About six miles from Montefiascone, a few paces to the right of the main road, is a bath called Naviso, in the middle of a wide plain. It is three or four miles distant from the nearest hill, and the outflow has formed a little lake, at one end of which is to be seen a strong spring of hot water boiling up briskly. It smells of sulphur, having a scum on the surface and a white sediment. On one side of this spring is a pipe which conveys the water to two baths in a house near by. This, the only bath-house in the place, has numerous chambers, but they are very bad. I fancy, however, that few people come here. The water may be drunk for seven days, ten pounds per diem, but before it is taken it must be left some time to get cool, as at the baths of Preissac.[98] The patients bathe in addition.
This house and the bath belong to a church, and is let for fifty crowns per annum. The bath is likewise of great use to the sick people who come here in the spring of the year, and the man who hires it sells a quantity of the mud taken from the bath, which mud, when dissolved in hot oil, is good for the itch in human beings, and for scabby dogs and cattle, when diluted with water. The price of this mud when sold on the spot is two giulios a load, but they sell it also in dried balls for seven quattrini apiece. We saw here a lot of dogs belonging to Cardinal Farnese, which had been sent here for the bath.
Three miles farther on we came to Viterbo, and our arrival here was so ill-timed that we were forced to take dinner and supper together. I was hoarse and had a bad cold through having slept in my clothes last night on a table at S. Lorenzo, by reason of the vermin, a misadventure which only befell me at Florence and this place. At Viterbo the people eat a sort of acorn which they call gensole;[99] it is found in various other parts of Italy and is pleasant to taste. Starlings are so plentiful that they are to be had for one baiocco each.
On Thursday, September 28th, I went in the morning to see some other baths near this place, situated in a plain in a remote spot some distance from the hills.[100] Formerly there were two separate buildings used as baths, not very long ago, but these have perished through neglect. There is a rank smell throughout the place. All that now remains is a cabin containing a small spring of hot water which forms a pool for bathers. This water is odourless, with an insipid taste, and not over-warm. It seemed to me to contain iron, and it is occasionally drunk. Farther on is what they call the Palace of the Pope, the story being that Pope Nicolas either built or restored it.[101] Below this palace, in a deep hollow, three separate springs of hot water rise from the earth, one of which serves for drinking, having a moderate warmth, no smell, but somewhat sharp on the palate. I believe it contains much nitre. I came here with the view of taking the waters for three days, the quantity taken being just the same as in other places. Exercise is used after drinking, and they set great store on sweating.
This water is held in high esteem, and quantities of it are carried all over Italy; and the physician, who has written a treatise on the potable water of the baths of Italy, gives it the first place, commending it especially for diseases of the kidneys. It is usually drunk in May. I gathered faint hope of making a cure when I read an inscription on the wall, written by a certain man who cursed his physician for having sent him to such a place, and affirmed that he had suffered much ill from his stay there. Moreover, the proprietor hinted to me that I had come too late in the season, and certainly did not urge me to take the waters.
There is only one lodging-house, but it is large and well arranged, and situated only about a mile and a half from Viterbo, so I went thither on foot. There are three or four baths of various properties, and in addition provision for the douche. This water throws up a white scum, which hardens readily and becomes solid like ice, making a crust on the surface of the water. If a linen cloth be dipped therein, it will quickly become loaded with this scum and quite stiff. This substance is sold into other parts for use in cleansing the teeth, and when chewed it has no more taste than earth or sand; indeed, the composition thereof is reputed to be the same as that of marble, in which case it might well harden in the kidneys. It is said, however, that the water which is exported in bottles has no sediment and remains quite clear. I imagine it may be drunk in any quantity, and that the sharpness before-named may give it a certain savour and make it easier to swallow.
On my way back, I went over the same plain, which stretches out to great length and is eight miles wide, to see the place where the people of Viterbo (who are all either workers or traffickers with no gentlemen amongst them) collect the flax and hemp, the working of which is their chief industry, and found none but men employed, the women taking no part in the work. There was a vast quantity of material, and many craftsmen busy around a lake of water, which is boiling hot all the year round, and is said to be fathomless. From this lake they have formed other pools of warm water in which they put their hemp and flax to steep.[102]
On Saturday, Saint Michael’s Day, I went after dinner to visit the Madonna del Cerquio,[103] a church about a mile outside the city. The road thither is a very fine one, level and straight and planted with trees from one end to the other, the work of the Farnese Pope.[104] The church itself is very fine, full of evidences of devotion and innumerable ex votos. On the wall is the Latin inscription, some hundred years old, telling how a certain man, having been attacked by robbers and half-killed, sought refuge in an oak tree, upon which was set the image of the Madonna now preserved here, and offered his prayers thereto. By a miracle the Madonna made him invisible, and thus he escaped a most pressing danger; and from this miracle arose this particular worship of the Madonna. The present magnificent church was built near where the oak stood, and the trunk of the oak tree, cut off low down, may yet be seen; and the part to which the image was fixed, together with the branches, is hung up on the wall.
On Saturday the last day of September I left Viterbo in the morning and took the road to Bagnaia, a place belonging to Cardinal Gambaro, richly embellished, especially with fountains, in respect of which it not only equals but outdoes places like Pratolino and Tivoli.[105] In the first place the fountains here all run with fresh spring water, which is not the case at Tivoli, and the supply is so abundant—at Pratolino it is very scanty—that they have been able to make all sorts of devices therewith. Messer Tomaso da Siena, who designed the fountains at Tivoli, or at any rate the principal ones, is still engaged on these, which are unfinished, and in this, his latest work, he has touched the highest point of art and beauty and grace, by adding continually some fresh design to the original. There is a lofty pyramid, from which three thousand jets of this matchless water gush forth in all kinds of different ways, some ascending, others descending, and round the pyramid are four beautiful basins full of clear fresh water. In the middle of each is a little boat fashioned in stone, each one manned with two arquebusiers and a trumpeter, who shoot water through their instruments on to the pyramid. Round about are most lovely walks furnished with seats made of fine stone and carved with most exquisite art. Other portions of the place may seem more delightful to other people; for instance, the palace itself, small, but well kept and pleasant. For myself, however, I maintain that this place far outshines any other in turning water to use and beauty. The cardinal was not there, but being francesco at heart as he was Francesco by name, his people in charge of the palace showed me the greatest courtesy and friendship.
From this place we followed the direct road and came to Caprarola, the palace of Cardinal Farnese, and the most famous in all Italy.[106] I have seen nothing in this country to be compared with it. The upper part of the structure is in the form of a terrace built so that the tiled roof is invisible. It is pentagonal in shape, but has all the look of being a square. The interior is a perfect circle with wide corridors running round, arched and painted all over. The mass of building is immense, all the chambers being square and the large rooms very beautiful. Amongst these is one, a marvel, which has in its vaulted roof the celestial world with all its constellations, and on its walls the terrestrial with all the regions accurately displayed, every detail being richly painted on the wall aforesaid. In other places are pictorial representations of the most heroic deeds of Pope Paul III., and of the house of Farnese. The personages represented are so life-like that the portraits of our Constable, of the Queen Mother, or of her children, Charles, Henry, the Duke of Alençon, and the Queen of Navarre, will be recognised at once by any who may see them; and the same may be said with regard to King Francis, Henry II., Pietro Strozzi, and others. At the opposite ends of one of the saloons are portraits of King Henry II. and King Philip. Under King Henry’s portrait—which occupies the place of honour—is written, Conservatore di Casa Farnese, and under King Philip, Per li molti beni da lui ricevuti: in addition to these, there are many beautiful objects worth seeing, amongst others, a grotto in which an artificial spray of water falling into a basin conveys, both to ear and eye, the notion of natural rain. The villa is situated in a barren mountainous country, and the water for the fountains must needs be brought from Viterbo, eight miles distant.[107]