I have conducted you away from the lake, without mentioning to you a ruin which is here called the baths of Diana. It is composed of several parts, but the principal is a large vault, formed in an excavation in the slope of the hills. It is a delightful retreat on a hot day, and commands a beautiful view over the lake, though the richness of the vegetation immediately surrounding, hides the water too much. There are some remains, supposed to be of Thermæ, at Albano, which in certain points of view form a fine mass, but I did not see anything characteristic of their destination. Just out of the town, on the road to Naples, is a monument, which has been called the tomb of the Curiatii, but it now seems rather the fashion to consider it a monument erected to Pompey. Nibby thinks it the sepulchre of Aruns, the son of Porsenna, who lost his life in an unsuccessful attack on Aricia; and attributes another tomb to Pompey, at the opposite end of Albano, which appears to have been a tower of three stories in height, cased with marble. His chief argument for each is, that he has found no testimony to the contrary among the ancient writers. Amongst other proofs that the edifice in question is the tomb of Aruns, he quotes Varro’s description of the tomb of Porsenna, as given by Pliny. This appears to have had some resemblance to the present monument, and gives a colour to suppose it an Etruscan edifice, but does not at all connect it with Aruns. It consists of a square basement, supporting five cones, one at each angle, and a larger one in the middle. The masonry is of rubble, formed of fragments of peperino bedded in mortar, and the outside has been covered with large square blocks of peperino. If it be really Etruscan, it would serve to shew that the Romans derived their usual mode of building, i. e. a rubble mass cased with squared stones or bricks, from that people. Farther on, we find the old Appian way, now no longer used, supported to a considerable height, on a wall built of peperino; and in its neighbourhood, some vestiges of the ancient Aricia; the modern town is placed above it.
On the 11th I walked along a very pleasant, and in general a shaded road, through Aricia, or La Riccia, to Genzano. La Riccia is a very picturesque town on the top of a rock, overlooking a little hollow of its own, which probably was once the crater of a volcano, afterwards a lake, and is now a fertile and cultivated valley. Genzano is on one of the points above the Lake of Nemi. The edge of these craters, as you may easily suppose, becomes in time broken down in various places, leaving some parts higher than the rest; and one of these remaining elevated portions of the circuit, gives a situation to Genzano. Here I left the high road to Naples, and kept the road to Nemi, on the north side of the lake, pursuing, for part of my route, an ancient Roman way. The lake is very beautiful, with woody banks mixed with cultivation, and a little valley, prolonged from its upper side, is richly cultivated; but though these volcanic lakes have their charms, they are generally inferior to the more varied forms of those which do not owe their origin to such a source. It is true that the steep bank which surrounds them is not everywhere of the same height, and is occasionally broken by an advancing mass of firmer rock; yet its continuity is sufficiently perfect to produce a degree of monotony; and whichever way you view it, it is still the same round basin, and cannot present those beautiful reaches which so much enhance the charm of some of our own lakes; nor can we expect the receding lines of mountains which indicate the continuation of the valley. But the still expanse of water reflecting the dark blue sky, the rich vegetation, the dark woods which cover the slopes, the magnificent trees which hang over the water, and the rugged points which start here and there from the edge of the crater, form a landscape in which you feel it impossible to be tired of wandering. Nemi itself stands on the highest and boldest of these rocky points, yet the soil looks more like a heap of cinders than a mass of solid stone. Between Nemi and Velletri, I lost my way in the woods which here overspread the country, but I reached the latter city in good time, and took up my quarters at an inn, which was once the palace of the Lancelotti family, and at the back of which is a noble open gallery, about 120 feet long, commanding a most magnificent view over a broad valley, of the nature of the Campagna, but not so wide, and with more cultivation and more wood; and of the Volscian mountains. More to the right are the Pontine marshes, (and these are not in general naked) the long slip of woody country which divides the Campagna and the marshes from the shore, Monte Circello, and the sea. As a considerable portion of the day still remained, I procured a horse to carry me to Cora; it had only one stirrup, which was very short, and very small; and to guide it, something more like a halter than a bridle, was fastened to the head of the animal; the saddle was high and peaked. Thus equipped, I set forth on my expedition on a paved road among vineyards. After some time the pavement ceased, and I passed among pastures, and corn-fields, slightly, or not at all enclosed, but where cultivation seemed to be rather extending itself, and by a little lake, and afterwards along a shady lane, deep in mud, though for some time we have had no rain. On reaching the foot of the mountains, and coasting them by a gradual ascent towards Cora, I found the road frequently to consist of a broken-up pavement; the worst of all possible tracks, but very frequent in the cross roads of Italy. The pavement is made and left; in rainy weather a little current is formed on one side or the other, or sometimes on both; and this undermines the external stones, which soon become loose, and are displaced; and by such a process, sometimes half, sometimes the whole pavement, is worn away; a few isolated fragments still are seen, the rest is an uncertain covering of large stones. A steep descent precedes the entrance into Cora, although the town occupies a high hill. I found the streets so steep and slippery, that I was glad to get off and lead my horse. When I had reached the inn, and put my horse in the stable, I desired the landlord to give him something to eat. He called out for some hay, and down came two trusses out of the two pair of stairs window. I walked up to the room from whence this supply came, and was surprised to find that it wanted some steps of the height of a court on the side of the house, and which afforded another entrance. This may give you some idea of the inequality of the ground. Just below the town is a deep ravine, or rather a cleft in the limestone rock, and the town itself is seated on a rocky hill, of a conical form, which rises immediately from the edge of this chasm. It is almost detached from the chain of Volscian mountains, though placed in a recess amongst them. “Cora è due paesi,” said a boy to me, holding up his thumb and forefinger. The Italians never mention a number under ten, without holding up their fingers, the thumb always occupying the first place; “uno di sotto e uno di sopra.” My inn was in the lower part of the lower town, although I had found the ascent to it so troublesome. The Temple of Hercules is in a convent at the top of the upper. The portico, which has four columns in front, and two in each flank, remains tolerably perfect, and though rather too small, and rather too slender in its proportions for the exalted situation it occupies, produces a very pleasing effect. The elevation of the columns in proportion to their diameter, is not at all displeasing when we are near the edifice; and if they were stuccoed, as was probably the case, the apparent diameter would have been somewhat larger. The smallness of the architrave is much more objectionable, and the abacus also is too small. The style, as well as the proportions, is between the Greek and Roman Doric, but the columns have bases, which are hardly to be found in any other example, either Greek or Roman. These bases are so much decayed, that one cannot venture to decide on the form of the mouldings, but I think there was no fillet. The pilaster capital differs from that of the column. In the lower town there are some remains of a temple of Castor and Pollux. It is of the Corinthian order, and the foliage is in the Greek style, and in, and about it are many portions of Cyclopean walls. A Roman bridge still exists over the deep and narrow chasm I have before mentioned, and in the chasm is a mill (not ancient), where corn is ground for the inhabitants of Cora, after heavy rains; but it is only in such circumstances that there is any water in the hollow. There are some cloisters of the middle ages in the church of Santa Olivia, which deserve to be looked at. They are in two stories, with twice as many arches in the upper as the lower, all resting upon columns; there is a good space between the stories, but it wants a little more ornament. In one church, the font is an ancient altar, with rams’ heads at the corners.
After looking over these antiquities on the evening of my arrival, and the following morning, I returned to Velletri. I had been able to get coffee for my breakfast at Cora, but no milk, which in a mountainous country rather surprised me; but for luncheon I obtained some ricotta, which is goat’s milk curd, boiled I believe, and pressed into little baskets. On the 13th I left the high road, and crossed the fields by a shorter path to Genzano. The scenery is delightful, but the heat was oppressive, for there was no wind, and the path is very much exposed to the sun. From Genzano, I descended to the lake of Nemi to look at the Emissario, which I had missed before, and which was hardly worth visiting, but some fine plane trees growing by the side of the water, and shading it by their spreading branches, very much embellished the scene.
The inn where I had before resided at Albano was full, but I found the other, which is the posthouse, equally good. A little while ago, some vases were said to be found under a bed of lava near Marino, but afterwards the story was so far changed, that instead of lava, the superincumbent bed was peperino. This peperino is certainly a volcanic production, and as there is no tradition among the nations of Italy connected with the Romans, that Monte Albano was an active volcano, an uncertain, but tremendous antiquity was assigned to these vases. On the other hand, although peperino be composed of volcanic substances, and sometimes, as on the borders of the lake of Albano, is certainly in the situation where it was left by the action of the fire, yet it is probable that in some cases the materials may have been acted upon by water, and consolidated in a new spot: even on this supposition we must consider them as the vestiges of a town prior to Alba Longa, which was itself destroyed by Tullus Hostilius in the first century of Rome. Bits of iron, resembling nails of different sizes, are said to have been found in the body of peperino, but there are many details of the circumstances of place, and condition, which have not been observed, and which cannot now be ascertained, the excavations in which the vases were found having been filled up; and this hasty destruction of evidence has thrown a suspicion on the story, for it may well be supposed that the urns were placed in some old hollow, or quarry, in this peperino. The number is considerable; they appear to be all sepulchral, and one great vase has contained several smaller ones. The largest of these included vases has the form of a hut, closed by a door which fastens by a little rod of brass, and they usually contain fragments of burnt bones, various ornaments, little models of shields, spears, &c., and one of a wheel; things apparently indicating the occupations of the deceased. They are all of rude workmanship; not all equally so, but we may doubt if the potter’s wheel was employed in the formation of any of them. Signor Visconti has published an account of them which has no merit, except towards the owner, a Signor Giuseppe Carnovale, who wants to sell the vases, and for whom this little work may serve as a puff. It is said that similar things have been found in Germany, and that these are therefore probably the productions of the middle ages. I left Albano on the 15th, at four o’clock in the morning, and arrived at Rome about half past seven. Nothing can be more delightful than the early hours of an Italian summer’s day, clear, bright, and fresh, without any oppressive sensation of heat.
Before I close this letter I must give you an account of another excursion, or rather of two excursions, each of a single day, down to Ostia. I do not undertake in these expeditions to describe everything that I see. Many of the objects are so similar that they would appear the same in description, though we always find difference enough to interest us in the reality. I might indeed have said something about the reservoir of Marius at Albano, and about the prætorian camp, attributed to Domitian, in the same neighbourhood, one of the stones of which is fifteen feet and a half long, and where Nibby is sure that there were four towers, for he saw traces of one of them; but I shall leave these, and a hundred other things which would scarcely interest you.
My first trip to Ostia was on the 15th of April, a fine frosty morning, when there was ice on the puddles and at the edges of the brooks, but elsewhere everything was dry and dusty. The corn on the hills began to look yellow for want of rain, but that in the valleys was strong and healthy, and the hawthorn was just coming into flower in spite of the frost, which has come this year so much after its usual time. The road follows the valley of the Tiber, which is bounded by low hills, descending pretty steeply towards the stream; sometimes close to the river, sometimes receding from it, and leaving a wide and fertile plain. In the first part of the way it is well cultivated, but thinly inhabited; farther on, cultivation diminishes, and ceases when we ascend an advancing and conspicuous point of these hills, and descend into the remains of the sacred wood. It is here mere brushwood, but at a distance to the left we may perceive plenty of large trees. The cutting down of this sacred wood is said to have occasioned the mal aria to extend much more about Rome; but this mal aria is a very mysterious affair, and many inconsistent stories are told about it. The letting in the sea breezes has ruined the country; yet the sea-shore is more healthy than the land immediately behind it. Within the walls of Rome some houses are said to be totally uninhabitable in the summer, while others, a hundred yards distant, because they are a little higher, a little farther from the Tiber, or from the country, or more surrounded by other houses, are pronounced entirely free. Out of Rome, and in the less inhabited parts within its walls, the hills are reckoned better than the valleys; but in modern Rome, the lower part of the city is more healthy than the upper. The Romans fancy that turning up the ground, in order to make a public garden on Monte Pincio, has made the street below it unhealthy. This mal aria occurs in the heats of summer, and in autumn, but this spring has been very unhealthy in Rome, and I believe, all over Italy. Among the numerous causes to which the mal aria is attributed, the alternation of hot days and cold nights, or rather perhaps, of hot sun and cold wind, is one; and we had a great deal of this during the months of March and April, but perhaps we shall find the root of the present disorder, rather in the scarcity of food, and the consequent bad nourishment of the people. The quantity of asphodel (Asphodelus ramosus) in this wood gives it a very un-English appearance. After passing the wood, the road lies for two or three miles across a marsh, comprising a large pool, or lake. These pieces of water in flat countries frequently have considerable beauty; but I do not think that a Norfolk Broad, though somewhat similar, would give you any adequate idea of this mere. It is of considerable size, and the dark shade of the woods of Castel Fusano, with trees of the stone pine rising over some gently swelling hills at the further end, formed a beautiful feature; while as we approached Ostia, the high hills of Albano united with this wood and water to compose a charming landscape.
The present town of Ostia is a miserable place, with a castle of the middle ages, which is certainly picturesque. The remains of the old city are at some distance; a large space of ground, all covered over with foundations and substructions. The principal building remaining is a rectangular brick edifice, probably a temple, in front of which was a portico; but the columns, and all the ornamental architecture, have been destroyed or taken away; some fragments still lying about, and others which have been removed to the Vatican, announce it to have been of a very beautiful Corinthian order; and both the style and execution correspond so precisely with the remains of the forum of Trajan at Rome, that I have no doubt in assigning it to the same period, and the same architect. A great deal of digging has been performed here at different times, but as usual, with the mere object of finding marbles or bronzes, without any regular system of operations, and without the precaution of making any exact plan of the foundations of buildings thus exposed and covered up again. On the other side of the principal branch of the Tiber are the remains of the port and basin of Trajan, now a shallow lake. It appears to have been a heptagonal basin of perhaps half a mile in diameter. The regularity of the form has been disturbed by time, but we may still trace the walls which surrounded it, and which indeed form a great part of its present boundary. Some of the marble posts to which the ships were moored, still remain; and there are fragments of what were probably warehouses, and buildings of that nature attached to this port. There is also a circular building which perhaps was a temple. The whole together was truly a magnificent undertaking, but whether it was a judicious one may perhaps be doubted. As a port, nature has declared against it, and it is destroyed, nor does there seem to have been any provision for keeping it clear.
From Ostia I walked down to the shore, among brushwood of a hundred flowering shrubs. The sand hills nearest the sea are chiefly covered with junipers. The sand itself is dark, and has a dirty look, arising from its colour; its material is chiefly volcanic. Herds of buffaloes graze in these woods, the ugliest of the ox tribe. They are said to be sometimes mischievous, and are therefore not very pleasant companions in a solitary walk; but though they frequently approached to stare at me, they always dispersed before I came very near them.
1826.