a city should have been lost sight of, which had
no walls or ruins above-ground, and no vestige but broken pottery,
which tells no tale to the simple peasant? "-Dennis.
After leaving Orbetello, the railway crosses the river Albegna, and four miles further, the Osa, where there are remains of the ancient bridge by which the Via Aurelia crossed
* Dion. Hal. iii. St. Plin. iii. 5.




RUSELL.,                       349
the river. At the point of the headland beyond this is another Etruscan site, in a village with a castle still bearing
the old name —elamone, which tradition says was derived
from Telamon, the Argonaut.  This is supposed to have
been the port of Vetulonia.  It was here that Marius
landed on his return from Africa in B. c. 87. The few ruins
remaining are all of Roman times, and not worth seeing.
The Torre della Bella lMarsilia records, in its name, the
legend that a beautiful girl of the Marsilj family was carried
off thence by pirates and taken to Constantinople, where
she was raised by her charms to the dignity of Sultana.
This story is the subject of one of the most popular of the
refrains, with whose melancholy cadences the Maremma
peasants make the shores re-echo.  It begins:
I Turchi son venuti nella Maremma,
E hanno preso via la bella Marsilia."
Eighteen miles north of Telamone is (on the railway) the
fortified cathedral town of Grosseto, five miles from which are
the ruins of Rusellw. A guide should be taken from the hotsprings called I Bagni di Roselle. Nothing remains except
the walls, which enclose a space two miles in circumference,
and which are for the most part "composed of enormous.masses piled up without regard to form, and differing only
from the rudest style of Cyclopean, in having the outer surfaces smoothed."  The ruins are almost inaccessible from
the growth of the thorny shrub " marruca," with which they
are surrounded.
Rusellae is believed to have been one of the twelve great
cities of Etruria, and was one of those which united against
Tarquinius Priscus. Livy mentions that in B. C. 300 the




350                DA YS NEAR ROME.
consul, M. Valerius Maximus, led an army into the territory
of Ruselle, and there broke the might of the Etruscans; and
in B. C. 293 Ruselle was again attacked by Postumius Megellus, the consul, who took 2000 prisoners, and slew almost as
many around the walls of the city. Rusellae continued to
exist after the fall of the Empire, and had a cathedral till
1I38, when, owing to the number of brigands who infested
the country, the bishopric was transferred to Grosseto.
West of Grosseto, the  river Ombrone enters the sea.
Pliny represents it as navigable.
"Tangimus Umbronem! non est ignobile flumen,
Quod toto trepidas excipit ore rates;
Tam facilis pronus semper patet alveus undis,
In pontum quoties soeva procella ruit. "
Rutilius, Itin. i. 337.
North of Grosseto, the high road runs inland, passing the
fever-bringing fens of the Lago di Castiglione, the Lacus
Prilis of Pliny. On the left, it passes under the wooded
hill of Colonna, supposed to have been the ancient Colonia,
near which in B. c. 224 the " battle of Telamon " took place,
when the Cisalpine Gauls were defeated by an unexpected
juncture of two Roman armies under the Consuls Emilius
Paulus and C. Attilius, and the latter consul was slain.
On the coast beyond this is Porta di Troja, the ancient
Portus Trajanus, and, near it, the little Lake of Caldano and
Porto Falese, the Portus Faleria.
"Laxatum cohibet vicina Faleria cursum,
Quanquam vix medium Phoebus haberet iter.
Et tur forte hilares per compita rustica pagis
Mulcebant sacris pectora fessa jocis.
Illo quippe die tandem renovatus Osiris
Excitat in fruges germina leta novas.




POPULONIA.                        351
Egressi villam petimus, lucoque vagamur;
Stagna placent septo deliciosa vado.
Ludere lascivos inter vivaria pisces
Gurgitis inclusi laxior unda sinit."
Rutilius, i. 37I.
On the right of the road is Massa, occupying a hill-summit, with a small 13th-century cathedral dedicated to S. Cerbone.  The place has so bad a reputation for malaria as to
give rise to the proverb,
"Massa, massa,
Salute passa."
The high road rejoins the coast at La Fallonica, where there
are extensive iron works, founded by the Grand Duke of
Tuscany.   Fallonica occupies the centre of the bay of
Piombino, in front of which lies Elba, and, nearer, the islets of
Palmajola and Cerboli.  The bay is closed by the peninsula
of Piombino, the IIorX\vlov alcpov of Ptolemy, which gives the
title of Prince to the Buoncompagni family.  The small
town of Piombino is quite without interest, but, five miles
distant, on the other side of the peninsula, is Populonia, with
a picturesque mediaeval castle.
"The ancient family of the Desiderj have been the hereditary lords
of Populonia for centuries; and they still dwell within the castle walls,
in the midst of their dependents, retaining all the patriarchal dignity
and simplicity of the olden time, and with hospitality in no age surpassed,
welcoming the traveller with open doors." —Dennis.
The walls of the Etruscan town Pupluna remain, and are
about a mile and a half in circumference. They consist of rude
masses of stone in horizontal layers. This is supposed to
have been the most important maritime city of Etruria, and
was the only Etruscan town which had a silver coinage of
its own. It probably derived its importance from its near



352                 DAYS NEAR ROME.
ness to the island of Elba (Ilva), the iron found there being
taken to Populonia to be smelted, and exported to other
places. In B. C. 205, when Scipio was preparing his fleet for
Africa, and the Etruscan cities brought him contributions,
Populonia supplied the iron.)   The town never recovered a
siege from Sylla, and in the time of Strabo only the temples
and a few houses remained in the old city on the height,
though the port was still used, and a new town had grown
up around it. In the time of Rutilius the place was nothing
but ruins, though he mentions a beacon-tower for ships on
the highest point of the hill.
" Proxima securum reserat Populonia litus
Qua naturalem ducit in arva sinum.
Non illic positas extollit in oethera moles,
Lumine nocturno conspicienda Pharos,
Sed speculam validoe rupis sortita vetustas,
Qua fluctas domitos arduus urget apex.
Castellum geminos hominum fundavit in usu,
Praesidium terris, indiciumque fretis,
Agnosci nequeunt xevi monumenta prioris;
Grandia consumpsit mcenia tempus edax.
Sola manent interceptis vestigia muris;
Ruderibus latis tecta, sepulta jacent.
Non indignemur, mortalia corpora solvi;
Cernimus exemplis, oppida posse mori."
Rut. i. 401.
Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, describes the complete decay of the place, though it continued to be an episcopal see. The view is beautiful from the hill of
" sea-girt Populonia,
Whose sentinels descry
Sardinia's snowy mountain-tops
Fringing the southern sky."
Macaulay.
* Livy, xxviii. 45.




LE CALDANE.                    353
The hot-springs, which were known as Aqua Populonia,
are those now called Le Caldane, at the foot of the hill of
Campiglia, which is capped by some mediaeval ruins.
North of this, and far beyond the limits of any possible
excursions from  Rome, are the great Etruscan Volterra
(Volaterrae), and, upon the far sea-coast, Luni (Luna), the
most northerly city of Etruria.'THE END
VOL. II.                                 23




INDEX.
A.                    Anio Novus, Aqueduct of, at Tivoli,
i. 204
Acque Salvie, ii. 290                  Ansedonia, ii. 345
Acuto, i. 267                          Antinum, ii. I9I
Ad Medias, Roman station of, ii.  Antium, ii. 268
249                                  Antrodoco, ii. i63
Ysula, i. 90o                         Antemnae, i. I67
Agosta, i. 320                         Anxur, ii. 251
Agylla, ii. 304                        Appii Forum, ii. 248
Alatri, i. 25I; ii. io                 Appiola, i. 55
Alba Fucinensis, ii. 183               Aquae Albulae, i. I86
Alba Longa, site of, i. 73             Aqua Bollicante, i. I54
Alban Lake, i. 67                      Aquae Cutiliae, ii. i62
Alban Mount, distant view of, i. SI; Aqua Ferentina, ii. 290
summit of, i. 85                     Aqueduct of the Anio Novus, i. 281
Albano, i. 59-80                                        Aqua Claudia, i. 52,
Albula, river, i. I85                                     97, 281
Aldobrandini, family of-their villa                     Aqua Marcia, i. 295
at Frascati, i. 104                                   Aqua Vergine, i. I62
Alexander III., Pope-his consecra-                      Della Torre at Spotion at Ninfa, i. 236                                   leto, ii. 146
Allia, the river, i. I75, I8i                            Paoline, i. 97
Altieri, family  of —their villa  at  Aquataccia, the, ii. 290
Oriolo, i. I52                       Aquila, ii. I63 —69
Aluminiera, ii. 3II                    Aquino, ii. 234-241
Amasena, the river, ii. io, 249, 259    Area, i. 259
Amatrice, ii. 161                      Arce, ii. 202
Amelia, ii. 139                        Arco di Pino, i. I40
Amiternum  ii. I61                     Ardea, ii. 276
Amphitheatre of Albano, i. 66          Ariccia, i. 62
Albai Fucensis, ii. 184  Arnara, i. 259
Sutri, ii. t)           Arnolfo, tomb of Cardinal de Braye
Tusculum, i. 107          by, ii. 133
Ampiglione, i. 207                     Arpino, ii. I98
Anagni, i. 259-267                     Arpino, Ii Cavaliere d' - picture at
Angelico, Fra, his frescoes at Orvieto,    Trisulti by, ii. i8; birthplace o,
ii. 128                                ii. 200
Angitia, ii. 189                       Arrone, rivulet, i. I44
Anguillara, i. I52                     Arsoli, i. 320
Anio, river, i. 185; falls of, at Tivoli,  Artena, i. 268
i. 194, 196; at Subiaco, i. 3I6      Aspra, ii. 25




INDEX.                                 355
Astura, ii. 27                        Bulicame, the,-baths of, ii. 93
Atina, ii. 203                        Buonaparte, family of,-their proAugustus, bridge of — at Narni, ii.    perty at Frascati, i. I05; at Musig136                                   nano, ii. 334; their connexion with
Avezzano, ii. I83                       Canino, ii. 334; their burial-place
at Corneto, ii. 3I7
B.                  Buonaventura, S.,-birth-place  of,
ii. II6
Baccano, i. I4I                       Buon Ricovero, farm of, 131
Bagnaja, ii. 89
Bagni di Paterno, ii. 162
Bagnorea, ii. II6 
Balbi of Alatri, works of, ii. I8     Caere, ii. 304
Balzorano, ii. 192                    Camaldoli, convent of the, on the
Barberini, Cardinal, i. 127;  the    Alban hills, i. 113
family Dukes of Segni, i. 242;  Camindoli, ii. i8i
their palace at Palestrina, i. 275;  Campagna, the, - its geographical
their residence at, i. 281           limits, i. II, I2; characteristics of
Bardella, i. 209                        the, i. 19, 32; effect of the, i. 98;
Basilica of S. Alessandro, i. 178       lost cities of the, i.  44; in the
Bassano, Francesco and Leandro,-        direction of Ostia, ii. 292; views
frescoes by, ii. 229                  over, i. 131
Bernini, Chigi Palace at Ariccia by,  Campagnano, i. 141
i. 63                              Campiglia, hill of, ii. 353
Bertaldo, tower of, ii. 314           Campo Bufalaro, ii. 287
Bieda, ii. 97-I00                            di Annibale, i. 84
Bisentina, island of, ii. io                 Morto, i. 40; ii. 245
Blera, ii. 97                        Canino, ii. 334
Bomanzo, ii. 107                      Cantalupo, i. 320
Boniface VIII., the story of, i. 263-  Canterano, i. 320
265; his persecution of the Colonna  Capistrello, ii. I9I
family, i. 272; his treatment of Capranica, ii. I04
Ccelestine V., ii. 7               Caprarola, ii. 65-73
Borghese, property of,-at Frascati,  Carciano, a suburb of Tivoli, i. 206
i. II6; at Cervaretto, i. 162; at Carsoli, ii. i86
Palombara,  i. I79;  at  Porto  Cartiera, the,-ofIsola, ii. 198
d'Anzio, ii. 267; at Pratica, i. 282; Casale dei Pazzi, i. I78
at Rocca Priora, i. 168            Casamari, ii. 8-io
Borghetto, on the Alban hills, i. 99    Casa Nuova, i. 179
in the Sabina, ii. 33     Castel d'Asso, ii. 89-94
Borgia, Caesar,-his siege of Isola          Fusano, i. 47-49
Farnese, i. 132                           Gandolfo, i. 72
Borgo Velino, ii. i63                       Giubeleo, i. I73
Bovillae, i. 55                             Madama, i. 207
Bracciano, i. I46                           dell' Osa, i. I60, 164
Bramante, La Quercia built by, ii. 88       Porciano, ii. 287
Braschi, family of,-Villa Adriana the       di Sangro, ii. 178
property of, road constructed by,  Castiglione, tower of, i. 157
i. 90; villa at Tivoli of, i. 204  Castle ofBrigands in the Campagna, i. 35;          Anguillara, i. I52
their attack on the family of Lucien    Antrodoco, ii. 163
Buonaparte, i. I05; their encour-       Aquila, ii. 169
agement by the Sardinian Govern-        Ardea, ii. 277
ment, ii. 36                            Arsoli, i. 320
Bruno, Bishop, his statue at Segni,       Avezzano, ii. 183
his history, i. 245, 246                Borgetto, near Frascati, i. 99




3F6                           sINDEX.
Castle of-continued.                 Cathedral of-continued.
Borghetto, in the Sabina, ii. 33     Segni, i. 245
Bracciano, i. I47                    Spoleto, ii. 147
Cantelupo, i. 32                     Sutri, ii. 64
Castel di Sangro, ii. 178            Terni, ii. I40
Castel Fusano, i. 47                 Terracina, ii. 252
Celano, ii. i8I                      Tivoli, i. 202
Ceprano, ii. 205                     Todi, ii. 143
Civita Castellana, ii. 35            Toscanella, ii. 336
Galera, i. I46                       Valmontone, i. 269
Isola, ii. 202                       Velletri, i. 223
Montalto, ii. 329                Cavaliere, ii. i86
Nemi, i. 88                      Cavamonte, i. i60
Nepi, ii. 58                     Cavi, i. 283
Olevano, i. 29I                  Ceccano, ii. 205
Ortucchio, ii. I90               Celano, ii. i8i.
Orvieto, ii. 134                         Lago di, ii. i86
Ostia, i. 42                     Centumcellae, ii. 313
Palestrina, i. 280               Ceprano, ii. 205
Passerano, i. 206                Cerbara, near Subiaco, i. 320
Petrella, ii. i62               Ceri Nuovo, ii. 311
Popoli, ii. 169                 Cervara, caves and tower of, i. 162;
Populonia, ii. 351                 festa of, i. I63
Pratica, ii. 283                Cervaretto, i. 154, I62
Rocca Janula, ii. 208            Cervetri, ii. 302-311
Ronciglione, ii. 64             Cesarini, family of the,-their proRoviano, i. 320                    perty at Genzano, i. go; at Ardea,
Savelli, at Albano, i. 79         11. 277Segni, i. 242                   Chiarriccia, ii. 313
Sermoneta, ii. 246               Chigi, family of,-their palace at
S. Severa, ii. 312                 Castel Fusano, i. 47; at Arriccia,
Spoleto, ii. 146                   i. 63.
Subiaco, i. 320                  Ciampino, i. 98
Tivoli, i. I94                   Ciminian Hills, ii. 59-74
Viterbo, ii. 79                  Cioccari, the, i. 287
Castro, ii. 338                      Circean Mount, ii. 253
Castro Vetere, i. 194                Circeii, town of, ii. 255
Castrum Novum, Roman station of, Cisterna, ii. 244
ii. 3I3                            Citadel of Tusculum, i. Io9
Cathedral of-                                  Veii, i. 136
Alatri, i. 253                   Civita Castellana, ii. 33-39
Albano, i. 78                          d'Antino, ii. I9I
Anagni, i. 261-267                     Ducale, ii. 162
Bieda, ii. 97                          Lavinia, i. 93
Civita Castellana, ii. 36              la Penna d'Oro, i. 231
Corneto, ii. 315                       di Roveto, ii. I9I
Ferentino, i. 256                      Vecchia, ii. 313
Frascati, i. 99, Ioo             Civitella, i. 291
Massa, ii. 35                    Claudian Aqueduct, near Tivoli, i.
Narni, ii. I39                     206, 207
Orvieto, ii. 120                 Collatia, i. I64
Ostia, i. 43                     Collemaggio, La, ii. I66
Palestrina, i. 275               Collepardo, village of, ii. 13; Grotto
Pontecorvo, ii. 242                of, ii. 19
Porto, ii. 298                   Collicelli, ii. I61
Ronciglione, ii. 64              Colonelle, Lago della, i. i86




INDEX.                                357
Colonia, ii. 350                       mosaics at Subiaco by, i. 304; at
Colonna, i. 119                        Civita Castellana by, ii. 34
Colonna, family of,-at Marino, i.  Crimera, the river, i. 133, 175
I30; at Galera, i. 145; at Colonna,  Crustumerium, i. I82
i. 118; at Olevano, i. 29I; their  Cyclopean walls ofPope, i. 288; at Cavi, i. 282; at     Alatri, i. 251-253
Paliano, i. 288; at Palestrina, i.     Amelia, ii. I39
272-280                                Arpino,' ii. 200
Colonna, Vittoria, her residence at      Atina, ii. 203
Viterbo, ii. 85.                       Cori, i. 228
Columbarium of Veii, i. 134              Cosa, ii. 345
Concioli, frescoes at Subiaco by, i.     Ferentino, i. 256
308                                    Norba, i. 231
Convent of-                              Palestrina, i. 280
Acuto, i. 267                        Pyrgi, ii. 3I3
Buon Pastore, near Cavamonte,        Segni, i. 243
i. i60
Camaldoli, i. 13
Cappuccini, at Albano, i. 65                     D.
Cappuccini, at Frascati, i. I05    Dennis, his work on Etruria, i. 17
Cappuccini, at Subiaco, i. 3I8    Digentia, the brook, i. 209
Cappuccini, at Velletri, i. 224    Diligence travelling, i. 34
Casamari, i. 8                   Domenichino, his frescoes at Grotta
Fossanuova, ii. 255                Ferrata, i. 127
Gesuiti, at Velletri, i. 225     Doria Pamphili, family of, - their
Grotta Ferrata, i. I26             property at Valmontone, i. 269
Il Retiro, on Monte Argentaro,  Dragoncello, ii. 291
1i. 347
La Madonna del Sorbo, i. 143
La Quercia, ii. 88                               E.
Monte Cassino, ii. 208
Passionists, on Monte Cavo,. 85 Egeria, fountain of, near Nemi, i.
S. Casciano at Narni, ii. I37      89
S. Elia, ii. 56                  Emissarium of the Alban Lake, i. 69
S. Pietro Celestino, ii. 176                of the Lago Fucino, ii
Sacro Speco, i. 306                            188
S. Scholastica, i. 303           Empulum, i. 207
S. Silvestro, near Monte Com-  Eretum, i. i8I
patri, i. 121      Expenses, of living, in the Roman
on Mount Soracte,    castelli, i. 28
ii. 48
Trisulti, ii. 19                                 F.
Consular Tomb at Palazzuola, i. 82
Conti, family of,-their possessions  Fajola, La, i. 87
at Segni, i. 242; their fortress at Falacrino, ii. i6r
Monte Fortino, i. 268              Falacrinum, ii. I41
Corchiano, ii. 54                    Falerium Novum, ii. 42
Corcolo, i. i6i                      Falerium Vetus, ii. 36
Corese, i. i80                       Falleri, ii. 40-42
Corfinium, ii. 179                   Fara, ii. 25
Corioli, i. 95                       Farfa, ii. 21-31
Corneto, ii. 315-327                 Farnese, ii. 338
Cornufelle, Lake of, i. rI6          Farnese, Cardinal Odoardo, chapel
Cosa, ii. 345                          of Grotta Ferrata built by, i. I27
Cosmati, the family of,-the  Gae-  Farnese, family of,-their palace at
tani tomb at Anagni by, i. 266;    Caprarola, ii. 68




358                            INDEX.
Ferentino, station of, i. 250; town  Grotta della Maga, ii. 250
of, i. 255-257                             Ferrata, i. 123
Ferentinum, ii. io0                          Marozza, i. 81i
Ferento, ii. I05                     Guadagnolo, i. 29I
Ferie Latinae, i. 85
Feronia, the fountain of, ii. 250                     H.
Fescennium, ii. 55
Festa degli Artisti, i. 163           Hadrian, his villa near Palestrina, i.
Fiano, ii. 54                           277; his villa near Tivoli, i. i88
Ficulea, i. I79                       Handbooks, the best on the neighFiora, the river, ii. 329               bourhood of Rome, i. 18
Fiume Conca, ii. 273                  Hermitage of Pietro  Murrone, ii.
Fiume Rapido, ii. 207                   I73
Fiumicino, ii. 301                    Horace, farm of, i. 210-218
Eons Blandusiae, i. 216
Fossanuova, ii. 257                                    I
Fosso de' due Fossi, i. I33, 144
dell' Incastro, ii. 278        Ibi, Sinibaldo, picture at Orvieto by,
Frangipani, the, - their castle at   ii. I33
Olevano, i. 291; their betrayal of II Toraccio, ii. 273
Conradin at Astura, ii. 271        Incile, ii. I88
Frascati, i. 99-I07                   Infiorata, festival of the, i. 91
Fregellae, ii. 301                    Interamna, ii. 140
Frosinone, ii. 21                     Ischia, ii. 338
Fucino, Lago di, ii. i86              Isernia, ii. 179
Fumone, i. 254; ii. 7.               Isola, ii. 202
Isola Farnese, i. 132
G.                   Isola Sacra, ii. 299
Isole Natanti, Lago dei, i. i86
Gaetani, family of,-property of, at
Ninfa, i. 236; history and memorials of, at Anagni, i. 260, 266;                 J
palace of, at Cisterna, ii. 244; Jenne, i. 316
property of, at Sermoneta, ii. 246; Joanopolis, i. 39
property of, at Monte Circello, ii.
254; castle of, at Astura, ii. 272                  L
Galera, i. I44
Galleria, di Sopra, Albano, i. 69    Labicum, i. II9
di Sotto, Albano, i. 75     Lacordaire, the profession of, ii. 89
Gallese, ii. 54                       Lacus Sabatinus, i. 152
Gallicano, i. i60                     La Civita, i. 268
Gallo, Marchese del, castle of, i. 209  La Fallonica, ii. 35I
Gasperoni, his imprisonment at Ci- La Maiella, ii. 163, 170
vita Castellana, ii. 36            La Mercareccia, ii. 327
Gell, Sir William, his work  on  La Quercia, ii. 88
Roman Topography, i. 17            La Solfatara, ii. 280
Genazzano, i. 283                     La Storta, i. 132, 143
Genzano, i. 89                        La Vaccareccia, i. 140
Gonsalvi, death of Cardinal, i. 129    Lago di Albano, i. 67
Gran Sasso d' Italia, ii. 163                 Bolsena, ii. ioo
Graviscae, ii. 328                            Bracciano, i. 147
Grazioli, Duke of, i. 164                     Caldano, ii. 350
Greco, Stammatico, picture at Su-             Caprolace, ii. 273
biaco by, i. 313                            Castiglione, ii. 353
Gregorovius, works of, i. 17                  Celano, ii. i86
Grosseto, ii. 349                             Cornufelle, i. uI6




INDEX.                                359
Lago di-continued.                    Marcigliana Vecchia, the  site of
Fogliano, ii. 273              Crustumerium at, i. I82
Fucino, ii. 181, i86         Marco da Siena, frescoes at Monte
Gabii, i. 157                  Cassino by, ii. 229
La Posta, ii. 203            Marino, i. I30
Lago Morto, i. 146           Marrana, river, i. I85
Mezzano, ii. 339             Marsica, the, ii. 182
Nemi, i. 88                  Marta, the river, ii. 328
Paolo, ii. 256               Martana, island of, ii. ioo
Pie di Lugo, ii. I43         Massa, ii. 356
Regillus, i. 116             Massimi, family castle at Arsoli, i.
Scanno, ii. I77                320; dukes of Rignano, ii. 52
Lancellotti, family of,-their villa at  Matthias, Maria de, i. 267
Frascati, i. Io5; their'palace at  Mazzaroppi, Marco,-  frescoes at
Velletri, i. 221                      Monte Cassino by, ii. 228
Lante, family of,-their villa at Bag-  Medullia, Latin city of, i. 178
naja, ii. 89                        Memmi, Luca, his picture at Orvieto,
Lautulae, pass of, ii. 253              ii. I27
Lavinium, ii. 281                     Mengs, Raphael, picture at Sulmona
Le Caldane, ii. 353                     by, ii. I36
Le Casacce del Bacuco, ii. I05        Mentana, i. 179
Le Frattocchie, i. 53                 Mentorella, i. 292, 295
Le Molette, the river, i. i85         Mesa, ii. 248
Le Vene, ii. 153                      Mignone, river, ii. 314
Licenza, the, i. 209                  Minio, river, ii. 314
village of, i. 2II           Miollis, General, his works at Tivoli,
Ligorio, Pirro, the architect of the    i. i95
Villa d' Este, i. 203               Monica, S., her death at Ostia, i. 45
Lionessa, ii. i6o                     Mons Lucretilis, i. 209
Lippi, Filippo, tomb of, ii. 147            Sacer, i. 178
Liris, falls of the, ii. 202          Montalto, ii. 329
Lo Schioppo, ii. I9I                  Monte Affliano, i. I90
Lo Spagna, his frescoes at Todi, ii.        Algido, i. 118
143; at Spoleto, ii. 147, I49, I50;       Argentaro, ii. 347
at S. Giacomo, ii. 151; at Trevi, ii.    di Canino, ii. 334
156                                       Carpineto, i. 317
Lomentana, Ponte, i. I78                    Cassino, i. 208-230
Loreto, ii. 241                             Catillo, i. 198, 203
Luco, ii. I89                               Circello, ii. 253
Lucus Ferentinae, i. 130                    Compatri, i. 118
Lunghezza, i. 164                           di Decima, ii. 291
Due Torre, i. 95
Fortino, i. 268
M.                          Gennaro, i. 218
Gentile, i. I79
Maccarese, ii. 30I                          Giove, i. 95
Madonna del Tufo, shrine of, i. 82          di Grano, i. 97
Madonna di Buon Consiglio, shrine           Libretti, i. 209
of, i. 283                                Luco, ii. i50
Maglian Sabina, ii. 33                      Migliore, ii. 284
Magliano, ii. 347                           Musino, i. I40
Magliano, river, i. i85                     Peschiavatore, i. 198
Malaria, the, i. 26, I45                     Porzio, i. 117, I21
Mandela, i, 209                              Rotondo, i. I81
Marcian Aqueduct, near Tivoli, i.           Salviano, ii. 191
206                                       Somma, ii. I45




360                           INDEX.
Montefiascone, ii. io7 —io          Papal Palace, Orvieto, ii. I20
Monterozzi, the,-of Corneto, ii. 317              Subiaco, i. 317
Montes Corniculani, i. 178, i86, 219              Viterbo, ii. 77
Montopoli, ii. 25                   Papignia, i. 97; ii. 14I
Morolo, i. 259                      Papigno, ii. 158
Musignano, ii. 334                  Parco dei Barberini, i. I22
Chigi, i. 64
Colonna, i. 131
N.                  Passerano, i. 206
Patrica, i. 259
Nar, the river, ii. 136             Pedum, i. i60
Narni, ii. I36-139                  Pelasgic Remains, i. 22
Nemi, i. 88                         Pentima, ii. 179
Nepi, ii. 58, 59                    Pescina, ii. I90
Nepete, ii. 58                      Petrella, ii. i62
Nequinum, ii. I36'                  Pie de Lugo, ii. 143
Nero, his death, i. I70-I73; his  Pifferari, the exile from Rome of the,
residence at Subiaco, i. 294        i. 14
Nero's Tomb, i. I31                 Pino, rivulet, i. 133
Nettuno, ii. 268                    Piombino, ii. 350
Ninfa, i. 235-240                   Piperno, ii. 257
Nomentana, Ponte, Torre, i. 178     Pitigliano, ii. 339
Nomentum, i. i80                    Plautii, tomb of the, i. i87
Norba, i. 23                        Poggio Catino, ii. 25
Norcia, in the Abruzzi, ii. I60             Mirteto, ii. 25
Norchia, ii. 95 —04                         Reale, i. 36
Norma, i. 233                       Polo, i. 218
Novels, about Rome and its sur-   ompeo, ii. 25
roundings, i. I7                  Ponte dell' Abbadia, ii. 330
dell' Acquoria, i. 200
P.                        S. Antonio, i. 281
alla Catena, i. 230
Palace (Palazzo)-                         dell Isola, i. 134
Barberini, at Palestrina, i. 275      Lucano, i. 187
Bruschi, at Corneto, ii. 315          Mammolo, i. 184
of Castel Gandolfo, i. 73             Nomentana, i. 178
Cesarini, at Genzano, i. 90           Nona, i. 155
Cisterna, ii. 244                     Salara, i. i68
Chigi, at Ariccia, i. 63              Sodo, i. 134
at Viterbo, ii. 85        Pontecorvo, ii. 241
Doria, at Valmontone, i. 219    Pontine Marshes, ii. 247-250
of Musignano, ii. 334           Ponza, island of, i. 226
of Theodoric (ruined), at Terra-  Popoli, ii. 170
cina, ii. 253                 Populonia, ii. 35I
Vincentini, at Rieti, ii. i60   Porcigliano, ii. 287
Vitelleschi, at Corneto, ii. 315    Portella, frontier gateway of, ii. 253
Palazzuola, i. 82                   Porto, ii. 296-299
Palestrina, i. 269-281              Porto d'Anzio, ii. 263-267
Paliano, i. 288                           d'Ercole, ii. 347
Palo, ii. 302                             Falese, ii. 350
Palombara, i. 178                         di Paolo, ii 256
Pan di Neve, i. 84                        di Troja, ii. 350
Pandataria, island of, i. 227       Posi, i. 259
Panetella di S. Nicolo, i. I50      Pozzo di Santulla, ii. 13
Papal Palace, Anagni, i. 260        Pratica, ii. 281
Castel Gandolfo, i. 72  Prato Rotondo, i. I69




INDEX.                                 361
Precious Blood, the Order of the, i. S. Felice, island of, i. 226
267                                   Germano, ii. 206
Privernum, ii. 257                      Giacomo, ii. 151 
Punicum, Roman station of, ii. 313      Giorgio, the family of,-at Bieda,
Puntone del Castrato, ii. 313              ii. 99
Pyrgi, ii. 3I3                          Giovanni, Lago di, i. i86
Giulianello, i. 226
Maria in Forcassi, ii. 95
Q'                     Maria della villa, i. 277
Querquetula, i. I6I                      Marinella, ii. 313
Quintiliolo, i. I98                      Oreste, ii. 44
Pietro, i. 280
Procula, ii. 279
R.                     Severa, ii. 312
Vito, i. 290
Rapinium, Roman station of, ii. 314    Vitorin,. 161
Regillus, Lake of, i. II6             Saturnia, ii. 341
Rieti, ii. 158                        Saturnian Cities, the five, i. 259
Rignano, ii. 52                       Savelli, castle of the, i. 99; their
Rio Torto, ii. 279                      fortress at Palombara, i. 178
Ripoli, i. g90                        Scalza, Ippolito,-his works at OrRocca di Cavi, i. 29I                   vieto, ii. 25, 32
Circea, ii. 254                 Scaptia, i. i6i
Giovane, i. 209                 Schizzanello, ii. 284
Gorga, i. 259                   Scholastica, Convent of, at Subiaco,
Janula, ii. 2o8                   i. 30I-305; grave of, at Monte
Massima, i. 226                   Cassino, ii. 229
di Mezzo, ii. 181               Sciarra, family of, their castle at
di Papa, i. 82                    Roviano, i. 320
Priora, i. 118                  Scrofano, i. 141
Ronciglione, ii. 64                   Scurgola, i. 259; ii. 184
Rosa S., di Viterbo, ii. 83           Segni, i. 241-247
Rospigliosi, family of,-their pro-  Sermoneta, i. 245-247
perty at Colonna, i. 119; at Za-  Setia, ii. 256
garola, their title, i. i61         Sette Basse, i. 97
Roviano, i. 320                             Vene, i. 142
Ruspoli, family of,-their property  Vezza,  i. 256
at Cervetri, their title, ii. 304   Sforza-Cesarini, family of,-gardens
Russelae, ii. 349                       and villa of, at Genzano, i. go; posRustica, i. 163                         sessions of, at Segni, i. 242
Signorelli, Luca, his works at Orvieto,
S.                    i. 127-I37
Silva Laurentina, the, ii. 275
Sacro Speco, monastery of the, i. 306  Simbriviae Aquoe, i. 294
Salt Mines, near Ostia, i. 4I         Simone, church at Vicovaro built by,
S. Agostino, tower of, ii. 314           i. 205; his death, i. 207
Angelo in Cappoccia, i. 178, 186,  Solfatara, the, near Ardea, ii. 280;
219                                 near Tivoli, i. i8i
Appetite, ii. i8I                   Sonnino, ii. 260, 261
Bartolomeo, i. 127                  Sora, ii. I92
Benedetto, ii. I90                  Soracte, ii. 42-52
Clementino, ii. 329                 Sorano, ii. 339
Cosimato, i. 320                    Soriano, ii. 54
Domenico Abate, ii. 194             Sovana, ii. 339
Elia, ii. 56                        Spaccato, i. go9
Felice, ii. 253                     Spina Cristi, the, i. 250




362                            INDEX.
Spoleto, ii. I45-I5I                I Tolfa. ii. 311
Stagno, the, of Ostia, i. 41, 47     Tomb ofStorta, rivulet, i. 133                  Aruns, i. 59
Strada del Diavolo, i. 53                the Buonapartes at Frascati, i.
Stretti di S. Luigi, ii. 178                105
Strozzi, the,-their property at Lun-     C. Maenius Bassus near Tivoli,
ghezza, i. 164                           i. 207
Subiaco, i. 294-318                      Cardinal Altieri at Albano, i. 78
Sugareto, the, ii. 280                   Cardinal de Braye at Orvieto, ii.
Sulmona, ii. 17I-177                        133
Superstitions of the Campagna, i. 30     Charles Edward at Frascati, i.
Supino, i. 259                             99
Sutri, ii. 59-64                         Consular, at Palazzuola, i. 82
P. V. Marianus, i. I31
T.                       Pompey, at Albano, i. 56
Torano, ii. 162
Tarquinii, ii. 315                   Torfea, ii. 25
Tartari, Lago dei, i. 186            Torlonia, family of,-at Frascati, i.
Telamone, ii. 349                      103; at Bracciano, i. 149; at
Temple of-                             Gabii, i. 151; at Musignano, ii.
Castor and Pollux, at Cori, i. 229    334the Clitumnus, ii. 153           Torre (tower)Equestrian  Fortune, at Porto        della Bella Marsilia, ii. 349
d' Anzio, ii. 262                  Cervaro, i. 163
Esculapius, at Porto d' Anzio,       Flavia, ii. 312
ii. 264                            Lupara, i. 179
Fortune, at Palestrina, i. 271       Nuova, i. 97
Hercules, at Tivoli, i. 200, 202     Paterno, ii. 284
Juno, at Civita Lavinia, i. 95       Salara, i. 169
Juno, at Gabii, i. I56               Sapienza, i. 155, 162
Jupiter Latiaris, on the Alban       degli Schiavi, i. 154
Mount, i. 86                       Tre Teste, i. 155, 162
Leucothea, at Pyrgi, ii. 313     Toscanella, ii. 335-338
Minerva, at Cori, i. 229         Trasacco, ii. 190
the Sibyl, at Tivoli, i. 194     Trevignano, i. 152
the Sun, on the Circean Mount,  Tribucci, ii. 26
ii. 254                        Trisulti, ii. 15-19
Tiburtus, at Tivoli, i. 195      Tuder, ii. 144
Tosse, at Tivoli, i. 200         Turchina, hill of, ii. 317, 326
Vacuna, at Rocca Giovane, i. Tusculum, i. 107
209                            Tutia, river, i. 185, 186
Temple Tombs at Norchia, ii. I03
Terni, ii. 140
Terracina, ii. 250-253                                V.
Testament, the, at Ferentino, i. 258
Teverone, the river, i. 185          Val del Paradiso, i. 219
Theatre-                             Valentano, ii. 338
of Civita Lavinia, i. 95         Vallericcia, i. 60
of Gabii, i. I57                 Valle Santa, i. 318
of Tusculum, i. 107              Valmontone, i. 268
Tiber, the river described, ii. 288-   Veii, i. 133-141
290                                Velino, the river, ii. 140
Tibur, history of, i. I90-I92        Velletri, i. 220-225
Timone, river, ii. 333               Venafro, ii. I79
Todi, ii. 143                        Veroli, ii. io
Toleria, i. 268                      Vespasian, the Emperor,-bor  at




INDEX.                               363
Amiternum, ii. I6I; died at Aquae  Villa Doria, at Albano, i. 79
Cutiliae, ii. 162                       D'Este, at Tivoli, i. 203
Vetralla, ii. 94                           Falconieri, at Frascati, i. i05
Vetulonia, ii. 348                         of the Gens Cassia, at Tivoli, i.
Via Appia Nova, i. 52                        206.
Appia Vecchia, i. 53                  Imperial, of the Sette Basse, i.
Ardeatina, ii. 280                       97
Aurelia, ii. 313, 348                 Lante, at Bagnaja, ii. 89
Cassia, i. i8i                        of Maecenas, at Tivoli, i. I99
Collatina, i. 164                     Mondragone, at Frascati, i. I15
Constantina, i. 201                   of Nero, at Porto d'Anzio, ii.
Ficulea, i. 179                         264
Fiaminia, ii. 135                     Pallavicini, at Frascati, i. 103
Gabina, i. 154                        of Phaon, i. 169
Labicana, i. I2I                      Rufinella, at Frascati, i. I05
Latina, i. 52                         Savorelli, at Sutri, ii. 63
Laurentina, ii. 285, 287              Sora, at Frascati, i. 114
Nomentana, I77, 181                   Taverna, at Frascati, i. 114
Praenestina, i. 154, I60              Torlonia, at Frascati, i. I03
Salara, i. 177, I8I                   of Vopiscus, at Tivoli, i. I97
Severiana, i. 48                 Vitalian, S., his statue at Segni, i.
Sublacensis, i. 318                245
Valeria, ii. i86, 318            Viterbo, ii. 75-87
Vicarello, i. 159                    Viterbo, Lorenzo di, frescoes by, ii.
Vicovaro, i. 207                       81
Vignanello, ii. 54                   Vitorchiano, ii. I05
Vignola, his work at Caprarola, ii.  Volci, ii. 329-333
69; at Bagnaja, ii. 89; at Rieti,
". I59                                              U.
Villa Adriana, i. I88-I90
Aldobrandini, at Frascati, i. 103  Ufente, the river, ii. 249
Altieri, at Albano, i. 76       Ulmanus, the, i. 185
Altieri, at Oriolo, i. 152
of Attilius Regulus, i. 97                      Z
Barberini, at Albano, i. 71
Braschi, at Tivoli, i. 204      Zagarola, i. 161
of Cato the Younger, i. 117     Zuccheri, the,-their works at Capraof Catullus, at Tivoli, i. 205    rola, ii. 7; at Bagnaja, ii. go
of Cicero, at Frascati, i. Io6
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