DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0105
chap, i.] SITE OF VEIL 3
now distinguishable only to a practised eye by the sepul-
chres and tumuli at its side, travellers usually push on to
La Storta, the first post-house from Rome, and beyond the
ninth milestone on the Via Cassia. Hence it is a mile and
a half to Isola by the carriage road ; but the visitor, on
horse or foot, may save half a mile by taking a pathway
across the downs. "When Isola Farnese comes into sight,
let him halt awhile to admire the scene. A wide sweep of
the Campagna lies before him, in this part broken into
ravines or narrow glens, which, by varying the lines of
the landscape, redeem it from the monotony of a plain,
and by patches of wood relieve it of its usual nakedness
and sterility. On a steep cliff, about a mile distant,
stands the village of Isola—a village in fact, but in appear-
ance a large chateau, with a few outhouses around it.
Behind it rises the long, swelling ground, which once bore
the walls, temples, and palaces of Veii, but is now a bare
down, partly fringed with wood, and without a single habi-
tation on its surface. At a few miles' distance rises the
conical, tufted hill of Musino, the supposed scene of
ancient rites, the Eleusis, or Delphi, it may be, of Etruria.
The eye is then caught by a tree-crested mound or tumulus,
standing in the plain beyond the site of the city ; then
it stretches away to the triple paps of the Monticelli,
and to Tivoli, gleaming from the dark slopes behind;
and then it rises and scans the majestic chain of Apen-
nines, bounding the horizon with their dark grey masses,
and rests with delight on La Leonessa and other well-
known giants of the Sabine range, all capt with snow.
Oh, the beauty of that range! From whatever part of
the Campagna you view it, it presents those long,
sweeping outlines, those grand, towering crests—not of
Alpine abruptness, but consistently with the character
of the land, preserving, even when soaring highest, the
b 2
now distinguishable only to a practised eye by the sepul-
chres and tumuli at its side, travellers usually push on to
La Storta, the first post-house from Rome, and beyond the
ninth milestone on the Via Cassia. Hence it is a mile and
a half to Isola by the carriage road ; but the visitor, on
horse or foot, may save half a mile by taking a pathway
across the downs. "When Isola Farnese comes into sight,
let him halt awhile to admire the scene. A wide sweep of
the Campagna lies before him, in this part broken into
ravines or narrow glens, which, by varying the lines of
the landscape, redeem it from the monotony of a plain,
and by patches of wood relieve it of its usual nakedness
and sterility. On a steep cliff, about a mile distant,
stands the village of Isola—a village in fact, but in appear-
ance a large chateau, with a few outhouses around it.
Behind it rises the long, swelling ground, which once bore
the walls, temples, and palaces of Veii, but is now a bare
down, partly fringed with wood, and without a single habi-
tation on its surface. At a few miles' distance rises the
conical, tufted hill of Musino, the supposed scene of
ancient rites, the Eleusis, or Delphi, it may be, of Etruria.
The eye is then caught by a tree-crested mound or tumulus,
standing in the plain beyond the site of the city ; then
it stretches away to the triple paps of the Monticelli,
and to Tivoli, gleaming from the dark slopes behind;
and then it rises and scans the majestic chain of Apen-
nines, bounding the horizon with their dark grey masses,
and rests with delight on La Leonessa and other well-
known giants of the Sabine range, all capt with snow.
Oh, the beauty of that range! From whatever part of
the Campagna you view it, it presents those long,
sweeping outlines, those grand, towering crests—not of
Alpine abruptness, but consistently with the character
of the land, preserving, even when soaring highest, the
b 2