DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0063
Ch. II.
THROUGH ITALY.
53
some antiquaries to have been the real situation,
of Pliny’s lower villa. Their conjectures are
founded principally upon a Mosaic pavement dis-
covered there, a circumstance which proves in-
deed that a villa was there, but nothing1 more.
Both Pliny’s favorite seats must, I conceive, have
been in the neighborhood of Comum. Not far
from this village is a stream called Latte, which
bursts from a vast cavern on the side of a moun-
tain, and forms a cascade of more than a thou-
sand feet before it reaches the plain. The cavern
is supposed to extend for miles through the bowels
of the mountain, and even to lead to the icy sum-
mit which supplies the stream.
Thence the traveller may return by Bellaggio,
and range through its groves of olive and pines,
visit its palaces, and compare it with the descrip-
tion which Pliny gives of his upper villa or his
Tragedia; for on this spot it stood, if we may
credit antiquaries, and certainly a more com-
manding and majestic site he could not have
chosen; but though several circumstances of the
description agree with this situation, yet, I doubt
much as to the accuracy of their application—•
Imposita saxis lacum prospicit .... lacu
latius utitur . . . fluctus non sentit, &c. are
features applicable to a hundred situations on both
the shores of the lake, as well as to the promon-
THROUGH ITALY.
53
some antiquaries to have been the real situation,
of Pliny’s lower villa. Their conjectures are
founded principally upon a Mosaic pavement dis-
covered there, a circumstance which proves in-
deed that a villa was there, but nothing1 more.
Both Pliny’s favorite seats must, I conceive, have
been in the neighborhood of Comum. Not far
from this village is a stream called Latte, which
bursts from a vast cavern on the side of a moun-
tain, and forms a cascade of more than a thou-
sand feet before it reaches the plain. The cavern
is supposed to extend for miles through the bowels
of the mountain, and even to lead to the icy sum-
mit which supplies the stream.
Thence the traveller may return by Bellaggio,
and range through its groves of olive and pines,
visit its palaces, and compare it with the descrip-
tion which Pliny gives of his upper villa or his
Tragedia; for on this spot it stood, if we may
credit antiquaries, and certainly a more com-
manding and majestic site he could not have
chosen; but though several circumstances of the
description agree with this situation, yet, I doubt
much as to the accuracy of their application—•
Imposita saxis lacum prospicit .... lacu
latius utitur . . . fluctus non sentit, &c. are
features applicable to a hundred situations on both
the shores of the lake, as well as to the promon-