DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0580
472 PITIGLIANO AND SORANO. [chap. xxv.
This town stands on the northern limits of the great
Etruscan plain, which is here bounded by a range of moun-
tains, among which the snowy peak of Monte Amiata
towers supreme in the north, and the nearer heights sink
gradually in the east to the long-drawn ridge round the
Lake of Bolsena. In the west, a line of mist marks the
course of the deep-sunk Piora, and leads the eye south-
wards across the plain to the bare crests of the Monti di
Canino, which rise like an island from a sea of foliage, with
the blue Mediterranean gleaming beyond on one hand, and
the grey mass of the Ciminian bounding the horizon on
the other.
At a little distance, Pitigliano seems to stand on the
unbroken level of the plain, but as usual occupies a tongue
of land, surrounded by ravines; so that when you seem
just at its gates, a deep chasm yawns at your feet, which
must be traversed to its lowest depths ere you can reach
the town. "When you have surmounted the long steep,
and passed the line of fortifications, which, as at Nepi,
cross the root of the tongue—nature on every other side
affording sufficient protection-—seek incontinently for II
Bimbo. This " Baby " is no sign-post—no painted effigy
of sucking humanity, rocked by the breezes—nor even a
living specimen of that " best philosopher, mighty prophet,
seer blest," whom Wordsworth apostrophises—though to
ordinary mortals he appears " mewling and puking in his
nurse's arms,"—but is represented by the mature and
portly person of that respectable townsman, Giuseppe
Bertocci.
Pitigliano is a place of considerable importance, with
some 3000 inhabitants, of whom more than a tithe are
Jews, led to congregate here, as at Gibraltar, by the
annoyances and persecutions they are subjected to in the
neighbouring State. In spite of the wealth thus created,
This town stands on the northern limits of the great
Etruscan plain, which is here bounded by a range of moun-
tains, among which the snowy peak of Monte Amiata
towers supreme in the north, and the nearer heights sink
gradually in the east to the long-drawn ridge round the
Lake of Bolsena. In the west, a line of mist marks the
course of the deep-sunk Piora, and leads the eye south-
wards across the plain to the bare crests of the Monti di
Canino, which rise like an island from a sea of foliage, with
the blue Mediterranean gleaming beyond on one hand, and
the grey mass of the Ciminian bounding the horizon on
the other.
At a little distance, Pitigliano seems to stand on the
unbroken level of the plain, but as usual occupies a tongue
of land, surrounded by ravines; so that when you seem
just at its gates, a deep chasm yawns at your feet, which
must be traversed to its lowest depths ere you can reach
the town. "When you have surmounted the long steep,
and passed the line of fortifications, which, as at Nepi,
cross the root of the tongue—nature on every other side
affording sufficient protection-—seek incontinently for II
Bimbo. This " Baby " is no sign-post—no painted effigy
of sucking humanity, rocked by the breezes—nor even a
living specimen of that " best philosopher, mighty prophet,
seer blest," whom Wordsworth apostrophises—though to
ordinary mortals he appears " mewling and puking in his
nurse's arms,"—but is represented by the mature and
portly person of that respectable townsman, Giuseppe
Bertocci.
Pitigliano is a place of considerable importance, with
some 3000 inhabitants, of whom more than a tithe are
Jews, led to congregate here, as at Gibraltar, by the
annoyances and persecutions they are subjected to in the
neighbouring State. In spite of the wealth thus created,