DOI chapter:
Chapter I: Naples
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59000#0040
Naples
even wild animals filled the park. This exotic char-
acter has, of course, vanished, and the beautiful
villa is now the property of a foreigner. The view
from the terrace, like all the views from the Vomero,
has something singularly tranquil in it, and it is
a spot which has ever been peculiarly attractive to
Neapolitans.
Near the Floridiana, and once a part of it, stands
the pretty Villa Lucia, which, like so many bits of the
Parco Griffeo, has passed into private hands. It is
said to have changed hands on one occasion because
the wife of the owner wearied of having “ une cuvette
bleu ” eternally under her eyes. In its garden may
still be seen the marble fountain with an allegorical
group composed of a figure poising a garland on Love.
Through the hole of the garland the sun-ray passes,
and marks constantly the date of the marriage of the
king and the Floridia.
Here, far above the town itself, the air is decidedly
purer than on the sea-shore, and the breeze is ex-
quisitely scented. In the evening the view is surpass-
ingly beautiful. To the west is the afterglow of the
sunset, and the light of the rising moon spreads a silver
halo round the crest of Vesuvius, where a red glow
of flame throbs from time to time towards the sky.
The city below is like a vast sea of electric stars. Here
is one shooting down the hill, and passing away beneath
us—the electric tram which follows the curve of the
Corso. Beyond lies the dark sea upon which the
moonlight will soon be trembling.
2 9
even wild animals filled the park. This exotic char-
acter has, of course, vanished, and the beautiful
villa is now the property of a foreigner. The view
from the terrace, like all the views from the Vomero,
has something singularly tranquil in it, and it is
a spot which has ever been peculiarly attractive to
Neapolitans.
Near the Floridiana, and once a part of it, stands
the pretty Villa Lucia, which, like so many bits of the
Parco Griffeo, has passed into private hands. It is
said to have changed hands on one occasion because
the wife of the owner wearied of having “ une cuvette
bleu ” eternally under her eyes. In its garden may
still be seen the marble fountain with an allegorical
group composed of a figure poising a garland on Love.
Through the hole of the garland the sun-ray passes,
and marks constantly the date of the marriage of the
king and the Floridia.
Here, far above the town itself, the air is decidedly
purer than on the sea-shore, and the breeze is ex-
quisitely scented. In the evening the view is surpass-
ingly beautiful. To the west is the afterglow of the
sunset, and the light of the rising moon spreads a silver
halo round the crest of Vesuvius, where a red glow
of flame throbs from time to time towards the sky.
The city below is like a vast sea of electric stars. Here
is one shooting down the hill, and passing away beneath
us—the electric tram which follows the curve of the
Corso. Beyond lies the dark sea upon which the
moonlight will soon be trembling.
2 9