Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . stables. One saloon serves as a place for storing oil in, and here some dozen or so offamily portraits are hanging all in tatters, and covered with cobwebs. The marble statueshave lost their heads, and are used as perches by swarms of pigeons. Behind the castle stretches the Campagna, but divided from it by a deep ravine,which is spanned by a fine bridge giving access to the smiling fertile plain. Seen from thisbridge, the ruins of a Roman aqueduct stretching towards a dark grove of secular oak-trees, and the classic character of the landscape, may recall an
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . stables. One saloon serves as a place for storing oil in, and here some dozen or so offamily portraits are hanging all in tatters, and covered with cobwebs. The marble statueshave lost their heads, and are used as perches by swarms of pigeons. Behind the castle stretches the Campagna, but divided from it by a deep ravine,which is spanned by a fine bridge giving access to the smiling fertile plain. Seen from thisbridge, the ruins of a Roman aqueduct stretching towards a dark grove of secular oak-trees, and the classic character of the landscape, may recall ancient Roman times to thespectator. But the chief builders and rulers here, were the powerful Colonnas ; they were SHORES OF LAGO FUCINO TO THE PONTINE MARSHES. 311 the Kings of the Campagna. In the entrance-hall of the upper castle the walls are covered•with pictures and inscriptions setting forth the various places over which they ruled. Ittakes a quarter of an hour merely to read all the names, for their power extended far into. THE ITALIAN FAMILY UMBRELLA. the Abruzzi, as far as the Neapolitan frontier. At the present day this is all by leaf, time has stripped the mighty tree ; and what remains is but a faint image offormer glories. But the landscape still shines in ever-youthful beauty, and the Italian sun brings 312 ITALY. yearly the self-same bloom of spring to these well-watered valleys, as smiled in the MiddleAges. Here glows the purple grape whose juice cheered and animated the knights ofold; and here the rose still blossoms amidst cypress and laurel. Genazzano seems to be asort of outpost of the Neapolitan paradise. The eye ranges over shrubs, vineyards, andbeautiful groups of trees, to the mountains on the left, dominated by the proud pyramid ofMonte Serrone. Gloomy castles, and grey towns, crown the summits of most of the hills,or peep out from green valleys that run from Rome towards Campania. Yonder passedthe bold troops of the Hohenstaufens ; there
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcavagnasangiulianidig, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870
