Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . hs, of Otto the Second, Frederick the Second, and all the great figures which oncetrod this wondrous stage ? They have passed like a dream. All is covered with the dust and decay ofcenturies, and only here and there some crumbling ruin, some tradition half transformedinto the semblance of a Christian legend, or some lonely column, speaks faintly to us ofthe glorious days of Graecia Magna. Much of what remained was destroyed later by the sword of the French. Whatthey had spared Avas devastated by nature herself in repeated earthquakes, which have 43S ITAL Y.
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . hs, of Otto the Second, Frederick the Second, and all the great figures which oncetrod this wondrous stage ? They have passed like a dream. All is covered with the dust and decay ofcenturies, and only here and there some crumbling ruin, some tradition half transformedinto the semblance of a Christian legend, or some lonely column, speaks faintly to us ofthe glorious days of Graecia Magna. Much of what remained was destroyed later by the sword of the French. Whatthey had spared Avas devastated by nature herself in repeated earthquakes, which have 43S ITAL Y. their home beneath the soil of the Basilicata and the Calabrian Apennine. And last ofall—when scarcely anything remained save misery, tears, and sighs, after the cities weredesolate and their sites strewn with salt, came the Bourbons, and planted amidst tearsand sighs the poisonous, but rank and luxuriant, weed of a priesthood greedy for bloodand boot)-; a priesthood which was able—like the brigands—to draw excellent nourish-. STREET IN MONTE SANX ANGELO. ment out of the last sap of the dying oak. The country—with the exception of the com-mercial cities on the eastern coast—will not speedily rise to prosperity again. To one travelling from dirty Benevento (which, however, still possesses one of themost beautiful objects in Italy in the Golden Gate of Trajans arch above the banks ofthe Calore) through Ariano, Foggia, and Manfredonia, towards the south, the landscapeforms the chief object of attraction ;—there the grand mountainous district, here thecharming coast scenery. All the villages and towns become more repulsive and in-hospitable the farther one advances southward ; therefore the country is still almostunknown. Very few strangers feet explore the abundantly rich scenery of MonteGargano. Everyone shuns the dirty and disagreeable quarters to be found in suchplaces as San Severo, Apricena, San Nicandro, Cagnano : all of which are blighted bythe malaria exhaled f
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