The road which continues in a straight line from hence passes, on the left, the Torre Tre Teste. The eighth mile-stone is of historic interest, being described by Livy (v. 49) as the spot where the dictator Camillus overtook and exterminated the army of Gauls who were retreating from Rome with the spoils of the Capitol.
At the ninth mile is the Ponte di Nono, a magnificent old bridge with seven lofty arches of lapis-gabinus. This leads (twelve miles from Rome) to the dried-up lake and the ruins of Gabii (Castiglione), including that of the temple of Juno Gabina.
"Quique arva Gabinæ
Junonis, gelidumque Anienem, et roscida rivis
Hernica saxa colunt."
Virgil, Æn. vii. 682.
The road which branches off on the left leads (twelve miles from Rome) to Lunghezza, the fine old castle of the Strozzi family, situated on the little river Osa. Hence a beautiful walk through a wood leads to Castello del Osa, the ruins of the ancient Collatia, so celebrated from the tragedy of Lucretia. Two miles beyond the Torre dei Schiavi, on the left, is the fine castellated farm of Cervaletto, a property of the Borghese. A field road of a mile and half, passing in front of this (practicable for carriages), leads to another fine old castellated farm (five miles from Rome), close to which are the extraordinary Grottoes of Cerbara,—a succession of romantic caves of great size, in the tufa rocks, from which the material of the Coliseum was excavated. Here the "Festa degli Artisti" is held in May, which is well worth seeing,—the artists in costume riding in procession, and holding games, amid these miniature Petra-like ravines. Beyond Cerbara are remains of a villa of Lucius Verus, and, on the bank of the Anio, the romantically-situated castle of Rustica.
From the Porta Maggiore we may follow a lane along the inside of the wall, crossing the railway—whence there is a picturesque view of the temple of Minerva Medica—to The Porta S. Lorenzo, anciently called the Porta Tiburtina (the road to Tivoli passes through it), built in 402, by the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, on the advice of Stilicho, as we learn from an inscription over the archway of the Marcian, Tepulan, and Julian Aqueducts, now half buried within the later brick gateway.
The road just beyond the gate is connected with the story of the favourite saint of the Roman people.
"When Sta. Francesca Romana had no resource but to beg for the sick under her care, she went to the basilica of S. Lorenzo fuori Mura, where was the station of the day, and seated herself amongst the crowd of beggars, who, according to custom, were there assembled. From the rising of the sun to the ringing of the vesper-bell, she sate there, side by side with the lame, the deformed, and the blind. She held out her hand as they did, gladly enduring, not the semblance, but the reality, of that deep humiliation. When she had received enough wherewith to feed the poor at home, she rose, and entering the old basilica, adored the Blessed Sacrament, and then walked back the long and weary way, blessing God all the while."—Lady G. Fullerton.
A quarter of a mile beyond the gate we come in sight of the church and monastery, but the effect is much spoilt by the hideous modern cemetery, formed since the following description was written:—
"S. Lorenzo is as perfect a picture of a basilica externally, as S. Clemente is internally. Viewing it from a little distance, the whole pile—in its grey reverend dignity—the row of stones indicating the atrium, with an ancient cross in the centre—the portico overshadowing faded frescoes—the shelving roof, the body-wall bulging out and lapping over, like an Egyptian temple—the detached Lombard steeple—with the magic of sun and shadow, and the background of the Campagna, bounded by the blue mountains of Tivoli—together with the stillness, the repose, interrupted only by the chirp of the grasshopper, and the distant intermitted song of the Contadino—it forms altogether such a scene as painters love to sketch, and poets to re-people with the shadows of past ages; and I open a wider heaven for either fraternity to fly their fancies in, when I add that it was there the ill-fated Peter de Courtenay was crowned Emperor of the East."—Lord Lindsay, Christian Art.
"To St. Laurence was given a crown of glory in heaven, and upon earth eternal and universal praise and fame; for there is scarcely a city or town in all Christendom which does not contain a church or altar dedicated to his honour. The first of these was built by Constantine outside the gates of Rome, on the spot where he was buried; and another was built on the summit of the hill, where he was martyred; besides these, there are at Rome four others; and in Spain the Escurial, and at Genoa the Cathedral."—Mrs. Jameson.