DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0231
Ch. V.
THROUGH ITALY
203
which Horace* seemed inclined to make, in a
moment of despondency, he might have contem-
plated the grandeur and the agitation of the
ocean, without its terrors and immensity. Be-
sides, the soil is fertile and its surface varied;
sometimes shelving in a gentle declivity, at other
times breaking in craggy magnificence; and
thus furnishing every requisite for delightful
walks and for luxurious baths; while the views
vary at every step, presenting rich coasts or bar-
ren mountains, sometimes confined to the culti-
vated scenes of the neighboring shore, and at
other times bewildered and lost in the windings
of the lake, and in the recesses of the Alps.
In short, more convenience and more beauty are
seldom united; and such a peninsula is, as Ca-
tullus enthusiastically observes, scarcely to be
matched in all the wide range of the world of
waters.
We left Sirmione after sunset; and, lighted
by the moon, glided smoothly over the lake to
Desensano, four miles distant, where, about eight,
we stepped from the boat into a very good inn.
So far the appearance of the Benacus was very
different from the description which Virgil has
given of its stormy character. Before we re-
9 Lib. i. Ep. xi.
THROUGH ITALY
203
which Horace* seemed inclined to make, in a
moment of despondency, he might have contem-
plated the grandeur and the agitation of the
ocean, without its terrors and immensity. Be-
sides, the soil is fertile and its surface varied;
sometimes shelving in a gentle declivity, at other
times breaking in craggy magnificence; and
thus furnishing every requisite for delightful
walks and for luxurious baths; while the views
vary at every step, presenting rich coasts or bar-
ren mountains, sometimes confined to the culti-
vated scenes of the neighboring shore, and at
other times bewildered and lost in the windings
of the lake, and in the recesses of the Alps.
In short, more convenience and more beauty are
seldom united; and such a peninsula is, as Ca-
tullus enthusiastically observes, scarcely to be
matched in all the wide range of the world of
waters.
We left Sirmione after sunset; and, lighted
by the moon, glided smoothly over the lake to
Desensano, four miles distant, where, about eight,
we stepped from the boat into a very good inn.
So far the appearance of the Benacus was very
different from the description which Virgil has
given of its stormy character. Before we re-
9 Lib. i. Ep. xi.