This Affectation, However,
Of Passion For The Belle Arti, Tho' Sometimes Open To Ridicule, Is Very
Useful.
It generates taste, encourages artists, and is surely a more
innocent as well as more rational mode of spending money and passing time
than in encouraging pugilism or in racing, coach driving and cock fighting.
[83] Pope, Essay on Man, ep. III, 303-4. - ED.
CHAPTER X
Journey from Florence to Rome - Sienna - Radicofani - Bolsena - Montefiascone
wine - Viterbo - Baccano - The Roman Campagna - The papal douane - Monuments
and Museums in Rome - Intolerance of the Catholic Christians - The Tiber and
the bridges - Character of the Romans - The Palassi and Ville - Canova's
atelier - Theatricals - An execution in Rome.
September - - , 1816.
I made an agreement with a vetturino to take me to Rome for three louis
d'or and to be spesato. In the carriage were two other passengers, viz.,
a Neapolitan lady, the wife of a Colonel in the Neapolitan service, and a
young Roman, the son of the Barigello or Capo degli Sbirri at Rome. We
issued from the Porta Romana at 6 o'clock a.m. the 3d September.
The road winds thro' a valley, and has a gentle ascent nearly the whole way
to Poggibonsi, where we brought to the first night. The soil hereabouts is
far from fertile, but every inch of it is put to profit. 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.
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