DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0206
104 SUTRI. [chap. iv.
tombs hollowed in the face of the cliff have of course
been rifled ages since, as soon as they ceased to be sacred
in the eyes of the inhabitants—but those below the surface,
with no external indications, have in some cases escaped
the researches of former plunderers. It is among these
alone that antiquarian treasures are to be expected.
There is a cavern of great dimensions, but of natural
formation, in the glen to the west of the town, at the
mouth of which is a church called La Madonna della
Grotta, "Beatse Maria? Virgini de Crypta dicatum."
The cave is extremely picturesque, its roof being sta-
lactited with pendent ferns—but finding it pre-oecu-
pied by herds of swine, I would not venture to disturb
them, nor the legions of bloodthirsty demons who usually
possess them.
The traveller will find no inn at Sutri; and even for
refreshment he must be dependent on the good-will of
some private townsman, who will dress him a meal for a
consideration. I am told that clean beds and tolerable
accommodation may be had at the house of a butcher,
hight Severino Prancocci. For a guide to the localities,
I would recommend a good-tempered lad of the name of
Felice Acosta, detto il Ciorciaro.
The Via Cassia runs beyond Sutri through a long wooded
ravine to Capranica, another Etruscan site with a few
tombs and sewers, but nothing of extraordinary interest.
It is now a place of more importance than Sutri, however,
having 3000 inhabitants-—excellent fruit and wine, or
the renown thereof, which is much the same—mineral
waters beneficial in disorders of the kidneys, bladder, and
spleen, (ask for the Fonte Carbonari, as the spring is dubbed
by the peasantry, instead of Carbonato)—and what is of
more importance to the traveller, possessing a hospUium
in the house of a butcher, Pietro Ferri, where, if he will
tombs hollowed in the face of the cliff have of course
been rifled ages since, as soon as they ceased to be sacred
in the eyes of the inhabitants—but those below the surface,
with no external indications, have in some cases escaped
the researches of former plunderers. It is among these
alone that antiquarian treasures are to be expected.
There is a cavern of great dimensions, but of natural
formation, in the glen to the west of the town, at the
mouth of which is a church called La Madonna della
Grotta, "Beatse Maria? Virgini de Crypta dicatum."
The cave is extremely picturesque, its roof being sta-
lactited with pendent ferns—but finding it pre-oecu-
pied by herds of swine, I would not venture to disturb
them, nor the legions of bloodthirsty demons who usually
possess them.
The traveller will find no inn at Sutri; and even for
refreshment he must be dependent on the good-will of
some private townsman, who will dress him a meal for a
consideration. I am told that clean beds and tolerable
accommodation may be had at the house of a butcher,
hight Severino Prancocci. For a guide to the localities,
I would recommend a good-tempered lad of the name of
Felice Acosta, detto il Ciorciaro.
The Via Cassia runs beyond Sutri through a long wooded
ravine to Capranica, another Etruscan site with a few
tombs and sewers, but nothing of extraordinary interest.
It is now a place of more importance than Sutri, however,
having 3000 inhabitants-—excellent fruit and wine, or
the renown thereof, which is much the same—mineral
waters beneficial in disorders of the kidneys, bladder, and
spleen, (ask for the Fonte Carbonari, as the spring is dubbed
by the peasantry, instead of Carbonato)—and what is of
more importance to the traveller, possessing a hospUium
in the house of a butcher, Pietro Ferri, where, if he will