Some way down, a viaduct supported by three broad arches comes out beside the stone-edged brick steps, while transversely right and left are stone walls; that on the right is high and massive, and from its grey-green stones were hanging long garlands of white-blossomed caper plant.
Beyond, just before the wall joins some old stone houses, we saw a little pergola covered with the tender green of the vine. From the deep hollow into which the steps descend the town rises up in front, and as we go down, the old houses on our left, with gardens and orchards, stand at a great height above us, looking black against the glowing sky.
VIA APPIA AND TOWN.
From this viaduct is an extended view over many curious roofs covered with semicircular tiles, frosted with gold and silver lichens and patches of green moss. First comes a series of gardens, green with vines and fig-trees; beyond these, among the grey houses and trees, appears the great modern building of the University. Beyond it is the silk factory of Count Faina; behind all are the purple hills.
Instead of crossing the viaduct we went down to the bottom of the seemingly interminable brick staircase, catching sight through the viaduct arches on the left of a succession of pictures: cottages backed by trees with children in front at play, all in a vivid effect of light and shade, framed in by the low, broad arches.
This brought us finally on to a road leading back into the town, spanned on the left by another broad arch of the viaduct. Through this a group of feathered acacias glowed golden-green in the sunshine against picturesque houses backed by the hills.
The pointed arch on the right looks quaint, from the contrast of its huge grey stones and small many-shaped windows, mostly open; some of them gay with scarlet flowers; one window had a faded green curtain, drawn half across; a bird-cage hung outside it. Behind the curtain the olive-hued face of a woman peeped out.
Through the arch was a strong effect of golden light and blue-purple shadow; while we looked behind, there came a donkey, driven by a merry-eyed, bare-footed lad, dragging a cart heaped with brushwood. A little way on along the road is the mosaic pavement discovered several years ago in some Roman baths. The pavement is in singularly good preservation, and the design is very remarkable. Orpheus, a colossal black figure on a white ground, sits with outstretched arm, while a lion, a tiger, an elephant, a hippopotamus, stags, a rhinoceros, a horse, birds of various kinds, a snail, a monkey, a tortoise, and other creatures are drawn towards him from all sides.