LETTER XX. Departure for Rome.—Campagna Felice.—Aqueduct and Palace of Caserta.—Capua.—Sessa.—The Appian Way, and Bridge upon it.—Gaeta.—Cicero’s death.—Terracina.—The Pontine Marshes.—Peasants mistaken for Banditti.—Velletri.—Albano.—The Campagna of Rome.—Distant view of the City.—Entrance by the gate of St. John.—St. Peter’s.—Vastness of the fabric. Our time was up, and we reluctantly relinquished our hold of the “_pezzo di cielo caduto in terra_.” The weather had got to be wintry and wet, however, a state of the seasons in which Naples appears to the least advantage; and then we had Rome before us, a pleasure that few travellers who have been in Italy near fifteen months can anticipate. Although accident and the weather have in a great measure controlled our movements, I believe we have fallen on the pleasantest course, as we have kept the best for the last. A gentleman of Rome having occasion to send his carriage back, we took that in addition to our own, and by the aid of two teams belonging to a Savoyard, were enabled to set every body, and, what has got to be almost as serious a matter, every _thing_, in motion. As the day was well advanced before the caravan could move, we had named Capua as the end of the first day’s march, making a _détour_, however, in order to visit the palace and aqueduct of Caserta. The latter was the place first seen; the road leading us directly across the plain which is so well termed the Campagna Felice; This plain is covered with habitations, like the great plain of Lombardy, and, although so desirable to the agriculturist, is a little tame to the traveller. However, as it rained most of the way, we lost little by its monotony. We entered the Apennines by the valley of the aqueduct, amid very beautiful scenery. This aqueduct, or the portion of it that travellers come to see, is merely a bridge to span the valley; but it is on a scale so magnificent as to excite wonder. Apart from this, the structure is no great matter, being under ground; but the portion thrown across the valley is on a truly regal scale. The work is of bricks, beautifully laid, and is a succession of arches in rows, one standing on another, to the number of three. I cannot tell you the precise dimensions, for my guide-books say nothing of it; but I should think it near half a mile long, and two hundred feet high; a noble mass of masonry. It is easier to admire it than to comprehend its necessity. The water is for the use of the palace of Caserta, and it is difficult to suppose a trunk of the necessary height might not be made sufficient-strong to contain a small column of water, or to see the necessity of crossing a hill which was easily turned.