ROME, 22nd Octr.
Nothing material occurred on my return from Naples to Rome; but on the 2d day after my arrival I made an excursion to Tivoli, which is about eighteen miles distant from Rome. I passed the night at the only inn at Tivoli. The next morning I walked to the Villa d'Este in this neighbourhood, which is a vast edifice with extensive grounds. Here on a terrace in front of the villa are models in marble of all the principal edifices and monuments, ancient and modern, of Rome, very ingeniously executed. From the Villa d'Este is a noble view of the whole plain of Latium and of the "Eternal City."
From hence I walked about two miles further to visit the greatest antiquity and curiosity of the place, which is the Villa or rather the ruins of the celebrated Villa built by Adrian, which must have been of immense size from the vast space of ground it occupies. It was intended to unite everything that the magnificent ideas of a Prince could devise who wished to combine every sort of recreation, sensual as well as intellectual, within the precincts of his Palace; columns, friezes, capitals, entablatures and various other spoils of rich architecture cover the ground in profusion: many of the walls and archways are entire and almost an entire cupola remains standing. Besides the buildings above ground, here are cellars under ground intended as quarters for the guards and capable of holding three thousand men, as well as stabling for horses. In the inclosure of and forming part of this Villa, which covers a circumference of seven miles, were a gymnasium, baths, temples, a school of philosophers, tanks, a theatre, &c. The greatest part of these buildings are choaked up and covered with earth, since it is by excavation alone that what does appear was brought to light. It was by excavation that a man discovered a large hall wherein he found the nine beautiful statues of the Muses, which now adorn the Museum of the Vatican; and no doubt if the Roman government would recommence the excavations many more valuables might be found. Hadrian's villa has already furnished many a statue, column and pilaster to the Museums, churches and Palaces of Rome.
I was much more gratified in beholding the remains of this Villa than in visiting Tivoli and I remained here several hours. At four o'clock in the afternoon I started on my return to Rome; it was imprudent not to have started sooner, as it is always dangerous to be outside the walls of Rome after dark, in consequence of the brigands who infest the environs and sometimes come close to the walls of the city.
I reached my hotel in Rome at nine o'clock, one hour and half after dark, but had the good fortune to meet nobody. The Roman peasantry generally go armed and those who feed cattle in the fields of the Campagna or have any labour to perform there never sleep there on account of the mal'aria.
[93] Horace, Epist., II, 1, 156.—ED.
[94] Horace, Sat., i, 5, 26.—ED.
[95] A carlino is of the value of half a franc or five pence English. The accounts in Naples are kept in ducati, carlini and grani. Ten carlini make a ducat and ten grani (a copper coin) make a carlino. A grano is a sou French in value. The ducato is an imaginary coin. The soudo Napoletano, a handsome silver coin of the size of an écu de six francs, is equal to twelve carlini.
[96] Not one of these vases was found at Pompeii.—ED.
[97] Horace, Carm., II, 1, 7.—ED.