A View of Society and Manners in Italy, Volume 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes Relating to some Eminent CharactersMoore, John
History
A View of Society and Manners in Italy, Volume 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes Relating to some Eminent Characters
Moore, John
Italy -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Italy -- Social life and customs -- Early works to 1800
The bay between Puzzoli and Baia is about a league in breadth. In
crossing this in a boat, you see the ruins called Ponte di Caligula, from
their being thought the remains of a bridge which Caligula attempted to
build across. They are by others, with more probability, thought to be
the ruins of a mole built with arches. Having passed over this gulph, a
new field of curiosities presents itself. The baths and prisons of Nero,
the tomb of Agrippina, the temples of Venus, of Diana, and of Mercury,
and the ruins of the ancient city of Cumæ; but no vestiges now remain
of many of those magnificent villas which adorned this luxurious coast,
nor even of the town of Baia. The whole of this beauteous bay, formerly
the seat of pleasure, and, at one period, the most populous spot in
Italy, is now very thinly inhabited; and the contrast is still stronger
between the antient opulence and present poverty, than between the
numbers of its antient and present inhabitants. It must be acknowledged,
that we can hardly look around us, in any part of this world, without
perceiving objects which, to a contemplative mind, convey reflections on
the instability of grandeur, and the sad vicissitudes and reverses to
which human affairs are liable; but _here_ those objects are so numerous,
and so striking, that they must make an impression on the most careless
passenger.
LETTER LXVI.
Naples.
As the Court are not at present at Casserta, we have not seen that place
in all its splendour; we passed, however, one very agreeable day there,
with Lady H—— and S—H—— F——n.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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