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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.
Since the enormous increase of taxation, poverty has been more felt, though the town has suffered less than the country. Formerly also, though want often existed, starvation was unknown, as every thoroughly needy person could obtain help at the convents. Little, however, is needed to sustain life at Naples, and there are thousands who consider a dish of beans at midday to be sumptuous fare, while the horrible condiment called pizza made of dough baked with garlic, rancid bacon, and strong cheese is esteemed a feast.
The English are apt to talk a great deal about the idleness of Neapolitans, either from legends which they have heard of the Lazzaroni, or because they are only acquainted with the natives as they are seen in the English quarter. But no European town presents a busier or more industrious aspect than Neapolitan Naples, and if the country people are not at work it is because they have nothing to do, for the land is so rich that for the greater part of the year it takes care of itself.
Every one in the town who is not working, and as many as possible of those who are, spend the day in the open air, encumbering the narrow streets with their chairs, lathes, or carpenters' tables, or cobblers' stalls.
Everybody seems to be amused, and occupies himself in amusing his neigh- bours. The Neapolitan believes himself to be in possession of Paradise, and entertains a poor opinion of our northern lands — " Sempre neve, casa di legno, gran ignoranza, ma denari assai. The old historic NAPLES 25 Neapolitan names have also been changed to Piedmontese appel- lations, which are meaningless here, and even the " larghi," "strade," "vichi," "calate," so characteristic of Naples, have become " piazze," "vie," " vicoli.
Many of the national characteristics of the lower classes have disappeared since the union of Naples with the ItaUan kingdom : but a few remain. Crowds stiU listen on the quays to ImproW- satori or to men in rags who recite whole cantos of Orlando Furioso to a dehghted audience, which will adjourn afterwards to admire the antics of PolicineUa.
The Acquaiuoli stiU shout : Scrivani Pubblici, or public letter-writers, still pursue their avocation in the arcades near the Piazza del Municipio : the Caprajo still drives his goats twice a day through the streets, and milks them under your windows, or on your staircase : men still become frantic over Morra : women still dance the Tarantella but for money to a tambourine in the temples of Baiae : and Mangia ilaccaroni, or maccaroni-eaters, still devour for money , as represented in the Pompeian frescoes, an in- credible amount of maccaroni at Sorrento and Amalfi.
Toilettes are still performed in the public street, and it is still common to see a group of young girls, in picturesque attitudes, busy toileting each other's hair. But the Calessini no longer dash along the Mergellina as they did in the ewl time of the Bourbons, with from twenty to twenty-four passengers inside, and a beggar or tivo taking the air and the dust for half a grano in the net underneath, the single horse going faster the more it was pulled, and being stopped by a hiss.
The King of the Thieves no longer holds his sway unmolested, and is no longer bargained with for enforcing the restoration of articles stolen by his subjects. Those best known to strangers were content to do nothing but lie in the sun.
In his Majesty was still supreme, and undertook to obtain the restoration of a watch for the author within twenty-four hours. Tout leur corps, ainsi que leur visage, est d'un rouge fonce ; ils ressembleut k d'effrayants sauvages," — Memoires de Madame de Genlis, iii. The better class of Lazzaroni were those of the port, who were for the most part hard-working and industrious, though their especial metier was to cheat, and they were often excessively violent.
Intensely superstitious, they were always ready to take up arms in defence of their saints, if they thought that their festas or shrines were endangered ; but they were also loyal subjects of their king, and, in , defended the town for two days against the French, with great self-sacrifice and courage.
The familiarity between servants and masters in Naples will astonish visitors from the north, as well as the dirtiness and laziness of Neapolitan servants, who almost universally refuse to do any kind of work except exactly that for which they are engaged. The best servants in Naples are all imported from North Italy.
Almost more lazy still than the servants are the Neapolitan workmen, who insist upon a siesta of two hours after their dinner, for which they exact freedom at mezzogiomo. The very exercise of speech seems burdensome to these dwellers " in otia natam Parthenopen," and a monosyllable is usually all the answer which a question will obtain.
Shopping in Naples is an unutterably wearisome and laborious occupation. The shopkeepers are often rude, and, at best, Neapolitans always begin by asking four times as much as they intend to take, and yet, as Mark Twain says, if you give them what they first demand, they are ashamed of themselves for aiming so low, and immediately ask for more.
The sale of articles in coral and tortoiseshell, of views of Naples in guache, and of terra-cotta copies of the statues in the museums usually broken in transport , are the most respectable industries : as to the " antiques," they are almost always of modern manufacture, Naples abounds in benevolent institutions, of which the most remarkable are the Hospital of the Incurabili ; the Foundling Hospital of L'Annunziata ; the Workhouse called the Reclu- sorio or Serraglio ; the Blind Asylum ; the Lunatic Asylum ; and the Home for Penitents, called the Angelo Custode.
One morning at least should be devoted to the numerous churches scattered through the labyrinthine streets of the old town, though their interest is entirely confined to their monu- ments, the buildings themselves, as Forsyth observes, being " for the most part mere harlequins in marble. With the best map or directions it will be next to impossible for a stranger to fipd NAPLES 27 his way on foot through the featureless streets all exactly like each other, and he will at first be utterly confused by the in- cessant noise of every kind.
As a central point, let us find ourselves in the Largo della Vittoria, which may now be considered the centre of the strangers' quarter. On the north-east the busy Strada di Chiaja leads to the heart of the town. On the west are the gates of the Villa Nazionale, the small existing remnant of the Villa Reale which was laid out by the Duke of Medina in as a garden over- hanging the sea, with exquisite views towards the Castel del Ovo, Vesuvius, and the mountains above Paestum.
Once the most enchanting of resorts, this garden possessed many quiet shady boschetti, as well as sunny walks, where invalids could enjoy the fountains and flowers. But these are destroyed since the union, and the Villa Nazionale bordered on the north by the Chiaja is now a well-kept promenade with a fine view, encircled by noisy high-roads.
The most conspicuous object in the gardens is the granite basin of a fountain from Paestum, which long stood in the forecourt of the cathedral at Salerno. A band plays near this in the afternoons. Turning left from the Largo della Vittoria, by the Chiatamone, a terrace of handsome houses under the rock called Pizzofalcone, we reach the approach to the Castel del Ovo where Odoacer imprisoned the last Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, in the Castrum Lucullanum , the most picturesque object in Naples, occupying the island which Plinyspeaksof asMegaris, andStatius as Megalia, now connected with the mainland by a bridge.
In the fourth century, being given by Constantine to the Church, the island became called Isola di S. The castle was begim in 11 54 by Maestro Buono for William I. Within these wails Queen Helena, the unhappy widow of Manfred, was imprisoned by Charles, with her children who had been bom there. Joanna I. It was restored in We now enter the Strada 5. Luda — so familiar from the fisher song, a terrace overhanging the sea, having irregularly built houses on the left, with shops for coral, lava, and photographs.
Here we have our first glimpse of Neapolitan life in the oddly filled stalls of the shell vendors, and in the fish, fruit, and lemon- ade sellers.
A pretty fountain near the sea was the work of Giovanni da Nola and Domenico d'Auria. The Strada dei Giganti ascends a little rising ground, and we find ourselves in the wide dusty modem Piazza del Plebiscito called Largo del Palazzo Reale till i], with its glaring semi- circle of white colunms converging to the Church of S.
To the left, beyond the colonnade, the crowded Strada di Chiaja leads at the back of Pizzofalcone, under the arch called Ponte di Chiaja, to the Piazza da' Martiri, which has a column com- memorating those killed in the four revolutions of , , , i This is the shortest means of communication with the English quarter. Facing the church, with the appearance of a royal country villa, is the grey and red Palazzo Reale, formerly called La Reggia, originally built in by Domenico Fontana for the Viceroy Count de Lemos, but burnt down in and rebuilt in 1 84 1.
The interior is shown, but is little worth seeing, though there is a fine staircase. Here also Queen Caroline took leave of her court before her second flight into Sicily from the French. If desired, the porter 30 c.
Behind the palace on the north is the world-famous Teatro S. Carlo, built by Charles III. It disputes with the Scala at Milan the reputation of being the largest theatre in Europe. Under the portico, public letter-writers still pursue their trade, though it has fallen off. Beyond the theatre, at the gate of the little palace garden, are two bronze statues of horse-tamers, by Baron Clodt, given to Ferdinand II. Hence we enter right the Piazza del Municipio, formerly Largo del Castello, full of petty theatres and booths for popular amusement.
The perpetual noise is such as no words can describe, " Napoletani maestri in schiamazzare. On the right is the vast and gloomy Castel Nuovo, the Bastilc of Naples. The details are by the Milanese Pietro di Martitio. The virtues of Alphonso are displayed by allegorical figures above a second arch, and the whole is crowned by statues of S.
Michael, S. Anthony, and S. Beneath the attic is inscribed — " Alphonsus rex Hispanus Siculus Italicus plus clemens invictus. Embedded in the bronze is a cannon-ball fired in the time of Gonsalvo da Cordova. Hence we enter a four-sided court, containing the Church of S. Bar- bara, the patroness of soldiers custode right of triumphal arch, 50 c , approached through a beautiful portal by Mattia Forti- mani, A statuette of the Madonna and Child is by F. The ciborium is by G. Delia Pila, 1. Behind the choir is an admirable winding staircase of the fifteenth century, with travertine steps, leading to the campanile.
It was in the great hall of the castle, called Sala di S. Luigi now an armoury , that Pope Celestine V. On the opposite side of the tramway, with a descent of five steps from the road level under Gothic arches is the little Church of S. Maria I'Incoronata open from 8 to 12 , built by Joanna I.
The much-faded Sienese frescoes on the vaulting are believed to be the work of Roberto di Oderisio. They represent the Seven Sacraments of the Church,. Central arch, right. Behind the queen are her related ladies, behind Louis the priests. A violin player is vigorously at work, and the Court underneath is dancing the wedding dance. The figures in the foreground have perished.
Left behind. Left over door. Left of the round tvindou;. That Pietro was the architect was stated on his gravestone, formerly in S. Petrarch extols the latter in one of his epistles : " Si in terram exeas cappellam regis intrare non omiseris, in quacontera- neus olim mens Giottus pictor nostri aevi princeps magna reliquit manus et ingenii monumenta.
The church contains many votive offerings. At the end of the left aisle is the Cappella del Crocefisso, containing some ruined frescoes of the fourteenth century, by Gennaro da Cola. Opposite the Incoronata are a modern statue of Francesco Saverio, and the Palazzo Fondi, by Vanvitelli, containing a small collection of pictures. In this neighbourhood the last of the Lazzaroni may be seen basking in the sun.
The Strada del Piliero skirts the Porto Grande, used for merchandise. A hand- some fountain stands near it, close against the sea. Hence, by skirting the Molo Piccolo, we reach the Via Marina, which runs along the shore, with beautiful views towards Vesuvius on one side, and S.
Elmo on the other. The town also looks its best from hence — " Oncle dal porto suo parea inchinarc La Regina del mar, la Dea del Mare. Pietro Martire, founded by Charles II. At the sides of the choir are sarcophagus tombs in the wall to Isabella di Chiaramonte, first wife of Ferdinand II.
In the right transept are two fine decora- tive figures by Santa Croce, and the expressive tomb of the lawyer Antonio Saverio Patrizi, Outside the entrance now removed to the museum was a curious ex-voto relief, dedicated to the Holy Trinity by Franceschino da Brignole, in gratitude for having been twice preserved from drowning when his com panions were lost.
Maria del Carmine, of which the handsome red-and-grey tower is a conspicuous feature. Here Masaniello who had his stronghold and was executed in the adjoining Castello del Car- mine in is said, but without evidence, to be buried. The original church on this site is said to have been founded by Margaret of Bavaria, daughter-in-law of Frederick II.
The murdered prince lies behind the high altar, under a stone marked R. Regis Corradini Corpus , but he is commemorated in a beautiful statue, modelled by Thorwaldsen, and executed by Schopf of Munich in , for Maximilian II.
The two reliefs on the pedestal by Schopf represent the parting of Conradin from his mother in the Tyrol, and that at the foot of the scaffold from his bosom friend, Frederick of Baden, who already married, and three years older than Conradin, had been his companion from childhood, and was executed with him.
Mais il n'etait plus temps. Lorsqu'eUe aborda a Naples, Conradin etait mort. L'archeveque la recut avec respect et lui apprit que desormais tout etait fini pour elle. Alors I'infortunee ne demanda qu'une grace : elle voulut elever un monument a celui qu'elle pleurait, sur le lieu meme o'u il avait peri. Charles n'y consentit point, seule- ment il autorisa I'erection d'une eglise sur la place publique temoin de I'attentat, et, pour I'expier, il assigna des sommes considerables qui, jointes k I'inutile rangon, attesterent a la fois les regrets d'une mere inconsolable et les remords tardifa d'un vaiaqueur sans pitie.
Louis, that the champion of the Church, after a mock trial, by the sentence of one judge, Robert di Lavena — after an unanswerable pleading by Guido di Suzaria, a famous jurist — had condemned the last heir of the Swabian house — a rival king, who had fought gallantly for his hereditarj- throne — to be executed as a felon and a rebel on a public scaffold.
So little did Conradin dread his fate, that when his doom was announced, be was playing at chess with Frederick of Austria. Queens of the Middle Ages lost their title by a second marriage. Every circumstance aggravated the abhorrence : it was said — perhaps it was the invention of that abhorrence — that Robert of Flanders, the brother of Charles, struck dead the judge who had presumed to read the iniquitous sentence.
When Conradin knelt, with uplifted hands, awaiting the blow of the executioner, he uttered these last words : ' O my mother!
With Conradin died his young and valiant friend, Frederick of Austria, the two Lancias, and two of the noble house of Donaticcio of Pisa. The adjoining "Piazza, del Mercato, where a great market is held on Mondays and Fridays, is a spot where strangers may well study Neapolitan life amongst the lower orders, and where artists may find plenty of subjects amongst the booths, the pretty stalls of the lemonade- vendors, hung with bright festoons of lemons like pictures of Girolamo dai Libri, and the groups of women round the three fountains.
Of these, the largest is called Fontana di Masaniello, for it is here that, in , the young fisherman Tommaso Aniello — Masaniello — roused to fury by the fact of his young wife having been fined a hundred ducats for trying to smuggle three pounds of flour into Naples in a stocking to evade the octroi, first roused the people to the revolution, which led to his sovereignty of eight days, which ended in his early death.
The scaffold, called LaMadaja, was appropriately erected in front of the Vico del Sospiro. It was here that Conradin was beheaded, October 29, On the north of the piazza stands the gay and thoroughly Neapolitan Cappella della Croce, where, in the second sacristy entered at the end of the right wall , are preserved the carved block of stone on which Conradin suffered, and the porphyry pillar, supporting an ancient crucifix, which formerly stood on the site of the scaffold, commemorating the treachery of Giovanni Frangipani, Lord of Astura, by whom the young prince was captured and betrayed, in the inscription — " Asturis ungue leo pullum rapiens aquillinum Hie deplumavit, acephalumque dedit," a horrible play upon the word astur vulture and the castle of Astura, near Porto d'Anzio.
The block and cross, however, are the most interesting existing memorials of Conradin ; the church, with its statue and inscription, are all of recent date. On the south-west of the piazza, near an old stone cross, is the Church of S. Eligio S. Loo — the patron of workers in metal , with a beautiful Gothic porch of the fourteenth century and a statue of the saint.
A gate crosses the narrow street below the church, and, upon it, two heads, below the clock, record the romantic administration of justice upon this spot by the Regent Isabella of Aragon, daughter of Alphonso I. Annunziata founded by King Robert in and rebuilt , of white marble, under Vanvitelli.
The proportions of the interior are fine. Near the high altar is a good work of Spagnoletto, and at its foot is the bare grave-stone of Queen Joanna II. It is in accord- ance vfiih a clause in her will that the queen is buried " under a flat stone. Turning west from the gate, we find, in the street of the same name, S. Agostino della Zecca, founded by Charles I. The third chapel on the right contains the tomb of Francesco Coppola, Count of Samo, treacherously beheaded, after his safety had been guaranteed, with Antonello Petrucci in front of the Castel Nuovo, for the " Conspiracy of the Barons " against Ferdinand I.
The sons of Petrucci were beheaded in the Largo del Mercato. The pulpit is very richly sculptured. In the cloister, now full of shrubs and flowers, brick is intermingled with the handsome grey stonework with admirable effect. Returning to the long Piazza del Municipio, we find on our right the Palazzo del Municipio, built : in the vestibule are statues of Ruggiero Roger I. On the left of the Strada S.
Giacomo, the carriage should be stopped in front of a large building ynth. Here, on the left, an obscure door and passage will admit us to S.
On the right of the entrance is a Holy Family of Andrea del Sarto — " a beautiful and genuine picture.
Statues of Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance stand at the comers of the enriched pedestal, which supports a square sjir- cophagus, adorned with reliefs illustrative of the victories of the viceroy, — " overcrowded, ill-composed pictures in stone.
Following the Strada S. Giacomo, we find ourselves imme- diately in the main artery of Naples, which has borne for centuries the high-sounding ever-memorable name of Toledo, now changed to the indistinctive Strada di Roma. The street was opened by the magnificent Viceroy, Don Pedro di Toledo, and leads from the Piazza del Plebiscito to the Museum, a distance of about a mile and a half.
L'aristocratie y passe en voiture, la bourgeoisie y vend ses etofifes, le peuple y fait sa sieste. Pour le noble, c'est une promenade ; pour le marchand un bazar ; pour le lazzarone, un domicile. The crowd of London is uniform and intelligible : it is a double line in quick motion ; it is the crowd of business. The crowd of Naples consists in a general tide rolling up and down, and, in the middle of this tide, of a hundred eddies of men.
Here you are swept on by the current, there you are wheeled round by the vortex. A diversity of trades dispute with you in the streets. You are stopped by a carpenter's bench, you are lost among shoe- makers' tools, you dash among the pots of a macaroni-stall, and you escape behind a lazzarone's night-basket. In this region of caricature every bargain sounds like a battle ; the popular exhibitions are full of the grotesque ; some of the church- processions would frighten a war-horse.
From the widening in the street called Piazza Poerio, a direct way leads left to S. Martino and the castle of S. On the right, the Strada della Corsea leads to S. Maria la Nuova, originally built by Giovanni da Pisa in , on the site of the watch-tower Mastria,but restored hy Franco in It consists of a nave, transept, and twelve chapels. It is approached by a handsome staircase. The interior is covered with paintings, the best being figures of the Franciscan theologians — Bona- ventura.
We may also observe : 1st Chapel, r. Ciro, " Medico, Eremita, Martire. A beautiful Tuscan work of the fifteenth century, in which the statue of S. Chiara especially deserves notice. On the last pillar, an Annunciation. High Altar. Maria del Palazzo in the Castel Nuovo. The frescoes of the choir ceiling are by Simone Papa the Younger. On one side is a handsome monument of the Triventi family, of The nobly chivalrous epitaphs are by Paolo Giovio.
The tomb on the right is that of Pierre de Navarre, general under Francis I. The adjoining convent has beautiful cloisters, always acces- sible, and where the picturesque well, and the prolusion of orange and lemon trees, with their bright green relieved against the arches, will afford " subjects " to an artist. In the ex-refectory are frescoes possibly by the two Neapolitan Donzelli, though Crowe and Cavalcaselle rather ascribe them to such an Umbrian painter as Francesco da Tolentino.
Its frieze formerly bore an inscription declaring that he built his house " sibi, suisque, et amicis omnibus. On the left, at the back of the piazza, is the Church of Monte Oliveto S.
In the vestibule is the tomb of Domenico Fontana, , the architect of Sixtus V. The entrance is a fine specimen of Renais- sance work. From the Tuscan art treasures it contains this is one of the churches best worth visiting in Naples.
The help of the sacristan in opening the chapels is indispensable. We should especially notice : R. John — the sleeping Joseph is especially beautiful. Over the altar is an exquisite Annunciation by Benedetto da Majano with scenes from the lives of the Saviour and the Virgin beneath On the left of the altar is the tomb of Marino Curiale himself, with an inscription by King Alphonso I.
Reached by a passage from hence is the C. His figures, though grotesque, are dramatic and expressive, like living persons transformeid into clay. John, kneeling. In the Ante-Chapel are good fifteenth-century tombs, including the curious monu- ment of Antonio and Maddalena de' Alessandri. The frescoes are by Giorgio Vasari.
On the end wall right is that of Alphonso II. The frescoes of the Life of S. Benedict are by? Simone Papa the Younger. All around are tombs. 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 lunette is very beautiful. Only the genii on the sarcophagus are somewhat constrained. In the Monastery of Monte Oliveto, now public offices, Tasso was kindly received during his sickness in , and he wrote part of his Gerusalemme here, though without much hope of completing it — " In una eta gia inclinata, in una complessione stemperata, in un' animo perturbato, in una fortuna adversa, poco si pu sperare senza miglioramento, e molto temere che'l fine de' miei travagli non debba esser la prosperity, ma la morte.
The entrance and staircase are from designs of Fansaga. A little farther north the Toledo widens into the Piazza Dante, containing the Gymnasium, and a modern Statue of Dante. Trinita, adorned with an obelisk called Guglia della Concezione, erected in honour of the Virgin, , by Gensino Bottigheri. Opposite, is the Church of Gesu Nuovo, or S. Trinita Maggiore, the great church of the Jesuits. The interior is well propor- tioned, and magnificent in decoration.
The fa9ade was brought from elsewhere, and is earher. Transept, Chapel of S. Opposite II Gesu Nuovo. Chiara, which contains the most beautiful Giottesque fresco left in Naples — of the Miracle of the Loaves, painted here as a symbol of Franciscan charity : the arms of King Robert and his second wife, Sancia, appear on the border. The Saviour, seated between two palms, blesses the bread-baskets which the disciples have placed at His feet. In the foreground are S.
Chiara with her garland, and S. Francis with his bag for bread on his shoulder. Apply to N. Jovine, 13 Piazza S. Under a projecting green porch on the right of the Strada S. Trinita ilaggiore is the entrance to the court which contains the Church of S. The exterior of the church is, for the most part, in Gothic of the fourteenth century, and has almost the aspect of a fortress. The detached tower which was fortified by the Spanish troops in the insurrection of Masaniello in was intended to consist of five storeys illustrative of the five orders of architecture, but the death of King Robert cut it short, and it was built after The interior, overlaid with gaudy decorations in the eighteenth century, has entirely lost its French-Gothic character, and re- sembles rather a baU-room than a church.
The two fine " tortili," or twisted columns, beside the altar, were made in Rome for Frederick II. Maria di Monte. King Robert brought them here to Naples 13 The large central picture of the ceiling representing David dancing before the ark and the Queen of Sheba, is a work of the Neapolitan Conca.
Nevertheless, as the burial-place of its great dead, S. Chiara is one of the most interesting churches in Naples. We may observe : L. Over the Entrance. The masterpiece of Tino da Camaino.
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. Geo map reference ThoughtSpot recognizes and supports a broad list of geographic regions and their subdivisions. Download the supported geo maps CSV file You can download a CSV file that contains all supported values for geo map countries, codes, and subdivisions.
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- The Project Gutenberg eBook of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, by Various.
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