Whole of the heat I had taken a meal at Acquapendente). But I woke up
not long after midnight - perhaps between one and two o'clock - and went
out along the borders of the lake.
The moon had set; I wish I could have seen her hanging at the quarter
in the clear sky of that high crater, dipping into the rim of its
inland sea. It was perceptibly cold. I went on the road quite slowly,
till it began to climb, and when the day broke I found myself in a
sunken lane leading up to the town of Montefiascone.
The town lay on its hill in the pale but growing light. A great dome
gave it dignity, and a castle overlooked the lake. It was built upon
the very edge and lip of the volcano-cup commanding either side.
I climbed up this sunken lane towards it, not knowing what might be
beyond, when, at the crest, there shone before me in the sunrise one
of those unexpected and united landscapes which are among the glories
of Italy. They have changed the very mind in a hundred northern
painters, when men travelled hither to Rome to learn their art, and
coming in by her mountain roads saw, time and again, the set views of
plains like gardens, surrounded by sharp mountain-land and framed.
