It was built at the expence of the
last grand-duke of Tuscany; is very large, very cold, and
uncomfortable.
One would imagine it was contrived for coolness,
though situated so high, that even in the midst of summer, a
traveller would be glad to have a fire in his chamber. But few,
or none of them have fireplaces, and there is not a bed with
curtains or tester in the house. All the adjacent country is
naked and barren. On the third day we entered the pope's
territories, some parts of which are delightful. Having passed
Aqua-Pendente, a beggarly town, situated on the top of a rock,
from whence there is a romantic cascade of water, which gives it
the name, we travelled along the side of the lake Bolsena, a
beautiful piece of water about thirty miles in circuit, with two
islands in the middle, the banks covered with noble plantations
of oak and cypress. The town of Bolsena standing near the ruins
of the antient Volsinium, which was the birth-place of Sejanus,
is a paultry village; and Montefiascone, famous for its wine, is
a poor, decayed town in this neighbourhood, situated on the side
of a hill, which, according to the author of the Grand Tour, the
only directory I had along with me, is supposed to be the Soracte
of the ancients. If we may believe Horace, Soracte was visible
from Rome: for, in his ninth ode, addressed to Thaliarchus, he
says,
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