After all we had some minutes to spare, though I should not care to make the journey again, for we took more than one corner of that switchback road on two wheels. But the driver was confident of our approval. 'Ecco signore, the train has not yet arrived,' he cried triumphantly. Facilis descensus Averni!
PERUGIA: DETAIL FROM THE CHOIR OF S. PIETRO DE' CASSINENSI
PERUGIA
'For bodiless dreams through double gateways go
Of horn and ivory, from night's realm forlorn;
And those that through the ivory gate are borne
Deceive, and what they tell is unfulfilled;
But those that issue through the polished horn
Fulfil themselves for mortals to whose sight
They issue.'
J. W. Mackail's Translation of the Odyssey,
xix. 562.
'Look!' said the chronicler, 'there is Perugia. Perugia, whom I have loved so long for her name alone.'