DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53553#0241
209
its environs in the number of interesting objects which, at
every step and on every side, obtrude themselves on the no-
tice of the inquisitive traveller. On the west, the mountain
of Posilipo, with its stupendous grotto, and its manifold re-
mains of ancient architecture; the venerable, though small
city of Pozzuoli; the Solfatara, the famed volcanic lakes and
shores of Bajae, as far as the Misenian cape : towards the east,
the unique museum at Portici, the cities of Herculaneum,
Pompeji, Stabile, and Father Vesuvius—have more than
once been the theme of the voluminous correspondence de-
dicated to your perusal.
In the present letter I shall direct your attention to the
southward of Naples; we shall sail across the gulf, to visit the
celebrated island of Capri. Barren as its fanciful mass of
rocks appears when viewed from the gardens of the Thuil-
lerie, at a distance of nearly seventeen miles (which our de-
luded optics reduce to seven or eight), its romantic views,
sublime prospects, its comparatively high state of cultivation,
its various physical productions, the natural strength of its
situation as a key and barrier to the whole gulf, and, above
all, the figure it makes in the history of the roman emperors,
and particularly of Tiberius; all these considerations give
Capri an importance which no island of the same dimensions
dares claim, and which renders every thing relating to it
highly worthy of the most careful investigation.
My trip thither has likewise the merit, if merit it can be
called, of once more bringing to your notice my original
of a landlord, the whimsical Don Michele, who, ever since
the trouble and vexation he caused me on the Pompejan
excursion, has remained in the back ground as far as excur-
sions were concerned, and who certainly would have been
left to his own speculations in this instance, had he not ear-
nestly solicited permission to accompany me. It would
ee have
its environs in the number of interesting objects which, at
every step and on every side, obtrude themselves on the no-
tice of the inquisitive traveller. On the west, the mountain
of Posilipo, with its stupendous grotto, and its manifold re-
mains of ancient architecture; the venerable, though small
city of Pozzuoli; the Solfatara, the famed volcanic lakes and
shores of Bajae, as far as the Misenian cape : towards the east,
the unique museum at Portici, the cities of Herculaneum,
Pompeji, Stabile, and Father Vesuvius—have more than
once been the theme of the voluminous correspondence de-
dicated to your perusal.
In the present letter I shall direct your attention to the
southward of Naples; we shall sail across the gulf, to visit the
celebrated island of Capri. Barren as its fanciful mass of
rocks appears when viewed from the gardens of the Thuil-
lerie, at a distance of nearly seventeen miles (which our de-
luded optics reduce to seven or eight), its romantic views,
sublime prospects, its comparatively high state of cultivation,
its various physical productions, the natural strength of its
situation as a key and barrier to the whole gulf, and, above
all, the figure it makes in the history of the roman emperors,
and particularly of Tiberius; all these considerations give
Capri an importance which no island of the same dimensions
dares claim, and which renders every thing relating to it
highly worthy of the most careful investigation.
My trip thither has likewise the merit, if merit it can be
called, of once more bringing to your notice my original
of a landlord, the whimsical Don Michele, who, ever since
the trouble and vexation he caused me on the Pompejan
excursion, has remained in the back ground as far as excur-
sions were concerned, and who certainly would have been
left to his own speculations in this instance, had he not ear-
nestly solicited permission to accompany me. It would
ee have