Long straggling town on its banks; several fishing vessels lie
here and it is here that part of the Bay of Naples begins to open. The
country from Terracina to Fondi is uncultivated and very mountainous;
between Fondi and Mola di Gaeta it is pretty well cultivated; Itri, thro'
which we passed, is a long, dirty, wretched looking village.
The next day at twelve o'clock we arrived and stopped to dine at St Agatha,
a miserable village, with a very bad tho' spacious inn the half of which is
unroofed. We arrived at Capua the same evening having passed the rivers
Garigliano and Volturno, and leaving the Falernian Hills on our left during
part of the road. The landscape is very varied on this route, sometimes
mountainous, sometimes thro' a rich plain in full cultivation.
Capua is a fortified town situated in a flat country and marshy withal. It
is a gloomy, dirty looking city and whatever may have been its splendour
and allurements in ancient times, it at present offers nothing inviting or
remarkable. The lower classes of the people of this town are such thieves
that our vetturino recommended us to remove every thing from the carriage
into our bed rooms, so that we had the trouble of repacking every thing
next morning. Capua is the only place on the whole route where it is
necessary to take the trunks from the carriage. From Capua to Naples is
twenty miles; a little beyond Capua are the remains of a large Amphitheatre
and this is all that exists to attest the splendour of ancient Capua. The
road between Capua and Naples presents on each side one of the richest and
most fruitful countries I ever beheld. It is a perfect garden the whole
way. The chaussee is lined with fruit trees. Halfway is the town or
borgo of Aversa which is large, well-built, opulent and populous. We
entered Naples at one o'clock, drove thro' the strada di Toledo and from
thence to the largo di Medina where we put up at the inn called the
Aquila nera. A cordon of Austrian troops lines the whole high road from
Fondi to the gates of Naples; and there are double sentries at a distance
of one mile from each other the whole way.
NAPLES, Octr. 5th.
In Naples the squares or Piazze are called Larghi; they are exceedingly
irregular as to shape; a trapezium would be the most appropriate
denomination for them. The Largo di Medina is situated close to the Mole
and light house and is not far from the Largo del Palazzo where the Royal
Palace stands, nor from the Strada di Toledo, which is the most bustling
part of the town. On the Mole and sometimes in the Largo di Medini
Pulcinello holds forth all day long, quacks scream out the efficacy of
their nostrums and improvisatori recite battles of Paladins.
