Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . BOY OF THE ABRUZZI. beholds with a sensation almost of awe, the two mighty seas which rise to meet thesinking sky in the east and in the west. Yonder, over the blue waves of the TyrrheneSea, glide sails from the Campanian, Sicilian, Gallic, and Iberian shores ; Grecian andOriental barks plough the Adriatic. Through the lower hills there wind green valleys,and rivers, and roads toward the coast or the interior. At our feet, where now white towns are glittering, once stood the fortresses of the FROM THE GRAN SASSO D*ITALIA TO VESUVIUS. 345 Samnite Confederatio
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . BOY OF THE ABRUZZI. beholds with a sensation almost of awe, the two mighty seas which rise to meet thesinking sky in the east and in the west. Yonder, over the blue waves of the TyrrheneSea, glide sails from the Campanian, Sicilian, Gallic, and Iberian shores ; Grecian andOriental barks plough the Adriatic. Through the lower hills there wind green valleys,and rivers, and roads toward the coast or the interior. At our feet, where now white towns are glittering, once stood the fortresses of the FROM THE GRAN SASSO D*ITALIA TO VESUVIUS. 345 Samnite Confederation which defied even Rome. As far as our eye can reach stretchedthe regions of the Marsii, the Picentii, and the Hirpinii, and of various other once mighty cities, such as Bovianum, lie somewhere in the green wilderness below,mere heaps of grassy ruin. The Capitoline she-wolf has devoured their inhabitants : and. GIRL OF THE ABRUZZI. Sylla, the she-wolfs son, swung his blazing torch among the woodland settlements, norrested until the land became a desert, and the dwelling of foxes and owls. Samnium hasnever entirely revived ; her sons, and those of Magna Grecia, are the step-children ofItaly. Among the cities that remain, are Teramo, Ascoli, Chieti, Ortona, Lanciano, andVasto, on the steep but pleasant coast of the Adriatic. More inland lie Aquila (it seemsbut an arrow-flight away), Popoli, Solmona, Castel di Sangro, and Isernia, past which the Y Y 346 ITALY. mountain road leads southward to the shores of that other sea above whose flood Naturehas set the great watch-fires of Etna and Vesuvius. Even now as we cross these heights, the soft breath of the South breathes on ourcheek, and the Tramontana—the north wind—falls broken-winged against the stony fore-head of the Gran Sasso. As our gaze roams over the last outlines of the hills, meltinginto purple haze, we dream of the land of delights
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcavagnasangiulianidig, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870
