I Repeat It Again; Of All The
People I Ever Knew, The Italians Are The Most Villainously
Rapacious.
The first day, having passed Civita Castellana, a
small town standing on the top of a hill, we put up at what was
called an excellent inn, where cardinals, prelates, and princes,
often lodged.
Being meagre day, there was nothing but bread,
eggs, and anchovies, in the house. I went to bed without supper,
and lay in a pallet, where I was half devoured by vermin. Next
day, our road, in some places, lay along precipices, which over-hang
the Nera or Nar, celebrated in antiquity for its white foam,
and the sulphureous quality of its waters.
Sulfurea nar albus aqua, fontesque velini.
Sulphureous nar, and the Velinian streams.
It is a small, but rapid stream, which runs not far from hence,
into the Tyber. Passing Utricoli, near the ruins of the ancient
Ocriculum, and the romantic town of Narni, situated on the top of
a mountain, in the neighbourhood of which is still seen standing
one arch of the stupendous bridge built by Augustus Caesar, we
arrived at Terni, and hiring a couple of chaises before dinner,
went to see the famous Cascata delle Marmore, which is at the
distance of three miles. We ascended a steep mountain by a narrow
road formed for a considerable way along the brink of a
precipice, at the bottom of which brawls the furious river Nera,
after having received the Velino. This last is the stream which,
running from the Lago delle Marmore, forms the cascade by falling
over a precipice about one hundred and sixty feet high. Such a
body of water rushing down the mountain; the smoak, vapour, and
thick white mist which it raises; the double rainbow which these
particles continually exhibit while the sun shines; the deafening
sound of the cataract; the vicinity of a great number of other
stupendous rocks and precipices, with the dashing, boiling, and
foaming of the two rivers below, produce altogether an object of
tremendous sublimity: yet great part of its effect is lost, for
want of a proper point of view, from which it might be
contemplated. The cascade would appear much more astonishing,
were it not in some measure eclipsed by the superior height of
the neighbouring mountains. You have not a front perspective; but
are obliged to view it obliquely on one side, standing upon the
brink of a precipice, which cannot be approached without horror.
This station might be rendered much more accessible, and
altogether secure, for the expence of four or five zequines; and
a small tax might be levied for the purpose from travellers by
the aubergiste at Terni, who lets his calasses for half a zequine
a piece to those that are curious to see this phaenomenon.
Besides the two postilions whom I payed for this excursion, at
the rate of one stage in posting, there was a fellow who posted
himself behind one of the chaises, by way of going to point out
the different views of the cascade; and his demand amounted to
four or five pauls. To give you an idea of the extortion of those
villainous publicans, I must tell you that for a dinner and
supper, which even hunger could not tempt us to eat, and a
night's lodging in three truckle beds, I paid eighty pauls,
amounting to forty shillings sterling. You ask me why I submitted
to such imposition? I will tell you - I have more than once in my
travels made a formal complaint of the exorbitancy of a publican,
to the magistrate of the place; but I never received any
satisfaction, and have lost abundance of time. Had I proceeded to
manual correction, I should have alarmed and terrified the women:
had I peremptorily refused to pay the sum total, the landlord,
who was the post-master, would not have supplied me with horses
to proceed on my journey. I tried the experiment at Muy in
France, where I put myself into a violent passion, had abundance
of trouble, was detained till it was almost night, and after all
found myself obliged to submit, furnishing at the same time
matter of infinite triumph to the mob, which had surrounded the
coach, and interested themselves warmly in favour of their
townsman. If some young patriot, in good health and spirits,
would take the trouble as often as he is imposed upon by the road
in travelling, to have recourse to the fountain-head, and prefer
a regular complaint to the comptroller of the posts, either in
France or Italy, he would have ample satisfaction, and do great
service to the community. Terni is an agreeable town, pretty well
built, and situated in a pleasant valley, between two branches of
the river Nera, whence it was called by the antients, Interamna.
Here is an agreeable piazza, where stands a church that was of
old a heathen temple. There are some valuable paintings in the
church. The people are said to be very civil, and provisions to
be extremely cheap. It was the birthplace of the emperor Tacitus,
as well as of the historian of the same name. In our journey from
hence to Spoleto, we passed over a high mountain, (called, from
its height, Somma) where it was necessary to have two additional
horses to the carriage, and the road winds along a precipice.
which is equally dangerous and dreadful. We passed through part
of Spoleto, the capital of Umbria, which is a pretty large city.
Of this, however, I give no other account from my own
observation, but that I saw at a distance the famous Gothic
aqueduct of brick: this is mentioned by Addison as a structure,
which, for the height of its arches, is not equalled by any thing
in Europe. The road from hence to Foligno, where we lay, is kept
in good order, and lies through a delightful plain, laid out into
beautiful inclosures, abounding with wine, oil, corn, and cattle,
and watered by the pastoral streams of the famous river
Clitumnus, which takes its rise in three or four separate
rivulets issuing from a rock near the highway.
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