DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0138
36 VEIL—The City. [chap. i.
once their eyes and mouths — or, their stock failing,
Antonio will provide refreshment, which may be eaten with-
out alarm, in spite of the suspicion expressed by a recent
writer that Isola is a sort of Cannibal Island, and that the
traveller is in danger of a Pelopidan banquet.9 All fear of
bandits, suggested in the same quarter, may be dispensed
with, and "mounted contadini, covered with togas and
armed with long iron-shod poles," may be encountered
without trepidation, as honest drovers in quest of cattle.
Veii is of such easy access that no visitor to Rome
should fail to make an excursion thither. It is not more
than a couple of hours' drive from the gates, and
though there be little of interest on the road beyond views
of the all-glorious Oampagna, and though the site of the
ancient city be well-nigh denuded of its ruins, yet the in-
tense interest of a spot, so renowned in history,—
" And where the antique fame of stout Camill
Doth ever live—-"
and the tomb now open with its marvellous paintings and
strange furniture, which carry the mind back with realising
force to the earliest days of Eome, render a trip to the
site of Veii, one of the most delightful excursions in the
neighbourhood of the Eternal City.
9 Sepulchres of Etruria, p. 109.
once their eyes and mouths — or, their stock failing,
Antonio will provide refreshment, which may be eaten with-
out alarm, in spite of the suspicion expressed by a recent
writer that Isola is a sort of Cannibal Island, and that the
traveller is in danger of a Pelopidan banquet.9 All fear of
bandits, suggested in the same quarter, may be dispensed
with, and "mounted contadini, covered with togas and
armed with long iron-shod poles," may be encountered
without trepidation, as honest drovers in quest of cattle.
Veii is of such easy access that no visitor to Rome
should fail to make an excursion thither. It is not more
than a couple of hours' drive from the gates, and
though there be little of interest on the road beyond views
of the all-glorious Oampagna, and though the site of the
ancient city be well-nigh denuded of its ruins, yet the in-
tense interest of a spot, so renowned in history,—
" And where the antique fame of stout Camill
Doth ever live—-"
and the tomb now open with its marvellous paintings and
strange furniture, which carry the mind back with realising
force to the earliest days of Eome, render a trip to the
site of Veii, one of the most delightful excursions in the
neighbourhood of the Eternal City.
9 Sepulchres of Etruria, p. 109.