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. On the right-hand,
we saw several towns situated on rising grounds, and among the
rest, that of Assissio, famous for the birth of St. Francis,
whose body, being here deposited, occasions a concourse of
pilgrims. We met a Roman princess going thither with a grand
retinue, in consequence of a vow she had made for the re-establishment
of her health. Foligno, the Fulginium of the
antients, is a small town, not unpleasant, lying in the midst of
mulberry plantations, vineyards, and corn-fields, and built on
both sides of the little river Topino. In choosing our beds at
the inn, I perceived one chamber locked, and desired it might be
opened; upon which the cameriere declared with some reluctance,
"Besogna dire a su' eccellenza; poco fa, che una bestia e morta
in questa camera, e non e ancora lustrata," "Your Excellency must
know that a filthy Beast died lately in that Chamber, and it is
not yet purified and put in order." When I enquired what beast it
was, he replied, "Un'eretico Inglese," "An English heretic." I
suppose he would not have made so free with our country and
religion, if he had not taken us for German catholics, as we
afterwards learned from Mr. R - i. Next day, we crossed the Tyber,
over a handsome bridge, and in mounting the steep hill upon which
the city of Perugia stands, our horses being exhausted, were
dragged backwards by the weight of the carriage to the very edge
of a precipice, where, happily for us, a man passing that way,
placed a large stone behind one of the wheels, which stopped
their motion, otherwise we should have been all dashed in pieces.
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