The olive tree is
very frequent and several farms and villages are to be met with. The next
day we arrived at 12 o'clock at Sienna. The approach to Sienna is announced
by a quantity of olive trees. The situation of this city being on an
elevation, makes it cold and bleak. We remained here three hours, so that I
had time to visit some of the places worthy of remark in this venerable
city, which is handsome and very solidly built, but has rather a sombre
appearance. The Piazza Grande lies in a bottom to which you descend from
the environing streets. It is in the shape of a mussel shell and of very
large size. The Cathedral is Gothic and is a very majestic and venerable
building. Inside it is of black and yellow marble. The pavement of this
church contains Scripture histories in mosaic. A library is annexed to the
church. The librarian pointed out to me 80 folio volumes of church music
with illuminated plates; likewise an ancient piece of sculpture much
mutilated, viz., a group of the three Graces. In one of the chapels of this
Cathedral are eight columns of verd-antique. I observed a monument of the
Piccolomini family who belong to this city; one of which family figured a
good deal in the Thirty Years' War in Germany. I saw several women in the
Cathedral and at the windows of the houses. The greater part of them were
handsome. The Italian language is spoken here in its greatest purity; it is
the pure Tuscan dialect without the Tuscan aspiration. The Siennese
language is in fact the identical lingua Toscana in bocca Romana.
We arrived the same evening at Buon Convento, an old dismal dirty-looking
town formerly fortified; but the country in the environs is pleasing
enough. The inn here is very bad. On the road between Sienna and this place
I observed a number of mulberry trees.
The next morning, the 5th Sept., we arrived at Radicofani or rather at an
inn or post house facing Radicofani. This is a very ancient city, and from
its being on an eminence it has an imposing appearance. Above it towers an
immense conical shaped mountain, evidently a volcano in former times. In
fact, the whole country hereabouts is volcanic, which is plainly seen from
the immense masses of calcined stones, the exhalations of sulphur and the
dreary wild appearance of the country, where scarce a tree is to be seen. I
never in my life saw so many calcined rocks and stones of great magnitude
heaped together as at Radicofani. It gave the idea as if it were the
identical field of battle between Jupiter and the Titans, and as if the
masses of rock that everywhere meet the eye had been hurled at the Empyreum
by the Titans and had fallen back on the spot from whence they were torn
up. It is indeed very probable that this volcano which vomited forth rocks
and stones in a very remote age, gave rise to the Fable of the war between
Jupiter and the Giants; just as the volcanos in Sicily and Stromboli gave
rise to the story of the Cyclops with one eye (the crater) in their
forehead. But the mountain of Radicofani must have been a volcano anterior
even to Aetna; it presents the image of an ancient world destroyed by fire.
At Ponte Centino the next morning we took our leave of
La patria bella
Di vaghe Donne e di dolce favella;
in plain prose, we left the Tuscan territory, and re-entered the dominions
of His Holiness. After being detained half an hour at the Douane, we
proceeded to Acquapendente to breakfast. The country between Radicofani and
Acquapendente is dreary, thinly populated, little cultivated, and volcanic
steams of sulphur assail the nostrils. Before we arrived at Acquapendente
we had a troublesome river to cross, which at times is nearly dry, and at
other times the water comes down in torrents from the surrounding mountains
and precipices, so as to render its passage extremely dangerous. It is
always necessary previous to the passage of a carriage, to send on a man to
ford and sound it, from its meandering and forming different beds crossed
seven times, twice less than Styx novies interfusa, and it is a very slow
operation from the number of rocks and quicksands; so that, should the
torrent come down while you are in the act of crossing, you and your whole
equipage would be swept away by the stream and drowned or dashed to pieces.
Travellers going to and returning from Rome are frequently detained for a
day or two at Ponte Centino or Acquapendente during the rainy season; for
immediately after heavy rains, there is always a great risk and it is
better to halt for several hours to allow the waters to pass off. The
extent of ground that this river covers by its meandering and forming so
many beds nearly parallel to each other renders it impossible to construct
a bridge long enough; and it would be always liable to be swept away by the
torrent. Nobody ever thinks of crossing the river in the dark. There having
no rain fallen for several days we passed it without difficulty.
Within a mile of Acquapendente the landscape varies and the approach to
this town is exceedingly picturesque. Acquapendente is situated on a lofty
eminence from which several magnificent cascades descend into the ravine
below and which give the name to the town. There are a great number of
trees about this town and they afford a great relief to the eye of the
traveller after so many hours' journey thro' volcanic wastes. The town of
Acquapendente is very ancient; it is very large, but ill-paved and dirty;
the best buildings in it are, however, modern.
