DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0243
226 THE MAREMMA. [chap. xlh.
studied. Giovanni himself is as obliging and intelligent an
host as you will meet in the wide Maremma. Therefore,
those visitors to Populonia, who do not accept the hospi-
talities of the Desiderj, or seek a lodging at Piombino,
cannot do better than make the acquaintance of Giovanni
of Campiglia.
It is in these mountains, and not far from Campiglia,
that Vetulonia was long supposed to have been situated.
Leandro Alberti, in 1550, first gave to the world a long
and detailed account of some ruins in a thick wood here-
abouts, which, from the name of the wood, and from the
vicinity of the hot springs of Le Caldane, he concluded to
be the remains of Vetulonia, or, as he calls it, Itulonium.
He asserts that between the Torre di S. Vincenzio and
the headland of Populonia, three miles from the sea, and
in the midst of dense woods, is a spacious inclosure of
ancient masonry, composed of blocks from four to six feet
long, neatly put together, and without cement; the wall
being ten feet thick. In many parts it is overthrown
to the foundations. Within this are many fountains, or
reservoirs, almost all ruined and empty; besides certain
wells, some quite choked with earth ; mosaic pavement of
marble and other costly stones, but much ruined ; the
remains of a superb amphitheatre, in which lies a great
block of marble, inscribed with Etruscan characters. Both
within and around the said inclosure, among the dense
thickets and underwood, Me fragments of statues, broken
capitals and bases of columns, slabs, tablets, tomb-stones,
and such-like remains of antiquity, together with very
thick substructions and fragments of massive walling,
which he thinks belonged to some temple or palace. This
wood, he says, is called Selva di Vetletta, and the ruins,
Vetulia ; which he takes to be Vetulonia, or a temple
called Vitulonium. All around these remains are ruined
studied. Giovanni himself is as obliging and intelligent an
host as you will meet in the wide Maremma. Therefore,
those visitors to Populonia, who do not accept the hospi-
talities of the Desiderj, or seek a lodging at Piombino,
cannot do better than make the acquaintance of Giovanni
of Campiglia.
It is in these mountains, and not far from Campiglia,
that Vetulonia was long supposed to have been situated.
Leandro Alberti, in 1550, first gave to the world a long
and detailed account of some ruins in a thick wood here-
abouts, which, from the name of the wood, and from the
vicinity of the hot springs of Le Caldane, he concluded to
be the remains of Vetulonia, or, as he calls it, Itulonium.
He asserts that between the Torre di S. Vincenzio and
the headland of Populonia, three miles from the sea, and
in the midst of dense woods, is a spacious inclosure of
ancient masonry, composed of blocks from four to six feet
long, neatly put together, and without cement; the wall
being ten feet thick. In many parts it is overthrown
to the foundations. Within this are many fountains, or
reservoirs, almost all ruined and empty; besides certain
wells, some quite choked with earth ; mosaic pavement of
marble and other costly stones, but much ruined ; the
remains of a superb amphitheatre, in which lies a great
block of marble, inscribed with Etruscan characters. Both
within and around the said inclosure, among the dense
thickets and underwood, Me fragments of statues, broken
capitals and bases of columns, slabs, tablets, tomb-stones,
and such-like remains of antiquity, together with very
thick substructions and fragments of massive walling,
which he thinks belonged to some temple or palace. This
wood, he says, is called Selva di Vetletta, and the ruins,
Vetulia ; which he takes to be Vetulonia, or a temple
called Vitulonium. All around these remains are ruined