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I have forgotten the amphitheater, which is of great magnitude, tho much inferior to the Coliseum. In the lower orders, people usually keep a regular account with heaven, by way of calculating how long windows 10 1703 download iso italys blue grotto residence in purgatory is likely to be. Glenorchy Vic. All the duties of the family, however, end at the house, and heccamortior hired mourners, carry the corpse to the ” pauper pits ” of the Campo Santo Vecchio, to be hurled into the common ” grave of the day ” : sometimes источник статьи is accom- panied by a number of old women, paid to howl as mourners — the praeficae of the ancients. It is small, of the same materials as the chapel, with a pavement продолжение здесь mosaic, and fluted Ionic columns of white stucco, so white that it dazzles you to look at it. What a difference between the windows 10 1703 download iso italys blue grotto power of such a church and that of St. A lovely Nativity hy Antonio Rossellino, in which, says Vasari, the ” angels are singing with parted lips, and so exquisitely finished that they seem to breathe, and displaying in all their movements and expression such giace and refinement, that genius and the chisel can produce nothing in marble to surpass this work. The porters at the railway station may charge 25 c. Not a single column, not a single rib, nor architectural division interrupts that vast tapestry of frescoes.❿
 
 

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The wood of the plough is still elm — ” Et corvi fonnam accepit nlmos aratri ” ; Georg. L The artist will find few subjects attractive to his pencil, which are not architectural, after leaving Amalfi and Paestum ; but RocceUa, Scilla, and the forests of Pietra Pennata are exceptions. To the historian and antiquarian a tour through the Southern Provinces must always be of extreme interest.

A journey undertaken with a camera for the sole purpose of tracing the gradual victory of Benedictine Lombardic over Byzantine art in Apulia, would bring rich reward. Whether considered in dimensions, outline, or constructive peculiarities, their churches will not bear a moment’s comparison with those of the north ; but in elegance of detail they often surpass purely Gothic build- ing to such a degree as to become to some extent as worthy of study as their more ambitious rivals.

Their great interest in the eyes of the student consists in their forming a link between the Eastern and Western worlds, and thus joining together two styles which we have hitherto been in the habit of considering as having no point of contact.

The Greek iconoclastic feeling prevailed to such an extent in the south as entirely to prevent the introduction of the human form, either in bas-reliefs or in single figures ; but the architects indemnified themselves for this by the introduction of lions, elephants, and monsters of all sorts, to an extent foimd nowhere else, and by the lavish employment of sculptured foliage and richly carved frets and mouldings and a bold system of bracketing, which gave to the style as much richness as can be desired, often combined into great beauty of detail.

Angelo ; of noble castles at Avezzano, Naples, Melfi, Lucera, Lago Pesole, Castel del Monte, and Oria ; of countless exquisitely beautiful tombs, pulpits, thrones, paschal candelabra, and other works of sculpture at Aquila, Salerno, Ravello, and in the churches of Naples.

Besides these, the great palace of Caserta will claim attention from the architect, being almost the only modern building of importance in Southern Italy, though, while the Bourbon sovereigns took little trouble for the advancement of their kingdom, their care for their own comfort is evinced by the number of palaces built by them. No kingdom of the size had so many royal residences.

Sommer, of Naples, and Signer R. Moscioni, of Rome, for permission to use certain of their photographs for the illustration of this work. Frosinone Albergo Garibaldi , inhabitants. A beautifu place ft. It is two miles from the station on the Rome-Naples Une, and seven south of Feren tino. It looks over the vale of the Sacco and across to the Monti Lepini and the Hemican mountains. It belonged to the redoubtable Volsci, whom the Romans deprived here of a portion of their territory for inciting the Hemicans to rebel.

It became a miUtary colony, and suffered at the hands alternately of BeUsarius and Vitiges, but prospered in the Middle Ages until, in , the French sacked and burned it. A few relics of a Roman amphitheatre alone witness to its antiquity. Its interest Ues in its beauty of position, its fertihty, and the charming costume of its women. From here the road due north travels to Alatri see Days near Rome , and thence, via Collepardo, to the beautiful Certosa di Trisulti.

On the north side are to be seen remains of polygonal walls and the ancient acropolis. One tower of the mediaeval castle remains. From the highest point, called Civita, is obtained a superb panoramic view over the valleys of the Sacco and Cosa.

The breviary of S. Louis of Toulouse, brother of King Robert of Naples, is among the treasures shown by the sacristan. Saloma is the tomb of Francesca Leni, of Arpino, and there is a majolica -tiled pavement. Excursions to the Abbey of Casamari four hours ; Bauco two hours. About a mile from the village of CoUepardo by a path which turns left before enter- ing it is the strange hole called II Pozzo di Santulla, a pit in the rock recalling the Latomiae of Syracuse, about yards round and feet deep, hung with vast stalactites, and fringed at the top with weird ilex guide, 5 lire.

The Pozzo, says tradi- tion, was once a vast threshing-floor, on which the people im- piously threshed corn upon the fcsta 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.

Beyond Santulla the majestic character of the scenery increases. The path winds round a chaos of great rocks, and descends into a deep gorge, whence it mounts again to the final isolated plateau of Trisulti, close under the snows, and overlooking a splendid ravine. Here is a wood of old oaks carpeted with lilies, and beyond it Alpine pastures, sheeted in spring with mountain crocus and iris.

Only the booming of a bell through these solemn mountain solitudes tells the traveller that he is near the monastery, until he is close upon it, and then a mass of white buildings, overtopped by a church, reveals itself on the edge of a great rocky platform.

The interior of the monastery is modernised, but its well-kept courts, garden, and curious fountains, have a beauty of their own, in the Carthusian fashion. Moreover, the magnificent bald ridges look down into them over the roofs. AU seems peaceful with these silent white brethren! The church, built in by Innccent HI. It is lined with precious marbles. In the sacristy is a good picture by the Cavalier e 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.

Over the high altar is a fresco of the sending out the first Carthusian monks to colonise Trisulti. The terrace beyond the little garden, with its formal box-edges, leads to the spezerla, decorated by Balbi, where many herbal medicines, and excellent liqueurs and perfumes are made by the monks. The country people come hither from a great distance to receive gratuitous medicine and advice, and in all respects the monks are considered the best friends and helpers of the poor of the neighbouring villages in sickness or trouble.

May and June are good months for visiting it. A little path turning 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.

Bartholo- mew. A stony path winds 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 cavern. It is best to take the precau- tion of ordering what is called an “illumination” on the way to Trisulti, and one costing five Ure is the best to ask for, as producing the degree of light which is enough to show, but not to annihilate, the effect of darkness.

Attended by a troop of boys, we descend into the earth by a wide path Uke a hillside, and then ascend by a narrower rocky way through the darkness, lighted by glaring torches. Suddenly we find ourselves on the edge of a chasm, something Uke the Pozzo di Santulla, with a kind of rock-altar rising in the midst, blazing with fire, and throwing a ghastly glare on the wondering faces overlooking the edge of the abyss, and on the sides of the tremendous columns of stalactite which rise from the ground to the roof Uke a vast natural cathedral, and seem to faU again in showers of petrified fountains.

Sir R. Hoare says that ” the large vaulted roof, spacious halls, fantastic columns and pyramids, imitating rustic, yet unequaUed, architecture, present a fairy palace which rivals the most gorgeous descriptions of romance.

Casamari, almost washed by the Amaseno, which is crossed by a ferry iraghelto , now a Trappist abbey, was originally Bene- dictine, and in 1 1 5 1 Cistercian. It more resembles a fortress than a convent, and is a national monument Uke Monte Cassino. The foundation-stone of its Gothic church was laid in The entramce through a round-arched central portal, carried on six lateral shafts, leads into nave and aisles of six bays, with side altars. The west front has a good rose-window between two lancets.

At the fifth pair of piers a screen of wrought iron separates the monastic portions of the church from the lay. The floor is decorated with tiles bearing the Barberini bees. The soft cream-Uke tone of the travertine, with which it is built, is remarkably fresh.

The choir contains a ” tribuna ” made after the manner of a small temple in the Corinihian style, and of fine marble. The transepts have eastern chapels. The Cloister, surrounded by Lombard arcades carried on coupled columns of varjing design, is entered from the proces- sional door of the south aisle, and the usual Cistercian arrange- ment of the domestic buildings ensues.

The chapter-house, infirmary, and dormitories are shown by the courtesy of the Prior. The site is supposed to be identifiable with Cereatae, which claims equally with Arpino to be the birthplace of Caius Marius. The long row of store-sheds before the piazza of the monastery serves for shops during the fair held here on the feast of S. From Casamari can be reached Monte S. CinelU , inhabitants ; said to have originated in the refugees from Cereatae, and formerly a fief of the Marchese di Pescara.

The Piazza, ” II Belvedere,” on tliree sides commands magnificent prospects. To the north-west rises with two of its towers the Rocca Ducale. The chapel was formerly the prison, where S. Thomas Aquinas was confined by order of his mother and brothers in order to prevent his adopting the ecclesiastical career, and from it he escaped to Monte Cassino. Maria della Valle is said to be constructed after a design by Bramante. It contains a good wooden statue of the Virgin sixteenth century.

Monte Pedicino can be visited in four hours. Ceccano, ft. Locanda Anelli , inhabitants, on the side of a hill overlooking a deep glen and the valley of the Sacco. The upper town was girdled with walls by Pope Silverius.

The newer town below is much resorted to by visitors in the hot season. Woollen and paper factories are the chief sources of in- dustry. On the left of the Sacco, two miles south of Ceccano, is the site of Fabrateria Vetus, a Volscian city made into a Roman colonia. In ancient days the Sacco bore the name of Trerus.

Amaseno, a fief of Colonna, with a castle, can be visited from here. Ceprano buffet at the station , inhabitants, on the right bank of the Liris. The town is three kilometres from the line. Paschal II. Here, fifty years later, Manfred was betrayed by his troops cf. Dante, Inferno, Cto. Near it, on high ground, was situated the Oscan Fregellae, destroyed b. It arose again under the name of Vic us Cipri. Fondi, on the Via Appia, may be reached from Terracina, or from Ceprano by a very beautiful mountain road descending near Lenola.

It is a picturesque walled town in the province of Caserta, and but eleven miles from Terracina, overlooking the Lago di Fondi and the Gulf of Terracina. It was a municipium in B. The castle of the Caetani, with many towers, and flamboyant windows, adjoins the cathe- dral. The latter has a fine portal with the usual lions and a fifteenth-century tomb of Onorato Caetani, Lord of Fondi. The episcopal throne is of the thirteenth century, and decorated with mosaic Cosmatesque.

Prignano in , a fact especially annoying to the latter, who was a Neapolitan. Maxia contains a Cosmatesque pulpit and a Madonna by Silvestro dei Buoni, Her servants were mercilessly massacred, but she escaped in her night-dress from a window, and took refuge in the mountains. The Turks again sacked Fondi in The famous Caecuban vine Horace, Ode i.

Sperlonga is a fishing village, finely situated on a head- land, and a resort of the ancient Romans. Suetonius and Tacitus tell how Sejanus, the powerful, but iU-fated, Chancellor of Tiberius, saved his master’s life, when, at a banquet given in one of the decorated caves here, large stones fell from the vault and buried some of the suite as well as Sejanus, who hurled his body and arms over Tiberius, so as to shelter him.

The guard excavated both, and Tiberius journeyed on to Capua in order to dedicate a temple there. The Grotta di Tiberio is shown a kilometre beyond the village south. Leaving Fondi by the Via Appia south-east the road mounts gradually amid beautiful wild scenen. Andrea, by a pass to Itri ft. The Inn of Terracina, has perpetuated the interest in him.

The French pursued Pezza remorselessly, and having driven him to Sicily, and offered large rewards for his capture, he was discovered to them at Baronisi, near Palermo, in , and shot. In earlier days Alarco Sciarra, a robber baron, promised Tasso a safe conduct through the region.

Alter leaving Itri the road winds down to Formia, H. Formia is so exquisitely situated that Ischia and most of the promontories of the Bay of Naples can be surveyed from it. The Villa Caposele a. His Queen, Maria of Bavaria, heroically held it for four months in until the Sardinian fleet, on February 23, received the surrender.

Hither, in November , Pius IX. From the Piazza a path leads to the summit of the promontorj’, which is crowned by the Torre d’ Orlando, being actually the tomb of Lucius Munatius Plancus, the founder of Lugdunum Lyons in the reign of Augustus. In the town surrendered to a Spanish fleet under Gonsalvo da Cordova, and in it held out for six months against Massena.

The Duomo, S. Erasmo, has a thirteenth-century tower, and behind its high altar is preserved a banner presented by Pius V. Peter and Paul. In front, rising from four lions, stands a sculptured Gothic column. The railway from Formia passes to Sparanise on the Naples- Rome route, near the coast. Minturno ft. The town occupied both banks of the river and was made a colonia by Cajsar.

Here Gonsalvo da Cordova gained his final triumph over the French Decem- ber 27, Near S. Agata the road passes in sight of Sessa Aurunca ft. The Duomo twelfth century contains a remarkable ambone pulpit , and paschal candelabra. Beyond, on the right, rises Monte Massico ft. Close behind it stand the polygonal walls of the ancient ” quiet country town ” of Juvenal Albergo di Liris, Roma.

In modem days the learned Cardinal Baronius i was born here. It gives a ducal title to the Buoncompagni family. It is a prosperous place and admirably situated for excursions ; but it is more attractive for the costume and beauty of its women.

Italian costume reaches its climax here ; and the festival of S. Restituta May 27 affords the best occasion for studying it. At Isola, ft. Albergo Meglio , on the road to Arpino, occur the beautiful Falls of the Liris. The cascade tumbles in a mass of water, encircled by smaller streams, from beneath an old castle, almost into the midst of the town.

The colour is glorious, and the iris more vivid than at Temi. Between it and Sora, on an island Insula Arpinas in the Fibreno, and close to its junction with the Liris, stands the convent of S. This island belonged first to Cicero, and then to SiUus Italicus. Through the trees overhanging the waters are exquisite mountain-views ; and among the vegetation lie fragments and capitals of columns. The Roman bridge across the Liris, Ponte di Cicerone, remains. Arpino, ft. Albergo della Pace , the birthplace of Cicero, bears for its municipal banner the letters M.

He constantly alludes to his native town and describes the people there as rustic and simple, and with all the virtues of rugged mountaineers. It stands upon two hills ; one summit, the higher one, called Civita- Vecchia, occupies the ancient site of Volscian Arpinum, and retains its polygonal walls. The inscriptions let into the walls of various buildings tell of the ancient industry of woollen manu- facture and dyeing. Mercurius Lanarius had a temple here supposed to have occupied the site of the Church of Sta.

Maria di Civita. The ancient pavement hard by witnesses to the wheels of primitive waggons. The round towers along the walls are of the fifteenth century. The large square tower in the citadel was occupied by Ladislaus, King of Naples, on his way to Rome, Arce, below the old castle of Rocca d’Arce, commands wonderful views. It occupies the site of Arx Volsciorum, with polygonal walls and other remains.

Atina, on the road from Sora to Cassino, is a mediaeval hill- town. Near it, on another point of the mountain, are the polygonal remains of its Volscian predecessor, reputed to have been founded by Saturn : ” Atina potens,” and it is mentioned as a snowy spot by Silius Italicus : ” Monte nivoso I,. Elia, is never to be forgotten. The village of Rocca Secca, three miles from the line, is not inviting, and sits on its bare flank of mountain, with little visible means of subsistence.

Above it are the ruins of the castle in which Thomas Aquinas it is said by some saw the light. A few miles further we reach Aquino, ft. Strabo speaks of it as chief among the Volscian cities. Dolabella was put to death here. The town was de- stroyed by the Lombards, whereupon the inhabitants took refuge at Castro Cielo, on the top of the mountain.

Thence after a tims they descended to Palazzuolo, where their descendants probably exist stiU. The circuit of ancient Aquinum is now filled with vineyards and gardens, amid which gigantic fragments of ruin appear at intervals.

The desolate suburban Church of S. Maria Libera is approached by an immense flight of marble steps, once the approach to a temple.

The walls are encrusted with fragments of ancient carving. Glorious friezes of acanthus in the highest relief surround the great door. A mosaic of the twelfth century represents the Virgin and Child, and below, on either side, is a sarcophagus, with a female head projecting from it, one in- scribed ” Ottolina,” the other ” Maria.

Thomas Aquinas. The interior of the church was curious, having six pillars on one side of the nave and only three on the other ; since ignorant mania for uniformity has destroyed its interest. Close to the church is a beautiful httle Triumphal Arch, with Corinthian columns. A mill-stream has been diverted through it, and it stands reflected in the clear water, which falls below it in a series of miniature cascades.

Passing a succession of Roman fragments, we reach the ruined Church of S. Tommaso, in which are several beautiful fragments of frieze from local temples. Lorenzo, a Roman gateway in perfect preservation, by which we enter the circuit of the ancient city, passing through the still existing hne of old walls. Farther down the Via Latina is 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 Madda- lena ; and a huge mass of wall, beheved to have belonged to a temple of Ceres, afterwards converted into the beisihca of S. Pietro Vetere. AH the ruins are embedded in vineyards and gardens. Returning through the Arco S. Lorenzo, and follow- ing the little stream in the valley, we find a strange old church supported upon open arches, through which there occur most picturesque views of the present town, scrambling along the edge of tufa rocks, crested and overhung by fig-trees.

The mediasval city, which arose under the powerful Counts of Aquino, is the oldest bishopric in the Roman Church. Its bishops sign ecclesiastical documents immediately after the archbishops, and the whole cathedral chapter of Aquino have stiU the right to wear mitres and full episcopal robes. His grandfather married the sister of the Emperor Frederick L, and he was therefore great-nephew 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, but never used by them as a residence ; and all uncertainty has been cleared up by the recent discovery of a letter of the saint in the archives of Monte Cassino, sajdng 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 j’ears S. Thomas was sent to school at Monte Cassino, but at twelve his masters declared themselves unable to teach him any more. Domenico at Naples. His mother, the Countess Teodora, tried to prevent his taking the final vows, and he fled from her toward Paris. 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 pro- nounced the final vows.

Gradually S. Thomas 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 given in the different towns of papal residence — Rome, Viterbo, Orvieto, Fondi, and Perugia. The crowning work of S. Thomas was the Summa Theologia — the science of the Christian religion ; but to ordinary readers he is perhaps less known by his theology than by his hymns, of which ” Pange Lingua” and ” Tantum Ergo ” are the most celebrated.

Near Aquino is the mountain castle of Loreto, which belonged to the parents of S. It was while they were staying there that he, a boy, stole all the contents of the family larder to distribute to the poor. The legend tells that, when his father intercepted him, and commanded him to give up what his cloak contained, a shower of roses fell from it to the ground. Three miles beyond Aquino, the road which passes under the Arco S. Lorenzo reaches Pontecorvo, once an independent state like Monaco.

Napoleon gave it as a duchy to Bernadotte. The town is well situated, and is approached by a triumphal arch, adorned with a statue of Pius IX. The cathedral stands on the substructions of an ancient temple. The costumes here are magnificent. On the left of the railway, the great convent of Monte Cassino is seen crowning a rocky hill-top above the plain of the Garig- liano, and the fine old castle of Rocca Janula occurs over- looking Cassino.

Inn, Albergo Varrone, clean and reasonable. From the station to the Abbey and back for two persons, 4 lire. Cassino 10, inhabitants occupies the site of the Roman Casinum, which Strabo describes as the last town of Latium on the Latin Way. Livy tells how Hannibal intended occupying it in order to prevent the Consul Fabius from advancing on Campania, but was led by a mistake of his guide to Casilinum.

Silius Italicus mentions its springs and its foggy climate. Casi- num continued to flourish under the empire, but was destroyed by the Lombards in the sixth century.

Its former name of S. Germano was derived from a holy bisliop of Capua, a contem- porary and friend of S. Half a mile from the town, just above the high-road from S. The interior is a field and the seats are gone. Just above stands the little Church of the Crodfisso, occupying an ancient tomb, which is shown as that of NunnidiaQuadratiUa.

It is cruciform witli a dome in the centre, recalling the tomb of Galla Placidia at Ravenna. The blocks of travertine in the entrance walls are colossal. At the head of the steps in front of the church is a sacrificial altar. Immediately beneath cire the vast remains of the seminary of Monte Cassino, occupying the site of the historic convent Plumbariola. Near the town, on the banks of the Fiiime Rapido, are some ruins, supposed to belong to the Villa of Varro, of which Cicero has left a detailed description.

It was here that Antony indulged in those orgies against which the great orator poured forth his perilous eloquence. The CoUegiata of S. Germano was built by the Abbot GisuLfo in the ninth centurj’, and, though greatly altered in the seventeenth century, retains its twelve ancient marble columns. Donkeys 2 hre may be obtained for the ascent ft. The steep stony path which used to wind above the roofs of the houses is superseded.

Instead there is a fine zigzag road, leaving to the right the ruins of the castle of Rocca Janula, twice besieged and taken by Frederick II. The views are indescribably beautiful, and small oratories here and there by the wayside offer shelter from 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, his beloved sister ; then a triple-chapel, where one of the Benedictine miracles occurred.

Beyond these, a cross marks the final meeting-place of Benedict and Scholastica. It is not known that the twin sister of S. At her last interview with her brother on this spot, after they had passed the day together in rehgious exercises, 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. Gregory the Great, who tells the storj’, says that one must not be surprised that the wish 12 SOUTHERN ITALY of the sister was heard by God rather than that of the brother, because, of 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, ft. In front of it a grating covers the mark of a knee which is said to have been left in the rock by S. 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 thirty-six years a monk, led through the windings of the Apennines, says the tradition, alternately by two angels and two ravens, until he reached this spur of the mountain above Casinum, which had then already been ruined by Genseric. Not strange to say, the inhabitants of this wild district in the sixth century of Christianity were still pagan, and worshipped Apollo in a temple on the top of the mountain, where also was a grove sacred to Venus.

Dante writes in allusion to this — ” Quel monte, a cui Cassino e nella costa, Fu frequentato gia in sua la ciraa Dalla gente ingaruiata e mal disposta. Ed io son quel che su vi portai prima Lo nome di colui clie’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.

We enter the abbey by a great gate guarded by two lions, and ascend a low vaulted staircase, the only portion of the building ascribed to the time of Benedict. On the right a lamp burns before an old marble statue of the founder ; at the top Benedict and Scholastica kneel before the Virgin and Child. Here the peasants of the neighbourhood in their wonderful costumes — some almost Egyptian -looking — assemble to receive the dole of the convent, or bring up provisions. We are shown into a large bare chamber by a lay-brother who then goes to signify our arrival to the Prior.

The latter presently advances to receive us, and in excellent English demands how long our stay will be : ” Is it for three days, three months, or three years?

It is in- scribed : Fornicem saxis asperum ac depressum tantae moll’s aditum angustum ne mireris, hospes, angusiitm fecit patriarchae sanctiias : venerare potius et sospes ingredere.

Above the gate is a square tower modernised externally , of which the lower portion at least is ancient. It contains two chambers inscribed : Pars inferior tiirris, in qua S. Benedichis dum viverct habitabat ; and, V etustissimtim habitaculum in quo SStni patri- archae discipuli quiescebant.

This then occupies the position of the cell where S. Lex tunc exiNit, mentes quae ducit ab imis, Et vulgata dedit lumen par climata saecli. 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 S. Ger- mano. Here also, only trwo days after his last and miraculously prolonged interview with her, he saw the soul of his sister Scho- lastica ascending as a dove to heaven, and becoming thus aware of her death and translation ” was filled with joy, and his grati- tude flowed forth in hymns and praises to God.

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 adtar, he received the viaticum, and then, extending his hands to heaven, he died in the arms of his companions, March 21, , at the very hour which, according to the legend, he had foretold.

Benedict was laid by Scholastica, ” so that death might not divide those whose souls had been united in God. 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 the Abbot Desiderius, afterwards Pope Victor III.

Colossal statues of Benedict and Scholastica guard the ascent to the upper quad- rangle, ” II Paradiso,” which is centred by a well. Near the entrance of the church are the parents of Benedict, of Placidus, and of Maurus.

The Uving raven which hops about here, and which is quite a feature of the monastery, commemorates the birds which miraculously guided the patriarch hither from Subiaco. Ttie rich deep voices of the monks rose softly in vespers, and the olive-trees seemed to quiver with the blending harmonies. What a vision of loveliness was there! The silvery world was now still, as in a heavenly trance. The nearly full moon was enthroned above the mountains, that dreamed like enchanted giants.

Far down in the vale the rapid rivers were screened with spellbound vapours. Long before the sun arose the ridges lost their intense pallor and gradually blushed into mysterious carmine as of spilled roses, while their lower ranges and their foot-hills loomed out weirdly in shades of plum-like purple.

Later the morning- star faded, and feeling slowly for his new dominion the sun poured his great arms of gold over peak and promontory, and at last again enfolded the shrine of S. The existing church was built after in the form of a Latin cross. It is of the most extreme magnificence — and rivals S.

Martino at Naples in the richness and ostentation of its marbles. The doors have plates of the original bronze gates of the church of Desiderius, inlaid with silver letters containing a list of all the possessions of the abbey in , when they were made at Constantinople. The roof of the nave is painted by Luca Giordano, and by the same painter is a great fresco over the doors, depicting the consecration of the first basilica by Alexander II. The stalls of the choir are splendid specimens of Renaissance carving : in the centre of each is a Benedictine saint.

Here hang four pictures by Solimcna. In the left transept is the tomb of Pietro de’ Medici, who was drowned in the Garigliano, December 27, , 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 Sangallo. 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 representing S. Gregory the Great, and the Martyrdom of S. Beneath the high altar, and surrounded by a chain of lamps, repose Benedict and Scholastica, with these words only over their grave, ” Benedictum et Scholasticam, Uno in terris partu editos, Una in Deuin pictate coelo redditos, Unus hie excipit tumulus Mortalis deposit!

In the sacristy a number of magnificent old copes are preserved. Here are a curious old brazier and a stone lavatory. The services are four daily. 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 Library, built in the sixteenth century, by the Abbot Squarcialupi, contains about 20, volumes. Its origin mounts up to the foundation of the abbey, for S. Benedict mentions it in one of the rules of his Order. Eight hundred 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 earUest charter, bearing date , is of a Prince of Beneventum, and begins — ” Ajo Dei providentia Lx ngobardorum gentis princeps. Amongst the MSS. Most of the pictures at Mont Cassino were stolen to form the gallery at Naples.

A few sketches, by old masters, which remain, are collected in the cell of S. It requires more than a passing visit to Monte Cassiuo in order reaUy 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 fortress of the family of S. Through the valley winds the Garigiiano. In the plain between it and the sea the great battle was gained by Gonsalvo da Cordova, from Pietro de’ Medici, who was drowned in crossing the GarigUano, and to whom his uncle, Clement VII. Between the mountains the Mediterranean may be descried, gUttering in the Bay of Gaeta.

The services which Jlonte Cassino has rendered to Uterature have exempted it from the entire confiscation which has fallen upon other religious houses in Southern Italy since its incorpora- tion in the kingdom.

But the monks have a bare subsistence allowed them, and times are indeed changed since the Abbot of Monte Cassino, ” Abbas Abbatum,” was the first baron of the kingdom of Naples, administrator of a diocese created composed of 37 parishes ; while amongst the dependencies of the abbey were 4 bishoprics, 2 principahties, 20 countships, castles, towns and villages, manors, 23 seaports, 33 islands, mills, tracts of land, and churches.

Its revenues at the end of the sixteenth century were valued at , ducats. The abbot is bishop during his spiritual rule, which is hmited to six years, after which he becomes a simple monk again, only retaining the right of wearing the abbatial cross, and of precedence in rehgious ceremonies.

The town, several miles to the right, at the foot of Rocca Monfina, ft. It has stabling for a hundred horses. In the cloister of a suppressed convent is the efhgy of Marino Marziano, Duke of Sessa, who married a sister of Ferdinand I. He was seized and im- prisoned in the dungeons of the Castel Nuovo at Naples, where he died, some say was strangled. The mineral springs of Teano had a very early celebrity and are mentioned by Pliny.

The chalybeate spring, called Acqua delle Canterelle, is the source of the Savone, stigmatised by Statius as ” piger,” or lazy.

There is an exquisitely beautiful view toward the sea and islands from the neighbourhood of Teano. Sparanise miles from Rome. Hence there is the line toGaeta. The cathedral is dedicated to its first bishop, S.

Traversing the plain of the Volturno, and crossing the river, we reach — Capua Inn, Lo:anda della Posta , a walled city 15, inhabi- tants , founded , by Count Lando and his brothers, on the site of the ancient Casilinum, which so stoutly resisted Hannibal.

The Duomo is approached by a quadrangular court surrounded by twenty ancient columns. The interior eleventh century is a three-aisled basilica. Its twenty-four granite columns have newly gilt capitals.

The black marble font is supported on lions. At the third altar on the right is a Madonna, between SS. Stephen and Lucy, of , by Antoniazzo. The Norman crjrpt has twenty-two ancient columns, and contains a sarcophagus with a relief of the Hunt of Meleager, and a Holy Sepulchre by Botti- glieri.

Until recent times the Archbishop of Capua was one of the greatest ecclesiastical dignitaries in Italy. In the Piazza de’ Giudici is the modern Arch of S. Eligio, and many inscriptions. In front of the Church of S. Eligio are two ancient columns. The Torre Mignana still exists, to which the women fled when male inhabitants of Capua were massacred during the sack of the town by Caesar Borgia in The Cappella de’ Morti, outside the town, is the place where mass was said for their souls.

The Museo Campano contains many objects of interest, especially statues in tufo. There are also some portrait-corbels from the Castello of Frederick II. Maxia di Capua or S. Five years later it was taken by the Romans, who degraded it to the position of a third-rate provincial town ; but it rose again to prosperity under the Caesars, and continued to flourish till the invasion of Genseric, from which time it fell into ruin, being totally destroyed by the Saracens in a.

Of late years S. Maria has had a revival, chiefly owing to a small trade in leather. The magnificent ruins of the Amphitheatre on the road to modern Capua, carriage thither i lira : entrance 50 c. The measurements, by ft. It was from the gladiatorial schools of Capua that Spartacus broke out with seventy companions in 73 B. Not far distant are the remains of a Triumphal Arch, crossing the road. The Mens Tifata ft. Maria, turning right beyond the amphitheatre , is S.

Angelo in Formis , a very interesting church, which is mentioned in records of the tenth, and is adorned with remarkable Byzantinesque frescoes of the eleventh century, illustrating entire sacred history.

In the apse is seen the enthroned Saviour. The name in Formis is derived from the remains of an ancient aqueduct in the neighbour- hood. The railway proceeds through the richly planted Terra di Lavoro, level, and intersected with lines of poplars, with vines festooning from tree to tree, to — Caserta 19, inhabitants , ft.

In its vastness and desolation it recalls the Escurial. It was considered by Valery and others to be the noblest con- ception of a palace in Europe.

It forms a rectangle. Its fa9ade is ft. It depends on no accessories, nor tricks of the picturesque ; it challenges inspection near or remote ; it demands an immense plain and solitude. To visit the interior a permesso obtained either here, or at the Palazzo Reale at Naples is demanded custode i lira, sacristan of chapel 25 c.

The apartments have the usual mixture of splendour and gloom, which is the characteristic of great palaces, but here the gloom predominates, and the sove- reigns seem to have thought so, for they have scarcely ever inhabited Caserta. The columns of the theatre were plundered rom the temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli.

The chapel contains a Presentation in the Temple by Mengs. The stairs are formed of single blocks of the marble of Trapani, in Sicily, called LumacheUa, and at each landing are lions exquisitely sculptured, with numerous statues of allegorical figures. The sides are of the finest marbles, among which you see the choicest breccias of Dragoni, and the marbles of Vitulano in Principato Ulteriore. There are twenty-four Ionic pillars adorning the centre of the vestibule made of the red breccia of Mous Garganus in Apulia, and sixteen of the portico are of the yellow breccia of the same mountain.

The Gardens open to the public till Ave Maria , which trench upon the mountains, are of three kinds ; the Italian garden with its waterfalls and mythological statues ; the wood of the ancient Dukes of Caserta, which formed the feudal park ; and the English garden of Queen Caroline, with its greenhouses, cedars, tulip-trees, and magnolias.

The magnificent waterworks are supplied by a winding aqueduct twenty-one miles in length called Ponte Maddaloni, which brings the water from the foot of Monte Taburno, near Airola. Chacun d’eux des lors qu’il fut parfait, sentait deja son antique quant a la beaute. In the basins are kept gigantic bull-trout. The largest of the springs which supply the aqueduct is called Fizzo, the more abundant Fontana della Duca.

Above Caserta is the little Palace of S. Leucio or Belvidere, with a pretty park, and an ilex forest full of game is beyond it. It is worth while to make an excursion from Caserta into the beautiful district of the Matese. The road crosses the Volturno to Cajazzo 8 miles , a considerable town with a large castle of the Florentine Corsi, which perhaps occupies the site of Calatia.

A tomb near the high-road is shown as that of A. Attilius Calatinus, a general distinguished in the First Punic War, whose epitaph is given by Cicero. The road again crosses the Volturno before reaching 11 miles Alife, on the site of AUifae of the Samnites, of which there are considerable remains. The walls AVERSA 19 form a rectangular parallelogram with gates in tlie centre of each side protected by bastions, and the lower portions of the walls are ancient. Two miles farther is Piedimonte, in a pictur- esque situation at the foot of the Matese, with a fine castle of the Dukes of Lorenzano.

In the neighbouring Val d ‘Inferno is the source of the Torano beneath a low natural arch. Piedi- monte is the best point for the ascent of the Matese, of which the highest peak, Monte Mileto is ft. In the plain at the summit is a lake, said to be fathomless in the centre.

Maddaloni 20, inhabitants is a clean town with balustrades and orange groves, and the ruins of three feudal castles on the hill above it. The brother of a Caraffa Duke of Maddaloni fell a victim during the Masaniello Revolution, and his carriage was used by Masaniello’s wife and mother when they paid their first visit of ceremony to the vice-queen.

The palace of dukes is now a college. Maddaloni is the best point from whence to make an excursion in search of the disputed site of the Caudine Forks Furculae Caudinae , which some place between S. Agata dei Goti cind Airola, a narrow tract watered by the brook Isclero, which fadls into the Voltumo a romantic little valley quite incapable of containing the 30, men of the Roman army ; and for which others indicate a vaUey three miles wide, which is entered close to Arienzo.

Here, when the Roman army, on its march from Calatia to Luceria, had entered, it is said that they found the passage of exit filled up by stones and trunks of trees.

Return- ing, they found their retreat blockaded in the same way, and, after being pent up for two days, were obhged to submit to the conditions of the Samnites, and stripped, scourged, and insulted, were let out one by one, being made to pass under a yoke to mark their disgrace.

Cancello mUes , at the foot of a castle-crowned hill, whence the line to Xola diverges on the left, and another is being made to Benevento. Purple-grey Vesuvius is seen on the left before reaching Naples. Aversa, 23, inhabitants Albergo dell’ Aurora can be best reached from Naples by electric tramway.

It was the earliest settlement made by the Normans in Italy Here, while spending the hot months out of Naples at a royal castle, Andrew, the wretched Hungarian husband of Queen Joan I. Prince Louis of Taranto. The object of the King of Hungary was to punish Naples for the murder : but he was unable to produce proofs of the queen’s alleged complicity. All was com- phcated by the fact that the kingdom of Naples was then a vassal to the Holy See, which favoured the anti-Hungarian circle at Naples.

Here, also, in January , King Louis of Hungary arraigned and executed Duke Charles of Durazzo, his cousin, and Joan’s brother-in-law, on the same spot where Andrew had been murdered. The execution, however, was universally condemned, and it is believed that the duke was not a party to the murder. He had no trial.

Parker’s, good in all resjjects. Pension Britannique, in the same situation, inferior, but convenient for solitary persons spending some time at Naples. Edeti Hotel, with garden. Hotel Washington, good, and esteemed healthy, but lackinj; outlook. Hotels d’Amerique, De la Ville, on the Chiaja, clean and comfortable. Hotel de Londres, Piazza del Municipio. In all these hotels rooms free from smells and with a free circulation of air before the windows should be chosen back rooms should be avoided.

Persons especially liable to fever should visit the sights of the town from the Hotel Quisisana at Castellamare, or the Hotel d’Angleterre near Pozzuoli, unless they can obtain good sunny, airy rooms at Naples in a healthy situation. Lodgings may easily be found in Rione Principe Amadeo with good views : lire monthly.

Carriages in the town. With two horses, the course i Ura 20 c, night i lira 50 c. These prices hold good to and from the railway station, or for any distance within the barriers ; each box is 30 c. The porters at the railway station may charge 25 c. Carriages to the Neighbourhood. Cook and Son, 52 Piazza dei Martin. Steamship Offices.

Cycles and Motor-cars are to be hired at Casati and Co. Symons, Riviera di Chiaja. Atkinson, 61 Via Medina ; Dr. Kessel, 19 Piazza dci Martiri. Sea baths at Bagnoli and Temie. Bnglish Church. Presbyterian, 2 Via Cappella Vecchia. American Consulate. Byington, 4 Piazza Municipio first floor.

British Consulate. Turner, 64 Strada S. Museo Nazionale, open from 9 to 4, entrance i lira ; free on Sundays and Thurs- days from 9 to Direttore degli Scavi del Regno, at the museum, must be asked for a ticket to draw at Pompeii. The Churches are almost aU closed after midday, except the cathedral, and before that time are often inconveniently crowded for sightseeing.

They are oppressive from the scarcity of ventilation and the fumes of incense, which, however, is most desirable in this country, being in itself a relic of paganism. An Artist will seek his work rather at Baiae and Cumae or on the islands than at Naples. But the lover of architectural subjects may find them in S.

Giovanni a Carbonara, the ambulatory of S. Lorenzo, and the cloisters of Monte Oliveto. Naples N. But Athenian colonists came later and built a city close by toward the Sebeto, which they called Neapolis, after which the western and older part of the town was known as Palaeopolis, until B. As a Roman municipal town, Neapolis continued to flourish, retaining, however, its Greek culture and institutions.

Under the empire, the beauty and salubrity of the neighbour- hood made it the favourite summer resort of the Roman aristo- cracy, and it formed a perpetual theme of the Latin poets. After suffering sieges from Belisarius and Totila, Naples became a dependency of the Exarchate of Ravenna, under a duke ap- pointed by the Eastern Emperors, but, at length, throwing off their yoke, it established a republican government which lasted for years under the nominal sovereignty of a duke.

Roger de Hauteville taking it in 1 , founded the kingdom of Naples. Its walls may in part be traced built up amongst the modem houses of the most crowded part of the town, also its four gates — Porta Nolana, Porta Capuana, Porta S.

Gennaro, and Porta S. Maria di Con- stantinopoli. In Alfonso V. In Philip V. In the kingdom was in- vaded by an army sent by Napoleon, who established the short- lived reigns of Joseph Bonaparte, soon transferred to Spain, and of Joachim Murat, who was driven out in 18 15 by the Austrians.

The Bourbon rule was restored in the person of Ferdinand I. Naples has always been fond of change : there is an Italian book which gives the history of the twenty-seventh revolt Mas- aniello’s of ” the very faithful town of Naples. Almost everybody in Naples cheats, but cheats in as lively and pleasant a manner as is compatible with possibilities.

Nearly all the officials peculate, and perhaps not more than two-thirds of the taxes ever reach the public exchequer. If the traveller is robbed, he wUl never secure redress, for, as in Ireland, it would be impossible to obtain witnesses, or to find a jury sufficiently fearless to convict.

The Neapolitan nobility are somewhat numerous, but few are of earlier date than that of Murat : the families of Pignatelli, Filangieri, StigUano, San Severino, Caraffa, Del Balzo, and Caracciolo, are, of course, exceptions. Certain Neapolitan nobles are also Roman princes and grandees of Spain, but few others, except the Caraccioli, have much left except their titles ; the extinction of primogeniture has, for the most part, robbed them of their palaces and fortunes.

They almost all gamble — in the public lottery, if nowhere else. Scarcely any of the young men have professions ; they spend their nights in dancing or cards, get up at midday, and perhaps take a turn in the Villa Nazionale in the afternoon. As it is the universal custom amongst the lower orders to marry at seventeen, and Neapolitan women are proverbially prolific, the tall, narrow houses in the back streets swarm with children, and are like rabbit-warrens ; whole families live huddled together, but not without cleanliness or decency, though the air sometimes resounds at once with blows and cries, singing and laughter.

The tomb was originally shaded by a gigantic bay-tree, which is said to have died on the death of Dante. Petrarch, who was brought hither by King Robert, planted another, which existed in the time of Sannazaro, but was destroyed by relic-collectors in the last century. A branch was sent to Frederick the Great by the Margravine of Baireuth, with some verses by Voltaire.

If from no other cause, the tomb would be interesting from its visitors; here Boccaccio renounced the career of a merchant for that of a poet, and a well-known legend, that St. Paul visited the sepulcher of Virgil at Naples, was long commemorated in the verse of a hymn used in the service for St.

Paul’s Day at Mantua. The tomb is a small, square, vaulted chamber with three windows. Early in the sixteenth century a funeral urn, containing the ashes of the poet, stood in the center, supported by nine little marble pillars. Some say that Robert of Anjou removed it, in , for security to the Castel Nuovo, others that it was given by the Government to a cardinal from Mantua, who died at Genoa on his way home.

In either event the urn is now lost. It is just beneath the tomb that the road to Pozzuoli enters the famous Grotto of Posilipo, a tunnel about half a mile long, in breadth from 25 to 30 feet, and varying from about 90 feet in height near the entrance, to little more than 20 feet at points of the interior. Petronius and Seneca mention its narrow gloomy [Pg 26] passage with horror, in the reign of Nero, when it was so low that it could only be used for foot-passengers, who were obliged to stoop in passing through.

In the fifteenth century King Alphonso I. In the Middle Ages the grotto was ascribed to the magic arts of Virgil.

In recent years it has been the chief means of communication between Naples and Baiae, and is at all times filled with dust and noise, the flickering lights and resounding echoes giving it a most weird effect. However much one may abuse Neapolitans, we may consider in their favor, as Swinburne observes, “what a terror this dark grotto would be in London!

At the foot of the steep ascent, we were received by two guides, one old, the other young, but both active fellows. The first pulled me up the path, the other Tischbein [9] —pulled I say, for these guides are girded round the waist with a leathern belt, which the traveler takes hold of, and being drawn up by his guide, makes his way the easier with foot and staff. In this manner we reached the flat from which [Pg 27] the cone rises; toward the north lay the ruins of the summit.

A glance westward over the country beneath us, removed, as well as a bath could, all feeling of exhaustion and fatigue, and we now went round the ever-smoking cone, as it threw out its stones and ashes.

Wherever the space allowed of our viewing it at a sufficient distance, it appeared a grand and elevating spectacle. In the first place, a violent thundering toned forth from its deepest abyss, then stones of larger and smaller sizes were showered into the air by thousands, and enveloped by clouds of ashes. The greatest part fell again into the gorge; the rest of the fragments, receiving a lateral inclination, and falling on the outside of the crater, made a marvelous rumbling noise.

First of all the larger masses plumped against the side, and rebounded with a dull heavy sound; then the smaller came rattling down; and last of all, drizzled a shower of ashes. All this took place at regular intervals, which by slowly counting, we were able to measure pretty accurately.

Between the summit, however, and the cone the space is narrow enough; moreover, several stones fell around us, and made the circuit anything but agreeable. Tischbein now felt more disgusted than ever with Vesuvius, as the monster, not content with being hateful, showed an inclination to become mischievous also.

As, however, the presence of danger generally exercises on man a kind of attraction, and calls forth a spirit of opposition in the human [Pg 28] breast to defy it, I bethought myself that, in the interval of the eruptions, it would be possible to climb up the cone to the crater, and to get back before it broke out again.

I held a council on this point with our guides under one of the overhanging rocks of the summit, where, encamped in safety, we refreshed ourselves with the provisions we had brought with us. The younger guide was willing to run the risk with me; we stuffed our hats full of linen and silk handkerchiefs, and, staff in hand, we prepared to start, I holding on to his girdle.

The little stones were yet rattling around us, and the ashes still drizzling, as the stalwart youth hurried forth with me across the hot glowing rubble. We soon stood on the brink of the vast chasm, the smoke of which, altho a gentle air was bearing it away from us, unfortunately veiled the interior of the crater, which smoked all round from a thousand crannies.

At intervals, however, we caught sight through the smoke of the cracked walls of the rock. The view was neither instructive nor delightful; but for the very reason that one saw nothing, one lingered in the hope of catching a glimpse of something more; and so we forgot our slow counting.

We were standing on a narrow ridge of the vast abyss; of a sudden the thunder pealed aloud; we ducked our heads involuntarily, as if that would have rescued us from the precipitated masses. The smaller stones soon rattled, and without considering that we had again an interval of cessation before us, and only too much rejoiced to have outstood the danger, we rushed down and reached the foot of the hill together with the drizz [Pg 29] ling ashes, which pretty thickly covered our heads and shoulders The news [two weeks later] that an eruption of lava had just commenced, which, taking the direction of Ottajano, was invisible at Naples, tempted me to visit Vesuvius for the third time.

Scarcely had I jumped out of my cabriolet at the foot of the mountain, when immediately appeared the two guides who had accompanied us on our previous ascent. I had no wish to do without either, but took one out of gratitude and custom, the other for reliance on his judgment—and the two for the greater convenience. Having ascended the summit, the older guide remained with our cloaks and refreshment, while the younger followed me, and we boldly went straight toward a dense volume of smoke, which broke forth from the bottom of the funnel; then we quickly went downward by the side of it, till at last, under the clear heaven, we distinctly saw the lava emitted from the rolling clouds of smoke.

We may hear an object spoken of a thousand times, but its peculiar features will never be caught till we see it with our own eyes. The stream of lava was small, not broader perhaps than ten feet, but the way in which it flowed down a gentle and tolerably smooth plain was remarkable. As it flowed along, it cooled both on the sides and on the surface, so that it formed a sort of canal, the bed of which was continually raised in consequence of the molten mass congealing even beneath the fiery stream, which, with uniform action, precipitated right and left the scoria which were floating on its surface.

In this way a regular dam was at length thrown up, in which the glowing stream [Pg 30] flowed on as quietly as any mill-stream. We passed along the tolerably high dam, while the scoria rolled regularly off the sides at our feet. Some cracks in the canal afforded opportunity of looking at the living stream, from below, and as it rushed onward, we observed it from above.

A very bright sun made the glowing lava look dull; but a moderate steam rose from it into the pure air. I felt a great desire to go nearer to the point where it broke out from the mountain; there my guide averred, it at once formed vaults and roofs above itself, on which he had often stood. To see and experience this phenomenon, we again ascended the hill, in order to come from behind to this point.

Fortunately at this moment the place was cleared by a pretty strong wind, but not entirely, for all round it the smoke eddied from a thousand crannies; and now at last we stood on the top of the solid roof which looked like a hardened mass of twisted dough , but which, however, projected so far outward, that it was impossible to see the welling lava. We ventured about twenty steps further, but the ground on which we stept became hotter and hotter, while around us rolled an oppressive steam, which obscured and hid the sun; the guide, who was a few steps in advance of me, presently turned back, and seizing hold of me, hurried out of this Stygian exhalation.

After we had refreshed our eyes with the clear prospect, and washed our gums and throat with wine, we went round again to notice any other peculiarities which might characterize this peak of hell, thus rearing itself in the midst of a Paradise. I again observed attentively some chasms, in ap [Pg 31] pearance like so many vulcanic forges, which emitted no smoke, but continually shot out a steam of hot glowing air.

They were all tapestried, as it were, with a kind of stalactite, which covered the funnel to the top, with its knobs and chintz-like variation of colors. In consequence of the irregularity of the forges, I found many specimens of this sublimation hanging within reach, so that, with our staves and a little contrivance, we were able to hack off a few, and to secure them.

I saw in the shops of the dealers in lava similar specimens, labeled simply “Lava”; and I was delighted to have discovered that it was volcanic soot precipitated from the hot vapor, and distinctly exhibiting the sublimated mineral particles which it contained. No matter that the snow and ice lie thick upon the summit of Vesuvius, or that we have been on foot all day at Pompeii, or that croakers maintain that strangers should not be on the mountain by night, in such unusual season.

Let us take advantage of the fine weather; make the best of our way to Resina, the little village at the foot of the mountain; prepare ourselves, as well as we can, on so short a notice, at the guide’s house, ascend at once, and have sunset half-way up, moonlight at the top, and midnight to come down in! At four o’clock in the afternoon, there is a ter [Pg 32] rible uproar in the little stable-yard of Signor Salvatore, the recognized head guide, with the gold band round his cap; and thirty under-guides who are all scuffling and screaming at once, are preparing half-a-dozen saddled ponies, three litters, and some stout staves, for the journey.

Every one of the thirty quarrels with the other twenty-nine, and frightens the six ponies; and as much of the village as can possibly squeeze itself into the little stable-yard, participates in the tumult, and gets trodden on by the cattle. After much violent skirmishing, and more noise than would suffice for the storming of Naples, the procession starts.

The head guide, who is liberally paid for all the attendants, rides a little in advance of the party; the other thirty guides proceed on foot. Eight go forward with the litters that are to be used by and by; and the remaining two-and-twenty beg. We ascend, gradually, by stony lanes like rough broad flights of stairs, for some time. At length, we leave these, and the vineyards on either side of them, and emerge upon a bleak, bare region where the lava lies confusedly, in enormous rusty masses; as if the earth had been plowed up by burning thunder-bolts.

And now, we halt to see the sunset. The change that falls upon the dreary region and on the whole mountain, as its red light fades, and the night comes on—and the unutterable solemnity and dreariness that reign around, who that has witnessed it, can ever forget!

It is dark, when after winding, for some time, over the broken ground, we arrive at the foot of the cone, which is extremely steep, and seems to rise, almost perpendicularly, from the spot where [Pg 33] we dismount. The only light is reflected from the snow, deep, hard, and white, with which the cone is covered. It is now intensely cold, and the air is piercing. The thirty-one have brought no torches, knowing that the moon will rise before we reach the top.

Two of the litters are devoted to the two ladies; the third, to a rather heavy gentleman from Naples, whose hospitality and good-nature have attached him to the expedition, and determined him to assist in doing the honors of the mountain.

The rather heavy gentleman is carried by fifteen men; each of the ladies by half-a-dozen. We who walk, make the best use of our staves; and so the whole party begin to labor upward over the snow—as if they were toiling to the summit of an antediluvian Twelfth-cake.

Pickle of Portici—suggests that, as it is freezing hard, and the usual footing of ashes is covered by the snow and ice, it will surely be difficult to descend.

But the sight of the litters above, tilting up, and down, and jerking from this side to that, as the bearers continually slip, and tumble, diverts our attention, more especially as the whole length of the rather heavy gentleman is, at that moment, presented to us alarmingly foreshortened, with his head downward.

The rising of the moon soon afterward, revives the flagging spirits of the bearers. Stimulating each other with their usual watchword, “Courage, friend! It is to eat maccaroni! From tingeing the top of the snow above us with a band of light, and pouring it in a stream through the valley below, while we have been ascending in the dark, the moon soon lights the whole white mountain side, and the broad sea down below, and tiny Naples in the distance, and every village in the country round.

The whole prospect is in this lovely state, when we come upon the platform on the mountain-top—the region of fire—an exhausted crater formed of great masses of gigantic cinders, like blocks of stone from some tremendous waterfall, burned up; from every chink and crevice of which, hot, sulfurous smoke is pouring out; while, from another conical-shaped hill, the present crater, rising abruptly from this platform at the end, great sheets of fire are streaming forth; reddening the night with flame, blackening it with smoke, and spotting it with red-hot stones and cinders, that fly up into the air like feathers, and fall down like lead.

What words can paint the gloom and grandeur of this scene! The broken ground; the smoke; the sense of suffocation from the sulfur; the fear of falling down through the crevices in the yawning ground; the stopping, every now and then, for somebody who is missing in the dark for the dense smoke now obscures the moon ; the intolerable noise of the thirty; and the hoarse roaring of the mountain; make it a scene of such confusion, at the same time, that we reel again.

But, dragging the ladies through it, and across another exhausted crater to the foot of the present volcano, we approach close to it on the windy side, and then sit down among the hot ashes at its foot, and look up [Pg 35] in silence; faintly estimating the action that is going on within, from its being full a hundred feet higher, at this minute, than it was six weeks ago.

There is something in the fire and roar, that generates an irresistible desire to get nearer to it. We can not rest long, without starting off, two of us on our hands and knees, accompanied by the head guide, to climb to the brim of the flaming crater, and try to look in. Meanwhile, the thirty yell, as with one voice, that it is a dangerous proceeding, and call to us to come back; frightening the rest of the party out of their wits.

What with their noise, and what with the trembling of the thin crust of ground, that seems about to open underneath our feet and plunge us in the burning gulf below which is the real danger, if there be any ; and what with the flashing of the fire in our faces, and the shower of red-hot ashes that is raining down, and the choking smoke and sulfur; we may well feel giddy and irrational, like drunken men.

But, we contrive to climb up to the brim, and look down, for a moment, into the hell of boiling fire below. Then, we all three come rolling down; blackened, and singed, and scorched, and hot, and giddy; and each with his dress alight in half-a-dozen places.

You have read, a thousand times, that the usual way of descending, is, by sliding down the ashes; which, forming a gradually-increasing ledge below the feet, prevent too rapid a descent. But, when we have crossed the two exhausted craters on our way back, and are come to this precipitous place, there is as Mr. Pickle has foretold no vestige of ashes to be seen; the whole being a smooth sheet of ice.

In this dilemma, ten or a dozen of the guides cautiously join hands, and make a chain of men; of whom the foremost beat, as well as they can, a rough track with their sticks, down which we prepare to follow. The way being fearfully steep, and none of the party—even of the thirty—being able to keep their feet for six paces together, the ladies are taken out of their litters, and placed, each between two careful persons; while others of the thirty hold by their skirts, to prevent their falling forward—a necessary precaution, tending to the immediate and hopeless dilapidation of their apparel.

The rather heavy gentleman is abjured to leave his litter too, and be escorted in a similar manner; but he resolves to be brought down as he was brought up, on the principle that his fifteen bearers are not likely to tumble all at once, and that he is safer so, than trusting to his own legs. In this order, we begin the descent; sometimes on foot, sometimes shuffling on the ice; always proceeding much more quietly and slowly than on our upward way; and constantly alarmed by the falling among us of somebody from behind, who endangers the footing of the whole party, and clings pertinaciously to anybody’s ankles.

It is impossible for the litter to be in advance, too, as the track has to be made; and its appearance behind us, overhead—with some one or other of the bearers always down, and the rather heavy gentleman with his legs always in the air—is very threatening and frightful.

We have gone on thus, a very little way, painfully and anxiously, but quite merrily, and regarding it as a great success—and have all fallen several times, and have all been stopt, somehow or other, as we were sliding away [Pg 37] when Mr.

Pickle of Portici, in the act of remarking on these uncommon circumstances as quite beyond his experience, stumbles, falls, disengages himself, with quick presence of mind, from those about him, plunges away head foremost, and rolls, over and over, down the whole surface of the cone!

Giddy, and bloody, and a mere bundle of rags, is Pickle of Portici when we reach the place where we dismounted, and where the horses are waiting; but, thank God, sound in limb! And never are we likely to be more glad to see a man alive and on his feet, than to see him now—making light of it too, tho sorely bruised and in great pain.

The boy is brought into the Hermitage on the Mountain, while we are at supper, with his head tied up; and the man is heard of, some hours afterward. He, too, is bruised and stunned, but has broken no bones; the snow having, fortunately, covered all the larger blocks of rock and stone, and rendered them harmless.

The sky is almost clear. Only above Naples hangs a bank of clouds, and around Vesuvius huge white masses of smoke, moving and stationary. I never yet saw, even in summer at Marseilles, the blue of the sea so deep, bordering even on hardness.

Above this powerful lustrous [Pg 38] azure, absorbing three-quarters of the visible space, the white sky seems to be a firmament of crystal.

As we recede we obtain a better view of the undulating coast, embraced in one grand mountain form, all its parts uniting like the members of one body. Ischia and the naked promontories on the extreme end repose in their lilac envelop, like a slumbering Pompeiian nymph under her veil.

Veritably, to paint such nature as this, this violet continent extending around this broad luminous water, one must employ the terms of the ancient poets, and represent the great fertile goddess embraced and beset by the eternal ocean, and above them the serene effulgence of the dazzling Jupiter. We encounter on the road some fine faces with long elegant features, quite Grecian; some intelligent noble-looking girls, and here and there hideous mendicants cleaning their hairy breasts.

But the race is much superior to that of Naples, where it is deformed and diminutive, the young girls there appearing like stunted, pallid grisets. The railroad skirts the sea a few paces off and almost on a level with it. A harbor appears blackened with lines of rigging, and then a mole, consisting of a small half-ruined fort, reflecting a clear sharp shadow in the luminous expanse. Surrounding this rise square houses, gray as if charred, and heaped together like tortoises under round roofs, serving them as a sort of thick shell.

On this fertile soil, full of cinders, cultivation extends to the shore and forms gardens; a simple reed hedge protects them from the sea and the wind; the Indian fig with its clumsy thorny leaves clings to the slopes; verdure begins to appear on [Pg 39] the branches of the trees, the apricots showing their smiling pink blossoms; half-naked men work the friable soil without apparent effort; a few square gardens contain columns and small statues of white marble.

Everywhere you behold traces of antique beauty and joyousness. And why wonder at this when you feel that you have the divine vernal sun for a companion, and on the right, whenever you turn to the sea, its flaming golden waves. With what facility you here forget all ugly objects! I believe I passed at Castellamare some unsightly modern structures, a railroad station, hotels, a guard-house, and a number of rickety vehicles hurrying along in quest of fares. This is all effaced from my mind; nothing remains but impressions of obscure porches with glimpses of bright courts filled with glossy oranges and spring verdure, of esplanades with children playing on them and nets drying, and happy idlers snuffing the breeze and contemplating the capricious heaving of the tossing sea.

On leaving Castellamare the road forms a corniche [12] winding along the bank. Huge white rocks, split off from the cliffs above, lie below in the midst of the eternally besieging waves. On the left the mountains lift their shattered pinnacles, fretted walls, and projecting crags, all that scaffolding of indentations which strike you as the ruins of a line of rocked and tottering fortresses. Each projection, each mass throws its shadow on the surrounding white surfaces, the [Pg 40] entire range being peopled with tints and forms.

Sometimes the mountain is rent in twain, and the sides of the chasm are lined with cultivation, descending in successive stages. Sorrento is thus built on three deep ravines. All these hollows contain gardens, crowded with masses of trees overhanging each other. Nut-trees, already lively with sap, project their white branches like gnarled fingers; everything else is green; winter lays no hand on this eternal spring. The thick lustrous leaf of the orange-tree rises from amid the foliage of the olive, and its golden apples glisten in the sun by thousands, interspersed with gleams of the pale lemon; often in these shady lanes do its glittering leaves flash out above the crest of the walls.

This is the land of the orange. It grows even in miserable court-yards, alongside of dilapidated steps, spreading its luxuriant tops everywhere in the bright sunlight. The delicate aromatic odor of all these opening buds and blossoms is a luxury of kings, which here a beggar enjoys for nothing. I passed an hour in the garden of the hotel, a terrace overlooking the sea about half-way up the bank. A scene like this fills the imagination with a dream of perfect bliss.

The house stands in a luxurious garden, filled with orange and lemon-trees, as heavily laden with fruit as those of a Normandy orchard; the ground at the foot of the trees is covered with it. Clusters of foliage and shrubbery of a pale green, bordering on blue, occupy intermediate spaces. The rosy blossoms of the peach, so tender and delicate, bloom on its naked branches. The walks are of bright blue porcelain, and the terrace displays its round [Pg 41] verdant masses overhanging the sea, of which the lovely azure fills all space.

I have not yet spoken of my impressions after leaving Castellamare. The charm was only too great. The pure sky, the pale azure almost transparent, the radiant blue sea as chaste and tender as a virgin bride, this infinite expanse so exquisitely adorned as if for a festival of rare delight, is a sensation that has no equal.

Capri and Ischia on the line of the sky lie white in their soft vapory tissue, and the divine azure gently fades away surrounded by this border of brightness. Where find words to express all this? The gulf seemed like a marble vase purposely rounded to receive the sea. The satin sheen of a flower, the soft luminous petals of the velvet orris with shimmering sunshine on their pearly borders, such are the images that fill the mind, and which accumulate in vain and are ever inadequate.

The water at the base of these rocks is now a transparent emerald, reflecting the tints of topaz and amethyst; again a liquid diamond, changing its hue according to the shifting influences of rock and depth; or again a flashing diadem, glittering with the splendor of this divine effulgence. The Island of Capri in the dialect of the people Crapi , the ancient Capreae, is a huge limestone rock, a continuation of the mountain range which forms the southern boundary of the Bay of Naples.

Legend says that it was once inhabited by a people called Teleboae, subject to a king called Telon. Augustus took possession of Capreae as part of the imperial domains, and repeatedly visited it.

His stepson Tiberius A. The first point usually visited in Capri is the Blue Grotto Grotta Azzurra , which is entered from the sea by an arch under the wall of limestone cliff, only available when the sea is perfectly calm. Visitors have to lie flat down in the boat, which is carried in by the wave and is almost level with the top of the arch.

Then they suddenly find themselves in a magical scene. The water is liquid sapphire, and the whole rocky vaulting of the cavern shimmers to its inmost recesses with a pale blue light of marvelous beauty.

A man stands ready to plunge into the water when the boats from the steamers arrive, and to swim about; his body, in the water, then sparkles like a sea-god with phosphorescent silver; his head, out of the water, is black like that of a Moor.

Nothing can exaggerate the beauty of the [Pg 43] Blue Grotto, and perhaps the effect is rather enhanced than spoiled by the shouting of the boatmen, the rush of boats to the entrance, the confusion on leaving and reaching the steamers.

That the Grotta Azzurra was known to the Romans is evinced by the existence of a subterranean passage, leading to it from the upper heights, and now blocked up; it was also well known in the seventeenth century, when it was described by Capraanica. There are other beautiful grottoes in the cliffs surrounding the island, the most remarkable being the natural tunnel called the Green Grotto Grotta Verde , under the southern rocks, quite as splendid in color as the Grotta Azzurra itself—a passage through the rocks, into which the boat glides through no hole, as in the case of the Grotta Azzurra into water of the most exquisite emerald.

The late afternoon is the best time for visiting this grotto. Occasionally a small steamer makes the round of the island, stopping at the different caverns. On landing at the Marina, a number of donkey women offer their services, and it will be well to accept them, for the ascent of about one mile, to the village of Capri is very hot and tiring.

On the left we pass the Church of St. Costanzo, a very curious building with apse, cupola, stone pulpit, and several ancient marble pillars and other fragments taken from the palaces of Tiberius. The little town of Capri, overhung on one side by great purple rocks, occupies a terrace on the high ridge between the two rocky promontories of the island.

Close above the piazza stands the many-domed ancient church, like a mosque, and [Pg 44] so many of the houses—sometimes of dazzling whiteness, sometimes painted in gay colors—have their own little domes, that the appearance is quite that of an oriental village, which is enhanced by the palm-trees which flourish here and there.

In the piazza is a tablet to Major Hamill, who is buried in the church. He fell under French bayonets, when the troops of Murat, landing at Orico, recaptured the island, which had been taken from the French two years and a half before May, by Sir Sidney Smith.

Through a low wide arch in the piazza is the approach to the principal hotels. There is a tiny English chapel. An ascent of half an hour by stony donkey-paths leads from Capri to the ruins called the Villa Tiberiana, on the west of the island, above a precipitous rock feet high, which still bears the name of Il Salto The visitor who lingers in Capri may interest himself in tracing out the remains of all the twelve villas of Tiberius.

A relief exhibiting Tiberius riding a led donkey, as modern travelers do now, was found on the island, and is now in the museum at Naples. Capri has a delightful winter climate, and is most comfortable as a residence.

The natives are quite unlike the Neapolitans, pleasant and civil in their manners, and full of courtesies to strangers.

The women are frequently beautiful. We have been to see Pompeii, and are waiting now for the return of spring weather, to visit, first, Paestum, and then the islands; after which we shall return to Rome. I was astonished at the remains of this city; I had no conception of anything so perfect yet remaining. My idea of the mode of its destruction was this: First, an earthquake shattered it, and unroofed almost all its temples, and split its columns; then a rain of light small pumice-stones fell; then torrents of boiling water, mixed with ashes, filled up all its crevices.

A wide, flat hill, from which the city was excavated, is now covered by thick woods, and you see the tombs and the theaters, the temples and the houses, surrounded by the uninhabited wilderness. We entered the town from the side toward the sea, and first saw two theaters; one more magnificent than the other, strewn with the ruins of the white marble which formed their seats and cornices, wrought with deep, bold sculpture.

In the front, between the stage and the seats, is the circular space, occasionally occupied by the chorus. The stage is very narrow, but long, and divided from this space by a narrow enclosure parallel to it, I suppose for the orchestra.

On each side are the consuls’ boxes, and below, in the theater at Herculaneum, were found two equestrian statues of admirable workmanship, occupy [Pg 46] ing the same place as the great bronze lamps did at Drury Lane. The smallest of the theaters is said to have been comic, tho I should doubt. From both you see, as you sit on the seats, a prospect of the most wonderful beauty.

You then pass through the ancient streets; they are very narrow, and the houses rather small, but all constructed on an admirable plan, especially for this climate. The rooms are built round a court, or sometimes two, according to the extent of the house. In the midst is a fountain, sometimes surrounded with a portico, supported on fluted columns of white stucco; the floor is paved with mosaic, sometimes wrought in imitation of vine leaves, sometimes in quaint figures, and more or less beautiful, according to the rank of the inhabitant.

There were paintings on all, but most of them have been removed to decorate the royal museums. Little winged figures, and small ornaments of exquisite elegance, yet remain. There is an ideal life in the forms of these paintings of an incomparable loveliness, tho most are evidently the work of very inferior artists.

It seems as if, from the atmosphere of mental beauty which surrounded them, every human being caught a splendor not his own. In one house you see how the bed-rooms were managed; a small sofa was built up, where the cushions were placed; two pictures, one representing Diana and Endymion, the other Venus and Mars, decorate the chamber; and a little niche, which contains the statue of a domestic god.

The floor is composed of a rich mosaic of the rarest marbles, agate, jasper, and porphyry; it looks to the marble fountain and the snow- [Pg 47] white columns, whose entablatures strew the floor of the portico they supported. The houses have only one story, and the apartments, tho not large, are very lofty. A great advantage results from this, wholly unknown in our cities. The public buildings, whose ruins are now forests, as it were, of white fluted columns, and which then supported entablatures, loaded with sculptures, were seen on all sides over the roofs of the houses.

This was the excellence of the ancients. Their private expenses were comparatively moderate; the dwelling of one of the chief senators of Pompeii is elegant indeed, and adorned with most beautiful specimens of art, but small. But their public buildings are everywhere marked by the bold and grand designs of an unsparing magnificence. In the little town of Pompeii it contained about twenty thousand inhabitants , it is wonderful to see the number and the grandeur of their public buildings.

Another advantage, too, is that, in the present case, the glorious scenery around is not shut out, and that, unlike the inhabitants of the Cimmerian ravines of modern cities, the ancient Pompeiians could contemplate the clouds and the lamps of heaven; could see the moon rise high behind Vesuvius, and the sun set in the sea, tremulous with an atmosphere of golden vapor, between Inarime and Misenum.

We next saw the temples. Of the temples of Aesculapius little remains but an altar of black stone, adorned with a cornice imitating the scales of a serpent. His statue, in terra-cotta, was found in the cell. The temple of Isis is more perfect. It is surrounded by a portico of fluted [Pg 48] columns, and in the area around it are two altars, and many ceppi for statues; and a little chapel of white stucco, as hard as stone, of the most exquisite proportion; its panels are adorned with figures in bas-relief, slightly indicated, but of a workmanship the most delicate and perfect that can be conceived.

They are Egyptian subjects, executed by a Greek artist, who has harmonized all the unnatural extravagances of the original conception into the supernatural loveliness of his country’s genius. They scarcely touch the ground with their feet, and their wind-uplifted robes seem in the place of wings.

The temple in the midst raised on a high platform, and approached by steps, was decorated with exquisite paintings, some of which we saw in the museum at Portici. It is small, of the same materials as the chapel, with a pavement of mosaic, and fluted Ionic columns of white stucco, so white that it dazzles you to look at it. Thence through the other porticos and labyrinths of walls and columns for I can not hope to detail everything to you , we came to the Forum.

This is a large square, surrounded by lofty porticos of fluted columns, some broken, some entire, their entablatures strewed under them. The temple of Jupiter, of Venus, and another temple, the Tribunal, and the Hall of Public Justice, with their forest of lofty columns, surround the Forum. Two pedestals or altars of an enormous size for, whether they supported equestrian statues, or were the altars of the temple of Venus, before which they stand, the guide could not tell , occupy the lower end of the [Pg 49] Forum.

At the upper end, supported on an elevated platform, stands the temple of Jupiter. Under the colonnade of its portico we sat and pulled out our oranges, and figs, and bread, and medlars sorry fare, you will say , and rested to eat. Here was a magnificent spectacle. Above and between the multitudinous shafts of the sun-shining columns was seen the sea, reflecting the purple heaven of noon above it, and supporting, as it were, on its line the dark lofty mountains of Sorrento, of a blue inexpressibly deep, and tinged toward their summits with streaks of new-fallen snow.

Between was one small green island. To the right was Capreae, Inarime, Prochyta, and Misenum. Behind was the single summit of Vesuvius, rolling forth volumes of thick white smoke, whose foam-like column was sometimes darted into the clear dark sky, and fell in little streaks along the wind.

Between Vesuvius and the nearer mountains, as through a chasm, was seen the main line of the loftiest Apennines, to the east. The day was radiant and warm. Every now and then we heard the subterranean thunder of Vesuvius; its distant deep peals seemed to shake the very air and light of day, which interpenetrated our frames with the sullen and tremendous sound. This sound was what the Greeks beheld Pompeii, you know, was a Greek city.

They lived in harmony with nature; and the interstices of their incomparable columns were portals, as it were, to admit the spirit of beauty which animates this glorious universe to visit those whom it inspired. If such is Pompeii, [Pg 50] what was Athens? What scene was exhibited from the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and the temples of Hercules, and Theseus, and the Winds?

From the Forum we went to another public place; a triangular portico, half enclosing the ruins of an enormous temple. It is built on the edge of the hill overlooking the sea. That black point is the temple. In the apex of the triangle stands an altar and a fountain, and before the altar once stood the statue of the builder of the portico. Returning hence, and following the consular road, we came to the eastern gate of the city. The walls are of an enormous strength, and enclose a space of three miles.

On each side of the road beyond the gate are built the tombs. How unlike ours! They seem not so much hiding-places for that which must decay, as voluptuous chambers for immortal spirits. They are of marble, radiantly white; and two, especially beautiful, are loaded with exquisite bas-reliefs. On the stucco-wall that encloses them are little emblematic figures, of a relief exceedingly low, of dead and dying animals, and little winged genii, and female forms bending in groups in some funereal office.

The high reliefs represent, one a nautical subject, and the other a Bacchanalian one. Within the cell stand the cinerary urns, sometimes one, sometimes more. It is said that paintings were found within, which are now, as has been everything movable in Pompeii, removed, [Pg 51] and scattered about in royal museums. These tombs were the most impressive things of all. The wild woods surround them on either side; and along the broad stones of the paved road which divides them, you hear the late leaves of autumn shiver and rustle in the stream of the inconstant wind, as it were, like the step of ghosts.

The radiance and magnificence of these dwellings of the dead, the white freshness of the scarcely-finished marble, the impassioned or imaginative life of the figures which adorn them, contrast strangely with the simplicity of the houses of those who were living when Vesuvius overwhelmed them. I have forgotten the amphitheater, which is of great magnitude, tho much inferior to the Coliseum.

I now understand why the Greeks were such great poets; and, above all, I can account, it seems to me, for the harmony, the unity, the perfection, the uniform excellence, of all their works of art. They lived in a perpetual commerce with external nature, and nourished themselves upon the spirit of its forms. Their theaters were all open to the mountains and the sky.

Their columns, the ideal types of a sacred forest, with its roof of interwoven tracery, admitted the light and wind; the odor and the freshness of the country penetrated the cities.

Their temples were mostly upaithric; and the flying clouds, the stars, or the deep sky, were seen above. I had been half afraid to go to Verona, lest it should at all put me out of conceit with Romeo and Juliet. But, I was no sooner come into the old Market-place, than the misgiving vanished. It is so fanciful, quaint, and picturesque a place, formed by such an extraordinary and rich variety of fantastic buildings, that there could be nothing better at the core of even this romantic town; scene of one of the most romantic and beautiful of stories.

It was natural enough, to go straight from the Market-place, to the House of the Capulets, now degenerated into a most miserable little inn.

Noisy vetturini and muddy market-carts were disputing possession of the yard, which was ankle-deep in dirt, with a brood of splashed and bespattered geese; and there was a grim-visaged dog, viciously panting in a doorway, who would certainly have had Romeo by the leg, the moment he put it over the wall, if he had existed and been at large in those times. The orchard fell into other hands, and was parted off many years ago; but there used to be one attached to the [Pg 53] house—or at all events there may have been—and the Hat Cappello , the ancient cognizance of the family, may still be seen, carved in stone, over the gateway of the yard.

The geese, the market-carts, their drivers, and the dog, were somewhat in the way of the story, it must be confessed; and it would have been pleasanter to have found the house empty, and to have been able to walk through the disused rooms. But the Hat was unspeakably comfortable; and the place where the garden used to be, hardly less so. Besides, the house is a distrustful, jealous-looking house as one would desire to see, tho of a very moderate size. So I was quite satisfied with it, as the veritable mansion of old Capulet, and was correspondingly grateful in my acknowledgments to an extremely unsentimental middle-aged lady, the Padrona of the Hotel, who was lounging on the threshold looking at the geese.

From Juliet’s home, to Juliet’s tomb, is a transition as natural to the visitor, as to fair Juliet herself, or to the proudest Juliet that ever has taught the torches to burn bright in any time. It was a pleasure, rather than a disappointment, that Juliet’s resting-place was forgotten. However consolatory it may have been to Yorick’s Ghost, to hear the feet upon the pavement overhead, and, twenty times a day, the repetition of his name, it is better for Juliet to lie out of the track of tourists, and to have no visitors but such as come to graves in spring-rain, and sweet air, and sunshine.

Pleasant Verona! With its beautiful old palaces, and charming country in the distance, seen from terrace walks, and stately, balustraded galleries. With its Roman gates, still spanning the fair street, and casting, on the sunlight of to-day, the shade of fifteen hundred years ago. With its marble-fitted churches, lofty towers, rich architecture, and quaint old quiet thoroughfares, where shouts of Montagues and Capulets once resounded.

And made Verona’s ancient citizens Cast by their grave, beseeming ornaments, To wield old partisans. With its fast-rushing river, picturesque old bridge, great castle, waving cypresses, and prospect so delightful, and so cheerful! So well preserved, and carefully maintained, that every row of seats is there, unbroken. Over cer [Pg 55] tain of the arches, the old Roman numerals may yet be seen; and there are corridors, and staircases, and subterranean passages for beasts, and winding ways, above ground and below, as when the fierce thousands hurried in and out, intent upon the bloody shows of the arena.

Nestling in some of the shadows and hollow places of the walls, now, are smiths with their forges, and a few small dealers of one kind or other; and there are green weeds, and leaves, and grass, upon the parapet.

But little else is greatly changed. When I had traversed all about it, with great interest, and had gone up to the topmost round of seats, and turning from the lovely panorama closed in by the distant Alps, looked down into the building, it seemed to lie before me like the inside of a prodigious hat of plaited straw, with an enormously broad brim and a shallow crown; the plaits being represented by the four-and-forty rows of seats.

The comparison is a homely and fantastic one, in sober remembrance and on paper, but it was irresistibly suggested at the moment, nevertheless. Padua is an ancient city and exhibits a rather respectable appearance against the horizon with its bell-turrets, its domes, and its old walls upon [Pg 56] which myriads of lizards run and frisk in the sun.

Situated near a center which attracts life to itself, Padua is a dead city with an almost deserted air. Its streets, bordered by two rows of low arcades, in nowise recall the elegant and charming architecture of Venice.

The heavy, massive structures have a serious, somewhat crabbed aspect, and its somber porticos in the lower stories of the houses resemble black mouths which yawn with ennui.

We were conducted to a big inn, established probably in some ancient palace, and whose great halls, dishonored by vulgar uses, had formerly seen better company. It was a real journey to go from the vestibule to our room by a host of stairways and corridors; a map of Ariadne’s thread would have been needed to find one’s way back. Our windows opened upon a very pleasant view; a river flows at the foot of the wall—the Brenta or the Bacchiglione, I know not which, for both water Padua.

The banks of this watercourse were adorned with old houses and long walls, and trees, too, overhung the banks; some rather picturesque rows of piles, from which the fishermen cast their lines with that patience characteristic of them in all countries; huts with nets and linen hanging from the windows to dry, formed under the sun’s rays a very pretty subject for a water-color.

Nothing could be more monumentally classic. There are nothing but pillars, columnets, ovolos, and palm leaves of the Percier and Fontain kind, the whole very fine and lavish of [Pg 57] marble. What was most curious was some immense maps forming a tapestry and representing the different divisions of the world on an enormous scale.

This somewhat pedantic decoration gives to the hall an academic air; and one is surprized not to see a chair in place of the bar, with a professor in his gown in place of a dispenser of lemonade.

The University of Padua was formerly famous. In the thirteenth century eighteen thousand young men, a whole people of scholars, followed the lessons of the learned professors, among whom later Galileo figured, one of whose bones is preserved there as a relic, a relic of a martyr who suffered for the truth.

He is the “genius loci,” the Saint venerated above all others. He used to perform not less than thirty miracles each day, if Casanova [17] is to be believed.

Such a performance fairly earned for him his surname of Thaumaturge, but this prodigious zeal has fallen off greatly. Nevertheless, the reputation of the saint has not suffered, and so many masses are paid for at his altar that the number of the priests of the cathedral and of days in the year are not sufficient.

To liquidate the accounts, the Pope has granted permission, at the end of the year, for masses to be said, each, one [Pg 58] of which is of the value of a thousand; in this fashion Saint Anthony is saved from being bankrupt to his faithful devotees.

On the place which adjoins the cathedral, a beautiful equestrian statue by Donatello, in bronze, rises to view, the first which had been cast since the days of antiquity, representing a leader of banditti: Gattamelata, a brigand who surely did not deserve that honor.

But the artist has given him a superb bearing and a spirited figure with his baton of a Roman emperor, and it is entirely sufficient One thing which must not be neglected in passing through Padua is a visit to the old Church of the Arena, situated at the rear of a garden of luxuriant vegetation, where it would certainly not be conjectured to be located unless one were advised of the fact.

It is entirely painted in its interior by Giotto. Not a single column, not a single rib, nor architectural division interrupts that vast tapestry of frescoes. The general aspect is soft, azure, starry, like a beautiful, calm sky; ultramarine dominates; thirty compartments of large dimensions, indicated by simple lines, contain the life of the Virgin and of her Divine Son in all their details; they might be called illustrations in miniature of a gigantic missal.

Below these compositions of the purest religious feeling, a painted plinth shows the seven deadly sins symbolized in an ingenious manner, and other allegorical figures of a very good style; a Paradise and a Hell, subjects which [Pg 59] greatly imprest the minds of the artists of that epoch, complete this marvelous whole. There are in these paintings weird and touching details; children issue from their little coffins to mount to Paradise with a joyous ardor, and launch themselves forth to go to play upon the blossoming turf of the celestial garden; others stretch forth their hands to their half-resurrected mothers.

The remark may also be made that all the devils and vices are obese, while the angels and virtues are thin and slender.

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