We went to Aricia, which beautifully-situated town, with its environs, is the property of the princely family Braschi,[1] and thence to Lake Nemi. During the whole way, you have a view of the sea, which, on the right, bounds the horizon. We dined on the shores of Lake Nemi. The dark blue, and deep-lying lake, calm as a mirror, with its crater-like, fertile banks, in the foreground, and beyond it the green, far-stretching Campagna, with the monumental city of the world, and again beyond that, the light blue sea shimmering in the loveliest sunshine,—it was a sight and scene never to be forgotten! The sky was cloudless, and so was the enjoyment of the whole day.
Very early the following morning, we drove back to Rome, by the old Appian Way. The larks sung their resurrection-song above the vast graveyard, the Campagna, which shone green in the morning dew of spring, whilst great shadows of wandering clouds sped slowly across it, and over the surrounding mountains,—the Sabine, the Alban, and Monte Cavi, with the Convent of the Passion on its summit. Upon the horizon before us, rose the lofty solitary hill, Soracto.
We drove between tombs and marble statues, to the
- ↑ Most of the Italian towns, and even Rome itself, are the property of some few princely families. The greater part of the inhabitants are merely tenants. Very few houses are the property of those who inhabit them, and such houses have generally an inscription, sometimes in golden letters, which testifies that they are possessione particolare, of such and such persons. The greater number of tenants again let off a portion of their rooms, and so on, ad infinitum.—Author's Note.
